Latest / Wrongful Conviction / #322 Jason Flom with Barry Beach - Part 2

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#322 Jason Flom with Barry Beach - Part 2 · Wrongful Conviction

0:05
Speaker 1: On part one of our coverage of Barry Beach, a
0:07
Speaker 1: nonsensical false confession to a crime for which he had
0:11
Speaker 1: already been cleared as a suspect by the physical evidence
0:14
Speaker 1: sent him away for one hundred years without the possibility
0:18
Speaker 1: of parole. Now, Barry and investigator Richard Hepburn tell us
0:22
Speaker 1: about his journey to freedom.
0:27
Speaker 2: In lieu of the death penalty. I was sentenced to
0:30
Speaker 2: one hundred years dangerous with no parole, no furlough in
0:37
Speaker 2: the state of Montana, which meant that I would never
0:41
Speaker 2: ever see the outside of prison. I remember waking up
0:45
Speaker 2: one day and making a promise to myself that, no
0:49
Speaker 2: matter what it took, and I was going to make
0:51
Speaker 2: the very best of my life by the time I
0:54
Speaker 2: ended up in that cell. God had promised me on
0:57
Speaker 2: numerous occasions that he was going to form a miracle
1:00
Speaker 2: to set me free. So I wanted to live my
1:04
Speaker 2: life as normal as I possibly could. I started educating
1:09
Speaker 2: myself every chance I got. I took every course they
1:12
Speaker 2: had in prison. I signed up for correspondence courses. I
1:16
Speaker 2: became involved in every single prison self help group I
1:19
Speaker 2: could find, and more important than anything else, my entire
1:24
Speaker 2: life consisted around fighting my case. I taught myself how
1:30
Speaker 2: to do freedom of information acts. I started researching the law.
1:34
Speaker 2: I was constantly in the library. I was constantly talking
1:38
Speaker 2: to other inmates about the law, about habeas corpuses, about this,
1:43
Speaker 2: about that. And I actually spent seventeen years on my
1:47
Speaker 2: own piecing together documentation that proved my innocence.
1:53
Speaker 3: Somehow or other, your conviction was upheld in spite of
1:56
Speaker 3: your best efforts by the Montana Supreme Court on July
1:59
Speaker 3: twenty fifth, nineteen eighty five.
2:01
Speaker 2: Yes, the Montana Supreme Court ruled that the confession was
2:05
Speaker 2: voluntarily given and forensically accurate, and therefore they upheld the conviction.
2:11
Speaker 3: Amazing, forensically accurate. Literally, nothing you said was accurate other
2:17
Speaker 3: than that somebody died, right, somebody was murdered. It must
2:20
Speaker 3: have felt like some kind of cruel, sick joke. But
2:24
Speaker 3: you were not giving up. You're not going to quit.
2:26
Speaker 2: I had been shot down by every court in the
2:28
Speaker 2: United States of America at least once. I had not
2:31
Speaker 2: only been shot down by the Montana Supreme Court, but
2:34
Speaker 2: I appealed it to the Federal District Court, got shot down,
2:37
Speaker 2: appealed to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco,
2:41
Speaker 2: got shot down, took it to the United States Supreme Court,
2:45
Speaker 2: got dismissed, went all the way back to the Montana
2:48
Speaker 2: Supreme Court and started that process again, only to get
2:51
Speaker 2: shut down again. So at that point I had actually
2:54
Speaker 2: started filing executive clemency applications before the Montana Board of
2:58
Speaker 2: Pardons in parole. I think I filed two of those.
3:02
Speaker 2: But throughout all of that I wrote letters to anybody
3:06
Speaker 2: and everybody in the world that I could see on
3:10
Speaker 2: sixty minutes on forty eight hours on dateline. I became
3:13
Speaker 2: an absolute junkie of these programs simply because every time
3:19
Speaker 2: there was a story, they would interview the attorney, and
3:23
Speaker 2: I'd write those attorneys. There would be an investigative reporter,
3:27
Speaker 2: I'd write those reporters. And I had actually, on my
3:31
Speaker 2: own and through my own investigation and my own Freedom
3:34
Speaker 2: of information acts, developed a portfolio that I could mail
3:38
Speaker 2: out of the prison to people I was reaching out to.
3:42
Speaker 3: And one of the earth shattering discoveries you had made
3:45
Speaker 3: through the Freedom of Information Act, also known as a
3:47
Speaker 3: Foyer request, was an egregious Brady violation.
3:51
Speaker 2: So I'm going to back up a little bit to
3:53
Speaker 2: September nineteenth of nineteen seventy nine, three months after Kimneys
3:59
Speaker 2: was murdered, a girl gives a statement to the Roosevelt
4:03
Speaker 2: County Sheriff, a guy by the name of Don Carpenter.
4:07
Speaker 2: She claimed that she was at a movie theater with
4:09
Speaker 2: a really good friend of hers who was a classmate
4:12
Speaker 2: of ours in high school. This individual told her that
4:17
Speaker 2: he was at the crime scene when Kimneys was killed
4:20
Speaker 2: at this party, and that he saw certain females hold
4:25
Speaker 2: Kimneys down and beat her repeatedly with a hammer. He
4:30
Speaker 2: also claimed that that hammer was then thrown into the
4:34
Speaker 2: Poplar River and all the females dispersed in different directions.
