DNA evidence collected from the 1985 murder of Beatrice, Nebraska native Helen Wilson has now been conclusively matched to Bruce Allen Smith. Smith died of AIDS in his home state of Oklahoma in 1992. With him, also died at least one whopper of a secret, that six men and women had been wrongfully convicted of a brutal crime that he had committed. Now, DNA has uncovered the secret and will soon lead to six pardons for the wrongfully convicted men and women, some of whom were pressured, under threat of the death penalty to implicate other innocent co-defendants. All told, the DNA evidence here set a new record. Six exonerations will come from this evidence, breaking the old record of five set by the Central Park Jogger case. The six who will be pardoned include Thomas Winslow (confessed), Joseph White, Ada Joanna Taylor (confessed and pled guilty), Kathy Gonzalez (entered a no contest plea), Deb Shelden (confessed and pled guilty) and James Dean (confessed and pled guilty). While I hope that there is further study of this case, perhaps by an Innocence-type Commission or an independent agency, already the Attorney General and defense counsel seem to be focusing on two sources of blame here -- "outdated and highly coercive interrogation techniques, including the use of a psychiatrist hired by the police to tell the suspects that they had repressed memories of the crime" and evidence that the police spoonfed details of the crimes to the suspects to give their confessions a ring of credibility. The death penalty also may have corrrupted the search for truth here -- several defendants were threatened with it, including Taylor who was told that she would be the first woman to be executed by the State of Nebraska if she did not confess and cooperate.
