State of Nebraska v. Darrel Parker

Lincoln, Nebraska defendant charged with murder of of his wife Nancy on December 14, 1955.



Parker was interrogated by John Reid, who engaged in a type of coercive interrogation to tended to produce false confession and Parker, in fact confessed according to Reid but immediately recanted.



The only evidence against Parker was the alleged confession.



On and for some time prior to December 14, 1955, the defendant with his wife, Nancy Parker, lived in a house at 3200 Sumner Street, Lincoln, Nebraska. Some time before 12 o'clock noon of December 14, 1955, Nancy Parker came to her death at that address. Her death was reported by the defendant a few minutes after 12 o'clock noon. She had apparently been struck in the face. When she was found cords were tied around her throat and her hands had been tied behind her back with cords. Handkerchiefs had been placed in her mouth. The immediate cause of death was strangulation.



The funeral was held in Des Moines, Iowa. The defendant attended the funeral and thereafter until December 21, 1955, remained in that city. On December 20, 1955, the county attorney of Lancaster County, Nebraska, called the defendant and asked him to return to Lincoln, Nebraska, to aid in the investigation of the death of Nancy Parker. He was asked to report to the headquarters of the Nebraska Safety Patrol. He reported as requested on December 21, 1955, at about 11:30 a. m. At about 11:45 a. m. he met one John E. Reid in a room at the Safety Patrol headquarters where he was interviewed by Reid. This interview lasted until about 2:45 p. m. Thereafter he remained at the headquarters until about 6:30 p. m. when he was again interviewed by Reid until about 8 *351 o'clock. At about 10:10 p. m. a court reporter came to the headquarters after which in response to questions asked by Reid, Parker admitted that he had killed Nancy Parker, his wife. The questions and answers were taken down in shorthand and transcribed by the reporter. The time of taking the questions and answers extended from about 10:10 p. m. to 10:57 p. m. The transcription was concluded about 12:30 a. m., December 22, 1955.



At about 11 p. m., December 21, 1955, the defendant confessed to the killing of his wife to Eugene Masters, a police officer of the city of Lincoln, and at 11:45 p. m. on that date he also confessed to Joseph T. Carroll, chief of police of the city of Lincoln. Neither of these was taken down in writing.



After the confession which was taken by the reporter was transcribed, the defendant, the reporter, Reid, and several others sat around a table and the transcription was read aloud by Reid. The defendant and others had been supplied with copies. After the reading and after corrections had been made by the defendant he signed it. He signed on each page of several copies.



All three of the confessions were admitted in evidence over objections of the defendant. The objection of importance made as to the written confession was that no proper and sufficient foundation had been laid for its admission in evidence. There were two substantial objections as to the other two. The first was that no proper and sufficient foundation, independent of the foundation for the written confession, had been made. The second was that the admissibility of these two was dependent upon the foundation for the written confession for which no proper and sufficient foundation had been laid, hence on that ground these were inadmissible.



The foundation which the defendant contends was absent was a sufficient showing that the confessions were within the meaning of the law voluntarily made.

Defendant was found guilty and was sentenced to on June 2, 1956 and was sentenced to life in prison.



He appealed but his conviction was affirmed May 17, 1957.



A general statement of the rule as to admissibility of confessions, and one from which no departure has been found in the decisions of this court, is the following: "In a criminal trial a confession of guilt alleged to have been made by the defendant is not competent in evidence, unless first shown to have been voluntarily made." Jones v. State, 97 Neb. 151, 149 N.W. 327. See, also, Tramp v. State, 104 Neb. 222, 176 N.W. 543; Bush v. State, 112 Neb. 384, 199 N.W. 792; Stagemeyer v. State, 133 Neb. 9, 273 N.W. 824; Schlegel v. State, 143 Neb. 497, 10 N.W.2d 264; Cramer v. State, 145 Neb. 88, 15 N.W.2d 323; Kitts v. State, 151 Neb. 679, 39 N.W.2d 283; Gallegos v. State, 152 Neb. 831, 43 N.W.2d 1, affirmed 342 U.S. 55, 72 S. Ct. 141, 96 L. Ed. 86.



Park filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus and the 8th Circuit found that his confession had been coerced and ordered that Parker be retried or release. The state appealed and the U.S. Supreme Court reversed and sent the case back to the trial court for a hearing on whether the confession was voluntary.



Parker was released on his own recognizance in December of 1969.





Parker was released on his own recognizance in December 1969. After the Supreme Court ruling, Parker agreed to waive the hearing, the confession was found to be voluntary and his conviction was reinstated.





Days later, the Nebraska Board of Pardons commuted his sentence to 25 to 45 years in prison. Parker was then paroled.



In 1975, Wesley Peery was convicted of murdering a woman in Havelock, Nebraska and was sentenced to death. While on death row, he told his lawyers about 13 murders he had committed—but refused to allow them to tell anyone about it until after he died.



Peery was a suspect in Nancy's death but was not charged.



Perry died in 1988, and his confession was used to obtain a full pardon for Parker.



Parker filed a claim for $500,000 under the Nebraska Wrongful Conviction and Imprisonment Act and he was eventually paid $500,000.



Parker died in February 2022 at at 90.