WEBVTT - #322 Jason Flom with Barry Beach - Part 2 0:00:05.680 --> 0:00:07.920 On part one of our coverage of Barry Beach, a 0:00:07.960 --> 0:00:11.120 nonsensical false confession to a crime for which he had 0:00:11.200 --> 0:00:14.200 already been cleared as a suspect by the physical evidence 0:00:14.600 --> 0:00:18.000 sent him away for one hundred years without the possibility 0:00:18.040 --> 0:00:22.600 of parole. Now, Barry and investigator Richard Hepburn tell us 0:00:22.640 --> 0:00:29.880 about his journey to freedom. 0:00:27.080 --> 0:00:30.319 In lieu of the death penalty. I was sentenced to 0:00:30.360 --> 0:00:37.600 one hundred years dangerous with no parole, no furlough in 0:00:37.640 --> 0:00:41.440 the state of Montana, which meant that I would never 0:00:41.479 --> 0:00:45.680 ever see the outside of prison. I remember waking up 0:00:45.720 --> 0:00:49.280 one day and making a promise to myself that, no 0:00:49.400 --> 0:00:51.559 matter what it took, and I was going to make 0:00:51.560 --> 0:00:54.720 the very best of my life by the time I 0:00:54.840 --> 0:00:57.680 ended up in that cell. God had promised me on 0:00:57.800 --> 0:01:00.800 numerous occasions that he was going to form a miracle 0:01:00.840 --> 0:01:04.240 to set me free. So I wanted to live my 0:01:04.400 --> 0:01:09.000 life as normal as I possibly could. I started educating 0:01:09.040 --> 0:01:12.160 myself every chance I got. I took every course they 0:01:12.160 --> 0:01:16.319 had in prison. I signed up for correspondence courses. I 0:01:16.400 --> 0:01:19.240 became involved in every single prison self help group I 0:01:19.240 --> 0:01:23.440 could find, and more important than anything else, my entire 0:01:24.040 --> 0:01:30.080 life consisted around fighting my case. I taught myself how 0:01:30.080 --> 0:01:34.520 to do freedom of information acts. I started researching the law. 0:01:34.920 --> 0:01:38.560 I was constantly in the library. I was constantly talking 0:01:38.600 --> 0:01:43.320 to other inmates about the law, about habeas corpuses, about this, 0:01:43.480 --> 0:01:47.240 about that. And I actually spent seventeen years on my 0:01:47.400 --> 0:01:53.160 own piecing together documentation that proved my innocence. 0:01:53.480 --> 0:01:56.360 Somehow or other, your conviction was upheld in spite of 0:01:56.400 --> 0:01:59.320 your best efforts by the Montana Supreme Court on July 0:01:59.440 --> 0:02:01.080 twenty fifth, nineteen eighty five. 0:02:01.240 --> 0:02:04.920 Yes, the Montana Supreme Court ruled that the confession was 0:02:05.320 --> 0:02:10.880 voluntarily given and forensically accurate, and therefore they upheld the conviction. 0:02:11.560 --> 0:02:17.200 Amazing, forensically accurate. Literally, nothing you said was accurate other 0:02:17.280 --> 0:02:20.400 than that somebody died, right, somebody was murdered. It must 0:02:20.400 --> 0:02:24.440 have felt like some kind of cruel, sick joke. But 0:02:24.520 --> 0:02:26.239 you were not giving up. You're not going to quit. 0:02:26.520 --> 0:02:28.560 I had been shot down by every court in the 0:02:28.639 --> 0:02:31.840 United States of America at least once. I had not 0:02:31.919 --> 0:02:34.320 only been shot down by the Montana Supreme Court, but 0:02:34.360 --> 0:02:37.200 I appealed it to the Federal District Court, got shot down, 0:02:37.720 --> 0:02:41.799 appealed to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco, 0:02:41.960 --> 0:02:45.080 got shot down, took it to the United States Supreme Court, 0:02:45.200 --> 0:02:48.240 got dismissed, went all the way back to the Montana 0:02:48.320 --> 0:02:51.600 Supreme Court and started that process again, only to get 0:02:51.639 --> 0:02:54.320 shut down again. So at that point I had actually 0:02:54.360 --> 0:02:58.560 started filing executive clemency applications before the Montana Board of 0:02:58.600 --> 0:03:02.040 Pardons in parole. I think I filed two of those. 