Injustice in the Upper Peninsula
You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face ~ Eleanor Roosevelt
Man enjoys his first freedom in 19 years
- Published Friday October 17, 2008
Joseph White talks to his mother as he waits to board a bus for Omaha where he will catch a plane and eventually arrive home at Holly Park, Alabama. White was released from the Nebraska State Penitentary on Wednesday. "It's a great night to be free," he said.
LINCOLN — Freed from prison after 19 years, Joseph White's first indulgence was a relaxing one: two hours soaking in a hot bath at a Lincoln motel.
"That's one thing you don't get in prison," said White, a salt-and-pepper-haired 45-year-old who speaks in a slow drawl born of his native Alabama.
The Nebraska State Penitentiary, his home since 1989, has only showers.
White, who was found guilty in the 1985 rape-slaying of a Beatrice, Neb., woman, was released by a judge Wednesday after DNA testing conducted during the past year indicated no physical link between White and the crime scene.
Saline County District Judge Vicky Johnson declined to exonerate White in court but ordered a new trial. His case marks the first time in Nebraska history that DNA evidence tested years after a crime has led to the release of a convicted man.
As White sipped on hot Darjeeling tea Thursday at a north Lincoln coffee shop, he calmly explained that faith helped him endure nearly two decades behind bars for a crime that he and the evidence say he didn't commit.
He said he was the leader of a Wiccan group at the penitentiary. His beliefs also include a mixture of Buddhism and shamanism.
He went through four defense attorneys before he found one, Doug Stratton of Norfolk, Neb., who was willing to believe him and seek the DNA testing that won his release.
"I've lived with it. I knew I was innocent," White said. "When it comes to the truth, you never stop fighting.
"After waiting and waiting and waiting, yesterday it all proved worth it."
White rode a Greyhound bus Thursday evening to Omaha to visit with an ailing friend — a Buddhist monk who ministered at the prison — before boarding a plane Friday morning for Cullman, Ala., where he lived before his arrest.
He left prison with $521 he had earned while working in a prison die shop.
He spent his first day of freedom buying some clothes and a cell phone at Wal-Mart, eating a double cheeseburger at McDonald's and relishing his new freedom.
White gave some money to a little boy, whose mother he met after walking into a boot shop.
"I've always loved kids," he said. "You've always got to spoil them."
White struggled to use the plastic card key to open his motel door until a bystander told him he needed to "swipe" the card in and out, not just drop it in.
Watching TV in the penitentiary had taught him about cell phones. By Thursday afternoon, he already had used his several times to talk with his mother, Lois, in Alabama and to his brothers and sisters.
"It's about time," his mother said in a phone interview. "We always felt like he was telling the truth. He just is not ever the type of person to participate in anything like that."
Helen Wilson, 68, was killed in February 1985.
At the time, White had lived in Beatrice only a few months. He had traveled there with a man and a woman he had met in California, where he'd hitchhiked to "see Hollywood and the starlets" after being discharged from the Army.
After working at a construction job in Beatrice, he was laid off and broke.
He was known as "Lobo" to the loose group of friends he drank with and hung out with — a group who later became some of his co-defendants.
White said Beatrice police questioned him before he left town — two weeks after the slaying — to return to Alabama.
He settled in back home, working construction and factory jobs. Then the phone rang one night in 1989, four years after the slaying. We've got a warrant for your arrest, the voice said, and there are officers at the door.
"I opened the door and there were 20 riot guns pointed at me," White said.
Three investigators from Beatrice began "badgering" him while he was in custody in Alabama, he said, telling him they had fingerprints that matched his at the crime scene. They told him five or six witnesses placed him at the killing.
"I knew I didn't do it," White said. He said he later learned that investigators couldn't find a fingerprint match and that only two other suspects were in custody at the time.
"They said if I waived extradition (to Nebraska), we could get to the bottom of this and get it over with," he said. "I said sure.
"That was 19½ years ago."
Eventually, five others were arrested in connection with the killing, and a story began forming among them about the crime. That the six forced their way into Wilson's apartment to rob her. That White and Thomas Winslow took turns raping her. That one of three female co-defendants, Ada JoAnn Taylor — whom White had met in California — held a pillow over the victim's face, suffocating her.
White said the initial stories from those in custody were different, but investigators kept reminding them of the new story.
"They finally got them to 'remember'," he said, forming quote marks with his fingers, "a story that fit with their ideas."
At his trial, which was moved to Fairbury because of high emotions in Beatrice, White testified that he had nothing to do with the slaying and had never been in Wilson's apartment.
