STORY: "A Rural County Owes $28 Million for Wrongful Convictions. It Doesn’t Want to Pay," by reporter Jack Sealy, published by The New York Times on April 1, 2019. (Jack Healy is a Colorado-based national correspondent who focuses on rural places and life outside America's “City Limits” signs.)
PHOTO CAPTION: "Six innocent people were sent to prison for the 1985 murder of Helen Wilson. Now they are owed $28 million from Gage County."
GIST: "Gage County built its criminal case against the Beatrice Six by drawing out false confessions and manufactured memories from three of the defendants, a state-run inquiry and court reviews would later find. Investigators showed them photos of the crime scene. They dangled cooperation as a way of serving shorter sentences and avoiding the electric chair. They even urged the defendants to reach into their dreams to recall “suppressed memories” of the murder. It was enough to convince five of the six to plead guilty or no contest in Ms. Wilson’s murder. Only one, Joseph White, took his case to trial, and he was convicted in 1989 and sentenced to life in prison after three of his co-defendants gave false testimony against him. Mr. White never stopped insisting that he was innocent, and in 2008, he and his lawyers were able to obtain DNA tests that cleared Mr. White and the other five. A task force led by Nebraska’s attorney general then identified the real killer as Bruce Allen Smith, who had been 22 at the time of the murder and was seen heading toward Ms. Wilson’s apartment building the night she was killed. Mr. Smith died in 1992. After the Beatrice Six were exonerated, they filed a lawsuit against Gage County and the investigators who had put them behind bars. Gage County spent a decade and nearly $2 million in legal fees fighting the suit, rejecting offers to settle for $15 million, before its final appeals were rejected by the United States Supreme Court early this month. The county’s insurance will not cover the judgment, which puts taxpayers on the hook for the full $28 million. As people around Beatrice wait for this year’s tax bills to arrive, the case boils up constantly in conversation, said Dana Hydo, whose family runs the Gems and Junk shop downtown. “I’m amazed at how many people believe they did it,” she said one afternoon as she was tagging inventory. “I truly believe we put them in jail illegally. One of her customers piped up: “No way,” she said. “I think they did it. The Beatrice Six are not there to be part of the debate. "
The entire story can be read at the link below:
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/01/us/beatrice-six-nebraska.html
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Read the National Registry of Exonerations entry - curtesy of The Innocence Project -at the link below:
PUBLISHER'S
NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue. Keep your eye on the
Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments. The Toronto Star, my
previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put
considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles
Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's
forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic"
section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles
Smith. It can be found at: http://www.thestar.com/topic/c
GIST: "Gage County built its criminal case against the Beatrice Six by drawing out false confessions and manufactured memories from three of the defendants, a state-run inquiry and court reviews would later find. Investigators showed them photos of the crime scene. They dangled cooperation as a way of serving shorter sentences and avoiding the electric chair. They even urged the defendants to reach into their dreams to recall “suppressed memories” of the murder. It was enough to convince five of the six to plead guilty or no contest in Ms. Wilson’s murder. Only one, Joseph White, took his case to trial, and he was convicted in 1989 and sentenced to life in prison after three of his co-defendants gave false testimony against him. Mr. White never stopped insisting that he was innocent, and in 2008, he and his lawyers were able to obtain DNA tests that cleared Mr. White and the other five. A task force led by Nebraska’s attorney general then identified the real killer as Bruce Allen Smith, who had been 22 at the time of the murder and was seen heading toward Ms. Wilson’s apartment building the night she was killed. Mr. Smith died in 1992. After the Beatrice Six were exonerated, they filed a lawsuit against Gage County and the investigators who had put them behind bars. Gage County spent a decade and nearly $2 million in legal fees fighting the suit, rejecting offers to settle for $15 million, before its final appeals were rejected by the United States Supreme Court early this month. The county’s insurance will not cover the judgment, which puts taxpayers on the hook for the full $28 million. As people around Beatrice wait for this year’s tax bills to arrive, the case boils up constantly in conversation, said Dana Hydo, whose family runs the Gems and Junk shop downtown. “I’m amazed at how many people believe they did it,” she said one afternoon as she was tagging inventory. “I truly believe we put them in jail illegally. One of her customers piped up: “No way,” she said. “I think they did it. The Beatrice Six are not there to be part of the debate. "
The entire story can be read at the link below:
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/01/us/beatrice-six-nebraska.html
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Read the National Registry of Exonerations entry - curtesy of The Innocence Project -at the link below:
Four years
after a 68-year-old woman was raped and killed in her Beatrice,
Nebraska, home, six people – three men and three women – were convicted
of committing the crime together.