4:38
Speaker 2: That statement led to the Roosevelt County Sheriff's Department sending
4:44
Speaker 2: divers into the Poplar River, who did, in fact find
4:48
Speaker 2: a claw hammer right where this witness said that it
4:52
Speaker 2: was going to be. They sent that hammer off and
4:55
Speaker 2: lo and behold. Law enforcement determines that is no the
5:01
Speaker 2: murder weapon. That statement by that girl gets brushed aside
5:05
Speaker 2: and hidden and was never disclosed until I started filing
5:10
Speaker 2: freedom of information acts and I was able to enclose
5:13
Speaker 2: it into my documentation proving that I was innocent.
5:17
Speaker 3: I'm not sure how the hell they could determine that
5:18
Speaker 3: a hammer was not the murder weapon, considering that the
5:21
Speaker 3: gouge marks in the truck's cab corroborate that it was
5:24
Speaker 3: likely a claw hammer. We already know what kind of
5:27
Speaker 3: bullshit they were ready to pull with that pubic hair,
5:30
Speaker 3: and I'm sure an independent lab would probably have some
5:32
Speaker 3: interesting findings. But again, I think the machinations of the
5:36
Speaker 3: law enforcement community will become clearer as we dig deeper. Now,
5:40
Speaker 3: this girl's name was Arii Bershey, and she was reiterating
5:44
Speaker 3: an alleged statement from a guy named Mike Longtree. So
5:47
Speaker 3: you were able to include this rating material in the
5:50
Speaker 3: package that you had developed to try to get some support.
5:53
Speaker 3: And one of the people you had reached out to
5:54
Speaker 3: was a professor at the University of Chicago, the author
5:57
Speaker 3: of the book Convicted but Innocent, a man named Sir
6:02
Speaker 3: Ronald Hoff, who agreed to help you by sending you
6:04
Speaker 3: two letters of recommendation to send along with your own
6:07
Speaker 3: letter to the producers of sixty Minutes and to Jim McCloskey,
6:11
Speaker 3: the legendary founder of Centurion Ministries, an innocent organization that
6:15
Speaker 3: is spoken of in reverend tones throughout the wrongful Conviction community.
6:20
Speaker 2: And at that time the letter I sent to Century
6:23
Speaker 2: Ministries ended up on the desk of an investigator for
6:27
Speaker 2: Century Ministries who was a volunteer, and he read that
6:30
Speaker 2: letter from Sir Ronald Hoff along with some other things,
6:33
Speaker 2: and he's the one who began to advocate on my behalf.
6:36
Speaker 2: And his name is Richard Hepburn. So Richard Hepburn began
6:40
Speaker 2: to advocate with Century Ministries that they take a look
6:43
Speaker 2: at my case. Fast forward to the year two thousand,
6:46
Speaker 2: and I had a lot of hope. So in October
6:49
Speaker 2: of two thousand, Century Ministries committed to fully reinvestigating my case.
6:55
Speaker 2: One of the very first things that Century Ministries discovered, though,
7:00
Speaker 2: is that all of the forensic evidence that had been
7:04
Speaker 2: gathered at the crime scene had disappeared and been lost
7:08
Speaker 2: at the end of my trial in nineteen eighty four.
7:11
Speaker 2: So when we started doing their investigation and thinking about DNA,
7:17
Speaker 2: which had now come in to play, there were no
7:20
Speaker 2: hair samples, no blood samples. There was a bloody towel
7:24
Speaker 2: found that night with hair from Kimnice on that bloody
7:29
Speaker 2: towel the hair from that towel had been lost, and
7:32
Speaker 2: it took us many, many years to even find the
7:35
Speaker 2: towel because it too had been lost, even though we
7:37
Speaker 2: later did find the towel and do DNA testing on
7:42
Speaker 2: some of the blood spatters there, which is not my
7:45
Speaker 2: blood or DNA. So in two thousand century ministries they
7:50
Speaker 2: assigned two investigators to my case. One was Paul Henderson
7:53
Speaker 2: out of Seattle, Washington, who was a Pulitzer Prize winning
7:57
Speaker 2: author for investigating wrongful convictions. And then also a guy
8:01
Speaker 2: by the name of Richard Hepburn out of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
8:06
Speaker 2: They began a very intense and in depth investigation into
8:11
Speaker 2: the death of Kimneys since your ministries went out and
8:16
Speaker 2: interviewed two hundred and eighty six people from Popper Montana
8:21
Speaker 2: who were out and about in Popper Montana the knight
8:25
Speaker 2: that Kimnice was killed. Not one single person saw me
8:29
Speaker 2: anywhere in Popper Montana on the night that Kimnice was killed.
8:34
Speaker 2: What they did discover from those two hundred and eighty
8:37
Speaker 2: six people is repeatedly some of these people had been
8:41
Speaker 2: told firsthand from different females who live in the popular area.
