| 5 cleared of rape,murder by DNA | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Jan 27 2009, 01:13 AM (373 Views) | |
| Quasimodo | Jan 27 2009, 01:13 AM Post #1 |
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http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/E/EXONERATED_INMATES?SITE=FLTAM&SECTION=US Jan 26, 10:26 PM EST 5 pardoned after wrongful conviction in Neb. crime By ANNA JO BRATTON Associated Press Writer LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) -- 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. Investigators had described a gruesome crime 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. (snip) And the three men and three women convicted of the crime were innocent "not beyond a reasonable doubt, but beyond all doubt," he said. (snip) The five defendants who pleaded guilty said they were threatened with the death penalty and told that others had implicated them in the crime. They were 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 was confused by a psychiatrist who helped her "recover" what she came to believe were memories. O'Brien said Shelden and others may have been brainwashed. Shelden and Kathy Gonzalez, 48, completed their sentences in 1994. (snip) |
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| Baldo | Jan 27 2009, 03:10 AM Post #2 |
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Strange case? |
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| Quasimodo | Jan 27 2009, 07:42 AM Post #3 |
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This is the part that is frightening : "They were offered plea deals to confess." |
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| Bill Anderson | Jan 27 2009, 07:44 AM Post #4 |
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Do you remember the supposed "clear up the details" session that Duke University arranged with the Durham police? The players were going to go to the police station, meet with investigators, and give DNA samples, supposedly to wrap up the details before the case "went away." What would have happened would have been the cops would have distorted the comments or outright lied. (Durham cops lie? Say it ain't so, Joe!) Duke really had helped to set up these young men. Now, maybe it was simple negligence, or maybe Dean Sue, Brodhead and the others were naive, but nonetheless the university put those young men in terrible danger. Had those kids gone down to the station as originally planned, I can guarantee you that some of them would be in prison right now. And you see what happens when police decide to frame people; they are railroaded into prison and there is nothing they can do.
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