USA - Nebraska. The State Board of Pardons voted 3-0 today to grant pardons to 5 people in 1985 murder

5 pardoned in 1985 murder. The State Board of Pardons voted 3-0 today to grant pardons to 5 people who had pleaded either guilty or no contest in connection with the Feb. 5, 1985 rape-murder of 68-year-old Helen Wilson. A 6th man found guilty by a jury in the homicide, Joseph White, was exonerated in October when prosecutors declined to seek a new trial after the verdict was nullified. A state prosecutor and a defense attorney testified today that testing of evidence found at the scene, using DNA technology not available in the 1980s, found no evidence that any of the 6 was at Wilson's apartment or involved in the slaying. The tests instead pointed to a nowdead man, Bruce Smith, as the killer. "They are 100 % innocent'' said Nebraska Attorney General Jon Bruning.'. "Justice has been served,'' said Gov. Dave Heineman, who sits on the Pardons Board with Bruning and Secretary of State John Gale. It is the largest group of people in the country to be freed by DNA tests. The investigation went cold in 1985 after Smith was cleared because of a mistake in a blood test. But in 1989, a Gage County deputy, Bert Searcey, came forward with confidential informants who linked some of the 6 to the brutal crime. Eventually, 6 people were arrested and charged in a case that carried the potential for the death penalty. Only one, White, continued to maintain his innocence and insisted on a jury trial. The others - James Dean, Kathy Gonzalez, Deb Shelden, Ada JoAnn Taylor and Thomas Winslow - eventually pleaded guilty or no contest to reduced charges of 2nd-degree murder or aiding and abetting 2nd-degree murder. White was found guilty of first-degree murder based on statements and testimony from the other 5. He was sentenced to life in prison in 1990. Today, Dean and Taylor said they falsely confessed to something they didn't do to escape the threat of the death penalty. Gonzalez and Winslow have previously said the same thing. According to the Innocence Project, which tracks such cases, there have been 227 post-conviction exonerations using DNA technology. Taylor, along with Winslow, 43, and White, 45, spent 19 years in the state prison system before they were released last fall. Gonzalez, 48, along with Dean and Shelden, 50, completed their sentences years ago.