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Nebraska Supreme Court to hear DNA testing arguments tomorrow
Posted: September 5, 2007 4:06 pm
Nebraska’s highest court will hear oral arguments tomorrow in the cases of Thomas Winslow and Joseph White, who were convicted of killing a 68-year-old woman in 1985. Winslow pled guilty and was sentenced to 10 to 50 years, while White went to trial and received a life sentence. The men say that DNA testing on evidence from the crime scene can prove their innocence, but the state is opposing their request for testing, partly because Winslow pled guilty.
The state’s highest court will hear oral arguments tomorrow in the case. Lower courts have denied the men access to testing. Innocence Project Staff Attorney Alba Morales said that 25% of the 207 people who have been exonerated through DNA testing admitted to crimes they did not commit (including 10 people who pled guilty to crimes only to later be exonerated by DNA evidence). These exonerations show that innocent people sometimes admit guilt and plead guilty, for a variety of reasons – and that DNA testing should not be denied based on a guilty plea.
Read the full Innocence Project press release here.
Media coverage: High court to decide if conviction means no right to DNA tests (Associated Press, 09/05/07)
Read more about false confessions.
Learn about people who admitted to crimes before DNA proved their innocence.
Tags: Nebraska
Nebraska Supreme Court approves DNA testing for two inmates
Posted: November 6, 2007 2:00 pm
In an important case for the right of defendants in Nebraska to seek DNA testing when it has the potential to prove their innocence, the state Supreme Court ruled Friday that two men convicted of murder – Thomas Winslow and Joseph Edgar White – had the right to DNA testing in their case.
In a unanimous opinion written by Judge Lindsey Miller-Lerman in the Winslow case, the Supreme Court said for the first time that convicted criminals who pleaded guilty or no contest have not given up their right to seek DNA testing.The Innocence Project is not involved in the cases of Winslow and White, but has said for months that the men deserve DNA testing. Read a September press release on the case.
In the White opinion, also unanimous and written by Miller-Lerman, the high court noted that the credibility of the witnesses testifying against White would be called into question if DNA tests showed the semen belonged neither to White nor to Winslow, but to someone else.
Read the full story here. (Omaha World-Herald, 11/06/07)
Tags: Nebraska
Video: Death row exoneree Curtis McCarty speaks in Nebraska
Posted: February 26, 2008 2:08 pm
Curtis McCarty, who spent 18 years on Oklahoma’s death row for a murder he didn’t commit, spoke over the weekend in Nebraska about his experiences.
“I am free physically, but mentally I am not. I am always there and I am always with the men I left behind and the men who died there, men whom I am certain are innocent," McCarty said.
Watch the video here.
Tags: Nebraska, Oklahoma, Curtis McCarty, Death Penalty
A Case for Compensation in Nebraska
Posted: November 7, 2008 4:15 pm
Nebraska State Senator Ernie Chambers this week on called on lawmakers to consider passing a law compensating the wrongfully convicted after their release. Chambers told the Omaha World-Herald this week:
“It’s an issue of fairness, when the state wrongfully jails someone, it should compensate that person for the loss of their freedom. Simple justice would indicate that something ought to be done for someone who’s gone through this.”Chambers is leaving office at the end of this year, but he said he would ask another Senator to introduce legislation in 2009 to address compensation. Lawmakers in Nebraska would have to consider issues such as who qualifies as exonerated, how much compensation is fair, and what process needs to be done to obtain it. Chambers’ proposal comes on the heels of the release of Thomas Winslow and Joseph White, who were cleared by DNA testing last month. They were the first defendants in Nebraska history freed due to DNA testing, but their exonerations aren’t yet official.
Compensation statutes exist in 25 states, as well as in the District of Columbia. In 2004, Congress passed a law granting exonerated federal prisoners up to $50,000 a year in compensation (and up to $100,000 per year for those who were on death row). This federal legislation urges states to follow suit. The recent trend in compensation statutes is to also provide the immediate assistance and services that the wrongfully convicted need and deserve to seek to successfully resume their lives.
Read the full article here. (Omaha World Herald, 11/04/08)
Does your state have a compensation law? Find out here.
Tags: Nebraska, Exoneree Compensation
No Compensation for Six Prisoners Cleared in Nebraska
Posted: November 18, 2008 3:50 pm
Three people freed recently in Nebraska after serving 20 years in prison for a murder they didn’t commit will take on the challenge of building a new life without financial support or services from the state.
Thomas Winslow, Joseph White and JoAnn Taylor were cleared in recent weeks in Nebraska after DNA testing pointed to another man in the 1985 murder for which they were convicted. Three other co-defendants were released from prison in 1994 after serving their complete sentences.(The Innocence Project is currently reviewing the cases of all six defendants to determine whether they can be included in our database of DNA exonerations nationwide.)
Nebraska is one of 25 states without an exoneree compensation law, so there are no state services available to the exonerated.
Innocence Project spokesman Eric Ferrero said compensation for wrongful convictions is needed because re-entering society after serving prison time is difficult, even with an exoneration.
"Some people don't have family support or any network of supports when they get out," he said. "They often get out with no money, no job experience — other than prison jobs — and they often lack the skills to get reintegrated into society and rebuild their lives."
Read the full story here. (Associated Press, 11/18/08)
Tags: Nebraska, Exoneree Compensation
225 Exonerated
Posted: November 20, 2008 4:05 pm
Joseph White was added today to the Innocence Project’s database of DNA exonerations in the U.S. He is the 225th person exonerated, and the first in Nebraska. There have been DNA exonerations in 33 states, and the exonerees have served a total of nearly 2,800 years.