After his co-defendant Joseph White was
convicted by a jury, Thomas Winslow pled guilty to aiding and abetting
second degree murder and was sentenced to 50 years in prison. DNA
testing conducted on appeal in 2008 proved that another man had
committed the crime and led to the exonerations of all six defendants.
Winslow was freed in October 2008 and pardoned in early 2009. He served
more than 18 years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit.
The Crime: Sometime
during the night of February 5, 1985, 68-year-old Helen Wilson was
sexually assaulted and killed in the Beatrice, Nebraska, apartment where
she lived alone. Relatives had visited her on February 5 and left her
at the apartment in the evening. Her body was found in the apartment the
next morning by her sister – she had been sexually assaulted, stabbed
and suffocated to death. A significant amount of cash was found inside
the apartment.
The Investigation: Semen
was detected on swabs collected from the victim’s body during the
autopsy, a cutting from the carpet below her body and a cutting from her
nightgown. Blood stains were also identified on the victim’s clothing
and bedding. Investigators found three fingerprints in her house,
including one on a knife and two on a door frame.
A car similar
to the Oldsmobile Cutlass driven by Winslow was apparently seen near
Wilson’s home on the night of the crime, and police questioned Winslow
about the murder. They also searched his car for evidence and eventually
returned it.
Investigating
officers were aware at the time of similar crimes in the neighborhood.
In the summer of 1983, approximately 18 months before this attack, there
had been three attempted sexual assaults of elderly women within four
blocks of Wilson’s home. The perpetrator of these assaults was described
as a tall, thin white man acting alone. An FBI analysis of the Wilson
murder and the three other crimes concluded that “we can say with almost
total certainty that this crime was committed by one individual acting
alone.”
Police
investigated several suspects immediately after the Wilson murder,
including a man named Bruce Allen Smith, who had left town for Oklahoma
shortly after the crime. The Beatrice police worked with Oklahoma
authorities to obtain samples of Smith’s blood, saliva and pubic hair
for testing in connection with the Wilson murder. Joyce Gilchrist, a
forensic technician who has since been widely discredited for forensic
fraud, was working in the Oklahoma City Police crime lab at the time and
conducted serology testing on the samples from Smith. She reported –
incorrectly – that the samples excluded him as a possible perpetrator of
the crime. Based on an incorrect interpretation of serology test
results, officials cleared several other suspects from suspicion.
Four years
later, Winslow was in jail for an unrelated incident and investigators
approached him about the murder of Helen Wilson. Officers said if he
helped them solve the 1985 murder he could be released on bond for the
pending charges. He soon learned, however, that investigators had
already spoken with an informant – who pointed to Winslow and several
others in the crime.
Separately, Ada JoAnn Taylor also allegedly told officers that Winslow and Joseph White were involved. James Dean admitted
involvement in the crime, but said in a July 1989 deposition that
70-90% of his recollection came from dreams. Winslow said he began
hearing threats from jailers about him “going to the electric chair.”
After
Winslow, White and their co-defendants became suspects, Nebraska
forensic analysts began to state that serology testing on blood and
semen from the crime scene could represent “mixtures” and have come from
almost anyone. If this were the interpretation when Bruce Allen Smith
was investigated, he would not have been excluded as a suspect.
Based on
statements from alleged participants and informants, six people were
arrested in 1989 and charged with participating in the murder – Winslow,
Joseph White, Ada JoAnn Taylor, Kathy Gonzalez, James Dean and Debra Shelden.
