[News] [NE, USA] Lotter asks U.S. Supreme Court to review caseLotter asks U.S. Supreme Court to review case
Stephanie Stevens
Lotter asks U.S. Supreme Court to review case
By LORI PILGER / Lincoln Journal Star | Posted: Thursday, February 2,
2012 7:00 pm
Nebraska death row inmate John Lotter has asked the U.S. Supreme Court
to review a lower court's ruling in his case.
Whether the country's highest court ultimately will agree to hear
arguments in the case isn't yet known.
But, by the statistics alone, it appears an uphill battle. The court
grants and hears arguments in only about 1 percent of the cases filed
each term, according to information on its website.
The Nebraska attorney general's office will get a chance to respond to
Lotter's filing yet this month.
The move is the latest legal step in a case that began with the 1993
triple murder of Teena Brandon, Lisa Lambert and Philip DeVine at a
rural Humboldt farmhouse. The killings inspired the 1999 film "Boys
Don't Cry."
Lotter has maintained his innocence, but he was convicted at trial
after co-defendant Thomas Nissen made a deal with prosecutors to avoid
the death penalty and testified that he stabbed Brandon but Lotter
fired the shots that killed all three.
In 2007, Nissen changed his story and said he, not Lotter, shot them.
Nissen is serving a life sentence.
Lotter appealed his conviction based on Nissen's recantation, but his
appeals were rejected by the Nebraska Supreme Court and later by the
U.S. District Court of Nebraska.
Lotter then went to the Eighth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, and in a
split decision a three-judge panel rejected his request on Aug. 23.
Lotter asked the panel to rehear the case or for the full Eighth
Circuit to reconsider the denial. That request was denied in October.
The next step was the U.S. Supreme Court.
In a letter filed Thursday, the Eighth Circuit informed the Nebraska
District Court of the U.S. Supreme Court filing in the case.
Lotter's attorney, Andy Barry, didn't return a call seeking comment.
Copyright 2012 JournalStar.com. All rights reserved.