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Thread: Jeffrey Hessler - Nebraska Death Row

  1. #11
    Moderator Ryan's Avatar
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    July 2, 2016

    Nebraska high court to hear appeal of death row inmate

    SCOTTSBLUFF, Neb. — The Nebraska Supreme Court will hear arguments later this summer from a death row inmate seeking a new trial.

    The high court is set to hear on Sept. 2 the appeal of Jeffrey Hessler, on death row for raping and killing a teenage Gering newspaper carrier.

    Hessler is appealing a lower court judge's rejection of his post-conviction motion seeking a new trial for the rape of a second newspaper carrier. Hessler says the lower court should have found that his trial lawyer was ineffective and that he was too mentally ill to plead no contest in 2004 to raping the teenage newspaper carrier. He was sentenced to 30 to 42 years in that case.

    Hessler was also convicted in 2004 of kidnapping, raping and killing 15-year-old newspaper carrier Heather Guerrero in 2003 and sentenced to death.

    http://www.ketv.com/news/nebraska-hi...nmate/40329480

  2. #12
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    Inmate challenges state’s death penalty law, saying a jury, not judges, should decide his fate

    LINCOLN — A Nebraska death row inmate challenged the state’s death penalty law Wednesday based on a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling that struck down capital punishment in Florida.

    The motion for post-conviction relief argues that Nebraska unconstitutionally requires a three-judge panel to make the final sentencing decision in capital cases. The motion cites the Supreme Court opinion released this year in Hurst v. Florida, which said the U.S. Constitution requires juries to decide the critical elements of a death sentence.

    “The Nebraska statutes, which allow a panel of judges, not a jury, to make findings authorizing a death sentence, violates this central constitutional tenet repeated in Hurst,” Omaha lawyer Alan Stoler wrote in the motion.

    A similar legal challenge that relied on the Hurst ruling prompted the Delaware Supreme Court to strike down that state’s death penalty this month.

    Stoler filed the motion in Scotts Bluff County District Court on behalf of Jeffrey Hessler, convicted of the 2003 first-degree murder of 15-year-old Heather Guerrero of Gering. Hessler abducted the girl as she was delivering newspapers, then drove her to an abandoned farmhouse, where he raped her before shooting her in the head.

    The jury that convicted Hessler identified aggravating circumstances necessary to warrant a death sentence, said Suzanne Gage, spokeswoman for Attorney General Doug Peterson. Jurors who heard all of the evidence in the case determined that Hessler’s actions were “especially heinous, atrocious, cruel, or manifested exceptional depravity.”

    “The Attorney General’s Office will defend the motion, which we expect will be as unsuccessful as Hessler’s other two failed post-conviction cases,” she added.

    The new legal challenge comes as advocates on both sides of the death penalty ramp up efforts to sway Nebraska voters, who will be asked Nov. 8 to decide a referendum on the Legislature’s 2015 repeal of capital punishment.

    This week, death penalty backers released poll results indicating that a strong majority of Nebraskans support capital punishment. Meanwhile, opponents unveiled an economic analysis that says the state spends $14.6 million annually to maintain the death penalty.

    Hessler’s new challenge won’t be decided before voters go to the polls, so it most likely becomes moot if the repeal survives. But his case will proceed if voters keep the death penalty on the books, and Hessler will try to convince the Nebraska Supreme Court to strike down the law.

    In Hurst v. Florida, the U.S. Supreme Court negated a death penalty sentencing scheme that required juries to make a recommendation to the judge on sentencing. The final decision, however, rested with the judge.

    The Supreme Court said the Florida law violated the Sixth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which guarantees the right to a jury trial.

    Nebraska’s system is similar, but not identical, to Florida’s.

    In Nebraska, a second trial takes place after a defendant is convicted in a death penalty case. The same jury that decided guilt also decides whether aggravating factors exist to justify the defendant’s execution.

    If the jury finds that aggravating factors were present in the murder, a three-judge panel is convened to determine if they outweigh any mitigating factors in the defendant’s favor. The three judges also must determine if the death sentence is warranted and, if so, whether it is excessive or disproportionate to the penalty imposed in similar cases.

    After making the necessary determinations, the judges impose the sentence.

    “Those findings are elements of the crime of capital murder,” Stoler said in a legal brief. “As a result, these elements must be found by a unanimous jury, not a judge.”

