WIKIPEDIA ENTRY: (Beatrice 6):"The Beatrice Six are Joseph White, Thomas Winslow, Ada JoAnn Taylor, Debra Shelden, James Dean and Kathy Gonzalez, who were falsely found guilty in 1989 of the 1985 rape and murder of Helen Wilson in Beatrice, Nebraska and served prison terms before being exonerated in 2009. The conviction was won of five confessions which were obtained under threats that they would be given the death penalty if they did not. Additionally Dr. Reena Roy, the Nebraska State Patrol forensic scientist who performed blood and semen analysis, was never called to the stand to testify during the case, despite her analysis determining that none of the defendants on trial were a specific match to blood or semen found at the scene. In 2008, DNA evidence implicated Bruce Allen Smith, an original prime suspect in the murder who had died in 1992, and all of the Beatrice Six were exonerated the following year. Most of the defendants were persuaded by the police psychologist, Wayne Price, that they had repressed memories of the crime.[ White, who maintained his innocence, demanded the examination of DNA evidence that led to their exoneration and then filed a Federal civil rights lawsuit against Gage County, Nebraska on behalf of all six defendants, which went to trial in January 2014; White had by then died in a workplace accident in 2011. In July 2016, a jury awarded them $28 million. The county's appeal reached the Supreme Court of the United States, which declined to hear the case on March 4, 2019. Gage County had to raise property taxes to the maximum amount permitted under the law in order to pay the jury award. It was expected that the county would make payments twice a year after property taxes were collected; the Beatrice Six, including the heirs of White, received their first payment in June 2019. The payments were completed in the span of four years, with the final payment occurring in March 2023 and the tax increases expiring in January 2023. An HBO Original six-part documentary series about the Beatrice Six, the murder, investigation, trial, exoneration, civil suits and aftermath titled Mind Over Murder was released in 2022, with the first episode airing on Monday, June 20."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beatrice_Six
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PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "The six wrongly-convicted people sued Gage County after their release from prison, alleging the county ran a reckless investigation. A federal jury awarded them $28.1 million in 2016, plus interest and attorney fees that raise the total to more than $30 million.:
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STORY: "Woman wrongly convicted in Beatrice 6 murder case dies," published by KOLN, on May 8, 2025.
Published: May 8, 2025;
LINCOLN, Neb. (KOLN) - A woman who was one of six people wrongly convicted in the 1985 rape and murder of a Beatrice woman has died.
Debra “Deb” Shelden of Beatrice died on Monday as a result of bilateral breast cancer, according to her obituary. She was 66 years old.
“Deb’s defining personality traits were her loving and forgiving disposition, and her absolute trust in humanity,” her obituary read.
Shelden along with Joseph White, Thomas Winslow, Ada JoAnn Taylor, Kathleen Gonzalez and James Dean became known as the “Beatrice 6″ and spent more than 70 years in prison collectively for the rape and murder of 68-year-old Helen Wilson. They became the first people exonerated by DNA evidence after conviction in Nebraska in 2008. Wilson’s death was later linked by DNA to a former Beatrice resident and ex-con Bruce Allen Smith who had died in 1992.
The six wrongly-convicted people sued Gage County after their release from prison, alleging the county ran a reckless investigation. A federal jury awarded them $28.1 million in 2016, plus interest and attorney fees that raise the total to more than $30 million.
Winslow, Dean and Taylor are the only ones involved in the case who remain alive.
Funeral arrangements for Shelden are still pending."
PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue/resource. 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/charlessmith. Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at: http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com. Harold Levy: Publisher: The Charles Smith Blog.
SEE BREAKDOWN OF SOME OF THE ON-GOING INTERNATIONAL CASES (OUTSIDE OF THE CONTINENTAL USA) THAT I AM FOLLOWING ON THIS BLOG, AT THE LINK BELOW: HL:
https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/120008354894645705/4704913685758792985
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FINAL WORD: (Applicable to all of our wrongful conviction cases): "Whenever there is a wrongful conviction, it exposes errors in our criminal legal system, and we hope that this case — and lessons from it — can prevent future injustices."
Lawyer Radha Natarajan:
Executive Director: New England Innocence Project;
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FINAL, FINAL WORD: "Since its inception, the Innocence Project has pushed the criminal legal system to confront and correct the laws and policies that cause and contribute to wrongful convictions. They never shied away from the hard cases — the ones involving eyewitness identifications, confessions, and bite marks. Instead, in the course of presenting scientific evidence of innocence, they've exposed the unreliability of evidence that was, for centuries, deemed untouchable." So true!
Christina Swarns: Executive Director: The Innocence Project;
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SEE BREAKDOWN OF SOME OF THE ON-GOING INTERNATIONAL CASES (OUTSIDE OF THE CONTINENTAL USA) THAT I AM FOLLOWING ON THIS BLOG, AT THE LINK BELOW: HL:
https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/120008354894645705/4704913685758792985
———————————————————————————————
FINAL WORD: (Applicable to all of our wrongful conviction cases): "Whenever there is a wrongful conviction, it exposes errors in our criminal legal system, and we hope that this case — and lessons from it — can prevent future injustices."
Lawyer Radha Natarajan:
Executive Director: New England Innocence Project;
—————————————————————————————————
FINAL, FINAL WORD: "Since its inception, the Innocence Project has pushed the criminal legal system to confront and correct the laws and policies that cause and contribute to wrongful convictions. They never shied away from the hard cases — the ones involving eyewitness identifications, confessions, and bite marks. Instead, in the course of presenting scientific evidence of innocence, they've exposed the unreliability of evidence that was, for centuries, deemed untouchable." So true!
Christina Swarns: Executive Director: The Innocence Project;