But jurors believed Taylor, James Dean and Kathy Gonzalez, who had agreed to plea deals to avoid any possibility of the death penalty. White was sentenced to life in prison.
Former Gage County Attorney Dick Smith, who prosecuted the case, said Thursday that, based on evidence and statements made in 1989, jurors made the right decision in convicting White. The new DNA evidence indicates only that someone else was "in the room," Smith said, and doesn't exonerate those convicted.
The DNA testing was made possible by a 2001 law championed by State Sen. Ernie Chambers of Omaha. It requires the testing in old cases in which DNA technology was not available, and in which there is a chance for exoneration.
White said he blames only one person: the man who really raped and killed Helen Wilson.
"I spent 19½ years in prison for him," he said. "If it's within my power, I'm going to commit whatever I can to see this guy in jail for this crime."
The DNA findings also led to a resentencing hearing today for Winslow, 42. It was unclear Thursday whether the four other co-defendants would seek exoneration.
Now state and local prosecutors say they are seeking the arrest of the unidentified male whose DNA was found at the crime scene. DNA test results completed last week are set to be submitted for comparison with a national database. A lower-grade DNA sample, tested this summer, did not produce a match.
If a new trial doesn't occur within six months — and prosecutors acknowledged they have no evidence linking White to the crime — he will be exonerated.
White said he might seek some compensation for his time in prison — compensation that some state officials have said cannot be sought under Nebraska law — because he has no money saved.
"Five hundred and twenty-one dollars doesn't go very far, I've discovered," he said of the money he left prison with.
He didn't express anger at authorities, those who testified against him or the legal system, and said he never lost faith.
White's mood saddened when he discussed a son, now 20, who grew up without his father "teaching him how to ride a bike, drive a car or pick up women. . . . I used to be pretty good at that."
He said another son, now 19, was given up for adoption by the boy's mother because she was alone. White said that, before his arrest, he'd planned to marry her.
She has since moved on. "We're different people now," he said.
He said he has five or six job offers in Alabama. His mother is planning a family celebration.
White smiled broadly and sipped his tea.
"After that, I may just grab a tent and head off into the woods," he said. "I always liked the outdoors."
World-Herald staff writer Martha Stoddard contributed to this report.
• Contact the writer: 402-473-9584, paul.hammel@owh.com
Contact the Omaha World-Herald newsroom
- Published Friday October 17, 2008
Joseph White talks to his mother as he waits to board a bus for Omaha where he will catch a plane and eventually arrive home at Holly Park, Alabama. White was released from the Nebraska State Penitentary on Wednesday. "It's a great night to be free," he said.
LINCOLN — Freed from prison after 19 years, Joseph White's first indulgence was a relaxing one: two hours soaking in a hot bath at a Lincoln motel.
"That's one thing you don't get in prison," said White, a salt-and-pepper-haired 45-year-old who speaks in a slow drawl born of his native Alabama.
The Nebraska State Penitentiary, his home since 1989, has only showers.
White, who was found guilty in the 1985 rape-slaying of a Beatrice, Neb., woman, was released by a judge Wednesday after DNA testing conducted during the past year indicated no physical link between White and the crime scene.
Saline County District Judge Vicky Johnson declined to exonerate White in court but ordered a new trial. His case marks the first time in Nebraska history that DNA evidence tested years after a crime has led to the release of a convicted man.
As White sipped on hot Darjeeling tea Thursday at a north Lincoln coffee shop, he calmly explained that faith helped him endure nearly two decades behind bars for a crime that he and the evidence say he didn't commit.
He said he was the leader of a Wiccan group at the penitentiary. His beliefs also include a mixture of Buddhism and shamanism.
He went through four defense attorneys before he found one, Doug Stratton of Norfolk, Neb., who was willing to believe him and seek the DNA testing that won his release.
"I've lived with it. I knew I was innocent," White said. "When it comes to the truth, you never stop fighting.
"After waiting and waiting and waiting, yesterday it all proved worth it."
White rode a Greyhound bus Thursday evening to Omaha to visit with an ailing friend — a Buddhist monk who ministered at the prison — before boarding a plane Friday morning for Cullman, Ala., where he lived before his arrest.
He left prison with $521 he had earned while working in a prison die shop.
He spent his first day of freedom buying some clothes and a cell phone at Wal-Mart, eating a double cheeseburger at McDonald's and relishing his new freedom.
White gave some money to a little boy, whose mother he met after walking into a boot shop.
"I've always loved kids," he said. "You've always got to spoil them."
