Kim Kardashian takes up Making a Murderer's Brendan Dassey's cause, asks Wisconsin governor to consider his clemency application
Brendan Dassey came back to the attention of the public following the release of Netflix's 'Making a Murderer' that called into question his and his uncle's conviction in connection to the murder of photographer Teresa Halbach.
Dassey was just 16-years-old when he was convicted of first-degree murder, mutilation of a corpse, and second-degree sexual assault in 2007, and was sentenced to life in prison with the earliest possibility of parole in 2048. His conviction was primarily based on his videotaped interrogation and confession, which his lawyers said was coerced, and which he recanted at his trial.
Over the years, he has exhausted every form of appeal, with the last one coming in 2018 in the form of a petition to the US Supreme Court that was ultimately rejected as well. This past Wednesday, his attorney, Laura Nirider, announced that she had filed a petition for clemency to Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers.
Since her announcement, thousands of those who have insisted on his innocence and advocated for his freedom have promoted a website containing a list of documents related to his case, as well as a handwritten letter from Dassey to Evers where a line reads, "I am writing to ask for a pardon because I am innocent and want to go home."
Now, Kim Kardashian West has gotten in on the campaign as well, tweeting the handwritten letter to her 62 million followers and imploring Evers to read the letter himself.
In the petition, Dassey's defense team has asked Evers to either pardon their client or commute his sentence so he would no longer be serving life behind bars. "In his quiet, peaceful, hopeful way, Brendan has now served more than 13 years behind bars with no chance of parole until 2048," said Nirider. "The courts have been unable to deliver justice for him. We now ask Gov. Evers to deliver that justice and bring Brendan home."
In a separate tweet, she promoted an episode of the podcast 'Wrongful Conviction' featuring Dassey and Nirider and used the hashtag #BringBrendanHome.
Kim has become an outspoken advocate for prison reform in recent times, most famously successfully taking up the cause of Alice Marie Johnson, who had been 21 years into a life sentence after being convicted of a first-time nonviolent drug offense. A week after she went to President Donald Trump with the case, her sentence was commuted.
Since then, she has also reportedly joined hands with attorney Brittany K Barnett of the Buried Alive Project, which has assisted in freeing at least 17 prisoners as part of its 90 Days of Freedom campaign.