Legal Commentary

Six Convicted of Murder in Nebraska Exonerated By DNA Testing

By TChris

Six people convicted in 1985 of a Nebraska murder have been exonerated by DNA testing that implicates the man police originally viewed as a suspect. The day after the murder, Bruce Smith had scratches on his face. A blood test by the Oklahoma City crime lab seemed to rule out Smith as a suspect. The lab made a mistake. Recent DNA testing places Smith at the scene of the crime and rules out the six wrongly convicted defendants.

The Nebraska Attorney General doesn't want to accuse the police investigators of malice, but they clearly worked to shape the evidence to match their theory of the crime.

[S]ome "unorthodox" interrogation and prosecution interview tactics used on the six have since been discredited, such as helping witnesses construct testimony by showing them tapes of the crime scene, or interrupting videotaped interviews to help refresh a witness's memory.

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Two years after the crime lab cleared Smith, a private investigator named Bert Searcey brought the police an informant who claimed to have heard one of the wrongly convicted defendants discuss the murder.

The Gage County Sheriff's Office hired Searcey. His investigation led to the six arrests. Searcey, who still works for the Sheriff's Office, has declined all requests for interviews.

Nebraska's Attorney General's office deserves credit for releasing the significant files in the case to the public.

Full post as published by TalkLeft on November 13, 2008 (boomark / email).