8:47
Speaker 2: To this day, that they in fact were responsible for
8:51
Speaker 2: the death of Kimneys, and that they got away with
8:55
Speaker 2: the perfect murder.
9:07
Speaker 4: My name was Richard Hepburn. I was for years a
9:11
Speaker 4: high school math teacher and coach. I read about censuryon
9:14
Speaker 4: ministries in a magazine article about nineteen ninety so when
9:19
Speaker 4: I retired ninety eight, I said, I'm going to go
9:21
Speaker 4: over there and volunteer. Well, most volunteers communicate with prisoners,
9:26
Speaker 4: they gather flows, they right back and forth. And I
9:30
Speaker 4: saw this case, this horrible crime, This seventeen year old
9:34
Speaker 4: kid sat one shed of evidence that he was even there.
9:38
Speaker 4: And I persuaded the boss, Jim McCluskey, to take the case,
9:41
Speaker 4: and he had a staff investigator in Seattle. But I said, Jim,
9:46
Speaker 4: I'd like to do this. You can you know what,
9:49
Speaker 4: You're an old high school teacher. I could do this. Well.
9:53
Speaker 4: He let me go out there, and before long, Paul
9:56
Speaker 4: moved on to other cases, and I was the lead investigator.
10:00
Speaker 4: So I talked to a lot of people, and everyone
10:03
Speaker 4: in that bloody town knew that those four or five
10:09
Speaker 4: girls jumped her and Barry.
10:11
Speaker 3: Didn't everyone right, And the prevailing knowledge was that this
10:16
Speaker 3: group of girls had lured Kimneys down to the River
10:19
Speaker 3: for a party where they planned to confront her about
10:21
Speaker 3: being romantically involved with the same guy as one of
10:25
Speaker 3: the girls in the group. Now, would you just go
10:29
Speaker 3: out to bars and talk to people.
10:31
Speaker 4: I didn't go there much after dark. You know, everyone
10:34
Speaker 4: knows what happens, and some people are willing to fight
10:37
Speaker 4: to keep a secret. So you know, I'm brave, but
10:42
Speaker 4: I'm not very tough. But anyhow, I was with Paul
10:45
Speaker 4: at first because I was a beginning of vestigater. You know,
10:47
Speaker 4: we saw Mike Longtree.
10:49
Speaker 3: Right, the alleged witness from the Brady violation. The statement
10:52
Speaker 3: from Ori Bershey.
10:53
Speaker 4: Ori Bershee said that Mike Longtree had told her that
10:58
Speaker 4: he had been there. He said he did do anything,
11:00
Speaker 4: but he was present. There was fr four cars, president,
11:04
Speaker 4: a lot of people president. But he would never We
11:07
Speaker 4: talked to him many many times and he always denied.
11:11
Speaker 3: I never said that, even though Oriber she wasn't the
11:14
Speaker 3: only one that he allegedly admitted this to. And in
11:17
Speaker 3: these alleged statements, the name Cissy Atkinson came up repeatedly,
11:21
Speaker 3: and Cissy's brother was the chief of police.
11:24
Speaker 4: Right, Bobby Atkinson was chief of police for the Poplar Police. Yes,
11:28
Speaker 4: but Bobby was pretty good. And when Sissy came in
11:31
Speaker 4: from Great Falls to visit, he told us when we
11:33
Speaker 4: came over and.
11:34
Speaker 3: Interviewed her, and how'd that go?
11:36
Speaker 4: What did you say, Cissy, there are people here who
11:39
Speaker 4: think you had something to do with that. Good, they'll
11:42
Speaker 4: leave me the fuck alone. Yeah, she was very defiant
11:46
Speaker 4: and then she walked out.
11:47
Speaker 3: Did you come across anyone else willing to name names
11:50
Speaker 3: and go on the record.
11:51
Speaker 4: No, they aren't going to do that out there. They're
11:55
Speaker 4: not going to say, boy, Sissy Atkinson did it, knowing
11:58
Speaker 4: full well that nothing's ever going to happen to Sissy.
12:02
Speaker 4: But if she gets in some trouble because of what
12:03
Speaker 4: I said, I'm going to end up in the river.
12:06
Speaker 4: You know, when we were out there, there was someone
12:08
Speaker 4: that had nothing to do with our case, but a
12:11
Speaker 4: person was found on the river with bruises all over
12:14
Speaker 4: the head. That was an accidental drowning. That's a depressing.
12:18
Speaker 3: Place, Yeah, sounds like it, But it seemed there were
12:21
Speaker 3: a few people who were courageous enough to talk. What
12:25
Speaker 3: about Carl Forstar, who had been a coworker of Sissy
12:28
Speaker 3: Atkinson's back in nineteen eighty four at the Tribal Industries plan.
12:31
Speaker 4: Oh, Carl Forister's a big witness. Yes, Carl Forster said,
12:35
Speaker 4: Sissy was across the room, you know, in another group.