White struggled to use the plastic card key to open his motel door until a bystander told him he needed to "swipe" the card in and out, not just drop it in.
Watching TV in the penitentiary had taught him about cell phones. By Thursday afternoon, he already had used his several times to talk with his mother, Lois, in Alabama and to his brothers and sisters.
"It's about time," his mother said in a phone interview. "We always felt like he was telling the truth. He just is not ever the type of person to participate in anything like that."
Helen Wilson, 68, was killed in February 1985.
At the time, White had lived in Beatrice only a few months. He had traveled there with a man and a woman he had met in California, where he'd hitchhiked to "see Hollywood and the starlets" after being discharged from the Army.
After working at a construction job in Beatrice, he was laid off and broke.
He was known as "Lobo" to the loose group of friends he drank with and hung out with — a group who later became some of his co-defendants.
White said Beatrice police questioned him before he left town — two weeks after the slaying — to return to Alabama.
He settled in back home, working construction and factory jobs. Then the phone rang one night in 1989, four years after the slaying. We've got a warrant for your arrest, the voice said, and there are officers at the door.
"I opened the door and there were 20 riot guns pointed at me," White said.
Three investigators from Beatrice began "badgering" him while he was in custody in Alabama, he said, telling him they had fingerprints that matched his at the crime scene. They told him five or six witnesses placed him at the killing.
"I knew I didn't do it," White said. He said he later learned that investigators couldn't find a fingerprint match and that only two other suspects were in custody at the time.
"They said if I waived extradition (to Nebraska), we could get to the bottom of this and get it over with," he said. "I said sure.
"That was 19½ years ago."
Eventually, five others were arrested in connection with the killing, and a story began forming among them about the crime. That the six forced their way into Wilson's apartment to rob her. That White and Thomas Winslow took turns raping her. That one of three female co-defendants, Ada JoAnn Taylor — whom White had met in California — held a pillow over the victim's face, suffocating her.
White said the initial stories from those in custody were different, but investigators kept reminding them of the new story.
"They finally got them to 'remember'," he said, forming quote marks with his fingers, "a story that fit with their ideas."
At his trial, which was moved to Fairbury because of high emotions in Beatrice, White testified that he had nothing to do with the slaying and had never been in Wilson's apartment.
But jurors believed Taylor, James Dean and Kathy Gonzalez, who had agreed to plea deals to avoid any possibility of the death penalty. White was sentenced to life in prison.
Former Gage County Attorney Dick Smith, who prosecuted the case, said Thursday that, based on evidence and statements made in 1989, jurors made the right decision in convicting White. The new DNA evidence indicates only that someone else was "in the room," Smith said, and doesn't exonerate those convicted.
The DNA testing was made possible by a 2001 law championed by State Sen. Ernie Chambers of Omaha. It requires the testing in old cases in which DNA technology was not available, and in which there is a chance for exoneration.
White said he blames only one person: the man who really raped and killed Helen Wilson.
"I spent 19½ years in prison for him," he said. "If it's within my power, I'm going to commit whatever I can to see this guy in jail for this crime."
The DNA findings also led to a resentencing hearing today for Winslow, 42. It was unclear Thursday whether the four other co-defendants would seek exoneration.
Now state and local prosecutors say they are seeking the arrest of the unidentified male whose DNA was found at the crime scene. DNA test results completed last week are set to be submitted for comparison with a national database. A lower-grade DNA sample, tested this summer, did not produce a match.
If a new trial doesn't occur within six months — and prosecutors acknowledged they have no evidence linking White to the crime — he will be exonerated.
White said he might seek some compensation for his time in prison — compensation that some state officials have said cannot be sought under Nebraska law — because he has no money saved.
"Five hundred and twenty-one dollars doesn't go very far, I've discovered," he said of the money he left prison with.
He didn't express anger at authorities, those who testified against him or the legal system, and said he never lost faith.
White's mood saddened when he discussed a son, now 20, who grew up without his father "teaching him how to ride a bike, drive a car or pick up women. . . . I used to be pretty good at that."
He said another son, now 19, was given up for adoption by the boy's mother because she was alone. White said that, before his arrest, he'd planned to marry her.
She has since moved on. "We're different people now," he said.
He said he has five or six job offers in Alabama. His mother is planning a family celebration.
White smiled broadly and sipped his tea.
"After that, I may just grab a tent and head off into the woods," he said. "I always liked the outdoors."
World-Herald staff writer Martha Stoddard contributed to this report.
• Contact the writer: 402-473-9584, paul.hammel@owh.com
Contact the Omaha World-Herald newsroom