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Five Pardoned in Nebraska
Posted: January 26, 2009 6:10 pm
Updating our post earlier today on the “Beatrice Six” case – the Nebraska Board of Pardons granted pardons this afternoon to Thomas Winslow, Ada Taylor, Debra Shelden, Kathy Gonzalez and James Dean. The sixth person wrongfully convicted of this murder was Joseph White, who was fully exonerated in late 2008.
White, Winslow, Taylor, Shelden, Gonzalez and Dean are the first six people to be exonerated by DNA testing in Nebraska history. There have now been 232 people exonerated by DNA testing nationwide in 33 states.
Read more: Five Pardoned After Wrongful Conviction in Neb. Crime (Associated Press, 01/26/2009)
Tags: James Dean, Kathy Gonzalez, Debra Shelden, Ada Taylor, Joseph White, Thomas Winslow
Nebraska Legislature Considers Exoneree Compensation
Posted: March 4, 2009 5:08 pm
Nebraska lawmakers today voted to grant preliminary approval to a bill that would compensate wrongfully convicted people upon their release and provide them with state services to help them rebuild their lives. The bill, introduced by State Sen. Kent Rogert, will provide at least $25,000 for each year a person spends in prison for a crime he or she didn’t commit.
The state’s unicameral legislature voted 37-6 to give first-round approval to the bill. It will come up for debate twice more before being sent to the governor for his signature.
In February, three recent Nebraska exonerees gave emotional testimony before lawmakers on the years they had lost for a crime they didn’t commit. Six people – known as the “Beatrice Six” – were cleared of murder last year of a 1985 murder in Beatice, Nebraska. They were the first DNA exonerees in Nebraska history.
Joseph White, who served nearly two decades before his exoneration last year, spoke about the one-year-old son he left behind when he was wrongfully imprisoned in 1989.
“I can’t get back the time with him,” (White) said, holding up a photo of his son as a baby and another of him today at 21. “I can’t go back and teach my boy to ride a bicycle or drive a car.”Innocence Project Policy Analyst Rebecca Brown also spoke, describing for lawmakers how policies in other states around the country have helped exonerees create new lives after release.
Read more about today’s vote here.
Does your state have an exoneree compensation law? Find out on our interactive map.
Tags: James Dean, Kathy Gonzalez, Debra Shelden, Ada Taylor, Joseph White, Thomas Winslow
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