0:03:02.320 --> 0:03:06.359 But throughout all of that I wrote letters to anybody 0:03:06.440 --> 0:03:10.320 and everybody in the world that I could see on 0:03:10.440 --> 0:03:13.360 sixty minutes on forty eight hours on dateline. I became 0:03:13.400 --> 0:03:19.760 an absolute junkie of these programs simply because every time 0:03:19.840 --> 0:03:23.640 there was a story, they would interview the attorney, and 0:03:23.680 --> 0:03:27.520 I'd write those attorneys. There would be an investigative reporter, 0:03:27.600 --> 0:03:31.280 I'd write those reporters. And I had actually, on my 0:03:31.360 --> 0:03:34.160 own and through my own investigation and my own Freedom 0:03:34.160 --> 0:03:38.560 of information acts, developed a portfolio that I could mail 0:03:38.720 --> 0:03:41.800 out of the prison to people I was reaching out to. 0:03:42.680 --> 0:03:45.320 And one of the earth shattering discoveries you had made 0:03:45.320 --> 0:03:47.720 through the Freedom of Information Act, also known as a 0:03:47.800 --> 0:03:50.960 Foyer request, was an egregious Brady violation. 0:03:51.400 --> 0:03:53.560 So I'm going to back up a little bit to 0:03:53.760 --> 0:03:59.880 September nineteenth of nineteen seventy nine, three months after Kimneys 0:03:59.880 --> 0:04:03.360 was murdered, a girl gives a statement to the Roosevelt 0:04:03.400 --> 0:04:06.960 County Sheriff, a guy by the name of Don Carpenter. 0:04:07.200 --> 0:04:09.840 She claimed that she was at a movie theater with 0:04:09.880 --> 0:04:12.720 a really good friend of hers who was a classmate 0:04:12.800 --> 0:04:17.039 of ours in high school. This individual told her that 0:04:17.120 --> 0:04:20.320 he was at the crime scene when Kimneys was killed 0:04:20.560 --> 0:04:25.400 at this party, and that he saw certain females hold 0:04:25.480 --> 0:04:30.839 Kimneys down and beat her repeatedly with a hammer. He 0:04:30.960 --> 0:04:34.039 also claimed that that hammer was then thrown into the 0:04:34.080 --> 0:04:38.000 Poplar River and all the females dispersed in different directions. 0:04:38.760 --> 0:04:44.040 That statement led to the Roosevelt County Sheriff's Department sending 0:04:44.160 --> 0:04:48.280 divers into the Poplar River, who did, in fact find 0:04:48.960 --> 0:04:52.280 a claw hammer right where this witness said that it 0:04:52.320 --> 0:04:55.400 was going to be. They sent that hammer off and 0:04:55.960 --> 0:05:01.000 lo and behold. Law enforcement determines that is no the 0:05:01.080 --> 0:05:05.080 murder weapon. That statement by that girl gets brushed aside 0:05:05.240 --> 0:05:10.200 and hidden and was never disclosed until I started filing 0:05:10.240 --> 0:05:13.040 freedom of information acts and I was able to enclose 0:05:13.080 --> 0:05:16.560 it into my documentation proving that I was innocent. 0:05:17.120 --> 0:05:18.880 I'm not sure how the hell they could determine that 0:05:18.920 --> 0:05:21.080 a hammer was not the murder weapon, considering that the 0:05:21.120 --> 0:05:24.240 gouge marks in the truck's cab corroborate that it was 0:05:24.480 --> 0:05:27.599 likely a claw hammer. We already know what kind of 0:05:27.600 --> 0:05:30.440 bullshit they were ready to pull with that pubic hair, 0:05:30.480 --> 0:05:32.800 and I'm sure an independent lab would probably have some 0:05:32.880 --> 0:05:36.520 interesting findings. But again, I think the machinations of the 0:05:36.600 --> 0:05:40.200 law enforcement community will become clearer as we dig deeper. Now, 0:05:40.640 --> 0:05:44.640 this girl's name was Arii Bershey, and she was reiterating 0:05:44.640 --> 0:05:47.760 an alleged statement from a guy named Mike Longtree. So 0:05:47.880 --> 0:05:50.359 you were able to include this rating material in the 0:05:50.400 --> 0:05:52.640 package that you had developed to try to get some support. 0:05:53.279 --> 0:05:54.719 And one of the people you had reached out to 0:05:54.880 --> 0:05:57.560 was a professor at the University of Chicago, the author 0:05:57.960 --> 0:06:02.039 of the book Convicted but Innocent, a man named Sir 0:06:02.160 --> 0:06:04.800 Ronald Hoff, who agreed to help you by sending you 0:06:04.880 --> 0:06:07.279 two letters of recommendation to send along with your own 0:06:07.360 --> 0:06:10.880 letter to the producers of sixty Minutes and to Jim McCloskey, 0:06:11.520 --> 0:06:15.520 the legendary founder of Centurion Ministries, an innocent organization that 0:06:15.640 --> 0:06:19.640 is spoken of in reverend tones throughout the wrongful Conviction community. 