In the revamping of the Confrontation Clause, one case that fell through the cracks was that of Jeremy Sheets in Nebraska. He was convicted of the murder of Kenyatta Bush on the declaration against penal interest of a participant in the crime, who then committed suicide before trial. Sheets' conviction and death sentence were reversed on appeal, and he walked.
Reversals have consequences. Todd Cooper reports for the Omaha World-Herald:
Reversals have consequences. Todd Cooper reports for the Omaha World-Herald:
The allegations were made 16 years apart.
The similarities are striking.
Both times, a minority teenage girl was confronted in a parking lot by a stranger who emerged from a silver car with a knife drawn.
Both times, Jeremy C. Sheets was eventually arrested.
Sheets, an Omaha native now living near Denver, is scheduled to appear in a Colorado court this month on a felony charge of menacing, stemming from allegations that he threatened to stab a teenage girl he didn't know and then waved a knife within inches of her face.
It's the most serious accusation that has been leveled against Sheets, 35, in the eight years since the Nebraska Supreme Court overturned his first-degree murder conviction and death sentence in the slaying of 17-year-old Kenyatta Bush, an honors student who was abducted outside Omaha North High School.
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