Latest news with #Nelms
Daily Record
3 days ago
- Business
- Daily Record
Steven Pressley played for Rangers and Celtic and that takes bottle but only one thing can quell Dundee fans' revolt
'Elvis' isn't even in the building yet and his appointment has left the Dundee fans all shook up. It is fair to say Steven Pressley 's appointment as head coach has gone down like a lead balloon on the dark blue side of Tayside. They were perhaps looking for a so-called name who could excite the Dark Blue faithful. Someone they could get behind after the sacking of Tony Docherty. Pressley went through the full interview process and managing director John Nelms believes that he is the right man. Nelms went on the club's YouTube channel to explain the reason why he believes Pressley is perfect to coach the Dundee first-team. Dundee have decided to move away from the traditional managerial set-up. They have reshaped their footballing department with a new technical manager in David Longwell and a head coach, with Gordon Strachan working as a technical director above them. It is clear that the recruitment will be moved away from the manager. Nelms made it clear that they want to keep the conveyor belt of homegrown talent flowing through from the academy that has brought the likes of Lyall Cameron, Fin Robertson and Josh Mulligan through in recent seasons. A key asset for the head coach is developing players, both young and more experienced. Dundee want to do that while also winning games and competing in the top half of the Premiership. Nelms explained how Pressley has spent the last few years developing young players for Premier League Brentford, so has all the skills from that role and he has previous managerial experience. So why has Pressley's appointment been met with such resistance? Is it because he hasn't managed for more than six years since he left Carlisle United? Is it because his managerial record prior to that had been somewhat indifferent after spells at Falkirk, Coventry City, Fleetwood and Pafos? Could it be the fact that he is an ex-Dundee United player? Certainly, Nelms' last appointment when he brought in ex-United player Jim McIntyre as their manager proved a massive own goal, on and off the park. Or is it the Strachan factor? Where it is maybe perceived that the technical director has brought in another one of his friends or colleagues he has previously worked with. The old pals' act. It didn't really work when Mark McGhee came in although it is fair to say Tony Docherty was successful in his first season. Whatever the reason or reasons, it has left Pressley behind the eight ball before he even gets started. He is ready to cut short his silver wedding anniversary to start work early. It is the love of the Dundee fans he now has to try and win over. The one thing Elvis has shown throughout his career that he has never been scared of a challenge. He has played first-team football for Rangers and then later in his career went on to play for Celtic. It takes a bit of bottle and steel to do that but he did it with some distinction. Even at Hearts, he was a massive influence and one of the few who, as a player, was willing to stand up to the madcap ways of former owner Vladimir Romanov. The former Scotland star is also a good communicator and has always been a leader throughout his footballing career. A lot of his former players have also come out in support of him, claiming he is also a very good coach, even guys like James Maddison have spoken highly of him in the past. Pressley now has to put all this together and into practice at Dundee. The bottom line is results. If he wins games then that is all that matters. It doesn't matter if he is Steven Pressley or Pep Guardiola. Results on the pitch are all that matter! If Dundee win games and are successful then it will be more 'Can't help falling in love' for the Dundee fans towards Pressley. If he doesn't then it will be a case of Elvis has left the Dens Park building.
The Courier
28-05-2025
- Sport
- The Courier
Dundee manager search latest as wait for new Dens boss explained
Dundee are hoping to unveil their new managerial appointment next week as the club's recruitment process for Tony Docherty's successor takes a leap forward. The Dark Blues sacked Docherty last Monday before welcoming applications and sifting through candidates. Talks have begun with those on managing director John Nelms's long list before that is whittled down to a short list and further interviews will take place. Nelms is meeting with potential managers across Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. The hope at Dens Park is there will be a new man to announce by the end of next week. However, it could well go beyond that. Dundee chief Nelms is determined to cover all the bases in the search for Docherty's replacement. There is precedent for this situation. Three of the past four years have now seen the Dark Blues recruit a new manager for the season ahead. The timescales of previous chases suggest there will still be some time before a new man is in place. Following relegation from the Premiership and the sacking of Mark McGhee on May 14, Gary Bowyer was appointed on June 8 – over three weeks later. Amid that saw talks with Shaun Maloney break down while former Blackburn manager Steve Kean was also among the final candidates in 2022. After winning the Championship, Bowyer was sacked on May 10. The search for his successor saw talks with Callum Davidson collapse before Tony Docherty became the new man at the helm. His appointment came on May 29, just less than three weeks after Bowyer's departure. Taking three weeks as the average time line for a Dundee manager recruitment process, that would see a new boss announced around June 9. The club hope the process can be completed before then. Shaun Maloney very quickly became the frontrunner for the job and remains very much in contention. The Dark Blues, though, insist there is no favoured candidate as Nelms meets with a number of potential managers over the coming days. The long list features at least 10 names, possibly more, and will be whittled down over the coming days. Showing interest in the job have been former Dundee midfielders Temuri Ketsbaia and Charlie Adam while ex-Dundee United boss Robbie Neilson revealed he is 'definitely' interested in the role. Ayr United boss Scott Brown and St Mirren manager Stephen Robinson also feature high in the bookmakers runners and riders.
Hamilton Spectator
20-05-2025
- Politics
- Hamilton Spectator
Kansas' parole board has reversed its decision to release a man convicted of a trooper's 1978 murder
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas' parole board has reversed its decision to release a man convicted of a state Highway Patrol trooper' 1978 murder after strong criticism prompted the governor to call on the board to reconsider. Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly on Tuesday applauded the Prisoner Review Board's reversal in Jimmie K. Nelms' case, and top Republican officials said they were relieved or grateful that criticism appeared to change the board's mind. The board is part of the Kansas Department of Corrections, which announced the reversal late Thursday but did not disclose the board's reasons. Nelms, now 78, formerly from Tulsa, Oklahoma, was sentenced to serve two life sentences for the aggravated kidnapping and murder of Trooper Conroy O'Brien following a traffic stop on the Kansas Turnpike about 55 miles (89 kilometers) northeast of Wichita. In Kansas, killing a law enforcement officer now can be punished by death, with life in prison without parole, the only other possible sentence in a capital case. But in 1978, Kansas had no death penalty and even though Nelms received two life sentences, he nevertheless was eligible for parole after 15 years under the more lenient criminal sentencing laws then. The Prisoner Reivew Board and its predecessors repeatedly denied his parole requests, most recently in 2021. 'It is hard to imagine why the parole board would have ever thought parole was appropriate for a cop killer serving two life sentences,' Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach, a Republican, said in a statement Tuesday. Kobach and Kansas Senate President Ty Masterson, also a Republican, said state lawmakers should consider overhauling the board. Its three members are veteran Department of Corrections employees appointed by the agency's top administrator, who reports to the governor. Before 2011, the governor appointed board members subject to Senate confirmation. That year, GOP Gov. Sam Brownback replaced that board with the Department of Corrections panel, seeing it as a cost-cutting move. Also, sentencing laws enacted in 1993 and afterward limited parole. 'Today, justice was reaffirmed, and we are grateful,' the Kansas State Troopers Association said in a statement. 'Tomorrow, we will begin working to make sure such a close call never happens again.' In some states, governors must sign off on an inmate's release. But under Kansas law, it had appeared unlikely that critics could override the parole board's decision. A state board's reversal of parole is uncommon but not unknown, said Wanda Bertram, a spokesperson for the Prison Policy Initiative, a Massachusetts-based nonprofit and research group that advocates for prisoners' rights. In Wisconsin in 2022, at Democratic Gov. Tony Evers' request, the state Parole Commission's chair reversed a decision to release a man who had been convicted of stabbing his wife. But Bruce Hedrick, executive director of Legal Services for Prisoners Inc., a Kansas nonprofit that assists inmates, called the reversal unfair. Bertram said longtime inmates often have done 'tremendous work' in changing themselves. 'Making parole release available to people in prison only to deny it based on someone's crime of conviction — which is the one thing they no longer have any control over — is a cruel practice that dangles false hope in front of incarcerated individuals,' she said. Nelms has served most of his sentence in maximum-security prisons but was transferred to a lower-security facility in 2023, where he works in the prison laundry. The parole board's decision to release Nelms came several weeks after a March 6 hearing but wasn't public until the trooper's association publicly criticized it May 8. Kelly's call for a reversal came the next day. A week after that, on Friday, the board had another hearing for Nelms, said David Thompson, a Department of Corrections spokesperson. Officials who said Nelms should remain in prison have called his crime cold-blooded. Authorities said that as O'Brien was writing a ticket, Nelms forced him out of his patrol car at gunpoint, took the trooper's own gun and shot him twice in the head, leaving his body in a ditch. O'Brien was 26 with a pregnant wife. Nelms was 31. 'It's still deeply concerning this error even happened and the reversal likely wouldn't have occurred if not for the massive public outcry,' Kansas House Speaker Dan Hawkins, a Republican, said in a statement.
