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
Published Thursday October 16, 2008
DNA evidence lets man walk free from prison after 19 years
WILBER, Neb. - Nineteen years ago, three witnesses testified that they saw Joseph E. White and Thomas Winslow take turns raping a 68-year-old Beatrice woman, who was suffocated to death in the assault.
On Wednesday, DNA evidence indicated that all three witnesses had lied.
In a history-making ruling, White, 45, is now a free man after being awarded a new trial, one that may never be held. He was serving a life sentence for murder.
Winslow, 42, convicted of second-degree murder, was granted a resentencing hearing on Friday, and he is expected to be released at that time.
Both men served 19 years in prison.
"I'm finally getting the justice I've been seeking for the past 19½ years," White said as he left the Saline County Courthouse after the hearing.
"I am totally innocent. I was not involved in any way," he said.
White was released from the State Penitentiary in Lincoln about 5:15 p.m., after completing required checkout duties. He said only that he was "going home," a reference to his family's home in Cullman, Ala.
New DNA tests - permitted under a 2001 state law - showed that semen samples and hair found at the scene didn't match either White or Winslow. They were both convicted in the brutal rape and slaying of Helen Wilson in 1985.
The only DNA match was for another male, as yet unidentified.
The test results, presented while several members of the victim's family watched in stunned silence, marked the first time anyone in Nebraska won a new trial or resentencing due to DNA testing.
"We just don't know what to say - it's mind-boggling," said Wilson's brother, Larry Wilson of Scottsbluff, Neb., during a break in the hearing.
The family thought justice had been delivered two decades ago, he said.
Nationwide, 221 convictions have been overturned due to DNA testing, according to the Innocence Project, which is based in New York City.
"It's obvious we have a whole new ballgame here. The whole case has been reopened," said Gage County Attorney Randy Ritnour, who wasn't in office during the 1989 trials.
Attorney General Jon Bruning said the goal is to arrest the unidentified man whose semen was found at the crime scene.
"We have some leads. We have some ideas, and we intend to pursue that suspect immediately," Bruning said.
The history-making rulings by Saline County District Court Judge Vicky Johnson brought a stunning twist to a sensational murder case.
Johnson ruled that while neither man could be exonerated by the DNA evidence, that evidence contradicted past testimony.
She ordered a new trial for White, who was found guilty of first-degree murder in a 1989 trial, and a resentencing for Winslow, who had pleaded no contest to a reduced charge of second-degree murder to escape the death penalty.
Bruning said his office and Winslow's attorney, Jerry Soucie of the Nebraska Commission on Public Advocacy, have agreed to seek a new sentence for time already served in prison, meaning Winslow should be released Friday.
Prosecutors now have six months in which to retry White. His attorney, Doug Stratton of Norfolk, Neb., said he doubted that would happen.
Stratton said there is no DNA evidence implicating his client, and all three witnesses recently recanted their prior testimony.
Why would three witnesses lie?
Stratton and Soucie said the three witnesses were pressured by the threat of the death penalty and enticed by offers of reduced charges and shorter sentences if they testified.
"A decision was made to tell a story" to avoid death row, Soucie said, and that "raises very serious ethical questions" for those who support the death penalty.
"They were scared to death by the police," White said about the witnesses after Wednesday's hearing.
Wilson was found dead in her apartment in February 1985, but four years passed before six people were arrested.
The arrests were based on tips from an informant and the work of a former Beatrice police officer, Burdette Searcey, who investigated the case as a private investigator before joining the Gage County Sheriff's Office, where he still works.
White's trial was moved to Fairbury due to the high emotions surrounding the case.
Three co-defendants - Ada JoAnn Taylor, James L. Dean and Kathy Gonzalez - testified that they saw White and Winslow take turns raping Wilson while holding her down and making crass comments. Taylor held a pillow over Wilson's face during the assault, suffocating her, according to court testimony.
Taylor was sentenced to 10 to 40 years for aiding and abetting second-degree murder. Dean and Gonzalez each were sentenced to 10 years in prison for aiding and abetting second-degree murder.
White was sentenced to life in prison.
