Federal Appeals Court denies additional challenges by Boppre

The 8th Circuit Court of Appeals has denied a request by convicted murderer Jeff Boppre for continued post-conviction relief challenges in federal court. Scotts Bluff County Attorney Doug Warner says the ruling April 6th indicates the court will not consider any petitions that ask for additional appeal opportunities on the same issues without showing some merit.

Boppre is serving two life terms for the 1988 drug-related murders of 25 year old Richard Valdez and his pregnant girlfriend 19 year old Sharon Condon at Valdez' rural Scottsbluff home.

Boppre's attorneys have been denied at every level, including the Supreme Court, in their petitions for a new trial and post-conviction relief due to DNA they claim implicates John Yellow Boy, Sharon
Condon's cousin, who is currently in prison for sexual assault and robbery.

Warner has claimed and the courts have agreed that the DNA test results do not exonerate Boppre, and only show that John Yellow Boy, a friend of Valdez and a frequent visitor to his home, "was in the Valdez home at some point prior to the murder investigation," but provides nothing more than that in terms of evidence. The higher courts have also supported District Judge Randy Lippstreu's contention that the DNA test results failed to show the dying declarations in blood and grease at the Valdez entryway that suggested Boppre committed the murders were written by anyone other than Valdez.

The courts have also ruled the DNA test results failed to confirm that Condon's blood was on blue jeans seized from the residence of state's witness Kenard Wasmer or that Wasmer was even the one that wore the jeans most of the time. The defense had claimed DNA from the stain on the jeans could tie Wasmer to the killings.

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