A ‘very sad, tragic life' ends

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.omaha.com/article/20110328/NEWS97/703299967#a-very-sad-tragic-life-ends

Published Monday March 28, 2011
A ‘very sad, tragic life' ends

By Sam Womack
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER


Photo: http://www.omaha.com/apps/pbcsi.dll/bilde?Site=OW&Date=20110328&Category=NEWS97&ArtNo=703299967&Ref=AR&maxw=600&maxh=400
Joseph White, who was wrongly convicted in the sexual assault and death of a Beatrice woman, was killed Sunday in Alabama at a coal processing plant. He is seen in October 2008, when he was released from prison after his conviction was overturned.
ALYSSA SCHUKAR/THE WORLD-HERALD

Finally freed from prison after serving nearly 20 years for a crime he didn't commit, Joseph White had a job, a fiancee and was owed almost $500,000 by the State of Nebraska.

Sunday, he was killed moving coal.

“You'd think he was in line for some better luck,” White's attorney, Robert Bartle of Lincoln, said Monday.

After being wrongly convicted in the 1985 rape-slaying of a Beatrice woman, White, 48, became the first man in Nebraska to have a murder conviction overturned through DNA evidence. He was released from prison in October 2008.

Alabama authorities said White was found crushed by heavy machinery at the coal processing plant where he worked in Tarrant, Ala.

“It's a very sad and tragic life,” Bartle said.

FULL story and more photos at link.

[Arugula Latte]

1. Damn.

Just damn. :(

[hlthe2b]

2. Damn.. he just couldn't catch a break...

Surely he's owed some "good karma" in the next realm, whatever that might be. How tragic.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

3. Safe passage to him...

That is just dreadful.

[janet118]

4. I think I found the problem . . .

"In the wake of his wrongful conviction, White won a $500,000 settlement with the state. He had received $25,000, and a bill to pay him the remaining $475,000 was pending in the Nebraska Legislature when he died. Also pending is a federal lawsuit against Gage County officials."

Would he have been doing such hard labor if he had gotten a timely settlement? I guess we'll never know.

[glinda]

5. Maybe now they don't have to pay out?

[senseandsensibility]

6. I hope his heirs get it.

Poor guy. What a tragedy.