    Hessler, 37, is one of 10 men on Nebraska’s death row. He was sentenced in 2005 and lost his appeal to the State Supreme Court two years later.

    He has filed two other post-conviction appeals, which were unsuccessful. His newest motion will be heard by District Judge Randall Lippstreu.

    http://www.omaha.com/news/crime/inma...dbb709215.html
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  3. #13
    Senior Member CnCP Legend Mike's Avatar
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    Nebraska Supreme Court rejects appeal of man on death row

    LINCOLN — Jeffrey Hessler lost an appeal Friday that claimed he should not have been allowed to plead no contest to a sexual assault charge later used to put him on death row in a separate murder case.

    Hessler, 38, has been sentenced to die for the Feb. 11, 2003, abduction, rape and murder of 15-year-old Heather Guerrero of Gering. At the same time that he confessed to Heather’s murder, Hessler also told authorities he had raped a second teenage girl, from Scottsbluff, six months earlier.

    One reason the confession to the first rape was significant was that it gave the prosecution an avenue to use the case to argue for an aggravating circumstance, an element necessary to secure a death sentence.

    Hessler’s defense team advised him to plead no contest to the earlier sexual assault before his murder trial. They planned to make a double jeopardy argument that they hoped would disqualify the earlier rape conviction as an aggravating circumstance.

    His trial lawyers told Hessler their theory was untested, but faced with confessions and DNA evidence that proved Hessler’s guilt, their strategy was to try to keep him off death row. Hessler also told his lawyers that he did not want to go to trial on the earlier rape charge.

    http://www.omaha.com/news/crime/nebr...837d11035.html
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  4. #14
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    Pending challenges of Nebraska's death penalty system could affect state's latest execution efforts

    By Joe Duggan
    The Omaha World-Herald

    LINCOLN — A legal issue looms over Nebraska’s death penalty that’s unrelated to the new and untried lethal drug combination state officials unveiled this week.

    Defense attorneys say pending challenges of a system that allows judges rather than juries to impose death sentences could impact whether the state ends its streak of 20 years without an execution.

    At least three of the 11 men on death row have challenged the state’s procedure, which gives three-judge panels the final say in capital cases. They argue that the U.S. Constitution requires the same jury that decides a defendant’s guilt to also decide his fate.

    Their argument has so far proved unsuccessful. A district court judge recently issued an opinion that utterly rejected any argument of constitutional flaws in Nebraska’s system. Attorneys for the inmates will now hope for favorable rulings in state and federal appellate courts.

    Nebraska prison officials announced Thursday they have obtained supplies of four drugs they say will allow them to carry out a lethal injection execution. Attorney General Doug Peterson said that after a 60-day notice period, he intends to seek a death warrant for Jose Sandoval, who led three gunmen who stormed a Norfolk bank in 2002 and shot down four bank employees and a customer.

    While attention immediately focused on the drugs, which have never been used in combination by another death penalty state, questions about Nebraska’s capital sentencing procedure remain unsettled.

    The three death-row inmates who have challenged Nebraska’s system are John Lotter, Marco Torres and Jeffrey Hessler.

    They rely on a 2016 case called Hurst v. Florida, in which the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a capital sentencing scheme that allowed judges to impose death sentences. The ruling in the Florida case prompted the Delaware Supreme Court to end the death penalty there because it relied on a similar system.

    Although Sandoval has not yet raised a similar challenge, the issue could potentially affect the state’s efforts to execute him, said Rebecca Woodman, a defense lawyer in Lenexa, Kansas, who represents Lotter.

    “Those cases could have an impact on Sandoval’s case for sure,” she said.

    But a Nebraska judge recently delivered a blow to Lotter’s effort to overturn the death penalty based on the Hurst decision. Saline County District Judge Vicky Johnson, who presided over Lotter’s motion in Richardson County, said Nebraska’s system is substantially different from the one struck down by the Supreme Court.

    In Florida, juries provided judges with advisory opinions about sentencing. The key factual determinations regarding punishment were left with the judge.

    In Nebraska, juries must decide — during a second penalty phase held right after the trial — whether aggravating factors against a convicted defendant exist. If juries find, beyond a reasonable doubt, that aggravating factors do exist, a three-judge panel considers any mitigating factors in favor of the defendant.

