Omaha Man Gains More Allies In Quest To Be Freed From Prison

From Nebraska Examiner:

By Paul Hammel

September 15, 2022

LINCOLN — An Omaha man seeking to gain his freedom from prison for a murder he maintains he didn’t commit has gained new allies — the girlfriend and son of the man Ernest Jackson was convicted of killing.

The son and girlfriend of Larry Perry have submitted letters in favor of Jackson’s release to the State Pardons Board. It’s the first time the family of the alleged murder victim have spoken out.

Jackson, who has spent 22 years behind bars, is seeking a hearing from the Pardons Board that could lead to his release. A hearing by the three-member board on his request is scheduled Monday at the State Capitol.

‘Greatest miscarriages of justice’

It is the latest twist in a case called “one of the greatest miscarriages of justice I’ve ever seen,” by Jackson’s attorney, Daniel Gutman of Omaha, on Thursday.

The son, Mike Hatcher, now 23 and living in Council Bluffs, said he holds two other men responsible for the slaying who admitted being at the 1999 gunfight in which his father was murdered.

Hatcher said after meeting and talking to Jackson, he considered him a “remarkable man” who deserves to have a second chance at life, and to be released from prison.

Release is ‘right thing to do’

“I am speaking up and asking for a commutation of Earnest’s sentence because it is the right thing to do,” Hatcher wrote in the letter to the Pardons Board.

Perry’s former girlfriend, Elizabeth Smith, said she didn’t know Jackson, but that another man, Shalamar Cooperrider, has admitted to shooting her former boyfriend, and he was acquitted by a jury because Cooperrider acted in self defense.

Another man at the North Omaha gunfight, Dante Chillous, was also acquitted due to Cooperrider’s confession.

Jackson, meanwhile, was tried in court before the other two men, and did not have the benefit of Cooperrider’s statements. Jackson, then 17, was found guilty of being an accessary to first-degree murder, despite his insistence that he wasn’t present at the shooting.

‘Treated unfairly’

The ex-girlfriend, in her letter to the Board of Pardons, said she now believes that Jackson was “treated unfairly” and was not responsible for the murder of Larry Perry.

“I did not understand how Earnest was convicted of shooting Larry, when the co-defendants tried after Earnest’s conviction were acquitted on self-defense grounds,” Smith wrote.

Gutman, Jackson’s attorney, said he believes his client is innocent, but even if he isn’t, there’s no such offense as “being an accessory to self-defense.”

The letters become part of the record to be considered Monday by the State Pardons Board, which consists of Gov. Pete Ricketts, Attorney General Doug Peterson and Secretary of State Bob Evnen.

A Change.org petition for Earnest Jackson supporting a pardon had garnered over 61,000 signatures as of earlier this month. Community activists have held several marches and rallies in support of Jackson, and State Sen. Justin Wayne of Omaha, an attorney, has sought legislation to lead to his release.

In a recent interview in the Nebraska Examiner, Jackson said that “the boy incarcerated in 2000, although unjustly, is not the man that I am today.”

Co-defendants both dead

He has unsuccessfully sought a new trial, and, when he was resentenced for his conviction because he was a minor, he received a sentence of 60-80 years in prison.

One problem that Jackson has faced in seeking a new trial or a reduction in his sentence is that both Cooperrider and Chillous were shot dead about a year after Jackson was convicted, so they can’t testify on his behalf.

The Pardons Board has been reluctant to grant requests for commutation for convicted murderers after doing so in 2013 for Laddie Dittrich. Shortly after Dittrich — reportedly a model prisoner — was released, he was arrested and convicted of sexual assault.

No further mistakes

Ricketts later said the board doesn’t want to make any further mistakes.

Still, Jackson, in the recent Examiner story, expressed optimism.

“I’m not someone who is coming out there to tear down anything in our community,” Jackson told reporter Jazari Kual.

“My thing I want them to understand about me is that I’m coming out with a heart filled with love, compassion, understanding, and resolve to want to help everyone.”

Nebraskans want accountability from their elected officials and government. They want to know whether their tax dollars are being well-spent, whether state agencies and local governments are responsive to the people and whether officials, programs and policies are working for the common good. The Nebraska Examiner is a nonprofit, independent news source committed to providing news, scoops and reports important to our state.