Yahoo
20-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Kansas' parole board has reversed its decision to release a man convicted of a trooper's 1978 murder
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas' parole board has reversed its decision to release a man convicted of a state Highway Patrol trooper' 1978 murder after strong criticism prompted the governor to call on the board to reconsider. Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly on Tuesday applauded the Prisoner Review Board's reversal in Jimmie K. Nelms' case, and top Republican officials said they were relieved or grateful that criticism appeared to change the board's mind. The board is part of the Kansas Department of Corrections, which announced the reversal late Thursday but did not disclose the board's reasons. Nelms, now 78, formerly from Tulsa, Oklahoma, was sentenced to serve two life sentences for the aggravated kidnapping and murder of Trooper Conroy O'Brien following a traffic stop on the Kansas Turnpike about 55 miles (89 kilometers) northeast of Wichita. In Kansas, killing a law enforcement officer now can be punished by death, with life in prison without parole, the only other possible sentence in a capital case. But in 1978, Kansas had no death penalty and even though Nelms received two life sentences, he nevertheless was eligible for parole after 15 years under the more lenient criminal sentencing laws then. The Prisoner Reivew Board and its predecessors repeatedly denied his parole requests, most recently in 2021. 'It is hard to imagine why the parole board would have ever thought parole was appropriate for a cop killer serving two life sentences,' Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach, a Republican, said in a statement Tuesday. Kobach and Kansas Senate President Ty Masterson, also a Republican, said state lawmakers should consider overhauling the board. Its three members are veteran Department of Corrections employees appointed by the agency's top administrator, who reports to the governor. Before 2011, the governor appointed board members subject to Senate confirmation. That year, GOP Gov. Sam Brownback replaced that board with the Department of Corrections panel, seeing it as a cost-cutting move. Also, sentencing laws enacted in 1993 and afterward limited parole. 'Today, justice was reaffirmed, and we are grateful,' the Kansas State Troopers Association said in a statement. "Tomorrow, we will begin working to make sure such a close call never happens again.' In some states, governors must sign off on an inmate's release. But under Kansas law, it had appeared unlikely that critics could override the parole board's decision. A state board's reversal of parole is uncommon but not unknown, said Wanda Bertram, a spokesperson for the Prison Policy Initiative, a Massachusetts-based nonprofit and research group that advocates for prisoners' rights. In Wisconsin in 2022, at Democratic Gov. Tony Evers' request, the state Parole Commission's chair reversed a decision to release a man who had been convicted of stabbing his wife. But Bruce Hedrick, executive director of Legal Services for Prisoners Inc., a Kansas nonprofit that assists inmates, called the reversal unfair. Bertram said longtime inmates often have done 'tremendous work' in changing themselves. 'Making parole release available to people in prison only to deny it based on someone's crime of conviction — which is the one thing they no longer have any control over — is a cruel practice that dangles false hope in front of incarcerated individuals,' she said. Nelms has served most of his sentence in maximum-security prisons but was transferred to a lower-security facility in 2023, where he works in the prison laundry. The parole board's decision to release Nelms came several weeks after a March 6 hearing but wasn't public until the trooper's association publicly criticized it May 8. Kelly's call for a reversal came the next day. A week after that, on Friday, the board had another hearing for Nelms, said David Thompson, a Department of Corrections spokesperson. Officials who said Nelms should remain in prison have called his crime cold-blooded. Authorities said that as O'Brien was writing a ticket, Nelms forced him out of his patrol car at gunpoint, took the trooper's own gun and shot him twice in the head, leaving his body in a ditch. O'Brien was 26 with a pregnant wife. Nelms was 31. 'It's still deeply concerning this error even happened and the reversal likely wouldn't have occurred if not for the massive public outcry,' Kansas House Speaker Dan Hawkins, a Republican, said in a statement.
Hindustan Times
20-05-2025
- Politics
- Hindustan Times
Kansas' parole board has reversed its decision to release a man convicted of a trooper's 1978 murder
TOPEKA, Kan. — Kansas' parole board has reversed its decision to release a man convicted of a state Highway Patrol trooper' 1978 murder after strong criticism prompted the governor to call on the board to reconsider. Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly on Tuesday applauded the Prisoner Review Board's reversal in Jimmie K. Nelms' case, and top Republican officials said they were relieved or grateful that criticism appeared to change the board's mind. The board is part of the Kansas Department of Corrections, which announced the reversal late Thursday but did not disclose the board's reasons. Nelms, now 78, formerly from Tulsa, Oklahoma, was sentenced to serve two life sentences for the aggravated kidnapping and murder of Trooper Conroy O'Brien following a traffic stop on the Kansas Turnpike about 55 miles northeast of Wichita. In Kansas, killing a law enforcement officer now can be punished by death, with life in prison without parole, the only other possible sentence in a capital case. But in 1978, Kansas had no death penalty and even though Nelms received two life sentences, he nevertheless was eligible for parole after 15 years under the more lenient criminal sentencing laws then. The Prisoner Reivew Board and its predecessors repeatedly denied his parole requests, most recently in 2021. 'It is hard to imagine why the parole board would have ever thought parole was appropriate for a cop killer serving two life sentences,' Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach, a Republican, said in a statement Tuesday. Kobach and Kansas Senate President Ty Masterson, also a Republican, said state lawmakers should consider overhauling the board. Its three members are veteran Department of Corrections employees appointed by the agency's top administrator, who reports to the governor. Before 2011, the governor appointed board members subject to Senate confirmation. That year, GOP Gov. Sam Brownback replaced that board with the Department of Corrections panel, seeing it as a cost-cutting move. Also, sentencing laws enacted in 1993 and afterward limited parole. 'Today, justice was reaffirmed, and we are grateful,' the Kansas State Troopers Association said in a statement. "Tomorrow, we will begin working to make sure such a close call never happens again.' In some states, governors must sign off on an inmate's release. But under Kansas law, it had appeared unlikely that critics could override the parole board's decision. A state board's reversal of parole is uncommon but not unknown, said Wanda Bertram, a spokesperson for the Prison Policy Initiative, a Massachusetts-based nonprofit and research group that advocates for prisoners' rights. In Wisconsin in 2022, at Democratic Gov. Tony Evers' request, the state Parole Commission's chair reversed a decision to release a man who had been convicted of stabbing his wife. But Bruce Hedrick, executive director of Legal Services for Prisoners Inc., a Kansas nonprofit that assists inmates, called the reversal unfair. Bertram said longtime inmates often have done 'tremendous work' in changing themselves. 'Making parole release available to people in prison only to deny it based on someone's crime of conviction — which is the one thing they no longer have any control over — is a cruel practice that dangles false hope in front of incarcerated individuals,' she said. Nelms has served most of his sentence in maximum-security prisons but was transferred to a lower-security facility in 2023, where he works in the prison laundry. The parole board's decision to release Nelms came several weeks after a March 6 hearing but wasn't public until the trooper's association publicly criticized it May 8. Kelly's call for a reversal came the next day. A week after that, on Friday, the board had another hearing for Nelms, said David Thompson, a Department of Corrections spokesperson. Officials who said Nelms should remain in prison have called his crime cold-blooded. Authorities said that as O'Brien was writing a ticket, Nelms forced him out of his patrol car at gunpoint, took the trooper's own gun and shot him twice in the head, leaving his body in a ditch. O'Brien was 26 with a pregnant wife. Nelms was 31. 'It's still deeply concerning this error even happened and the reversal likely wouldn't have occurred if not for the massive public outcry,' Kansas House Speaker Dan Hawkins, a Republican, said in a statement.
