Supreme Court declines to take up Nebraska county appeal of $28 million wrongful conviction ruling News
MarkThomas / Pixabay
Supreme Court declines to take up Nebraska county appeal of $28 million wrongful conviction ruling

The US Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear an appeal from Gage County, Nebraska, of a judgment ordering the county to pay $28 million to six people wrongfully convicted of a 1985 murder.

The rejection came following an affirmation by the US Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit in St. Louis, stating the amount was justified because of the egregious law enforcement conduct.

The six people were wrongfully convicted for the rape and murder of Helen Wilson and served over 75 years combined in prison until their exoneration via DNA evidence in 2008. Wilson’s death has since been linked to a former Nebraska resident who reportedly died in 1992.

THIS DAY @ LAW

Georgia became first US state to ban lynching

On December 20, 1893, Georgia became the first state in the Union to pass a law against lynching, making the act punishable by four years in prison. The statute was not particularly effective—read the text of the 1899 pamphlet Lynch Law in Georgia by anti-lynching activist Ida Wells-Barnett.