A recent edi­to­r­i­al in The Journal Star (Lincoln, Nebraska) expressed the paper’s shock at how the death penal­ty dis­tort­ed a state crim­i­nal inves­ti­ga­tion to the extent that six inno­cent peo­ple were con­vict­ed of a mur­der they did not com­mit. Defendants were pres­sured to offer erro­neous tes­ti­mo­ny through the threat of fac­ing the death penal­ty. ​“The wrong­ful con­vic­tions show how the death penal­ty can dis­tort the search for jus­tice,” the edi­to­r­i­al stat­ed. ​“Investigators sup­plied sus­pects sug­ges­tions on what could have hap­pened. They showed pho­tos of the crime scene. Under pres­sure, sus­pects offered the sto­ries author­i­ties want­ed.” The pres­sure that was used against the sus­pects was the threat of the elec­tric chair. DNA test­ing lat­er cleared the six men. The actu­al killer, whose guilt was con­firmed by DNA tests, had already died in 1992. Unfortunately, that defen­dant had been cleared by a blood test con­duct­ed by foren­sic sci­en­tist who was lat­er exposed as pro­vid­ing false and mis­lead­ing evi­dence. Due to the preva­lence of human error in the sys­tem, the edi­to­r­i­al con­clud­ed, ​“The death penal­ty should be abolished.”


The full edi­to­r­i­al may be read below:

Death penal­ty dis­tort­ed Beatrice case 

“The exon­er­a­tion of six peo­ple who had been con­vict­ed for the mur­der of a Beatrice woman is a shock­ing exam­ple of the jus­tice sys­tem going awry.

The wrong­ful con­vic­tions show how the death penal­ty can dis­tort the search for justice.

The case bog­gles the mind.

How could the com­pli­cat­ed and detailed sce­nario pre­sent­ed in court tes­ti­mo­ny turn out to be complete fiction?

One rea­son is the police inter­ro­ga­tion meth­ods used at the time. Investigators sup­plied sus­pects sug­ges­tions on what could have hap­pened. They showed pho­tos of the crime scene. Under pres­sure, sus­pects offered the sto­ries authorities wanted.

And how was that pressure exerted?

By threat­en­ing the death penalty.

Four defen­dants were bul­lied into con­fes­sions when author­i­ties threat­ened them with the elec­tric chair, accord­ing to Attorney General Jon Bruning. Their tes­ti­mo­ny was used to con­vict Joseph Edgar White of first-degree mur­der. The oth­er five plead­ed guilty or no con­test to lesser charges.

Advances in DNA analy­sis now show the prosecution’s case was entirely fabricated.

In the first step, the DNA evi­dence showed no link between the defen­dants and the crime.

In the sec­ond, con­clu­sive step, the DNA evi­dence proved who had actu­al­ly com­mit­ted the crime in 1985.

That turned out to be Bruce Allen Smith, who died of AIDS in 1992 in Oklahoma City.

He had been a sus­pect ear­ly in the case, but author­i­ties turned their atten­tion else­where after he was appar­ent­ly cleared by a blood test done by Oklahoma foren­sic spe­cial­ist Joyce Gilchrist.

There’s now rea­son to sus­pect the accu­ra­cy of that blood test. Gilchrist was fired after alle­ga­tions of incom­pe­tence and untruth­ful­ness. A fed­er­al appeals court reversed a death sen­tence, find­ing that Gilchrist had pro­vid­ed evi­dence that she ​“knew was ren­dered false and mis­lead­ing by evi­dence with­held from the defense.”

The cir­cum­stances of the Beatrice case ought to shake the faith of the most hard­ened defend­er of the death penalty.

The death penal­ty was nev­er imposed in the case, but it played a role in send­ing six peo­ple to prison.

An error here, overzeal­ous­ness there, and before any­one can stop it, the defen­dants are behind bars, out of sight and out of mind.

For decades, no one ques­tioned the con­vic­tions. Then the case unrav­eled quick­ly and unequiv­o­cal­ly, expos­ing the imper­fec­tion and error that will for­ev­er impair any crim­i­nal jus­tice sys­tem oper­at­ed by humans.

The next time Nebraska law­mak­ers once again con­sid­er whether to retain the death penal­ty, they should study this case. The evi­dence is fresh and con­vinc­ing. The death penal­ty should be abolished.”

(The Journal Star, ​“Death Penalty Distorted Beatrice Case,” November 13, 2008). See Innocence and Editorial.

Tags
Citation Guide