0:06:20.000 --> 0:06:23.000 And at that time the letter I sent to Century 0:06:23.040 --> 0:06:27.080 Ministries ended up on the desk of an investigator for 0:06:27.240 --> 0:06:30.520 Century Ministries who was a volunteer, and he read that 0:06:30.600 --> 0:06:33.159 letter from Sir Ronald Hoff along with some other things, 0:06:33.720 --> 0:06:36.480 and he's the one who began to advocate on my behalf. 0:06:36.480 --> 0:06:40.520 And his name is Richard Hepburn. So Richard Hepburn began 0:06:40.560 --> 0:06:43.120 to advocate with Century Ministries that they take a look 0:06:43.120 --> 0:06:46.120 at my case. Fast forward to the year two thousand, 0:06:46.440 --> 0:06:49.120 and I had a lot of hope. So in October 0:06:49.160 --> 0:06:54.880 of two thousand, Century Ministries committed to fully reinvestigating my case. 0:06:55.440 --> 0:06:59.719 One of the very first things that Century Ministries discovered, though, 0:07:00.120 --> 0:07:04.040 is that all of the forensic evidence that had been 0:07:04.080 --> 0:07:08.640 gathered at the crime scene had disappeared and been lost 0:07:08.920 --> 0:07:11.480 at the end of my trial in nineteen eighty four. 0:07:11.760 --> 0:07:17.160 So when we started doing their investigation and thinking about DNA, 0:07:17.200 --> 0:07:20.160 which had now come in to play, there were no 0:07:20.280 --> 0:07:24.720 hair samples, no blood samples. There was a bloody towel 0:07:24.800 --> 0:07:29.000 found that night with hair from Kimnice on that bloody 0:07:29.040 --> 0:07:32.000 towel the hair from that towel had been lost, and 0:07:32.160 --> 0:07:35.000 it took us many, many years to even find the 0:07:35.080 --> 0:07:37.720 towel because it too had been lost, even though we 0:07:37.800 --> 0:07:41.840 later did find the towel and do DNA testing on 0:07:42.560 --> 0:07:45.160 some of the blood spatters there, which is not my 0:07:45.320 --> 0:07:49.960 blood or DNA. So in two thousand century ministries they 0:07:50.040 --> 0:07:53.360 assigned two investigators to my case. One was Paul Henderson 0:07:53.400 --> 0:07:57.240 out of Seattle, Washington, who was a Pulitzer Prize winning 0:07:57.320 --> 0:08:01.760 author for investigating wrongful convictions. And then also a guy 0:08:01.800 --> 0:08:05.760 by the name of Richard Hepburn out of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 0:08:06.800 --> 0:08:11.760 They began a very intense and in depth investigation into 0:08:11.840 --> 0:08:16.040 the death of Kimneys since your ministries went out and 0:08:16.120 --> 0:08:21.840 interviewed two hundred and eighty six people from Popper Montana 0:08:21.920 --> 0:08:25.040 who were out and about in Popper Montana the knight 0:08:25.120 --> 0:08:29.160 that Kimnice was killed. Not one single person saw me 0:08:29.920 --> 0:08:34.040 anywhere in Popper Montana on the night that Kimnice was killed. 0:08:34.320 --> 0:08:37.240 What they did discover from those two hundred and eighty 0:08:37.320 --> 0:08:41.600 six people is repeatedly some of these people had been 0:08:41.760 --> 0:08:47.679 told firsthand from different females who live in the popular area. 0:08:47.840 --> 0:08:51.200 To this day, that they in fact were responsible for 0:08:51.280 --> 0:08:54.560 the death of Kimneys, and that they got away with 0:08:55.000 --> 0:08:55.920 the perfect murder. 0:09:07.880 --> 0:09:10.880 My name was Richard Hepburn. I was for years a 0:09:11.320 --> 0:09:14.480 high school math teacher and coach. I read about censuryon 0:09:14.559 --> 0:09:19.080 ministries in a magazine article about nineteen ninety so when 0:09:19.160 --> 0:09:21.840 I retired ninety eight, I said, I'm going to go 0:09:21.880 --> 0:09:26.840 over there and volunteer. Well, most volunteers communicate with prisoners, 0:09:26.840 --> 0:09:29.960 they gather flows, they right back and forth. And I 0:09:30.040 --> 0:09:33.880 saw this case, this horrible crime, This seventeen year old 0:09:34.000 --> 0:09:37.880 kid sat one shed of evidence that he was even there. 