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Montana judge frees Barry Beach pending homicide retrial

Thu, 08 Dec 2011 21:51:49 GMT

Thursday, December 8, 2011

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A judge in Montana yesterday released Barry Beach after 28 years and eleven months behind bars. Beach confessed to a 1979 killing but has since maintained his innocence and now he's been granted a new trial.

Yesterday saw the state try a last-minute appeal to overturn District Judge E. Wayne Phillips's decision a few weeks prior to grant Beach a new trial. Phillips rejected that, and also declined a motion to stay Beach's bail hearing pending an appeal against the new trial to the Montana Supreme Court. The state sought a bond of $250,000, but he was released on his own recognizance on the basis he has no money and has already served more time than people with similar convictions.

The case revolves around the murder of seventeen-year-old Kim Nees. The crime went unsolved until police arrested Beach for another offence and he confessed. No other evidence links Beach to the crime and he says his confession — in which he describes trying to kiss schoolmate Nees, being fought off, and hitting her with a tire iron and wrench — was coerced. Rumours have always abounded that a group of girls beat Nees to death near Poplar on the Fort Peck Indian Reservation.

Beach was convicted in 1984 of deliberate homicide. A 100-year prison term was handed down. The retrial will now have to focus upon a typed transcript of Beach's disputed confession with the original audio tape missing. There is no DNA evidence, and one of the points for retrial was local police making mistakes in how they treated the scant evidence from the scene at the time.

Beach and supporters accuse several women of being behind the murder, who all deny involvement. However, as the years have gone by friends, family, and colleagues of these women have told of confessions describing a gang fight that went too far and the court heard this summer from a woman who was a youngster at the time of hearing shrill cries from a girl-on-girl attack. The judge called this "extraordinarily credible and believable". At least one of the accused girls has expressed disappointment at not being asked to defend her innocence at the hearing.

Beach's case was statewide news in 2007 when the parole board held an unusual multiday hearing to consider sentence commutation or a pardon for Beach, which was ultimately rejected. Case prosecutor Marc Racicot — who went on to be state governor and have a national political career — told the board of his certainty in Beach's guilt. The Montana Supreme Court's current chief justice and one-time Attorney General Mike McGrath said at the time "I am grateful that the board has, in its own words 'laid this matter to rest.'"

Four points were raised by the state yesterday at appeal attempting to deny a retrial. All four were dismissed. The first was that Beach had little chance of success, the second that the court had not considered all the evidence, the third that the defence had no DNA evidence, and the fourth that there had been no breach of the Constitution.

Beach will stay with James Ziegler, who has visited him in prison, by his own count, between eight and ten times a year since 1984. Ziegler said he and his wife would be "honored" to have Beach and will help him find work. He has been ordered by the court to report any breaches of bail conditions by Beach, who was freed 26 years to the day since he entered Montana State Prison.

Even if reconvicted, Beach could be sentenced to time already served and remain a free man. "We must not forget that Kim Nees was brutally murdered," Judge Phillips said. When ordering the retrial, he noted that he was not fully convinced of Beach's innocence.

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Sources [edit]

"Beach released from prison without bond, will live in Billings" — KTVQ, December 8, 2011
"Beach released from prison without bond to await new trial" — Billings Gazette, December 7, 2011
Matt Gouras. "New trial in unusual case of 1979 Montana murder" — Associated Press, December 4, 2011

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EPA declares 'emergency' asbestos cleanup in Montana town

Sat, 20 Jun 2009 19:53:12 GMT

Saturday, June 20, 2009

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Health

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Press Release: "EPA Announces Public Health Emergency in Libby, Montana; EPA to Move Aggressively on Cleanup and HHS to Assist Area Residents with Medical Care" — United States Environmental Protection Agency, June 17, 2009
"Asbestos cleanup 'emergency' declared in Montana town" — CNN, June 17, 2009
Matthew Daly. "EPA declares health emergency in Montana town" — Associated Press, June 17, 2009

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FDA warning on pistachios after salmonella contamination

Wed, 01 Apr 2009 02:57:17 GMT

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Health

Sources [edit]

Daniel J. DeNoon. "1 million pounds of pistachios recalled" — ABC, March 31, 2009
Daniel J. DeNoon. "FDA: Stop Eating Pistachios, Salmonella Feared" — WebMD Health News, March 30, 2009
Garance Burke. "FDA says to avoid pistachios amid salmonella scare" — The Associated Press, March 30, 2009
"Kroger recalling shelled pistachios over salmonella worries" — Dayton Business Journal, March 30, 2009 Arkansas

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New Jersey files lawsuit against federal sports betting ban

Wed, 25 Mar 2009 23:59:52 GMT

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

New Jersey

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Wayne Parry. "NJ lawmaker sues to overturn US sports betting ban" — Associated Press, March 23, 2009
Jon Hurdle. "New Jersey files suit on sports-betting ban" — Reuters, March 23, 2009
Scott Goldstein. "N.J. lawmaker challenges federal ban on sports betting" — NJBiz, March 23, 2009

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Plane crashes in Montana, 17 killed

Mon, 23 Mar 2009 10:31:33 GMT

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Monday, March 23, 2009

Disasters and accidents

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A Pilatus PC-12 similar to the one that crashed in Butte, Montana

According to the United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), a single-engine passenger aeroplane has crashed in Butte, Montana, killing seventeen people.

The plane, a turboprop Pilatus PC-12, had departed from Oroville, California. Authorities said that the pilot had filed a flight plan to Bozeman, Montana, but cancelled it and diverted to Butte instead. The pilot attempted to land, but crashed into a cemetery about 150 metres (500 feet) from the aeroport, bursting into flames. Nobody on the ground died. The weather was reported to have been cloudy at the time.

Pat Ryan, a reporter for the Montana Standard newspaper, said that the authorities had sealed off the scene of the accident. "I did speak to one eyewitness who said he saw the plane approaching from the west and nosedive into the Holy Cross cemetery just short of the Burbon Lee airport here in Butte," he said. "I was on the scene speaking to eyewitnesses who basically described the plane coming in trying to make it to the runway and obviously not getting there."

A spokesman for the FAA said that the preliminary death toll was 17, and that several of the victims were children. "We think that it was probably a ski trip for the kids," he said.

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2009 Montana Pilatus PC-12 crash

"'Children die' in US plane crash" — BBC News Online, March 23, 2009
"Montana plane crash kills 17, including children" — Reuters, March 22, 2009
Jonathan Haynes. "Several killed in Montana plane crash" — guardian.co.uk, March 22, 2009

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	We will continue to push until Libby has a clean bill of health.
—Senator Max Baucus

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Montana judge frees Barry Beach pending homicide retrial

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EPA declares 'emergency' asbestos cleanup in Montana town

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