12:37
Speaker 4: She said got away with the perfect murder. And she
12:41
Speaker 4: repeated a couple of times, and Carl heard her, and
12:45
Speaker 4: he came forth. And when we e didn't come forth,
12:48
Speaker 4: but I happened to be interviewing his mother, and he
12:52
Speaker 4: came up from the zellar and told me what Sissy
12:55
Speaker 4: said at the Tribal Industry's place. And he ended up
12:58
Speaker 4: as a witness. And then sists he Hadkinson's nephew, Denver
13:02
Speaker 4: Atkinson's kid beat him up at a Fourth of July
13:06
Speaker 4: parade in wolf Point, and he was afraid to come
13:08
Speaker 4: to the Lewiston hearing, but he came. The judge sent
13:13
Speaker 4: two cops to get him and bring them.
13:14
Speaker 3: So, yeah, the Lewiston hearings happened in twenty eleven where
13:18
Speaker 3: another witness also bravely came forward as a result of
13:21
Speaker 3: your investigation. She was just a little girl at the time, right,
13:24
Speaker 3: Steffie Eagleboy, How did you find her? During your initial investigation?
13:29
Speaker 4: We had a notice in the maybe it was the
13:32
Speaker 4: wolf Point Becausette with people for information called this number. Well,
13:37
Speaker 4: she called Peter Camille, a lawyer, and it was his number,
13:41
Speaker 4: crying that she had some information. Sefie Eagle Boy. She
13:46
Speaker 4: was a young girl, like eight or ten at the time.
13:49
Speaker 4: I forget these kids. Their parents would all go to
13:52
Speaker 4: the bar on Friday and Saturday night and they sit
13:55
Speaker 4: out on the hill. Well, she was there and heard
13:59
Speaker 4: the scream of Kimberly.
14:02
Speaker 3: Not only screaming, but she also saw and our audience
14:05
Speaker 3: will remember this name, she saw Stevie Greyhawk's police cruiser
14:08
Speaker 3: approach the scene. Around that time.
14:10
Speaker 4: He drove down without his lights on a court to Stephiehiggleboy.
14:15
Speaker 4: I talked to him several times and nothing happened that
14:19
Speaker 4: night that he's aware of.
14:20
Speaker 3: He wasn't aware of.
14:21
Speaker 4: He didn't go down there, he didn't show the word
14:23
Speaker 4: was he shined his light down. He pulled over and
14:26
Speaker 4: shined his light down, then drove down and came back.
14:30
Speaker 4: And I think, you know, he's a policeman. He's either
14:33
Speaker 4: got to do something about it or get the hell
14:35
Speaker 4: out of there. So he got out of there. But
14:38
Speaker 4: he would never own to that.
14:40
Speaker 3: Now, the last name Greyhawk came up in other contacts
14:43
Speaker 3: in your investigation because he had a daughter about Kim
14:46
Speaker 3: Nyese's age. Did you ask him about her?
14:49
Speaker 4: You know, Steve Greyhawk just wouldn't hear of Maud being
14:54
Speaker 4: involved in anything.
14:55
Speaker 3: So so the same guy that found nothing to report
14:58
Speaker 3: from the scene around two, even though ten year old
15:01
Speaker 3: Steffie Eagle Boy could hear female voices screaming, not only
15:06
Speaker 3: of Kim Knee's her voice, but she also later testified
15:09
Speaker 3: that she heard the other girl screaming, get the bitch
15:12
Speaker 3: and kill the bitch. Steve Greyhawk turned around with nothing
15:16
Speaker 3: to report and just wouldn't hear of Maud being involved
15:19
Speaker 3: in anything. The same guy who broke down the evidence
15:22
Speaker 3: room door the following night to allegedly go to the bathroom.
15:26
Speaker 3: I have to laugh because it's so ridiculous, thus breaking
15:30
Speaker 3: the chain of custody and contaminating the crime scene evidence.
15:34
Speaker 3: He just hadn't seen what Steffie Eagleboy heard.
15:39
Speaker 4: My impression is if he was there, he lied. He
15:43
Speaker 4: lied through his scene.
15:45
Speaker 3: A lot of people were willing to do a lot
15:47
Speaker 3: of things to keep this secret. You know, when Maud
15:50
Speaker 3: Greyhawk was getting a divorce from her ex husband, Dana Kern.
15:53
Speaker 3: Her boyfriend Tracy McGowan, stabbed the ex husband to death
15:57
Speaker 3: on the eve of a heated custody hearing. And the
15:59
Speaker 3: speck is that the ex husband had admitted to others
16:03
Speaker 3: that Maud had confessed to him in the past and
16:05
Speaker 3: was poised to air that dirty laundry at the custody hearing.
16:09
Speaker 3: Now that's just speculation, but it is just also another
16:13
Speaker 3: finger pointed at Maud Greyhawk. So during your investigation, it
16:18
Speaker 3: might have gotten back to Maud that you were on
16:21
Speaker 3: to her, and you found that out through her sister
16:23
Speaker 3: in law, Judy Greyhawk.
16:25
Speaker 4: Maud called her when I cried because she told we
16:28
Speaker 4: were on dor and she said, you know, I didn't
16:31
Speaker 4: kill that girl. I might have kicked her once or twice,
16:34
Speaker 4: but I didn't kill that girl. I went to see
16:37
Speaker 4: Judy and she admitted that Maud said that, but she
16:41
Speaker 4: was married to Maud's brother. She was afraid to come forward.
