The state of Nebraska says six innocent people spent a combined 70 years in prison for the 1985 murder of Beatrice widow Helen Wilson.
All six of them had defense attorneys.
Legal experts who have reviewed the case say the defense attorneys did what they could, despite circumstances that included:
* Four years passed between the crime and arrests, blurring memories of the night Wilson was killed.
* Some suspects changed their stories substantially from one interview to the next.
* Two testified and gave statements based on dreams. A third said she was psychic.
* Three confessed to crimes the state says they did not commit.
* All six risked dying in Nebraska's electric chair if they did not plead to lesser charges.
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Toney Redman of Lincoln represented Joseph White, the only one who did not plead guilty. White lost at trial and spent nearly 20 years in prison, from Feb. 16, 1990, until Oct. 15, 2008, when a judge threw out the first-degree murder charge based on DNA test results.
"I was amazed, really surprised," Redman said of White's release.
The case against his client and the other five hinged almost entirely on incriminating statements made by three of the defendants. Redman attacked the credibility of the so-called eyewitnesses, but jurors believed claims that all six were involved.
In the end, Redman said, that did his client in.
"You win cases on facts or you win cases on emotion, and this case had no facts," he said. "(But) the jury, sitting through the details and imagining what the last moments of this woman's life were like … the jury was ready to convict."
A review of statements and testimony shows that when authorities told suspects and their lawyers they had incriminating evidence against them, the defendants - in consultation with their attorneys - pleaded guilty to charges to avoid the death penalty or long prison sentences.
"A lot of times, you've got a prosecutor saying, 'We've got this evidence and your guy is going down,'" said state Assistant Attorney General Corey O'Brien.
"And after awhile as a defense attorney you go, 'OK, my key objective is to keep my client off death row.'"
Police are allowed to tell suspects they have evidence that does not exist to test their reaction, O'Brien said.
"It's a technique, and you can go too far if you let that lie become part of the story," he said.
Jerry Soucie of the Nebraska Public Advocacy Commission said he is troubled that some defense attorneys showed their clients statements made by co-defendants. Comparing notes could have allowed the "witnesses" to get on the same page.
But so would taking the witnesses to Helen Wilson's former apartment, a strategy devised by the county attorney.
"I think there's plenty of blame to go around," Soucie said.
Reach Catharine Huddle at 473-7222 or chuddle@journalstar.com. Joe Duggan contributed to this story.
