By Patrick McCreless
The Cullman Times
HOLLY POND — Joseph White sat at small table in the Holly Pond Cafe, sipping on a cup of coffee. He wore a large black cowboy hat, which he received as a gift from his girlfriend — an old high school friend he had reconnected with 10 months ago.
White glanced at his watch. It was 5:36 p.m.
“Today (Thursday), just a little over four minutes from now, was when I walked out of the penitentiary a year ago ... things like that just stick with you for some reason,” White said with a smile.
A year ago, White, 47, who was born and raised in Cullman County, was set free due to DNA evidence testing after spending 19 and a half years in a Nebraska prison for murder. It was the first time a Nebraska murder conviction was overturned by DNA testing.
The testing confirmed what White had professed all along — that the blood and semen evidence found at the crime scene did not belong to him, but to an unknown male.
White was 26 years old when he was sentenced to prison on Feb. 16, 1990 in a Nebraska court for the Feb. 6, 1985 first degree felony murder of Helen Wilson.
According to court records, Wilson was killed after being brutally raped and robbed.
During White’s 1989 trial, several alleged participants in the crime — who made plea deals for lesser sentences in return for their testimony — said in court that White and another man, Thomas Winslow, had raped and killed Wilson.
White had always protested that the testimonies were all lies, which came from people threatened with the death penalty.
After spending nearly 20 years in prison, many might think it would take some time to adjust to normal life again, but White has taken it all in stride.
“The adjustment wasn’t that bad,” White said. “About the biggest thing was text messaging and the computer. I’ve been playing a little bit on Myspace and got my e-mail going.”
But for White, saying computers are a difficult adjustment is somewhat of an overstatement. A few months ago, White bought a personal computer from a local thrift store, which he soon realized was woefully obsolete.
“I decided to rebuild it, I put a motherboard in it, put a 500 gig hard drive in it,” White said. “Everybody talks like computers are complicated, but there ain’t nothing to it really. Stuff slides right in if you can find the parts ... you learn more by building.”
Prison took away White’s freedom, but it also took away his connection with his son. His son was born about a year before the conviction and White had never spoken to him in person, only over the phone.
During the past year, White has done his best to make up for that injustice.
“He’s 21 ... I got to celebrate that birthday with him,” White said. “I took him to a bar for the first time, he took his first drink of alcohol.”
In the time they have spent together, White has learned much about his son and was surprised at how much they are alike.
“I do see a lot of me in him,” White said. “He’s got a lot of my attitudes about things ... his morals and everything. And he looks just like me, when I was arrested.”
Unlike reconnecting with friends and family, work has proven to be more difficult for White. Since his release, White has worked various construction jobs for old friends.
“I’m experienced at that kind of work, but getting back into that after a 20-year hiatus is hard on a 47-year-old body,” White said.
He has tried to find other jobs, but with the current recession, White has been unsuccessful. And the pressure of finding work caused him to pick up his old smoking habit.
“It’s something I didn’t really think about doing,” White said as he tapped his cigarette over an ashtray. “My hands just wanted something to do.”
White said he quit smoking seven years ago and would probably quit again, but on his own time.
“People tell me you shouldn’t do that, but right now I want one and am going to smoke one,” he said. “I was told for 20 years what I could and couldn’t do.”
In between work, his girlfriend and his son, White said he enjoys spending time at the Holly Pond Cafe and other places, just meeting and talking to people.
“I hang out around areas and just people watch,” he said. “I’ll meet and talk and discuss anything; politics, religion, work, whatever comes up.”
A few months after being exonerated, White began taking legal steps against Nebraska to obtain restitution for the years he spent behind bars. So far, White has had some success.
“We just had a decision come down on the defense’s motion to dismiss ... the judge said most of the case had merit and it would proceed,” White said.
White currently has a tort claim with Nebraska for their $500,000 compensation law and a federal civil rights claim for an unspecified amount.
White is happy for his recent success in the courtroom, but is still not confident he will win in the end.
“I have learned that when dealing with the state and government, it’s a shot in the dark,” he said.
* Patrick McCreless can be reached by e-mail at patrickm@cullmantimes.com or by telephone at 734-2131 ext. 270.