Winslow, fearing the death penalty, agreed to plead no contest to a reduced charge of aiding and abetting second-degree murder.
The DNA tests were done under a 2001 law, championed by State Sen. Ernie Chambers of Omaha, that requires the state to test DNA if such tests were not available at the time of trial and could generate evidence to exonerate a defendant.
Lloyd Halsell, a forensics laboratory official from the University of Nebraska Medical Center, said Wednesday that two rounds of tests, completed in June and this month, failed to find any DNA matches for the two convicted men. The tests matched one unidentified male.
Prosecutors said they were stunned to find out Friday that none of the more than 40 samples submitted to three separate crime labs provided matches on the two convicted men. The samples tested included blood from pillows, sheets and a comforter, hair and semen found on the victim.
"I'm glad DNA worked in this instance," said Chambers. "They've lost so many years of their lives."
Chambers and State Sen. Brad Ashford of Omaha, chairman of the Legislature's Judiciary Committee, said they doubted the two men would have any legal recourse against the state. Stratton, White's attorney, said he planned to research that issue.
Soucie said he planned to write a book on the case entitled "Four False Confessions."
"I know what families go through in seeking justice, but justice shouldn't involve perpetuating an injustice," he said in court.
The fourth false statement would be one his client, Winslow, gave that placed him at the crime scene. Soucie said that statement was coerced, while Bruning said it was an admission he was there.
Burdette Searcey, one of the original investigators; Dick Smith, the Gage County attorney at the time of the trial; and Don Luckeroth, the Beatrice police chief then, did not immediately return phone messages seeking comment.
Beatrice Police Chief Bruce Lang, who took office 16 years ago, said investigators back in 1989 did the best they could, with the science and information available at the time.
"I don't think anyone went after this with anything but noble intentions," Lang said. "We have a homicide investigation to do (now,) and we're going to do it."
World-Herald staff writer Martha Stoddard contributed to this report.
• Contact the writer: 402-473-9584, paul.hammel@owh.com
DNA evidence lets man walk free from prison after 19 years
WILBER, Neb. - Nineteen years ago, three witnesses testified that they saw Joseph E. White and Thomas Winslow take turns raping a 68-year-old Beatrice woman, who was suffocated to death in the assault.
Joseph White, left, and Thomas Winslow
In a history-making ruling, White, 45, is now a free man after being awarded a new trial, one that may never be held. He was serving a life sentence for murder.
Winslow, 42, convicted of second-degree murder, was granted a resentencing hearing on Friday, and he is expected to be released at that time.
Both men served 19 years in prison.
"I'm finally getting the justice I've been seeking for the past 19½ years," White said as he left the Saline County Courthouse after the hearing.
"I am totally innocent. I was not involved in any way," he said.
White was released from the State Penitentiary in Lincoln about 5:15 p.m., after completing required checkout duties. He said only that he was "going home," a reference to his family's home in Cullman, Ala.
New DNA tests - permitted under a 2001 state law - showed that semen samples and hair found at the scene didn't match either White or Winslow. They were both convicted in the brutal rape and slaying of Helen Wilson in 1985.
Joseph
White walks out of the Nebraska State Penitentiary, free on his own
recognizance, in Lincoln on Wednesday. New DNA evidence led a judge to
order a new trial for White, who has been in prison since being
convicted in a 1989 jury trial for the sexual assault and first-degree
murder of 68-year-old Helen Wilson of Beatrice, Neb.
The test results, presented while several members of the victim's family watched in stunned silence, marked the first time anyone in Nebraska won a new trial or resentencing due to DNA testing.
"We just don't know what to say - it's mind-boggling," said Wilson's brother, Larry Wilson of Scottsbluff, Neb., during a break in the hearing.
The family thought justice had been delivered two decades ago, he said.
Nationwide, 221 convictions have been overturned due to DNA testing, according to the Innocence Project, which is based in New York City.
"It's obvious we have a whole new ballgame here. The whole case has been reopened," said Gage County Attorney Randy Ritnour, who wasn't in office during the 1989 trials.
Attorney General Jon Bruning said the goal is to arrest the unidentified man whose semen was found at the crime scene.
