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| Nebraska death row inmate to be set free |
| By Reuters |
| Published: 05/17/2001 |
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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. |
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