Judge asked in Beatrice 6 case

A federal judge soon will be asked to reconsider his ruling that a lawsuit filed by a man convicted of a 1985 murder he didn’t commit can go forward against the men who built the case against him.

Joseph White sued former Gage County Sheriff Jerry DeWitt; Burdette Searcey, apart-time sheriff’s deputy and former private investigator; Wayne R. Price, a part-time deputy and psychologist; and Deputy (now Capt.) Gerald Lamkin after he was exonerated in Helen Wilson’s killing. White, now deceased, and five others sent to prison in the case were exonerated in 2008 after DNA testing was done on evidence preserved from the crime scene.

The tests identified another man, who since had died, as the killer.

Of the six convicted in the case, White was the only one to be convicted at trial, and the conviction was based largely on the testimony of co-defendants, most of whom now say they entered pleas to avoid the death penalty.

When White died in a workplace accident in Alabama in March, his estate continued with the suit.

Last week, U.S. Senior District Judge Warren Urbom refused the defendants’ request to dismiss the case, saying the record included evidence that the four “abused their power in a shocking fashion.”

Their attorney, Richard Boucher, has asked for a stay in the case, saying he is drafting a motion to reconsider.

If it’s not granted, he said, they will appeal to the Eighth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Earlier this month, another judge dismissed a similar case filed by Kathy Gonzalez, JoAnn Taylor, Thomas Winslow and James Dean, four of the others who entered pleas in Wilson’s death but since have been exonerated.

http://liarcatchers.com/crime_scene_investigator.html

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