0:09:38.240 --> 0:09:41.320 And I persuaded the boss, Jim McCluskey, to take the case, 0:09:41.600 --> 0:09:46.040 and he had a staff investigator in Seattle. But I said, Jim, 0:09:46.640 --> 0:09:49.560 I'd like to do this. You can you know what, 0:09:49.840 --> 0:09:53.280 You're an old high school teacher. I could do this. Well. 0:09:53.280 --> 0:09:56.199 He let me go out there, and before long, Paul 0:09:56.280 --> 0:09:59.360 moved on to other cases, and I was the lead investigator. 0:10:00.080 --> 0:10:03.720 So I talked to a lot of people, and everyone 0:10:03.800 --> 0:10:09.400 in that bloody town knew that those four or five 0:10:09.480 --> 0:10:11.680 girls jumped her and Barry. 0:10:11.720 --> 0:10:16.199 Didn't everyone right, And the prevailing knowledge was that this 0:10:16.280 --> 0:10:19.200 group of girls had lured Kimneys down to the River 0:10:19.320 --> 0:10:21.800 for a party where they planned to confront her about 0:10:21.800 --> 0:10:25.719 being romantically involved with the same guy as one of 0:10:25.720 --> 0:10:29.400 the girls in the group. Now, would you just go 0:10:29.480 --> 0:10:31.240 out to bars and talk to people. 0:10:31.559 --> 0:10:34.280 I didn't go there much after dark. You know, everyone 0:10:34.320 --> 0:10:37.320 knows what happens, and some people are willing to fight 0:10:37.400 --> 0:10:42.040 to keep a secret. So you know, I'm brave, but 0:10:42.120 --> 0:10:45.000 I'm not very tough. But anyhow, I was with Paul 0:10:45.040 --> 0:10:47.720 at first because I was a beginning of vestigater. You know, 0:10:47.760 --> 0:10:49.640 we saw Mike Longtree. 0:10:49.440 --> 0:10:52.280 Right, the alleged witness from the Brady violation. The statement 0:10:52.360 --> 0:10:53.600 from Ori Bershey. 0:10:53.920 --> 0:10:58.080 Ori Bershee said that Mike Longtree had told her that 0:10:58.200 --> 0:11:00.880 he had been there. He said he did do anything, 0:11:00.960 --> 0:11:04.240 but he was present. There was fr four cars, president, 0:11:04.280 --> 0:11:07.240 a lot of people president. But he would never We 0:11:07.400 --> 0:11:11.520 talked to him many many times and he always denied. 0:11:11.679 --> 0:11:14.640 I never said that, even though Oriber she wasn't the 0:11:14.679 --> 0:11:17.600 only one that he allegedly admitted this to. And in 0:11:17.679 --> 0:11:21.320 these alleged statements, the name Cissy Atkinson came up repeatedly, 0:11:21.440 --> 0:11:24.439 and Cissy's brother was the chief of police. 0:11:24.120 --> 0:11:28.080 Right, Bobby Atkinson was chief of police for the Poplar Police. Yes, 0:11:28.360 --> 0:11:31.240 but Bobby was pretty good. And when Sissy came in 0:11:31.280 --> 0:11:33.760 from Great Falls to visit, he told us when we 0:11:33.800 --> 0:11:34.520 came over and. 0:11:34.440 --> 0:11:36.160 Interviewed her, and how'd that go? 0:11:36.800 --> 0:11:39.760 What did you say, Cissy, there are people here who 0:11:39.800 --> 0:11:42.920 think you had something to do with that. Good, they'll 0:11:42.960 --> 0:11:46.239 leave me the fuck alone. Yeah, she was very defiant 0:11:46.320 --> 0:11:47.600 and then she walked out. 0:11:47.760 --> 0:11:50.280 Did you come across anyone else willing to name names 0:11:50.280 --> 0:11:51.160 and go on the record. 0:11:51.360 --> 0:11:55.120 No, they aren't going to do that out there. They're 0:11:55.120 --> 0:11:58.640 not going to say, boy, Sissy Atkinson did it, knowing 0:11:58.800 --> 0:12:01.720 full well that nothing's ever going to happen to Sissy. 0:12:02.000 --> 0:12:03.840 But if she gets in some trouble because of what 0:12:03.920 --> 0:12:06.040 I said, I'm going to end up in the river. 0:12:06.640 --> 0:12:08.520 You know, when we were out there, there was someone 0:12:08.559 --> 0:12:11.360 that had nothing to do with our case, but a 0:12:11.400 --> 0:12:14.960 person was found on the river with bruises all over 0:12:14.960 --> 0:12:19.360 the head. That was an accidental drowning. That's a depressing. 