16:45
Speaker 4: So I read up a statement exactly what she told me,
16:48
Speaker 4: and she wouldn't sign it, obviously, so I said, you know,
16:52
Speaker 4: stick it in the drawer somewhere you might change your mind. Well,
16:56
Speaker 4: very near the time we had the hearing for the Proboard.
17:00
Speaker 4: She called man says she's willing to appear how shocked.
17:18
Speaker 3: We'll be right back after this.
17:20
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17:56
Speaker 2: So we took some of those statements in some of
17:58
Speaker 2: those interviews, and the first thing that Centurion Ministries did
18:02
Speaker 2: with these facts that we uncovered is we actually filed
18:06
Speaker 2: an application before the Montana Board of Partners and prol
18:10
Speaker 2: for an executive clemency hearing. We were granted a full
18:14
Speaker 2: three day hearing before the Proboard to present all of
18:18
Speaker 2: these witnesses that we had uncovered. At the start of
18:22
Speaker 2: that hearing, before the pro Board, I had already started
18:25
Speaker 2: to generate just a little small amount of media coverage
18:29
Speaker 2: into this hearing, so there were several reporters there and
18:32
Speaker 2: Centurion Ministries brought forth all the witnesses, stating that certain
18:37
Speaker 2: females had confessed to numerous numerous people that they in
18:42
Speaker 2: fact committed the murder of Kimney's. We also brought doctor
18:46
Speaker 2: Richard Leo, who is the nation leading expert in false
18:51
Speaker 2: confessions and how they happened. He did a full interview
18:54
Speaker 2: with me and a full review of the confession in
18:57
Speaker 2: the facts of the case, and came to the conclusion
19:00
Speaker 2: that absolutely the confession was false, inaccurate, and unsupported by
19:06
Speaker 2: the physical evidence of the crime scene.
19:08
Speaker 3: So the coverage of this two thousand and seven clemency
19:10
Speaker 3: hearing was really powerful. In fact, one journalism student named
19:15
Speaker 3: Jesse McQuillan did such a great job that he garnered
19:18
Speaker 3: the attention of Montana State Senator Dan Weinberg, and the
19:21
Speaker 3: two of them joined forces to begin we to found
19:25
Speaker 3: the Montana Innocence Project all because of you and your case. Wow.
19:30
Speaker 3: But what did the board ultimately decide?
19:33
Speaker 2: The pro board went on to determine that none of
19:36
Speaker 2: the witnesses brought forth by Century Ministries had any credibility
19:40
Speaker 2: in light of the confession, and that the confession alone
19:45
Speaker 2: stood as forensic evidence to maintain my conviction, and they
19:49
Speaker 2: denied me any type of clemency.
19:52
Speaker 3: Again, I don't know what confession they're referring to. You
19:55
Speaker 3: just had doctor Leo in there ripping it apart. Not
19:58
Speaker 3: that you even need a giant in the field like
20:01
Speaker 3: him to see through their bullshit. But now the media
20:06
Speaker 3: attention had people starting to get pissed off. I understand.
20:10
Speaker 3: Your supporters formed an advocacy group called Montana's for Justice,
20:13
Speaker 3: and then more groups began to form across the state,
20:17
Speaker 3: all to spread the word about your case, and they did. Meanwhile,
20:21
Speaker 3: Centurion Ministries filed a post conviction relief motion on your
20:25
Speaker 3: behalf in two thousand and eight, including everything from the
20:28
Speaker 3: clemency hearing, but this time they could include the Brady
20:31
Speaker 3: violation about or Burshey, Mike Longtree and finding the clawhammer
20:35
Speaker 3: in the river. And somehow after that and hearing STEFFI
20:39
Speaker 3: Eagleboy courageously testify a Roosevelt County judge somehow saw fit
20:46
Speaker 3: to deny this as well, saying, quote, the prosecutor's brief
20:51
Speaker 3: shows the prosecution has thoroughly reviewed the evidence. Had this
20:55
Speaker 3: shown that Beach was truly innocent, the prosecutor would be
21:00
Speaker 3: morally and ethically bound to see that justice was done
21:04
Speaker 3: end quote. So the judge just exclusively relied on his
21:09
Speaker 3: belief that if you, Barry, were innocent, the state of Montana,
21:14
Speaker 3: who went to these extraordinary lengths to frame you in
21:17
Speaker 3: the first place, would have somehow grown magically grown a
21:21
Speaker 3: conscience and righted that wrong. It's it's unbelievable, but unfortunately true.
21:29
Speaker 3: So they appealed the decision to the Montana Supreme Court,
21:33
Speaker 3: who overturned that decision and granted Barry an evidentiary hearing
21:36
Speaker 3: in August of twenty eleven in front of a district
21:39
Speaker 3: court judge. Meanwhile, your grassroots organizations were getting the word
21:43
Speaker 3: out there and more witnesses were coming forward.
