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U.S. NEWS Monday 13 august 2018

Nebraska inmate seeks new evidence in decades-old slayings

By MARGERY A. BECK tors typically needed qual- one-page brief that Ne-
Associated Press ity prints from all 10 fingers braska law doesn’t “create
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A to make a match. a postconviction remedy.”
man convicted of a 1988 The FBI has recently used Iowa attorney Thomas Fre-
double killing in western the technology to identify richs, who joined Boppre’s
Nebraska is seeking to re- human remains — some defense team about a
open the case by using that had remained a mys- year ago, said the ultimate
new technology to identify tery for more than three goal of the defense team
fingerprints left at the crime decades. is to exonerate Boppre.
scene, even as a new doc- Lawyers in the Boppre case He believes the evidence
umentary series nearing hope to use the technol- uncovered by attorneys
completion calls into ques- ogy to show that another and the documentary will
tion his guilt. man — John Yellowboy, a prove Boppre is innocent.
Jeff Boppre, who is serv- cousin of Condon’s who is Prosecutors remain uncon-
ing two life sentences, has serving a prison sentence vinced, noting that police
maintained for three de- in Colorado for unrelated found letters spelling out
cades that he was framed crimes — had been in the parts of Boppre’s name
for the killings of Richard house and is the likely killer. written in grease on the
Valdez and his pregnant Backing this claim are de- floor and on a door near
girlfriend, Sharon Condon, fense affidavits from at where Valdez’s body was
in a Scottsbluff home. The least eight people who found. Investigators said This photo provided by the Nebraska Department of Correctional
Nebraska judicial system were associated with Bop- Valdez wrote Boppre’s Services shows Jeff Boppre, who is serving two consecutive life
has upheld his 1989 convic- pre, Yellowboy and the name moments before sentences for the fatal 1988 shootings of two people in western
tion numerous times. victims. They include the dying.q Nebraska.
But a renewed effort by affidavit of a woman who Associated Press
Boppre’s lawyers — cou- said she hid under a bed
pled with a documentary in the home as the killings
reminiscent of the popular took place and that she
2015 Netflix series “Making believed Yellowboy was
a Murderer” that explored the killer. Another woman
a Wisconsin case — prom- says Yellowboy confessed
ise to bring fresh attention to her.
to Boppre’s conviction. Yellowboy is in prison in
Producer Douglas Thornton Canon City, Colorado, for
with Middle West Studios convictions of kidnapping,
said work began nearly a first-degree sexual assault
decade ago on what was and robbery.
intended to be a 90-minute Colorado prisons spokes-
documentary. It has bal- man Mark Fairbairn said
looned into a series of sev- prison policy would not al-
en to nine episodes set to low for Yellowboy to com-
wrap up late this year. The ment to a reporter. There is
piece is being licensed to a no attorney currently rep-
TV network, though Thorn- resenting Yellowboy.
ton wouldn’t say which Boppre’s lawyers contend
one. that the new fingerprint
The work was never intend- technology is akin to the
ed to prove Boppre’s inno- advent of DNA technol-
cence, Thornton said, but ogy.
it’s clear he believes Bop- A 2001 Nebraska law re-
pre has been wrongfully quires the state to test DNA
convicted. evidence in cases where
“The evidence does not — someone has already
and never will — line up to been convicted if it’s likely
Jeff Boppre,” he said. to produce evidence that
On Thursday, lawyers for someone else committed
Boppre, 55, and the Ne- the crime.
braska attorney general’s “Legally, constitutionally
office made arguments and ethically, the finger-
for and against analyzing prints should be analyzed,”
fingerprints found at the Boppre’s attorneys argue
crime scene — that did not in court documents. “The
match Boppre or the vic- real question in this regard
tims — using the new tech- is, why not? What harm is
nology. done by doing a routine
Latent fingerprint technol- check of the fingerprints,
ogy developed since Bop- the same as is done in liter-
pre’s 1989 trial can make ally hundreds of thousands
matches from low-quality of daily occurrences when
fingerprints or even a single an individual is arrested?”
finger. Previously, investiga- Prosecutors argued in a