Man pardoned in 1955 killing of wife sues Neb.

By TIMBERLY ROSS

Associated Press, Jul. 23, 2011

OMAHA, Neb. -- A man convicted and later pardoned in the 1955 rape and killing of his wife in their Lincoln home has sued the state of Nebraska for wrongful conviction.

Darrel Parker, now 79 and living in Moline, Ill., is seeking $500,000 plus interest for the 13 years he spent in prison. He was pardoned in 1991.

Parker's lawsuit, filed Wednesday in Lancaster County District Court, said authorities coerced him into confessing he killed his 21-year-old wife, Nancy.

The Nebraska Attorney General's Office declined to comment on the lawsuit.

Parker, Lincoln's first forester, was 24 when he returned home to find his wife dead in their bed. Authorities said she'd been raped and strangled.

Hours after his wife's funeral in Iowa, Parker was summoned to Lincoln police headquarters and was subjected to a 12-hour polygraph test, according to the lawsuit.

Parker "at this time was emotionally distraught because of the death of his wife," the lawsuit said. "He was never advised of his right to remain silent, was never advised of his right for legal counsel and was placed under emotional pressure that no average person under the same circumstances would be expected to endure."

Parker confessed to the crime during the police interrogation but soon recanted. His lawsuit said the investigator who administered the polygraph test coerced him into the false confession.

Still, he was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison. In 1969, a federal appeals court overturned the conviction, saying the confession was forced, and Parker was released. The U.S. Supreme Court reversed that ruling a few months later and, according to the lawsuit, Parker was offered a deal by the county attorney that would allow him to remain free on parole if he'd drop his objections to the confession. He agreed.

Parker's attorney, Herb Friedman, said the alternative would have been for Parker to face additional court proceedings before judges who'd been involved in his case before their appointments to the bench.

"There's no real choice in that," said Friedman, though he acknowledged the issue will likely be raised as the lawsuit proceeds.

Parker was pardoned in 1991, after a confession from a death-row inmate was released. Wesley Peery was convicted of killing a Havelock woman in 1975 and told his attorneys of other crimes he committed. Details of those confessions were not released until after Peery died of a heart attack in 1988.

Parker had filed a claim earlier this year under a 2009 Nebraska law that compensates victims of wrongful conviction but he didn't get a response. That cleared the way for his lawsuit.

http://www.bnd.com/2011/07/23/1797092/man-pardoned-in-1955-killing-of.html