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Judy White asks Reynolds to end her life sentence
by Joanne Salemink, reporter · News · July 16, 2020
The woman convicted of the 1979 murder of Ady Jensen in West Branch asked Governor Kim Reynolds to commute her life prison sentence.
Judy White and Robert Kern were both convicted of first-degree murder in the death of Jensen. White has now served 41 years of that term, longer than anyone else in the case and more time than indicated in a 1982 plea deal.
White and Kern were found guilty of conspiring with Jensen’s wife, Jeanne Jensen, to murder Ady Jensen and divide a $50,000 life insurance policy Kern sold to Jeanne Jensen before the murder.
According to West Branch Times archives, White struck a deal with former Cedar County Attorney Lee Beine in 1982 to commute her sentence if she testified against Andrew Ogelvie, the alleged hit man.
Ogelvie was acquitted by a Scott County jury in 1983.
Kern died of skin cancer in 2016 while in prison. He was denied commutation in 2001, 2002 and 2013.
Jeanne Jensen pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit a forcible felony in exchange for providing evidence. She served less than five years of a 10-year sentence.
According to a July 11, 2020, article in The Cedar Rapids Gazette, Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller endorsed White’s commutation. In a letter to the parole board which the Gazette acquired, Miller writes that White was the “least culpable” of Jensen’s murder, “but has received the harshest punishment.”
Miller lists the plea deal as a reason for White’s parole, noting that the Cedar County Attorney’s Office recommended White’s sentence be commuted to a term of 30 years, reports the Gazette.
Reynolds has until Aug. 25 to decide on the case.
White was previously denied commutation in 2005 by a vote of 4-1. Only a unanimous vote is considered a favorable recommendation for parole. White is currently being held at the Iowa Correctional Institution for Women in Des Moines.
Ady Jensen was 39 when he was fatally shot at his parents’ farm in West Branch. His parents, Ferdinand and Olga Jensen, were tied up and held hostage for 12 hours prior to the murder.
Judy White appears in a documentary called “Stacey Dooley: Locked in with Lifers,” about the Iowa Correctional Institution for Women in Des Moines.
Produced by the BBC, the documentary came out in April 2020.
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