Reuters Death Row Inmate to Be Set Free OMAHA, Neb. -- A 27-year-old Nebraska man who has spent four
years on death row will walk out of prison a free man after the U.S.
Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal of a state court decision throwing
out his conviction, attorneys involved in the case said Tuesday.
Jeremy Sheets, convicted in 1997 of the rape and murder of a
17-year-old girl, will be freed within a month, pending the filing of
final paperwork, said J. William Gallup, Sheets' attorney.
``He had always said he didn't do it.'' Gallup said. ``Even though it
took four years, he is glad to be alive.''
The U.S. Supreme Court said Monday it would not hear the state's appeal
of a Nebraska Supreme Court ruling last autumn that overturned Sheets'
conviction. The court ruled the key piece of evidence used to convict
Sheets, a tape recording made by an alleged accomplice, could not be used
as evidence because the accomplice committed suicide before trial and
could not be cross-examined.
Douglas County Attorney Jim Jansen agreed Sheets would be freed as soon
as the paperwork was in order, and said that he did not expect to retry
Sheets.
``The tape was the sole focus as identifying Sheets as the murderer,''
he said Tuesday.
But Jansen said he remained convinced of Sheets' guilt.
``We hear so much about innocent people being convicted. This is the
reverse of that,'' Jansen said. ``There isn't any doubt in too many
people's minds that this is the man responsible for this murder.''
The Nebraska case is one of many recent incidents in which individuals
sentenced to death have been freed based on new evidence or errors made at
trial. Death penalty opponents say the wave of death row inmates being
found wrongly convicted should cause states to do away with executions, or
at least impose moratoriums to study the matter.
Nebraska is one of 38 U.S. states that put criminals to death, and is
one of three states that use the electric chair as its sole means of
execution. The 35 other states with capital punishment use lethal
injection or let the inmate choose the method of execution.
The Sheets case began in 1992 when the body of high school honor
student Kenyatta Bush was found dumped in a wooded area north of Omaha.
For four years, the case went unsolved, until police arrested a man
named Adam Barnett, who admitted to participating in the crime and named
Sheets as an accomplice. Barnett's account was tape-recorded by
investigators, but he hanged himself in his cell before the case went to
trial.
Sheets' attorney argued the recording was inadmissible because Sheets
did not have the opportunity to confront his accuser. He persisted in that
argument, successfully getting the conviction overturned in October.
``I didn't want my client to die in the electric chair, that would be
on my shoulders,'' he said.
Gallup said Sheets, who was married at the time he was arrested but is
now divorced, will likely leave town and try to start fresh somewhere
else.
``He doesn't really have any plans. I've advised him he should leave
town and start new somewhere else. There will always be people who will
think he did it.''
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May 15, 2001
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