0:12:18.840 --> 0:12:21.840 Place, Yeah, sounds like it, But it seemed there were 0:12:21.960 --> 0:12:25.480 a few people who were courageous enough to talk. What 0:12:25.520 --> 0:12:28.320 about Carl Forstar, who had been a coworker of Sissy 0:12:28.320 --> 0:12:31.360 Atkinson's back in nineteen eighty four at the Tribal Industries plan. 0:12:31.720 --> 0:12:34.920 Oh, Carl Forister's a big witness. Yes, Carl Forster said, 0:12:35.000 --> 0:12:37.640 Sissy was across the room, you know, in another group. 0:12:37.840 --> 0:12:41.440 She said got away with the perfect murder. And she 0:12:41.559 --> 0:12:45.199 repeated a couple of times, and Carl heard her, and 0:12:45.760 --> 0:12:48.880 he came forth. And when we e didn't come forth, 0:12:48.920 --> 0:12:52.320 but I happened to be interviewing his mother, and he 0:12:52.600 --> 0:12:55.199 came up from the zellar and told me what Sissy 0:12:55.200 --> 0:12:58.040 said at the Tribal Industry's place. And he ended up 0:12:58.080 --> 0:13:02.040 as a witness. And then sists he Hadkinson's nephew, Denver 0:13:02.120 --> 0:13:05.920 Atkinson's kid beat him up at a Fourth of July 0:13:06.080 --> 0:13:08.760 parade in wolf Point, and he was afraid to come 0:13:08.800 --> 0:13:13.080 to the Lewiston hearing, but he came. The judge sent 0:13:13.240 --> 0:13:14.840 two cops to get him and bring them. 0:13:14.840 --> 0:13:18.199 So, yeah, the Lewiston hearings happened in twenty eleven where 0:13:18.240 --> 0:13:21.040 another witness also bravely came forward as a result of 0:13:21.040 --> 0:13:24.480 your investigation. She was just a little girl at the time, right, 0:13:24.760 --> 0:13:29.000 Steffie Eagleboy, How did you find her? During your initial investigation? 0:13:29.400 --> 0:13:32.080 We had a notice in the maybe it was the 0:13:32.120 --> 0:13:37.200 wolf Point Becausette with people for information called this number. Well, 0:13:37.240 --> 0:13:40.680 she called Peter Camille, a lawyer, and it was his number, 0:13:41.280 --> 0:13:45.880 crying that she had some information. Sefie Eagle Boy. She 0:13:46.080 --> 0:13:49.040 was a young girl, like eight or ten at the time. 0:13:49.120 --> 0:13:52.400 I forget these kids. Their parents would all go to 0:13:52.440 --> 0:13:55.199 the bar on Friday and Saturday night and they sit 0:13:55.280 --> 0:13:59.040 out on the hill. Well, she was there and heard 0:13:59.480 --> 0:14:02.400 the scream of Kimberly. 0:14:02.320 --> 0:14:05.240 Not only screaming, but she also saw and our audience 0:14:05.240 --> 0:14:08.760 will remember this name, she saw Stevie Greyhawk's police cruiser 0:14:08.800 --> 0:14:10.720 approach the scene. Around that time. 0:14:10.920 --> 0:14:15.080 He drove down without his lights on a court to Stephiehiggleboy. 0:14:15.640 --> 0:14:19.160 I talked to him several times and nothing happened that 0:14:19.240 --> 0:14:20.080 night that he's aware of. 0:14:20.160 --> 0:14:21.000 He wasn't aware of. 0:14:21.040 --> 0:14:23.320 He didn't go down there, he didn't show the word 0:14:23.400 --> 0:14:26.240 was he shined his light down. He pulled over and 0:14:26.280 --> 0:14:30.200 shined his light down, then drove down and came back. 0:14:30.720 --> 0:14:33.440 And I think, you know, he's a policeman. He's either 0:14:33.480 --> 0:14:35.720 got to do something about it or get the hell 0:14:35.760 --> 0:14:38.480 out of there. So he got out of there. But 0:14:38.560 --> 0:14:40.200 he would never own to that. 0:14:40.680 --> 0:14:43.160 Now, the last name Greyhawk came up in other contacts 0:14:43.160 --> 0:14:46.000 in your investigation because he had a daughter about Kim 0:14:46.120 --> 0:14:49.520 Nyese's age. Did you ask him about her? 0:14:49.920 --> 0:14:54.240 You know, Steve Greyhawk just wouldn't hear of Maud being 0:14:54.280 --> 0:14:55.280 involved in anything. 0:14:55.400 --> 0:14:58.640 So so the same guy that found nothing to report 0:14:58.640 --> 0:15:01.680 from the scene around two, even though ten year old 0:15:01.720 --> 0:15:05.560 Steffie Eagle Boy could hear female voices screaming, not only 0:15:06.040 --> 0:15:09.120 of Kim Knee's her voice, but she also later testified 0:15:09.120 --> 0:15:11.960 that she heard the other girl screaming, get the bitch 0:15:12.080 --> 0:15:16.280 and kill the bitch. Steve Greyhawk turned around with nothing 0:15:16.320 --> 0:15:19.160 to report and just wouldn't hear of Maud being involved 0:15:19.160 --> 0:15:22.640 in anything. The same guy who broke down the evidence 0:15:22.720 --> 0:15:26.160 room door the following night to allegedly go to the bathroom. 0:15:26.160 --> 0:15:30.280 I have to laugh because it's so ridiculous, thus breaking 0:15:30.320 --> 0:15:33.760 the chain of custody and contaminating the crime scene evidence. 0:15:34.560 --> 0:15:38.680 He just hadn't seen what Steffie Eagleboy heard. 0:15:39.080 --> 0:15:43.320 My impression is if he was there, he lied. He 0:15:43.400 --> 0:15:44.440 lied through his scene. 0:15:45.160 --> 0:15:47.120 A lot of people were willing to do a lot 0:15:47.160 --> 0:15:50.480 of things to keep this secret. You know, when Maud 0:15:50.520 --> 0:15:53.720 Greyhawk was getting a divorce from her ex husband, Dana Kern. 0:15:53.960 --> 0:15:57.280 Her boyfriend Tracy McGowan, stabbed the ex husband to death 0:15:57.280 --> 0:15:59.560 on the eve of a heated custody hearing. And the 0:15:59.600 --> 0:16:03.080 speck is that the ex husband had admitted to others 0:16:03.560 --> 0:16:05.840 that Maud had confessed to him in the past and 0:16:05.960 --> 0:16:09.160 was poised to air that dirty laundry at the custody hearing. 0:16:09.520 --> 0:16:13.440 Now that's just speculation, but it is just also another 0:16:13.560 --> 0:16:18.720 finger pointed at Maud Greyhawk. So during your investigation, it 0:16:18.840 --> 0:16:21.000 might have gotten back to Maud that you were on 0:16:21.120 --> 0:16:23.480 to her, and you found that out through her sister 0:16:23.520 --> 0:16:24.760 in law, Judy Greyhawk. 0:16:25.200 --> 0:16:28.200 Maud called her when I cried because she told we 0:16:28.240 --> 0:16:31.520 were on dor and she said, you know, I didn't 0:16:31.600 --> 0:16:34.480 kill that girl. I might have kicked her once or twice, 0:16:34.760 --> 0:16:37.240 but I didn't kill that girl. I went to see 0:16:37.320 --> 0:16:41.160 Judy and she admitted that Maud said that, but she 0:16:41.360 --> 0:16:44.960 was married to Maud's brother. She was afraid to come forward. 0:16:45.560 --> 0:16:48.320 So I read up a statement exactly what she told me, 0:16:48.440 --> 0:16:51.960 and she wouldn't sign it, obviously, so I said, you know, 0:16:52.240 --> 0:16:56.280 stick it in the drawer somewhere you might change your mind. Well, 0:16:56.400 --> 0:17:00.160 very near the time we had the hearing for the Proboard. 0:17:00.880 --> 0:17:05.920 She called man says she's willing to appear how shocked. 0:17:18.280 --> 0:17:20.959 We'll be right back after this. 0:17:20.960 --> 0:17:25.160 This episode is underwritten by AIG, a leading global insurance company. 0:17:25.520 --> 0:17:29.000 AIG is committed to corporate social responsibility and is making 0:17:29.000 --> 0:17:31.800 a positive difference in the lives of its employees and 0:17:31.840 --> 0:17:34.520 in the communities where we work and live. In light 0:17:34.600 --> 0:17:37.359 of the compelling need for pro bono legal assistance, and 0:17:37.400 --> 0:17:41.440 in recognition of AIG's commitment to criminal and social justice reform, 0:17:41.640 --> 0:17:45.480 the AIG pro Bono program provides free legal services and 0:17:45.640 --> 0:17:49.240 other support to underrepresented communities and individuals. 0:17:56.160 --> 0:17:58.399 So we took some of those statements in some of 0:17:58.440 --> 0:18:02.720 those interviews, and the first thing that Centurion Ministries did 0:18:02.760 --> 0:18:06.760 with these facts that we uncovered is we actually filed 0:18:06.840 --> 0:18:10.280 an application before the Montana Board of Partners and prol 0:18:10.600 --> 0:18:14.080 for an executive clemency hearing. We were granted a full 0:18:14.760 --> 0:18:18.800 three day hearing before the Proboard to present all of 0:18:18.840 --> 0:18:21.919 these witnesses that we had uncovered. At the start of 0:18:22.200 --> 0:18:25.159 that hearing, before the pro Board, I had already started 0:18:25.200 --> 0:18:28.920 to generate just a little small amount of media coverage 0:18:29.240 --> 0:18:32.199 into this hearing, so there were several reporters there and 0:18:32.280 --> 0:18:37.520 Centurion Ministries brought forth all the witnesses, stating that certain 0:18:37.760 --> 0:18:42.440 females had confessed to numerous numerous people that they in 0:18:42.480 --> 0:18:46.639 fact committed the murder of Kimney's. We also brought doctor 0:18:46.760 --> 0:18:51.119 Richard Leo, who is the nation leading expert in false 0:18:51.200 --> 0:18:54.880 confessions and how they happened. He did a full interview 0:18:54.920 --> 0:18:57.840 with me and a full review of the confession in 0:18:57.840 --> 0:19:00.760 the facts of the case, and came to the conclusion 0:19:00.840 --> 0:19:06.120 that absolutely the confession was false, inaccurate, and unsupported by 0:19:06.160 --> 0:19:07.960 the physical evidence of the crime scene. 0:19:08.040 --> 0:19:10.840 So the coverage of this two thousand and seven clemency 0:19:10.880 --> 0:19:15.120 hearing was really powerful. In fact, one journalism student named 0:19:15.200 --> 0:19:18.119 Jesse McQuillan did such a great job that he garnered 0:19:18.119 --> 0:19:21.480 the attention of Montana State Senator Dan Weinberg, and the 0:19:21.520 --> 0:19:25.000 two of them joined forces to begin we to found 0:19:25.200 --> 0:19:29.800 the Montana Innocence Project all because of you and your case. Wow. 0:19:30.920 --> 0:19:33.240 But what did the board ultimately decide? 0:19:33.680 --> 0:19:36.760 The pro board went on to determine that none of 0:19:36.760 --> 0:19:40.680 the witnesses brought forth by Century Ministries had any credibility 0:19:40.800 --> 0:19:44.000 in light of the confession, and that the confession alone 0:19:45.000 --> 0:19:49.760 stood as forensic evidence to maintain my conviction, and they 0:19:49.800 --> 0:19:51.679 denied me any type of clemency. 0:19:52.320 --> 0:19:55.280 Again, I don't know what confession they're referring to. You 0:19:55.320 --> 0:19:58.639 just had doctor Leo in there ripping it apart. Not 0:19:58.720 --> 0:20:01.520 that you even need a giant in the field like 0:20:01.600 --> 0:20:06.399 him to see through their bullshit. But now the media 0:20:06.440 --> 0:20:10.080 attention had people starting to get pissed off. I understand. 0:20:10.160 --> 0:20:13.800 Your supporters formed an advocacy group called Montana's for Justice, 0:20:13.880 --> 0:20:16.439 and then more groups began to form across the state, 0:20:17.160 --> 0:20:21.480 all to spread the word about your case, and they did. Meanwhile, 0:20:21.880 --> 0:20:25.199 Centurion Ministries filed a post conviction relief motion on your 0:20:25.240 --> 0:20:28.000 behalf in two thousand and eight, including everything from the 0:20:28.040 --> 0:20:31.399 clemency hearing, but this time they could include the Brady 0:20:31.440 --> 0:20:35.800 violation about or Burshey, Mike Longtree and finding the clawhammer 0:20:35.840 --> 0:20:39.240 in the river. And somehow after that and hearing STEFFI 0:20:39.320 --> 0:20:45.600 Eagleboy courageously testify a Roosevelt County judge somehow saw fit 0:20:46.400 --> 0:20:51.399 to deny this as well, saying, quote, the prosecutor's brief 0:20:51.480 --> 0:20:55.200 shows the prosecution has thoroughly reviewed the evidence. Had this 0:20:55.920 --> 0:21:00.280 shown that Beach was truly innocent, the prosecutor would be 0:21:00.359 --> 0:21:04.280 morally and ethically bound to see that justice was done 0:21:04.840 --> 0:21:09.119 end quote. So the judge just exclusively relied on his 0:21:09.280 --> 0:21:13.240 belief that if you, Barry, were innocent, the state of Montana, 0:21:14.440 --> 0:21:17.320 who went to these extraordinary lengths to frame you in 0:21:17.359 --> 0:21:21.199 the first place, would have somehow grown magically grown a 0:21:21.240 --> 0:21:29.280 conscience and righted that wrong. It's it's unbelievable, but unfortunately true. 0:21:29.760 --> 0:21:33.080 So they appealed the decision to the Montana Supreme Court, 0:21:33.119 --> 0:21:36.399 who overturned that decision and granted Barry an evidentiary hearing 0:21:36.560 --> 0:21:39.000 in August of twenty eleven in front of a district 0:21:39.040 --> 0:21:43.560 court judge. Meanwhile, your grassroots organizations were getting the word 0:21:43.600 --> 0:21:46.200 out there and more witnesses were coming forward. 0:21:46.320 --> 0:21:49.760 And in twenty eleven we actually had an evidence you 0:21:49.840 --> 0:21:54.280 hearing before Judge E. Wayne Phillips of Fergus County because 0:21:54.320 --> 0:21:58.159 they also moved the case out of Roosevelt County and 0:21:58.280 --> 0:22:02.760 had that district judge recusing himself. Centuriyon Ministries brought forth 0:22:02.880 --> 0:22:07.840 twenty two witnesses at that time. But by that time 0:22:07.960 --> 0:22:12.080 Dateline NBC had done a national program in April fourth 0:22:12.160 --> 0:22:15.359 of two thousand and eight called the killing at Poplar River, 0:22:15.640 --> 0:22:20.040 and that even generated more witnesses and more attention. So 0:22:20.160 --> 0:22:22.560 by the time we got to this evidence you're hearing 0:22:22.560 --> 0:22:26.199 in twenty eleven, the facts of the case were so 0:22:26.359 --> 0:22:29.679 well known throughout the state of Montana, and yet the 0:22:29.720 --> 0:22:34.199 State of Montana's Attorney general office and law enforcement continue 0:22:34.359 --> 0:22:37.679 to insist that they had the right person and that 0:22:37.760 --> 0:22:42.959 the conviction based on the confession was valid. Judge Phillips 0:22:43.000 --> 0:22:47.800 actually made a ruling to the contrary. Judge Phillips ruled 0:22:48.600 --> 0:22:53.240 that had the jury heard the testimony of Stephie Eagleboy 0:22:53.520 --> 0:22:56.119 and some of the other witnesses, that there was no 0:22:56.240 --> 0:22:59.840 way they could have found me guilty, and he ordered 0:22:59.840 --> 0:23:03.600 an new trial. This State of Montana's Attorney General's office 0:23:03.640 --> 0:23:06.320 went ballistic. They appealed his decision. 0:23:06.520 --> 0:23:10.440 So Barry, at this point, December seventh, twenty eleven, pending 0:23:10.720 --> 0:23:14.919 your next trial, you were finally released for the first 0:23:14.920 --> 0:23:18.560 time in twenty nine years on your own recognissance. I mean, 0:23:18.600 --> 0:23:19.760 what was that like? 0:23:20.480 --> 0:23:24.960 That release on December seventh, twenty eleven was an absolute 0:23:25.040 --> 0:23:29.560 miracle because when I was released in Lewistown, the media 0:23:29.600 --> 0:23:34.080 from Germany were there. The CBC from Canada was there. 0:23:34.160 --> 0:23:38.399 Dateline NBC was there. There wasn't a news affiliation in Montana. 0:23:38.440 --> 0:23:41.280 That wasn't there. So I walk out of this courtroom 0:23:41.320 --> 0:23:45.080 to this crowd, this huge, huge crowd of people were 0:23:45.119 --> 0:23:51.600 there supporting me, and it just undescribable. And I go 0:23:51.680 --> 0:23:55.000 home to Billings, Montana to stay with Ziggy ZIGGLERD some 0:23:55.080 --> 0:23:58.000 really good friends of mine of Ziggy and Stella Ziggler. 0:23:58.040 --> 0:24:01.760 Here in Billings, Montana, I go for a prison cell 0:24:02.560 --> 0:24:06.320 to this beautiful, gorgeous house on the side of a 0:24:06.320 --> 0:24:10.600 mountain overlooking this valley and move forward with life. 0:24:11.040 --> 0:24:14.359 And you did, but for only eighteen months. 0:24:14.840 --> 0:24:21.119 For eighteen months, yes, I started a small company. I 0:24:21.200 --> 0:24:24.000 went to work for a local motel as a chief engineer, 0:24:24.119 --> 0:24:26.800 where I was second in command over the motel. And 0:24:26.840 --> 0:24:32.440 that's where I was working when I received eighteen months later, 0:24:33.480 --> 0:24:39.000 received an absolutely devastating phone call from a media reporter 0:24:39.920 --> 0:24:42.920 asking me what my opinion was about the Montana Supreme 0:24:42.960 --> 0:24:46.360 Court decision to send me back to prison. And when 0:24:46.359 --> 0:24:49.119