Hargesheimer said she has had contact with Amnesty activists in Italy where the death penalty doesn't exist, and they were appalled that the United States kills its citizens. Sheets was sentenced to death for the 1992 racially motivated rape and murder of Omaha teenager, Kenyatta Bush. Lotter is on death row for the 1993 murders of Lisa Lambert, Philip DeVine and Teena Brandon near Humboldt. J. William Gallup, Sheets's attorney, said he did not understand the use of inmates for the advertisements. Steve King, director of planning for the State Department of Correctional Services, said he was not aware of the ad campaign when the inmates were interviewed and photographed.
Inmates have the constitutional right to have access to the media.
But King said if he would have known the intended use of the photographs, he would have been more cautious out of respect for the victims' families. After seeing the ads, an aunt of victim Kenyatta Bush called King and said she was concerned and that they bothered her, he said. It was not to my understanding that it was to be used in a campaign in this country having the overtones that it did. He was shown an example of photographs of scenes containing children and nuns and was lead to believe the project would be of a similar nature, not used to sell clothing, King said. He was told the project would be partially funded by a clothing company, Benetton.