"We have some leads. We have some ideas, and we intend to pursue that suspect immediately," Bruning said.
The history-making rulings by Saline County District Court Judge Vicky Johnson brought a stunning twist to a sensational murder case.
Johnson ruled that while neither man could be exonerated by the DNA evidence, that evidence contradicted past testimony.
She ordered a new trial for White, who was found guilty of first-degree murder in a 1989 trial, and a resentencing for Winslow, who had pleaded no contest to a reduced charge of second-degree murder to escape the death penalty.
Bruning said his office and Winslow's attorney, Jerry Soucie of the Nebraska Commission on Public Advocacy, have agreed to seek a new sentence for time already served in prison, meaning Winslow should be released Friday.
Prosecutors now have six months in which to retry White. His attorney, Doug Stratton of Norfolk, Neb., said he doubted that would happen.
Stratton said there is no DNA evidence implicating his client, and all three witnesses recently recanted their prior testimony.
Why would three witnesses lie?
Stratton and Soucie said the three witnesses were pressured by the threat of the death penalty and enticed by offers of reduced charges and shorter sentences if they testified.
"A decision was made to tell a story" to avoid death row, Soucie said, and that "raises very serious ethical questions" for those who support the death penalty.
"They were scared to death by the police," White said about the witnesses after Wednesday's hearing.
Wilson was found dead in her apartment in February 1985, but four years passed before six people were arrested.
The arrests were based on tips from an informant and the work of a former Beatrice police officer, Burdette Searcey, who investigated the case as a private investigator before joining the Gage County Sheriff's Office, where he still works.
White's trial was moved to Fairbury due to the high emotions surrounding the case.
Three co-defendants - Ada JoAnn Taylor, James L. Dean and Kathy Gonzalez - testified that they saw White and Winslow take turns raping Wilson while holding her down and making crass comments. Taylor held a pillow over Wilson's face during the assault, suffocating her, according to court testimony.
Taylor was sentenced to 10 to 40 years for aiding and abetting second-degree murder. Dean and Gonzalez each were sentenced to 10 years in prison for aiding and abetting second-degree murder.
White was sentenced to life in prison.
Winslow, fearing the death penalty, agreed to plead no contest to a reduced charge of aiding and abetting second-degree murder.
The DNA tests were done under a 2001 law, championed by State Sen. Ernie Chambers of Omaha, that requires the state to test DNA if such tests were not available at the time of trial and could generate evidence to exonerate a defendant.
Lloyd Halsell, a forensics laboratory official from the University of Nebraska Medical Center, said Wednesday that two rounds of tests, completed in June and this month, failed to find any DNA matches for the two convicted men. The tests matched one unidentified male.
Prosecutors said they were stunned to find out Friday that none of the more than 40 samples submitted to three separate crime labs provided matches on the two convicted men. The samples tested included blood from pillows, sheets and a comforter, hair and semen found on the victim.
"I'm glad DNA worked in this instance," said Chambers. "They've lost so many years of their lives."
Chambers and State Sen. Brad Ashford of Omaha, chairman of the Legislature's Judiciary Committee, said they doubted the two men would have any legal recourse against the state. Stratton, White's attorney, said he planned to research that issue.
Soucie said he planned to write a book on the case entitled "Four False Confessions."
"I know what families go through in seeking justice, but justice shouldn't involve perpetuating an injustice," he said in court.
The fourth false statement would be one his client, Winslow, gave that placed him at the crime scene. Soucie said that statement was coerced, while Bruning said it was an admission he was there.
Burdette Searcey, one of the original investigators; Dick Smith, the Gage County attorney at the time of the trial; and Don Luckeroth, the Beatrice police chief then, did not immediately return phone messages seeking comment.
Beatrice Police Chief Bruce Lang, who took office 16 years ago, said investigators back in 1989 did the best they could, with the science and information available at the time.
"I don't think anyone went after this with anything but noble intentions," Lang said. "We have a homicide investigation to do (now,) and we're going to do it."
World-Herald staff writer Martha Stoddard contributed to this report.
• Contact the writer: 402-473-9584, paul.hammel@owh.com