21:46
Speaker 2: And in twenty eleven we actually had an evidence you
21:49
Speaker 2: hearing before Judge E. Wayne Phillips of Fergus County because
21:54
Speaker 2: they also moved the case out of Roosevelt County and
21:58
Speaker 2: had that district judge recusing himself. Centuriyon Ministries brought forth
22:02
Speaker 2: twenty two witnesses at that time. But by that time
22:07
Speaker 2: Dateline NBC had done a national program in April fourth
22:12
Speaker 2: of two thousand and eight called the killing at Poplar River,
22:15
Speaker 2: and that even generated more witnesses and more attention. So
22:20
Speaker 2: by the time we got to this evidence you're hearing
22:22
Speaker 2: in twenty eleven, the facts of the case were so
22:26
Speaker 2: well known throughout the state of Montana, and yet the
22:29
Speaker 2: State of Montana's Attorney general office and law enforcement continue
22:34
Speaker 2: to insist that they had the right person and that
22:37
Speaker 2: the conviction based on the confession was valid. Judge Phillips
22:43
Speaker 2: actually made a ruling to the contrary. Judge Phillips ruled
22:48
Speaker 2: that had the jury heard the testimony of Stephie Eagleboy
22:53
Speaker 2: and some of the other witnesses, that there was no
22:56
Speaker 2: way they could have found me guilty, and he ordered
22:59
Speaker 2: an new trial. This State of Montana's Attorney General's office
23:03
Speaker 2: went ballistic. They appealed his decision.
23:06
Speaker 3: So Barry, at this point, December seventh, twenty eleven, pending
23:10
Speaker 3: your next trial, you were finally released for the first
23:14
Speaker 3: time in twenty nine years on your own recognissance. I mean,
23:18
Speaker 3: what was that like?
23:20
Speaker 2: That release on December seventh, twenty eleven was an absolute
23:25
Speaker 2: miracle because when I was released in Lewistown, the media
23:29
Speaker 2: from Germany were there. The CBC from Canada was there.
23:34
Speaker 2: Dateline NBC was there. There wasn't a news affiliation in Montana.
23:38
Speaker 2: That wasn't there. So I walk out of this courtroom
23:41
Speaker 2: to this crowd, this huge, huge crowd of people were
23:45
Speaker 2: there supporting me, and it just undescribable. And I go
23:51
Speaker 2: home to Billings, Montana to stay with Ziggy ZIGGLERD some
23:55
Speaker 2: really good friends of mine of Ziggy and Stella Ziggler.
23:58
Speaker 2: Here in Billings, Montana, I go for a prison cell
24:02
Speaker 2: to this beautiful, gorgeous house on the side of a
24:06
Speaker 2: mountain overlooking this valley and move forward with life.
24:11
Speaker 3: And you did, but for only eighteen months.
24:14
Speaker 2: For eighteen months, yes, I started a small company. I
24:21
Speaker 2: went to work for a local motel as a chief engineer,
24:24
Speaker 2: where I was second in command over the motel. And
24:26
Speaker 2: that's where I was working when I received eighteen months later,
24:33
Speaker 2: received an absolutely devastating phone call from a media reporter
24:39
Speaker 2: asking me what my opinion was about the Montana Supreme
24:42
Speaker 2: Court decision to send me back to prison. And when
24:46
Speaker 2: he asked me that, I had no clue what he
24:49
Speaker 2: was talking about, so I had to put him off,
24:51
Speaker 2: call my attorney and I was notified in May of
24:56
Speaker 2: twenty thirteen for my attorney, Peter Camille, that I had
25:00
Speaker 2: twenty four hours to turn myself into law enforcement on
25:04
Speaker 2: a life without parole for a crime I did not
25:06
Speaker 2: commit and go back to prison for the second time.
25:28
Speaker 2: When they sent me back to prison, there were very
25:32
Speaker 2: few legal options at that point just to get me free.
25:36
Speaker 2: The battle was still focused on exonerating me, but the
25:40
Speaker 2: importance had shifted to freeing me. I filed an executive
25:44
Speaker 2: clemency again back before the pro Board, and they denied
25:47
Speaker 2: it within a couple of days, saying there were no
25:50
Speaker 2: grounds for clemency. It hit the media that I had
25:53
Speaker 2: been denied once again. The citizens organizations in the state
25:57
Speaker 2: of Montana banded together together. They all started writing letters
26:03
Speaker 2: and petitioning the Montana legislature to change the law in
26:09
Speaker 2: the state of Montana. Because when the pro Board at
26:11
Speaker 2: that time denied my executive clemency, that was it. I
26:16
Speaker 2: had no further recourse and more importantly, the chief executive,
26:20
Speaker 2: the governor of the state of Montana, had absolutely no
26:24
Speaker 2: say so. So these groups formed together and they petitioned
26:28
Speaker 2: the state legislature to change the laws in the state
26:31
Speaker 2: of Montana, allowing the governor of the state to have
26:35
Speaker 2: final say so when an executive clemency application had been filed.
26:40
Speaker 2: And we actually filed five legislative bills and all five
26:45
Speaker 2: passed with unanimous vote, changing the entire structure and decision
26:51
Speaker 2: making process of executive clemency in the state of Montana.