White and five co-defendants were convicted of a 1985 murder in Beatrice, Nebraska, and all six were cleared recently by DNA testing on evidence from the crime scene, which points to a man who was a suspect at the time of the crime. Law enforcement officials say they have “no doubt” the actual perpetrator committed the crime alone. White has been fully exonerated and the other five defendants are seeking pardons to clear their records. They will be included as DNA exonerees when their records are cleared.
Involved in the wrongful conviction of these six defendants was the faulty forensic testimony of Joyce Gilchrist, an Oklahoma City Police Department lab analyst whose false statements have been involved in at least four other wrongful conviction cases. In this case, Gilchrist tested the blood of a likely suspect who had fled to Nebraska. She told Nebraska police that the suspect was excluded by the tests, but she was wrong. This suspect is the man now implicated by DNA tests.
Read more about this case below, and stay tuned for updates.
Beatrice Daily Sun: Taylor released from prison
Omaha World-Herald: An opportunity led to 19 years spent in prison
Associated Press: Exonerated inmates often don’t have state help
Tags: Nebraska, Joseph White
Most Nebraskan State Senators Support or Are Unsure About Compensation Law
Posted: January 5, 2009 2:00 pm
Even after three Nebraskans were found to have been wrongfully convicted and spent almost 20 years for a murder they did not commit, many state senators are undecided about compensation laws in Nebraska.
Nebraska is one of 25 states without a compensation statute. In a survey of state senators conducted by the Associated Press, 14 senators were in favor exoneree compensation, and five were against. However, 20 senators were undecided and 10 did not take part in the survey, which comes on the heels of the "Beatrice 6" case, in which Thomas Winslow, Joseph White and Ada JoAnn Taylor were cleared of all charges in the 1985 murder and rape of Helen Wilson in Beatrice, Nebraska. (Three others had also been arrested and convicted but finished serving their sentences in 1994. Nebraska Attorney General Jon Bruning said he intends to pursue full pardons for all six.)
According to the AP, State Senator Tony Fulton said that compensation is “the right thing to do,” adding that it should go beyond financial compensation and could include help with employment and education. However, those who voiced uncertainty about compensation in the AP survey argue that the state's current economic condition may have to take priority over compensation for the wrongfully convicted. Others, including Senator Russ Karpisek questioned where funds for compensations would come from:
“This is a tough one,” Karpisek said. “Although they should get help to start their lives over, where does the money come from? How much money would make a difference? Would the judicial system be afraid to jail people in fear of possible compensation?”
Read the full story here. (Associated Press, 12/29/08)Even when states do have compensation laws, they often fall far short of the federal standard for monetary amounts and don’t include critical state services. Click here to find out how your state stacks up.
To learn more about the need for exoneree compensation nationwide, visit our Fix the System section.
Tags: Nebraska, Exoneree Compensation, Life After Exoneration
Science Thursday - September 20, 2012
Posted: September 20, 2012 2:40 pm
A Massachusetts crime lab scandal intensifies while a North Carolina crime lab sets a new precedent for accreditation. Here’s this week’s round up of forensic news:
Amidst growing allegations of misdeeds at the Massachusetts state crime lab, Public Health Commissioner John Auerbach resigned on Monday. As commissioner, Auerbach admits that he “shares accountability for the breakdown in oversight.”
The North Carolina State Crime Laboratory adopts new working standards in order to become the first lab in the United States that holds accreditation from both the American Society of Crime Lab Director Lab Accreditation Board (ASCLD-LAB) and Forensic Quality Services (FSQ).
A recent discovery by a University of Nebraska-Lincoln graduate student might affect how crime scene investigators use knowledge of insect behavior to determine the relative time of death. Further research to discern blood spatter from insect activity at a crime scene is being funded by the National Institute of Justice.
Tags: North Carolina, Massachusetts, Nebraska, Science Thursday
Judge Grants Compensation to Two of "Beatrice Six" in Nebraska Case
Posted: September 21, 2012 5:00 pm
Nearly four years after DNA testing exonerated the Beatrice Six, two of its members were awarded compensation Thursday by a district court judge. Named for the Nebraska town where they were wrongfully convicted, the Beatrice Six were convicted of a 1985 murder after five of the accused entered pleas, reported the Lincoln Journal Star.
Ada JoAnn Taylor spent nearly 20 years in prison and James Dean spent five years after pleading guilty. Taylor was awarded $500,000, the maximum allowed by the state, and Dean was awarded $300,000 under the Nebraska Claims for Wrongful Conviction and Imprisonment Act of 2009, which was passed shortly after their exoneration.
In his opinion, Judge Daniel E. Bryan Jr. cited testimony from false confession expert Richard A. Leo who told the court Taylor and Dean were persuaded to incriminate themselves.
“(Both Taylor and Dean) did not commit or suborn perjury, fabricate evidence, or otherwise make a false statement to cause or bring about her conviction or the conviction of another,” Bryan wrote in his opinion. “(Taylor and Dean’s) statements … were not a result of physical force by law enforcement, but were caused by law enforcement’s improper investigative practices and procedures.”
Judge Bryan also wrote about his disappointment in the state’s compensation cap.
“To try to attempt to place any value on one’s liberty to be free is a Herculean task,” he said.
During the hearing earlier this week, Attorney General Jon Bruning, who declared the Beatrice Six innocent in 2008, defended the state in an attempt to deny compensation. Bruning has since announced that his office would appeal the decision.
Read the full article.
Read case profiles of James Dean and Ada JoAnn Taylor.
Read more about compensation for the wrongly convicted.
Tags: Nebraska, James Dean, Ada Taylor
Science Thursday - December 6, 2012
Posted: December 6, 2012 2:30 pm
Tags: Massachusetts, Nebraska, West Virginia, Washington