The Trial, Pleas and Biological Evidence: Joseph
White was the only defendant in this case to go to trial, and three of
his five co-defendants testified against him in exchange for shorter
sentences than those they may have received had their own cases gone to
trial.
James Dean
testified that he participated in the crime with the five others and saw
White and Winslow raping the victim and Taylor holding her down. Taylor
testified that she held a pillow over the victim’s face while White and
Winslow raped her. Debra Shelden, a relative of the victim, testified
that she was with the other five at the scene of the crime and tried to
intervene but was struck by White and didn’t remember much about the
incident.
Kathy
Gonzalez testified that she had lived in the same apartment building as
the victim at the time of the crime and that White had raised the idea
of committing a burglary with her. She was not asked at White’s trial
about her activity on the day of the murder. Thomas Winslow did not
testify at White’s trial.
A statement
about serology testing was also read to the jury at White’s trial.
Jurors were told that serology testing had determined that blood from
the crime scene could have come from Gonzalez and that semen at the
crime scene came from someone with a blood type “similar” to that of
Winslow. Jurors were not told that the crime scene samples could have
been a mixture of fluids from the perpetrator and the victim and that
the victim’s blood type could have “masked” the perpetrator’s. The jury
was also not told that multiple men with blood types similar to the
crime scene evidence had been excluded during the investigation, nor was
the percentage of the population with similar blood types given.
The jury also
learned that the fingerprints from the crime scene did not match the
victim, any of the defendants or any relatives of the victim known to
have been in the apartment. White testified that he was never in the
victim’s apartment and did not commit the crime.
White was
convicted by the jury and sentenced to life in prison. After his
conviction, Winslow agreed to plead no contest in exchange for a 50 year
sentence. The other four defendants pled guilty as well. Taylor was
sentenced to 10-40 years. Gonzalez, Dean and Shelden were sentenced to
10 years in prison.
Post-Conviction Appeals and Exoneration: Gonzalez,
Dean and Shelden served approximately four and a half years before they
were released. Appeals in the case were repeatedly denied by Nebraska
courts, until late 2007, when White and Winslow finally obtained access
to DNA testing on semen from the crime scene. Prosecutors said the
results matched the profile of Bruce Allen Smith, the man who was a
leading suspect in the days after the murder. Smith died in Oklahoma in
1992.
White’s
conviction was vacated and he was released on October 15, 2008. Two days
later, Winslow was resentenced to time served and released. Taylor was
released on parole November 10, 2008.
Charges were dropped against White the same day. All three had served more than 18 years for a murder in which they had no involvement. Nebraska Attorney General Jon Bruning joined the defendants and Gage County Attorney Randy Ritnour in seeking to clear the “Beatrice Six” entirely.
Beatrice Police Chief Bruce Lang said the DNA results had led to a reinvestigation of the case, and “there is no doubt in our minds that Bruce Smith is the lone perpetrator of this crime.”
Charges were dropped against White the same day. All three had served more than 18 years for a murder in which they had no involvement. Nebraska Attorney General Jon Bruning joined the defendants and Gage County Attorney Randy Ritnour in seeking to clear the “Beatrice Six” entirely.
Beatrice Police Chief Bruce Lang said the DNA results had led to a reinvestigation of the case, and “there is no doubt in our minds that Bruce Smith is the lone perpetrator of this crime.”
White was
fully exonerated when charges against him were dropped on November 10,
2008. On January 26, 2009, his five co-defendants were pardoned by the
state, clearing their names entirely. They were the first six people
exonerated by DNA evidence in Nebraska history.
In February 2011, Winslow was awarded $180,000 under the Nebraska Claims for Wrongful Conviction and Imprisonment Act of 2009.
A federal
civil rights lawsuit was filed on behalf of all six exonerees. It was
dismissed twice and reinstated both times. In July 2016, following a
trial of the lawsuit, a jury awarded $7.3 million each to Winslow,
Taylor and White’s estate; $2 million each to Dean and Gonzalez and $1.8
million to Sheldon.
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