HBO’s original six-part documentary series, Mind Over Murder, revisits the 1985 rape and murder of Helen Wilson, a beloved 68-year-old grandmother in the small town of Beatrice, Nebraska. At the center of the complex story is a group of individuals known as the “Beatrice Six,” who eventually confessed to the crime, but in a bizarre turn of events, they were all exonerated by DNA evidence more than two decades later. In 2009, authorities revealed Helen Wilson’s killer to be Bruce Allen Smith, one of their 10 original suspects who officials wrongly cleared early in the investigation, raising questions about the reliability of confessions and memory in criminal cases. On the night Wilson was killed in February 1985, Smith had been drinking in a local bar before leaving for a party around midnight, per the Beatrice Daily Sun. After threatening to rape a fellow attendee at that event, he was thrown out and threatened to “get even,” according to testimony. At approximately 3:30 a.m. on Feb. 6, someone drove Smith back to Beatrice, and that’s when he’s believed to have entered Wilson’s apartment building to commit the alleged sexual assault and murder. Among the additional evidence that landed Smith on an early suspect list, a convenience store clerk reported seeing him covered in blood the next morning. Meanwhile, a wallet he was suspected of stealing was also found near the crime scene. Law enforcement traveled to Oklahoma — where Smith had returned to days after the murder — to retrieve DNA samples from him. The Oklahoma State Crime Lab tested his DNA, but due to limited resources at the time, the lab wrongly determined he was not a match to blood and semen found at the crime scene. (The Oklahoma lab’s analyst later faced accusations of falsifying evidence.) Based on a tip from a 17-year-old informant, investigators turned their attention to Joseph White, Thomas Winslow, Ada Taylor, Debra Shelden, James Dean, and Kathy Gonzalez, aka the “Beatrice Six.” Following a series of reported psychological manipulation and coerced confessions, White was found guilty of first-degree murder in late 1989, and the other five were convicted for aiding in the alleged crimes. Meanwhile, Smith died of AIDS in Oklahoma City in 1992, following several run-ins with the law, including a 1981 arrest for rape and a two-year stint in the Oklahoma State Penitentiary from 1987 to 1989 for burglary. He was 30 years old at the time of his death. Then, in 2008, law enforcement began reviewing Wilson’s homicide case, and within three months, they determined the Beatrice Six were innocent. Through their review of the evidence and new DNA testing, officials conclusively identified Smith as the person who raped and murdered Wilson in 1985. “I’m proud that because of [law enforcement] efforts we know the truth,” Nebraska Attorney General John Bruning said during a press conference, noting that Smith had acted alone. “Nobody has any doubt that this was the killer.” After collectively serving 77 years in prison for a crime they did not commit, the “Beatrice Six” was exonerated in 2009. The same year, White, who later died in a 2011 work-related accident, filed a civil rights lawsuit, and the group was ultimately awarded $28.1 million in damages. Although, as Wilson’s grandson makes plain in Mind Over Murder, even now, “not everybody believes the same story” of what really happened to his grandmother in 1985. The Beatrice Six are Joseph White, Thomas Winslow, Ada JoAnn Taylor, Debra Shelden, James Dean and Kathy Gonzalez, who were falsely found guilty in 1989 of the 1985 rape and murder of Helen Wilson in Beatrice, Nebraska and served prison terms before being exonerated in 2009. The conviction was won on five confessions which were obtained under threats that they would be given the death penalty if they did not. Additionally Dr. Reena Roy, the Nebraska State Patrol forensic scientist who performed blood and semen analysis, was never called to the stand to testify during the case, despite her analysis determining that none of the defendants on trial were a specific match to blood or semen found at the scene.[1][2][3] In 2008, DNA evidence implicated Bruce Allen Smith, an original prime suspect in the murder who had died in 1992, and all of the Beatrice Six were exonerated the following year.[4][5] Most of the defendants were persuaded by the police psychologist, Wayne Price, that they had repressed memories of the crime.[5] White, who maintained his innocence, demanded the examination of DNA evidence that led to their exoneration and then filed a Federal civil rights lawsuit against Gage County, Nebraska on behalf of all six defendants, which went to trial in January 2014; White had by then died in a workplace accident in 2011.[5][6] In July 2016, a jury awarded them $28 million,[7] The county's appeal reached the Supreme Court of the United States, which declined to hear the case on March 4, 2019. Gage County had to raise property taxes to the maximum amount permitted under the law in order to pay the jury award.[5] It is expected that the county will make payments twice a year after property taxes are collected. The Beatrice Six, including the heirs of White, received their first payment in June 2019.[8] An HBO Original six-part documentary series about the Beatrice Six, the murder, investigation, trial, exoneration, civil suits and aftermath titled Mind Over Murder was released in 2022, with the first episode airing on Monday, June 20.[9][10] See also[edit]
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Who killed helen wilson in beatrice nebraska
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