Victims’ family members lobby
board to spare murderer’s life
REEVES from page 1
and be better for it”
Gus and his daughter Audrey
Lamm came to Lincoln this weekend to
lobby state officials to commute
Reeves’ sentence to life in prison.
They are motivated not only by per
sonal beliefs but by the knowledge that
both Victoria Lamm and Janet Mesner
would have opposed this execution.
“This whole thing (the execution) is
very profoundly disturbing,” said
Audrey Lamm, who was 2 years old the
night her mother and Janet Mesner
were killed in the Quaker meeting
house. “It sickens me to think that my
mother’s death would lead to another
loss of life.”
Friday morning the Lamms met
with two of the three members of the
Nebraska Board of Pardons, Attorney
General Don Stenbeig and Secretary of
State Scott Moore, to discuss the case
and the possibility of a pardons hearing.
The third board member, Gov. Ben
Nelson, declined to meet with them,
saying he would be out of office before
the board could hear the case. Gov.
elect Mike Johanns said he wanted to
meet with the Lamms but could not fit
them into his schedule on such short
notice. Johanns takes office Jan. 6, Just
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tion.
The Lamms said they were greeted
with a mixed reception when they met
with state officials - some more recep
tive than others.
Moore listened to the Lamms’ mes
sage and agreed they have a right to be
heard in a public forum, the Lamms
said. ^
But they could not seem to reach
Stenberg, they said. Both Gus and
Audrey Lamm described him as cold
and dispassionate in their meeting.
“He put up a stone wall the moment
we walked into the room,” Audrey
Lamm said. “He didn’t hear us as we
pleaded with him to look at Randy as an
individual.
“But we have to trust him with
everything we have. We have Id contin
ue to be optimistic.”
Reeves’ lawyer, Paula Hutchinson,
said that in the past Stenberg has been a
strong supporter of the death penalty
and victims’ rights.
But she was unsure how he would
act in this case where those two ideas
conflict
The Lamms and the parents of the
other victim, Ken and Mildred Mesner,
also met Friday with the parole board,
which is the information-gathering
body for the board of pardons. After
investigating the parole board can make
a recommendation to the board of par
dons.
Throughout the 18-year process
since the trial, the Lamms have
remained silent, choosing to focus on
building their own lives in their
Portland, Ore„ home. Meanwhile, the
Mesners, who live in a Quaker commu
nity in Central City, have been trying to
keep Reeves from death.
“What happened was a tragedy,”
Gus Lamm said. “If I had focused on
that event for the last 18 years, I think
that would make me a bitter, mean-spir
ited man.”
However, a few family members
feel different and have supported the
execution.
Victoria Lamm’s father, A1 Zessin,
has been a vocal supporter of execution
since Reeves was arrested. Her brother
Greg also wants Reeves executed.
On March 29, 1980, Reeves
stabbed and killed Janet Mesner and
Victoria Lamm at the Quaker meeting
house in Lincoln where Mesner lived as
the caretaker. Mesner and Reeves bad
been friends since childhood when they
were raised in the same Quaker com
munity.
Defense attorneys never disputed
that Reeves, now 48, killed the two
women; instead they argued he should
be convicted of second-degree murder
or manslaughter and that Reeves was
unaware of his actions at the time.
Reeves had been drinking since 9
Former governor, tribal members
rally for reversal of death penalty
By Josh Funk
Senior staff writer
The Omaha Tribe of Nebraska
does not know how to deal with the
planned execution of one of its own,
tribal leaders said at a rally Saturday.
About 80 people, including fam
ilies of the victims, attended a rally
at the Indian Center, 1100 Military
Road, to stop the execution of
Randolph Reeves, which is set for
Jan. 14.
“There has not been an execu
tion of an Omaha (tribal member) in
living memory,” said Jerre
Moreland, a member of the Omaha
Tribe. “On the reservation they don’t
know what to do with (the execu
tion).
“They don’t have a custom for
tkio ”
Reeves, also known as Randolph
Blackbird, was taken from his
Omaha family on the Winnebago
Reservation in northeast Nebraska
when he was 3 years old and was
later adopted by a white family.
He was raised in a Quaker com
munity near Central City, though his
American Indian mother never sur
rendered her parental rights.
Reeves was convicted of the
1980 murders of Janet Mesner and
Victoria Lamm, who were killed at a
Quaker meeting house in Lincoln.
Families of both victims spoke
out at the rally along with tribal lead
ers and former Gov. Frank Morrison.
Reeves told his lawyer Paula
Hutchinson on Saturday morning
that he was humbled and over
whelmed by the show of support.
Morrison said society has made
the death penalty a scapegoat for its
inability to handle its problems.
“The state’s motto is ‘equality
before the law’ - what a hypocrisy,”
«
What happened was
a tragedy. If I had
focused on that event
for the last 18 years,
I think that would
make me a bitter,
mean-spirited man.”
GusLamm
victim’s widower
a.m. on the day of the murders, and
witnesses testified that he was in a stu
por that night when he went to visit
Mesner.
In 1981 Reeves was convicted of
felony murder - prosecutors argued
the murders took place during the
commission or attempt to commit sex
ual assault - which meant they did not
have to prove intent.
In the years since conviction,
Reeves’ case has been examined by
several higher courts, including the
U.S. Supreme Court, but his sentence
remains death.
Hutchinson said the federal courts
refused to address some of the issues,
saying they were state questions, but
the state has never answered them
either.
Unless the pardons board heeds
the families’ pleas for mercy, Reeves
will be executed Jan. 14.
“The government is saying do
what we say, not what we do,” Audrey
Lamm said.
“Why kill people who kill people
to show that killing is wrong?”
Momsonsaid.
He said they would not be having
a rally if Reeves had been a rich
man.
Had Reeves been able to afford
psychiatrists and top-dollar lawyers
to testify at his trial, he wouldn’t
have been facing death, Morrison
said.
Supporters have rallied around
Reeves from both conventional aind
unconventional sources.
Amnesty International, Nebr
askans Against the Death Penalty
and other groups are lobbying to
have Reeves’ sentence commuted.
Family members of both victims
are against the death penalty, and the
case has garnered some national
attention.
SueZann Bosler, a woman who
fought for 12 years to have her
father’s killer sentenced to life in
prison, not death, arrived in Lincoln
on Saturday to offer support and
share her experiences with the fami
lies.
Both the Lamms and the
Mesners spoke at the rally in favor of
commuting Reeves sentence to
death.
The Lamms and the Mesners
have been lobbying the Nebraska
Board of Pardons, which is the last
otAn in tba tn boor tboir
pleas.
“I’m portrayed as a victim, but I
am not a victim,” said Gus Lamm,
Victoria’s widower, “and I will not
remain a victim.”
Hutchinson said there was no
mechanism for input from the vic
tims’ families at the trial, so now
they are trying to shed light on the
situation.
“The lights shine brightest when
it is darkest,” Lamm said. “That’s
what is happening here. That light is
going to shine on Randy.”
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