LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — The second trial has begun in the lawsuit filed against Gage County by people wrongfully convicted in a 1985 rape and slaying.
In his opening statement Tuesday in a federal courtroom in Lincoln, defense attorney Jeff Patterson told jurors that “we’re here to right the wrong of the worst miscarriage of justice in Nebraska history.”
The six people — James Dean, Kathleen Gonzalez, Debra Shelden, Ada JoAnn Taylor, Thomas Winslow and Joseph White — were wrongly convicted in the killing of Helen Wilson in Beatrice and served a combined 77 years in prison before DNA testing cleared them in 2008.
The first trial last year ended in a mistrial.
Known as the Beatrice Six, they’ve argued that Gage County investigators labored to close the case despite contradictory evidence.