LINCOLN, Neb.—Five people imprisoned for the 1985 rape and murder of a 68-year-old woman were pardoned Monday, two months after investigators said DNA evidence proved they were innocent.
In all, six people were convicted in the death of Helen Wilson of Beatrice. The killer left blood all over the walls, and investigators described a gruesome scene in which Wilson was held down and raped in front of a group of people. Her hands were bound, and she died of suffocation.
In reality, Assistant Attorney General Corey O’Brien told the parole board Monday, it was the work of one man acting alone.
And the three men and three women convicted of the crime, O’Brien said, were innocent “not beyond a reasonable doubt, but beyond all doubt.”
“It finally puts closure on something I knew all along,” 43-year-old Thomas Winslow said after being pardoned.
Yet, Winslow and the other four pardoned Monday pleaded guilty to the rape and murder. Only Joseph White, who didn’t seek a pardon because his conviction was overturned last year, maintained his innocence.
“If it wasn’t for him being stubborn and saying he’s innocent all along, we wouldn’t be here right now,” said 44-year-old James Dean, who was released from prison in 1994.
Investigators say the real killer was Bruce Allen Smith, a former Beatrice native who returned to the city days before the murder, then went back to Oklahoma days after.
He was among the original suspects in the case, but DNA tests performed as part of the original investigation appeared to exclude him as a suspect. Newer DNA tests performed recently showed that the earlier test result was flawed.
Smith died of AIDS in 1992 at age 30.
The five defendants who pleaded guilty said they were threatened with the death penalty, told that others had implicated them in the crime and offered plea deals to confess.
“I had a 14-month-old baby,” said 45-year-old JoAnn Taylor, who spent 19 years in prison. “I was told they’d make me the first female on death row.”
Deb Shelden, 50, said she was surprised she got a pardon. She has maintained that she was at the scene but didn’t participate in the crime, but said Monday, “I don’t know what to believe any more.”
“They say the evidence shows we weren’t there,” she said.
Her husband, Clifford, said his wife of 23 years was confused by a psychiatrist who helped her “recover” what she believed were memories.
O’Brien said Shelden and others may have been brainwashed. Shelden and Kathy Gonzalez, 48, completed their sentences in 1994.
In 2007, the Nebraska Supreme Court ruled that White and Wilson could ask for DNA tests to try to prove their innocence, after lower courts had denied them the tests on the basis that they wouldn’t absolve the men.
Nebraska’s DNA testing law is about 8 years old and requires the state to test DNA evidence if it is likely to produce evidence that someone else committed the crime.
The pardons board, made up of Bruning, Gov. Dave Heineman and Secretary of State John Gale normally grants pardons to people convicted of minor crimes who have shown remorse for committing them, not to people the board members believe are innocent.
All three members voted in favor of pardoning the five.
However, a pardon doesn’t mean a person is considered innocent of the crime, and it doesn’t erase a criminal record. O’Brien said he would ask a judge to order the criminal records for the six former inmates expunged.
Lydia Buckley, Dean’s fiance, said it’s the little things they’re excited about. She’d like to spend their honeymoon in Jamaica, but until Monday, Dean couldn’t get a passport.
The pardon restores civil rights, such as the right to get a passport, vote and serve in the military.
Former state Sen. Ernie Chambers of Omaha, who championed the state’s DNA testing bill, said while Monday was a triumph, “saying you’re sorry doesn’t undo the damage.”
“You cannot give years back to people,” he said. “You cannot give family members back what they lost.”
Under a bill brought by a current state senator, Nebraska could join 25 states and the District of Columbia that have laws entitling exonerated inmates to government compensation.
Sen. Kent Rogert of Tekamah has introduced a bill (L260) in the state Legislature that would provide for a minimum of $50,000 for each year an innocent person is incarcerated. Rogert wants to make the law retroactive.
Winslow said coming out of prison after 19 years, “there’s no resources,” and Dean said it’s a constant struggle to get a job or a mortgage because of the felony conviction on his record.
“A lot of people got hurt in this deal,” Dean said. “You can’t put a price on it.”
The state might end up paying either way. Several of the former inmates said they’re working with an attorney to file a lawsuit.
“If I don’t, I’m a fool,” Dean said.
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On the Net:
Attorney General Jon Bruning:
Nebraska Legislature:
The Innocence Project:
Life After Exoneration:
