The Best Birthday Present Ever!

[BoSoxGal]

I have been following this case closely since I came to Montana and first heard of it; yesterday morning on my birthday I awoke to news of this on the radio:

Judge grants new trial to Barry Beach in 1979 murder

By MATT GOURAS Associated Press | Posted: Wednesday, November 23, 2011




HELENA - There is enough evidence of innocence to order a new trial for a man who has spent nearly 30 years in prison for murder - but not enough proof yet to set Barry Beach free, a judge has ruled.
The case has gripped the small northeastern Montana town of Poplar since 17-year-old Kim Nees was killed in 1979 on a festive summer night at a popular riverside spot for teenagers to party. And it's been the focus of a high-profile legal fight for years as Beach supporters advanced his cause of innocence.
On Wednesday, Beach and his backers got their first big breakthrough when a judge released a decision that finds they had found enough new evidence to warrant a new trial for Beach. The Montana Supreme Court, however, might yet have to decide if a new trial happens in a process that could take up to a year, said Beach attorney Peter Camiel.
"We are just thrilled," said Camiel, who had not yet had a chance to discuss the decision with Beach. "The whole team is just really excited."
District Judge Wayne Phillips last summer listened to hours of testimony from people who said a gang of jealous girls was really responsible for the crime. The witnesses included Steffanie Eagle Boy, a young girl at the time of the killing, who said she hid on a bluff and overheard the painful cries of the girls beating someone to death the night of the murder at the same location where Nees' body was found the next day.
"Of all the testimony at the evidentiary hearing, Ms. Eagle Boy's is seared on the Court's conscience," the judge wrote of his examination last summer of Eagle Boy's tearful testimony at the hearing. "Never has this Court experienced a witness who became even more emotional, even more believable during such court questioning. The Court can only say that she cried on a deeper level - she was reliving the nightmare."
Prosecutors dismissed the evidence pointing to a gang of girls as rumor that has existed since the original investigation and been built up over the years to a believable legend based upon retelling. The Associated Press last summer interviewed one of the women alleged to be one of the real attackers, Sissy Atkinson, and she adamantly denied any participation.
"Never, ever, would I do it," Atkinson said at the time.
Atkinson speculated that the women coming forward to now make the gang-of-girls allegation, which has been a big part of a high-profile case and the subject of many news stories over the years, are attention-seekers building on the case's local legend.
Atkinson, who was under subpoena at that summer hearing, was never called to testify by Beach's lawyers.
***
Beach was convicted in 1984 largely based on a confession he gave to Louisiana police when he was picked up in that state for suspicion of a different crime. The detectives learned that Montana authorities considered Beach a person of interest in the Nees killing, and obtained permission to interrogate Beach.
Beach's attorneys say the confession was coerced and contains the sort of errors that show it was fabricated by the police. The original audio recording of that confession was long ago destroyed, as was other potential evidence in the case.
The detectives testified several years ago at Beach's failed clemency hearing and argued that the confession was real, and Beach's guilt obvious. Prosecutors point out the detailed confession - where Beach describes getting angry at Nees for resisting his advances before killing her with a tire iron - withstood the rigors of the original trial and convinced a jury of Beach's guilt.
That transcribed confession, taken long ago in a Louisiana police station, again would likely form the basis of the state's case at a new trial. And that confession, along with other testimony from this past summer hearing that a man who could have been Beach was seen in a pickup that night with Nees and four other girls, prevented the judge from setting Beach free and vacating the charges against him.
"However, the totality of the evidence is clear and convincing enough to rule that Mr. Beach has certainly opened the actual innocence gateway sufficiently enough to walk through the miscarriage of justice exception toward a new trial," the judge wrote in a 30-page analysis of the case.
The judge's order, filed Wednesday, calls for a new trial in Beach's home of Roosevelt County, a place where locals and relatives still argue about the case.
Camiel, who has worked with a team that has spent years combing over possible evidence in the search to prove Beach's innocence, said the state's prosecution at a new trial will have to come down to the credibility of the confession. He pointed out Nees bloody clothes have long ago been lost, and other evidence just does not exist.
"Assuming this judge's order holds up in the Supreme Court, it is like starting out all over at trial," Camiel said, adding the judge's lengthy review of the witnesses from last summer is a huge help for Beach. "The judge went into a lot of detail into the credibility of our witnesses. And that is very, very important because this judge's finding of facts will be important when the Supreme Court reviews it. We are glad he took the time to get into that amount of detail."
Beach, who has a long list of backers who believe his innocence, is closer than ever to being released.
"After 28 years, it's a miracle to us," Beach's mother, Bobbie Clincher, told the Great Falls Tribune Tuesday night. "God answered our prayers and we are above thrilled. We have a long way to go, but at least we have a chance now for Barry to be released."

This is a hugely controversial case here, in no smal part because the prosecutor, Mark Racicot, went on to serve as Governor and still defends the conviction wholeheartedly. I am truly grateful that Judge Phillips had the courage to do the right thing in this case. I hope that Barry Beach will finally get justice, however belatedly.

[rubato]

Well Happy Birthday to you.

yrs,
rubato