    If the aggravating factors outweigh mitigating factors, the judicial panel may then impose a death sentence.

    “This makes Nebraska’s sentencing process completely dissimilar from the sentencing scheme utilized in Hurst,” Johnson wrote in an order issued in late September.

    The judge went even further in support of Nebraska’s system. She said the Hurst decision may apply to death penalty cases still under direct appeal but not retroactively to convictions like Lotter’s and Sandoval’s, which were long ago affirmed by the Nebraska Supreme Court.

    Lotter also failed in an earlier attempt to raise the issue before a federal district court judge.

    Woodman declined to comment about the most recent ruling against her client. But Lotter has appealed to the Nebraska Supreme Court, which recently agreed to hear the case.

    Lotter, 46, has spent 22 years on death row for the 1993 triple homicide at a farmhouse near Humboldt, Nebraska. The case inspired the award-winning movie “Boys Don’t Cry.”

    Torres, 42, was sent to death row for the 2007 execution-style shootings of two Grand Island men. His challenge of Nebraska’s system is part of a habeas corpus motion filed last summer in U.S. District Court in Omaha.

    Hessler, 39, was sentenced to die for the rape and murder of a 15-year-old Gering girl in 2003. A check of court records showed no recent activity on his motion challenging the state’s sentencing scheme.

    http://www.omaha.com/news/crime/pend...637c113ec.html

  5. #15
    Administrator Helen's Avatar
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    Nebraska Supreme Court to consider appeal filed by convicted murderer, Jeff Hessler

    The Nebraska Supreme Court will consider the case of a man convicted in the rape and murder of a newspaper carrier.

    Jeffrey Hessler had been convicted in December 2004 in the Feb. 11, 2003, rape and murder of Heather Guerrero, 15. He had been convicted of 1st-degree murder, as well as the charges of kidnapping, 1st-degree sexual assault, and use of a firearm to commit a felony. He was convicted of abducting the girl within blocks of her Gering home to rape her and of killing the girl to cover up the crime.

    The man is currently sitting on death row.

    Hessler is seeking the court to overturn the sentence of death in the case. In June 2019, Scotts Bluff County District Court Judge Andrea Miller denied a motion from Hessler seeking post-conviction relief. In Hessler’s motion for post-conviction relief and subsequent appeal, Hessler takes issue with the method of sentencing in a death penalty case in Nebraska. Nebraska, a death penalty case has 3 phases: 1st, the trial, in which a jury determines guilt or innocence. Once a guilty ruling is determined, the case moves into a sentencing phase, where jurors decide if a case is eligible for the death penalty, weighing whether there are aggravating circumstances that exist. After the jury decides if the case is eligible for the death penalty, a three-judge panel makes the final determination, deciding if there are mitigating circumstances that make the case eligible for a sentence of life or imposing the death penalty.

    Hessler argues that Nebraska’s death penalty procedures violate his constitutional rights, arguing that a jury, rather than a panel of judges, should have determined the sentence. Nebraska had changed its procedures following a 2002 case Ring vs. Arizona, which determined that juries, not judges must find that the facts of the case support a death sentence.

    However, Hessler cites a case, Hurst v. Florida, a 2016 case in which the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that, in that case, a defendant, Timothy Hurst, had been convicted of murdering a coworker. He was sentenced to death, but the case had been appealed and the Florida Supreme Court ordered the man re-sentenced. A 2nd jury recommended a death sentence in 2012, however, a judge independently considered the evidence and sentenced Hurst again to the death penalty. The U.S. Supreme Court heard the case and ruled that Hurst’s Sixth Amendment rights had been violated. In the ruling, one Supreme Court judge found that Florida’s capital punishment system violated the Eighth Amendment, which applies to cruel and unusual punishment. Hessler cites Nebraska’s death penalty sentencing as a violation of his Eighth Amendment and 14th Amendment (due process) rights.

    In Miller’s ruling dismissing the case, the judge said the Nebraska Supreme Court has previously held that the Hurst case does not create a new legal rule and has denied post-conviction relief in similar cases, such as State vs. Lotter, and found that it would not have retroactive application to cases. The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the ruling. Hessler appealed Miller’s finding, filing in July also arguing that because Nebraska is the only state with the current death penalty sentencing procedure that it “violates evolving standards of decency under the Eighth Amendment.”

