Montana man eager for possible release from prison for a murder he says he didn't commit

Barry Beach has spent more than half his life in prison for a crime he says he didn't commit. A judge in Lewiston agrees it is possible and could let him walk out of law enforcement custody for the first time in 28 years.

"The clear and convincing evidence demonstrates that a jury could find that Beach is actually innocent of his crimes," wrote Fergus County District Court Judge Wayne Phillips. This starts the process from the beginning as if Beach was just charged.

In 1983, Roosevelt County convicted and sentenced Beach to 100 years in prison for the 1979 killing of Kim Nees outside Poplar. The state used a confession obtained by Louisiana law enforcement that Beach says was coerced. Beach's lawyers worked for years to get him a new trial, including a successful motion earlier this year to move the trial from Roosevelt County to Fergus County. Just before Thanksgiving, Judge Phillips granted Beach a new trial.

If the judge sets a bond price Wednesday that Beach can afford, he will walk out of the Fergus County Jail without handcuffs.

As Beach walked out of his housing unit into the prison yard to meet visitors Monday, inmates yelled from the windows, "Justice!" and "What are you still doing here?"

The first thing Beach says he will do if he gets out is go to the Yogo Inn in Lewistown and go swimming, something he hasn't been able to do since he was a teenager.

"I want to go out; I want to see the colors and smells of a shopping mall; I want to go hunting and fishing; I want to drive my truck; I want to see the Washington Redskins play the Cowboys."

If Beach is bailed out, he will put on his No. 28 Washington Redskins Darrell Green jerseyand walk out of the jail where he is temporarily held. Without handcuffs, he will raise his hands in the air just as he has always dreamed. 

Darrell Green is Beach's favorite football player because he is close to the same age and was drafted to the NFL in 1983 — the same year Beach went to prison. Also, Beach could be released after 28 years — the same number Green wore.

Green retired after 20 years and relaxed, something Beach hasn't been able to do. Yet.

What Put Him Here

The Attorney General's Office could appeal the Honorable Judge Phillips' ruling for a new trial. If successful, Beach's 1983 conviction would stand. That process could take months. Or, Roosevelt County could decide to drop the charges and Beach would go free.

"I pray that they will have the courage to drop it," says Beach.

Even if the state pursues the charges again, it may be difficult to build a case.

The state said it could not find much of the physical evidence that existed in 1983 after Beach asked for it to be DNA-tested a few years ago. One piece of evidence that does remain is his confession.

In 1982, a 20-year-old Beach lived in Louisiana and worked construction. One day he took his step-sister out of high school and later was arrested for contributing to the delinquency of a minor. While in the county jail, investigators started to question him about some local murders and later about the murder of Kim Nees.

Beach says he was taught as a kid that if he hadn't done anything wrong he shouldn't fear the police because they are supposed to help people.

Over the course of hours, investigators took turns showing Beach gruesome photos of murders and telling him that if he confessed they could help him.

Beach says one of the investigators said, "We will watch you be electrocuted...your eyes will pop out... and I will push the button."

"I would have said anything to get out of there," says Beach.

Beach confessed to three murders in Louisiana, all of which were proven false because he wasn't in the state at the time, and to the murder of Kim Nees.

He regrets this mistake every day.

Trudging For Years

The first 18 years of Beach's sentence, he couldn't find anyone to help him with his legal fight.

"I was living in a bubble of daily desperation," says Beach. "Always fighting, always researching."

In 1992 he wrote his first letter to Centurion Ministriesafter watching a television special about a man they exonerated. CM is a non-profit organization that works to free people who are innocent of the crimes for which they were convicted. CM staff reviewed the paperwork in Beach's case for about five years to verify his claim of innocence and then began their own investigation in August 2000.

More than ten years later, after hundreds of interviews and phone calls, investigators may finally be able to close this case.

If Centurion Ministries is able to free Beach it will be their 48th exoneration in 30 years, says Executive Director Jim McCloskey.

"I personally believe that the judge wants him out," says McCloskey. "I think he will set a bail … I am hoping the bail is around $50,000, but we are prepared to go up to $100,000 to get Barry out."

McCloskey and the two Centurion investigators for Beach's case will be in Lewistown, as well as Beach's lawyer to hopefully welcome him back into society. Beach says supporters, many of whom learned about the case from a 2008 Dateline special, are trying to fly in from Michigan, Washington and Maryland for his possible release.