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Here's what could happen now that Brendan Dassey's attorneys have asked for Supreme Court review

Alison Dirr
Appleton Post-Crescent

Now that Brendan Dassey's attorneys have asked the U.S. Supreme Court to hear his appeal, it has set into motion a process that could last well into 2019.

"I think the main thing is to appreciate No. 1 that this is a process that takes time, and so people can’t expect any kind of answer in the next few weeks," Michael O’Hear, professor of law at Marquette University Law School, told USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin. "It’s going to be longer than that, and second, that the court only takes a small percentage of the cases that are presented to it every year so nobody should assume that the court will actually take this case. The odds are sort of stacked against it, although it’s certainly possible that they would take it. I wouldn't rate it as a complete impossibility.” 

With the filing of a petition on Tuesday for a writ of certiorari — a legal brief asking the high court to hear Dassey's case — the Wisconsin Department of Justice has 30 days to file its response brief. Then his attorneys can respond in a reply brief within about 10 days.

After that, the case is circulated to the Justices and put on a list to be considered during one of their private conferences, according to information from the Supreme Court. If a petition is granted, it leaves the petitioner 45 days to file another brief arguing how the court should decide the case. The respondent then has 35 days to file its response. 

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The Supreme Court receives between 7,000 and 8,000 such petitions every term and it grants and hears oral arguments in only about 80 of those cases, according to court information. Four of the nine Justices must vote to grant a petition. 

If the Justices grant the petition, it's "highly unlikely" that they would take it for the current term, which wraps up around the end of June, O'Hear said. 

He predicted instead that a petition filed now would be heard in the next term, which starts in October.

With lower courts disagreeing on Dassey's case, O'Hear believes it also is likely that it would divide the Justices and take longer to issue a decision.

"If they take the case ... there’s a good chance we wouldn’t have any resolution until June of 2019,” he said. 

Dassey and his uncle, Steven Avery, were convicted in the 2005 homicide of 25-year-old photographer Teresa Halbach in Manitowoc County. Their cases were featured in the Netflix docu-series "Making a Murderer." Both men are serving life terms in the Wisconsin prison system and are challenging their convictions.