    The Nebraska Attorney General’s Office has contested the appeal, arguing that it is procedurally barred. Hessler raised the same constitutional claims in direct appeals and has now filed 3 post-conviction motions seeking to overturn the sentence, the state said in its brief.

    The Nebraska Supreme Court is currently scheduled to hear the appeal in Hessler’s case during its February call, slated for Feb. 6-7.

    (source: starherald.com)
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
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  6. #16
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    State Supreme Court rejects Jeffrey Hessler’s bid to have death sentence overturned

    By Maunette Loeks
    The Scottsbluff Star-Herald

    LINCOLN — The Nebraska Supreme Court has denied an appeal filed by man convicted in the 2003 rape and murder of a newspaper carrier.

    Jeffrey Hessler had been convicted in December 2004 in the Feb. 11, 2003, rape and murder of Heather Guerrero, 15. He had been convicted of first-degree murder, as well as the charges of kidnapping, first-degree sexual assault, and use of a firearm to commit a felony. He was convicted of abducting the girl within blocks of her Gering home to rape her and of killing the girl to cover up the crime.

    The man is currently sitting on death row.

    Hessler had sought post-conviction relief, seeking to have his sentence overturned. In June 2019, Scotts Bluff County District Court Judge Andrea Miller denied a motion from Hessler seeking post-conviction relief. The Nebraska Supreme Court affirmed Miller’s ruling in its own ruling, released Friday.

    In Hessler’s motion for post-conviction relief and subsequent appeal, Hessler argued the method of sentencing in a death penalty case in Nebraska is improper. He argued that Nebraska’s death penalty procedures violate his constitutional rights, arguing that a jury, rather than a panel of judges, should have determined the sentence. Nebraska had changed its procedures following a 2002 case Ring vs. Arizona, which determined that juries, not judges must find that the facts of the case support a death sentence. After a conviction, juries consider whether a case is eligible for the death penalty, then a three-judge panel makes the final determination. The panel decides if there are mitigating circumstances that make the case eligible for a sentence of life or imposing the death penalty.

    However, Hessler cited a case, Hurst v. Florida, a 2016 case in which the U.S. Supreme Court made a ruling in the case of defendant, Timothy Hurst, who had been convicted of murdering a coworker. He was sentenced to death, but the case had been appealed and the Florida Supreme Court ordered the man re-sentenced. A second jury recommended a death sentence in 2012, however, a judge independently considered the evidence and sentenced Hurst again to the death penalty. The U.S. Supreme Court heard the case and ruled that Hurst’s Sixth Amendment rights had been violated. In the ruling, one Supreme Court judge found that Florida’s capital punishment system violated the Eighth Amendment, which applies to cruel and unusual punishment. Hessler cites Nebraska’s death penalty sentencing as a violation of his Eighth Amendment and 14th Amendment (due process) rights.

    In Miller’s ruling dismissing the case, the judge said the Nebraska Supreme Court has previously held that the Hurst case does not create a new legal rule and has denied post-conviction relief in similar cases, such as State vs. Lotter, and found that it would not have retroactive application to cases. The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the ruling. Hessler appealed Miller’s finding, filing in July also arguing that because Nebraska is the only state with the current death penalty sentencing procedure that it “violates evolving standards of decency under the Eighth Amendment.”

    In its ruling, the Nebraska Supreme Court also pointed to its previous ruling in the case of death row inmate John Lotter’s case.

    https://www.starherald.com/news/loca...e1c7b0792.html
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

  7. #17
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    He might get some traction had he killed someone whose value to society was debatable. But he kidnapped, raped and murdered a 15 y/o girl. Whether a jury, a judge, or 12 of his own relatives deciding punishment, the only just punishment is death.

  8. #18
    Moderator Bobsicles's Avatar
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    Distributed for conference December 4, 2020.

    https://www.supremecourt.gov/search....c/20-5562.html
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  9. #19
    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    On December 7, 2020, the United States Supreme Court DENIED Hessler's petition for certiorari.

    Lower Ct: Supreme Court of Nebraska
    Case Numbers: (S-19-652)
    Decision Date: April 3, 2020

    https://www.supremecourt.gov/search....c/20-5562.html

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