A Scottsbluff man more than 30 years into consecutive life sentences for a pair of drug-related murders in 1988 has lost his latest appeal with the Nebraska Supreme Court.
Jeff Boppre had filed a motion in 2021 seeking a new trial based on what his legal team described as newly-discovered evidence, but Scotts Bluff County District Court Judge Andrea Miller dismissed it without holding an evidentiary hearing.
Miler ruled the 10 claims submitted were filled with evidence which didn’t fit within statutes as supportive of a new trial, speculative statements, and previously litigated claims.
Boppre appealed to the state Supreme Court, which yesterday sided with Judge Miller and said it found “no merit” to his claims.
In fact, the style of the motion for a new trial drew criticism from the High Court, which said it was “exceptionally challenging to identify what, specifically, Boppre asserts is the newly discovered evidence that supports his third motion for a new trial.”
The justices went on to write that “Boppre’s operative motion reads more like a true crime mystery than a concise legal motion. It is 153 pages long, includes more than 60 images and video links, and buries factual assertions within long historical narratives that are scattered with legal conclusions.”
That portion of the opinion also included what could be seen as a warning to all attorneys, with the Justices saying they are seeing similarly drafted motions with more regularity.
They wrote “It makes the trial court’s preliminary review process unnecessarily cumbersome and increases the risk that even a careful review of a novel-length motion might fail to identify a critical fact or supporting document.
Although the rules of civil pleading do not govern motions such as this, that does not mean that courts must tolerate motions for new trial that are not clear and succinct. It is not the court’s duty to scour the record in search of facts that might support a claim.”
Boppre was given two life sentences in 1989 for the murders the year before of Richard Valdez and Sharon Condon. The 19-year old Condon was pregnant at the time of her death.
Boprre has continued to insist over the years that he’s innocent and that the couple was killed either by one of the prosecution’s 2 star witnesses or by a cousin of Condon.