26:55
Speaker 2: Governor Steve Bullock then has the final responsibility and making
27:00
Speaker 2: a decision on the executive clemency that had already been
27:03
Speaker 2: denied by the pro board at that point in time.
27:08
Speaker 2: My case has always been a politically influenced case, being
27:11
Speaker 2: that the person who prosecuted my case in nineteen eighty four,
27:16
Speaker 2: Mark Roscoe, went on to become the governor of the
27:18
Speaker 2: state of Montana. He went on to become George W.
27:22
Speaker 2: Bush's right hand man during his campaign for presidency, and
27:26
Speaker 2: then stayed in contact and influence with the Montana Attorney
27:30
Speaker 2: General's office. So Mark Roscoe made this political climb based
27:35
Speaker 2: on my conviction that was followed up by a guy
27:37
Speaker 2: by the name of Mike McGrath. Mike McGrath became the
27:42
Speaker 2: attorney general after Mark Roscolle became governor, and Mike McGrath
27:46
Speaker 2: took up the battle against me. Mike McGrath went from
27:49
Speaker 2: being the Attorney General of the State of Montana to
27:52
Speaker 2: sitting as the Chief Justice of the Montana Supreme Court.
27:57
Speaker 2: So when I was filing all these things before the
27:59
Speaker 2: Montana Supreme Court, the Chief Justice, Mike McGrath was the
28:03
Speaker 2: attorney general who fought my appeal process successfully. After Mark Roscoe,
28:10
Speaker 2: Mike McGrath was succeeded by a guy by the name
28:13
Speaker 2: of Steve Bullock, who became the Attorney General for the
28:17
Speaker 2: State of Montana. It was Steve Bullock who successfully reversed
28:22
Speaker 2: Judge Phillips's decision to release me and send me back
28:26
Speaker 2: to prison. After he's successfully sent me back to prison
28:30
Speaker 2: winning that appeal, he became the governor of the State
28:35
Speaker 2: of Montana. And here sits Governor Bullock, now with the
28:39
Speaker 2: sole responsibility, knowing that he's the one who just sent
28:43
Speaker 2: me back to prison, now has to make a decision
28:46
Speaker 2: as to whether to grant me clemency. Prior to the
28:50
Speaker 2: governor making the decision on my executive clemency, we had
28:55
Speaker 2: century ministries had successfully filed a writ of surcherary before
29:00
Speaker 2: the United States Supreme Court, and that rit of surtary
29:03
Speaker 2: had been accepted by the United States Supreme Court. That
29:08
Speaker 2: writ was based on the fact that I was only
29:11
Speaker 2: seventeen years old when Kimney's was murdered, and I had
29:16
Speaker 2: been given a life without parole sentence. And if you
29:20
Speaker 2: remember correctly, there was a big swing in the United
29:23
Speaker 2: States of America at that time going on that it
29:26
Speaker 2: was inhumane and unconstitutional to give a juvenile offender a
29:32
Speaker 2: life without parole, no matter the circumstances of the crime.
29:37
Speaker 2: So the United States Supreme Court accepted that rit of surgerary,
29:41
Speaker 2: and we actually had oral arguments set based on that
29:46
Speaker 2: and some other cases that had been filed on the
29:48
Speaker 2: same issue. What Governor Bullock decided to do with the
29:52
Speaker 2: executive clemency is he granted the executive clemency in the
29:56
Speaker 2: form of a sentence commutation, stating that I was guilty
30:01
Speaker 2: of the crime, but had served enough time at thirty
30:06
Speaker 2: two years or whatever it was, released me put me
30:11
Speaker 2: on ten years of probation. And as I sit here
30:14
Speaker 2: with you today, Jason, I am still convicted of the
30:18
Speaker 2: murder of kim Nice. I am still on probation with
30:21
Speaker 2: the State of Montana, and I have the stigma and
30:25
Speaker 2: the cloud and the public judgment of being a convicted murderer.
30:30
Speaker 3: So I have a quote here from Jim McCloskey. He
30:33
Speaker 3: isn't exonerated officially, but he is free, so he doesn't
30:36
Speaker 3: have to worry about the wolf coming back to his door.
30:39
Speaker 3: The thing is that that's really good, and that's you know,
30:42
Speaker 3: obviously the good stuff. But look, it's still hanging over you,
30:45
Speaker 3: and you definitely want your name cleared. Can people in
30:48
Speaker 3: our audience help you right now put that in any way?
30:52
Speaker 2: You know, absolutely, I want to be fully exonerated, and
30:54
Speaker 2: I think that the evidence from the crime scene of
30:58
Speaker 2: kim Nice and the witnesses who testified warrant justice for
31:04
Speaker 2: Kimney's first and foremost, the state of Montana should take
31:07
Speaker 2: responsibility for testing and pursuing the fingerprints, the palm prints,
31:13
Speaker 2: and anything else that possibly could be in existence to
31:15
Speaker 2: this day that could link the actual murderers to this crime,
31:21
Speaker 2: which would result in me being exonerated. Unfortunately, when I
31:25
Speaker 2: was released from prison in twenty fifteen, along with that,
31:30
Speaker 2: Centurion Ministries no longer represents me. So I am without
31:35
Speaker 2: an attorney, I am without an investigator, and I am
31:38
Speaker 2: without the funds to fight my battle any further, but
31:43
Speaker 2: I do still maintain contact with the organization of Montana's
31:49
Speaker 2: for Justice and hopes that someday, somewhere there will be
31:54
Speaker 2: somebody out there willing once again to take on the
31:58
Speaker 2: State of Montana the blatant facts of this case. I'm
32:03
Speaker 2: always hoping and praying. I've reached out to many many
32:07
Speaker 2: organizations since my release, hoping to find some help. I believe,
32:13
Speaker 2: I honestly believe that there will be justice for Kimney's
32:16
Speaker 2: before I pass away. I honestly believe I will be
32:20
Speaker 2: exonerated by the State of Montana before I die, and
32:25
Speaker 2: if there's anybody out there who can contribute to that,
32:29
Speaker 2: my website is Montanaansforsice dot com. I also have a
32:33
Speaker 2: Facebook page out there I can be found. I am
32:37
Speaker 2: all over social media. My case is all over. You
32:40
Speaker 2: can research me on dateline NBC. I'm always looking for help. Well.
32:44
Speaker 3: We're going to have action steps linked in the bio,
32:46
Speaker 3: as well as links to your website, Montanas for Justice
32:52
Speaker 3: and link to your Facebook page so people can reach
32:55
Speaker 3: out to you if they have information they want to offer.
32:58
Speaker 3: And please, if you're a Montana and someone who lived
33:01
Speaker 3: in the area at that time, please do I mean,
33:06
Speaker 3: it seems like the no brainer of the century is
33:11
Speaker 3: testing that you know, any of the physical evidence, any
33:16
Speaker 3: of the fingerprints. I'm sure there's still blood evidence around.
33:19
Speaker 3: There's all kinds of physical evidence. In this case, it
33:23
Speaker 3: should be tested against a group of women who everyone
33:26
Speaker 3: seems to have known from the very beginning with the
33:28
Speaker 3: obvious suspects in this case. And by the way, these
33:32
Speaker 3: women are all still very much alive. If they have
33:35
Speaker 3: nothing to hide, then the testing would clear them. So
33:38
Speaker 3: what are we waiting for? So Barry, Now we go
33:41
Speaker 3: to the part of the show that I always look
33:42
Speaker 3: forward to, which is called closing arguments. And closing arguments
33:46
Speaker 3: works like this. I'm going to turn my microphone off,
33:50
Speaker 3: kick back in my chair and leave my headphones on
33:53
Speaker 3: with my eyes closed, and just listen to anything else
33:56
Speaker 3: you want to share with me. And are incredible audience,
34:01
Speaker 3: So thank you again. The microphone is yours.
34:05
Speaker 2: When a person is innocent, sitting in prison, telling their
34:10
Speaker 2: story and talking to everybody that they possibly can about
34:13
Speaker 2: being innocent and trying to show people from the evidence
34:19
Speaker 2: that they are innocent and telling people and talking about
34:21
Speaker 2: their story, that's what they do. I call it the
34:26
Speaker 2: fire inside. I have yet to ever meet an innocent
34:31
Speaker 2: person on a prison yard, and I helped four people
34:34
Speaker 2: while I was incarcerated. I helped exonerate four people from
34:38
Speaker 2: the inside of prison by helping them put together their
34:41
Speaker 2: bio and helping them reach out to media sources. They
34:44
Speaker 2: were all exonerated before I was ever released. They all
34:49
Speaker 2: had what I call the fire. You talk to people
34:53
Speaker 2: you cannot stop talking about the fact I am innocent
34:56
Speaker 2: of the murder of Kim Nice. I did not kill
34:59
Speaker 2: Kim I was not there when Kimneys was killed. I
35:02
Speaker 2: had no knowledge of the death of Kimneys until after
35:05
Speaker 2: the fact. So being able to tell my story on
35:08
Speaker 2: a podcast all these years later is a continuation of
35:13
Speaker 2: that fire, but also a continuation of the healing process
35:17
Speaker 2: and the hope and the hope. It's another seed of
35:22
Speaker 2: hope that someday somebody listening to this podcast is going
35:28
Speaker 2: to be the trigger that leads to my exoneration.
35:38
Speaker 3: Thank you for listening to Wrongful Conviction. I'd like to
35:41
Speaker 3: thank our production team Connor Hall, Jeff Cleibern, and Kevin Wardis,
35:45
Speaker 3: with research by Lyla Robinson. The music in this production
35:48
Speaker 3: was supplied by three time OSCAR nominated composer Jay Ralph.
35:51
Speaker 3: Be sure to follow us on Instagram at Wrongful Conviction,
35:55
Speaker 3: on Facebook at Wrongful Conviction podcast, and on Twitter at
35:59
Speaker 3: wrong Convict, as well as at Lava for Good. On
36:02
Speaker 3: all three platforms, you can also follow me on both
36:05
Speaker 3: TikTok and Instagram at it's Jason flam Ravel Conviction is
36:09
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Speaker 3: Signal Company Number one