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