LINCOLN, Neb.—The Nebraska attorney general has subpoenaed the notes and other materials gathered by a Colorado man who wrote a book about a 1955 killing in Lincoln.
The request for the materials was sent to author David Strauss of Arvada, Colo., last week, the Lincoln Journal Star reported ( ). Strauss’ 2010 book, “Barbarous Souls,” details the rape and slaying of 21-year-old Nancy Parker in her Lincoln home.
Parker’s husband, Darrel, was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison. He was pardoned in 1991.
Darrel Parker, now 79 and living in Moline, Ill., sued the state of Nebraska last month for wrongful conviction. He’s seeking $500,000 plus interest for the 13 years he spent in prison.
But much of the evidence that’s supposed to be on file from the murder investigation has gone missing. So, the attorney general’s office is seeking Strauss’ notes.
Strauss, a Lincoln native, has a personal connection to the case. His father-in-law was one of Darrel Parker’s defense attorneys. Strauss said the book suggests Parker is innocent, citing case files, court records and trial testimony and evidence.
The author said he’ll comply with the state’s request.
“There’s no way I can send everything I’ve got over the last 20 years,” Strauss said. “I’ll go through what I think is important.”
Darrel Parker, Lincoln’s first forester, was 24 when he returned home to find his wife dead in their bed. Authorities said she had been raped and strangled.
Hours after his wife’s funeral in Iowa, Parker was summoned to Lincoln police headquarters and subjected to a 12-hour polygraph test, according to his lawsuit. Parker confessed during the police interrogation but soon recanted. His lawsuit said the investigator who administered the polygraph test coerced him into the false confession.
Still, he was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison. In 1969, a federal appeals court overturned the conviction, saying the confession was forced, and Parker was released. The U.S. Supreme Court reversed that ruling a few months later and, according to the lawsuit, Parker was offered a deal by the county attorney that would allow him to remain free on parole if he would drop his objections to the confession. He agreed.
Parker was pardoned in 1991, after a confession from a death row inmate was released. Wesley Peery was convicted of killing a Havelock woman in 1975 and told his attorneys of other crimes he committed. Details of those confessions were not released until after Peery died of a heart attack in 1988.
Parker filed a claim earlier this year under a 2009 Nebraska law that compensates victims of wrongful conviction but he didn’t get a response from the state. That cleared the way for his lawsuit.
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Information from: Lincoln Journal Star,
