Harold ‘Wili’ Otey
1951-1994
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I learned of Harold Otey through Lou Jones’ website of photographs of condemned prisoners. This is an excellent site and you can poke around there for hours and learn about death row prisoners as people. As the death penalty activism page of this site shows, most of the people Mr. Jones photographed were poor, non-white men. When I contacted Mr. Jones about this project and asked him if he had photographed any inmates like Jefferson from A Lesson Before Dying he immediately suggested Harold “Wili” Otey.
Otey’s case, laid out here in primary documents parallels Jefferson’s: like Jefferson: “[W]ili otey was illiterate when he went into jail,” was educated in prison and “claimed his innocence up until they executed him.”1 Through the attached 
documents you can read his story in the newspapers, examine his correspondence with friends and read his published poetry and come to your own conclusions about the death penalty in his case.
This is from Final Exposure’s introduction:
Harold Lamont Otey was convicted of the rape & murder of 26 year old Jane McManus in her Omaha apartment. According to the state, Otey entered the apartment in the middle of the night & removed a stereo. When he reentered to remove other items, McManus awoke. Otey raped McManus, then stabbed & finally strangled her with a belt. Arrested six months later in Florida, Otey confessed to the crime but later recanted. At trial he was represented by an inexperienced attorney; the state was represented by the most experienced homicide prosecutor in Nebraska. Otey spent 17 years on death row. In 1994 his appeal for clemency was denied, & he was executed.
While Jefferson does not “claim his innocence” the novel makes clear his lack of moral if not legal, culpability. Reading Mr. Otey’s stories in the newspapers, poetry published while he was in jail (after he was educated) and correspondence we can see how one real man reacts to the circumstances that Jefferson faced. His actions and attitudes are markedly different. Reading his poetry, alternately angry and sad, you can see how the threat of death affects a man. There are a number of major differences that I want to mention here. Jefferson was tried and convicted in a day and executed a few months later. Mr. Otey was on death row for seventeen years. While the articles, correspondence and poetry make clear that he made the most of his time in prison, he did spend seventeen years in prison waiting to be killed by the state of Nebraska. Much like A Lesson Before Dying, this story ends sadly.
On 13 September 1994, at one minute past midnight, Harold 'Wili' Otey made history. He became the first man to be electrocuted in the state of Nebraska in 31 years. He maintained his innocence to the end. 2
Here are some selected Newspaper Stories 1-15 from Omaha, Nebraska covering Mr. Otey. Unlike Jefferson he was noticed in the wider community, recognized by others, and his life made a difference to those who didn’t know him.
Letters
Here are seven letters 6 of which are from Mr. Otey to Mr. Jones. They are powerful expressions humanity. As Lou Jones said to me in an email after having visited and photographed dozens of men and women on Death Row “being not guilty & executed is a tough order [because who can really know]”1 but guilty or innocent of murder one remains a human being. I find strong parallels between the eloquent Mr. Otey and the barely literate Jefferson. Read one or two letters and compare them to Jefferson’s diary. I am sure that you will find the same sorrow, anger and fear. I included Ms. Thompson’s letter as a marker to show how the death penalty affects people not involved in the case at all. This is the kind of activism that I think that all LaGuardia students should consider.
Letter from Harold Otey to Lou Jones 2/3/92
Letter from Harold Otey to Lou Jones 10/14/92
Letter from Harold Otey to Lou Jones 12/18/92
Letter from Harold Otey to Lou Jones 7/1/93
Letter from Harold Otey to Lou Jones 11/2/93
Letter from Harold Otey to Lori Savel 11/16/93
Letter from Mary Thompson to Lou Jones 11/22/96
Harold Otey’s poetry is quite good and also oscillates between the hope of living and the despair of dying. Occasionally he resorts to the rage that is associated with prisons and more specifically the condemned. However, most of the poems are expressions of life and living that transcend his conditions. Read one or two of Mr. Otey’s poems and think about the man who was. You may compare them to the heroism of Jefferson (and Grant) in A Lesson Before Dying, but you may find much more there, especially after you’ve read the final chapters of the novel.
Poetry Book And Me, I Am Like the Leaf
Poetry Book Singing for Mooncrumbs 1
Poetry Book Singing for Mooncrumbs 2
Here is the State of Nebraska’s final word on Otey
If any of this has moved you, you may consider “getting into action” using one of the sites on this page:
