Harold Lamont "Walkin' Wili" Otey (August 1, 1951 – September 2, 1994) was convicted of the murder of Jane McManus. Despite recanting his guilty plea and maintaining his innocence for more than 15 years, Otey became the first person to be executed in Nebraska since 1976 when the death penalty was reinstated. He was executed in 1994 by the State of Nebraska

Nebraska

Nebraska is a state on the Great Plains of the Midwestern United States. The state's capital is Lincoln and its largest city is Omaha, on the Missouri River....

 by electrocution

Electric chair

Execution by electrocution, usually performed using an electric chair, is an execution method originating in the United States in which the condemned person is strapped to a specially built wooden chair and electrocuted through electrodes placed on the body...

, becoming the first person to die in Nebraska's electric chair since Charles Starkweather

Charles Starkweather

Charles Raymond Starkweather was an American teenaged spree killer who murdered eleven people in Nebraska and Wyoming during a two-month road trip with his 14-year-old girlfriend, Caril Ann Fugate. The couple was captured on January 29, 1958...

 was executed in 1959. Otey's final days were documented by the CBS

CBS

CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...

 News program 48 Hours

48 Hours (TV series)

48 Hours is a documentary and news program broadcast on the CBS television network since January 19, 1988. The program originally presented documentaries of various events related to a particular subject occurring within a 48-hour period, and is credited as one of the first to air a "reality show"...

 entitled "Death by Midnight".

See also

• List of individuals executed in Nebraska
• Capital punishment in the United States
  Capital punishment in the United States
  Capital punishment in the United States, in practice, applies only for aggravated murder and more rarely for felony murder. Capital punishment was a penalty at common law, for many felonies, and was enforced in all of the American colonies prior to the Declaration of Independence...
  
  

External links and sources

• Inmate Details: 31840—Harold Otey. Nebraska Department of Correctional Services. Retrieved on 2007-08-17.
• Execution Witnesses. Statewide Interactive story about people who witnessed Otey's execution.