Barry Allan Beach (born February 15, 1962)[1] is an American who was sentenced to 100 years in prison without parole in 1984 for the 1979 murder of Kimberly Nees in Poplar, Montana.
Later that morning, police found her family's pickup truck at a well-known party spot half a mile outside of town.
[4] Nees’ sweater was found folded neatly near the back of the truck with her purse and a pack of cigarettes placed on top.
Residents of Poplar rumored that the murder was a "jealousy killing" and that three or four peers in town were involved in her death.
During the case, the prosecutor, Marc Racicot, argued that the detailed confession that Beach provided was one that only the killer could have made.
Because of his entrance, the evidence stored inside, including a strand of pubic hair recovered from the crime scene, was inadmissible in court.
[4] However, prosecutor Marc Racicot told the jury that a pubic hair had been found on Nees’ sweater and was "in fact, the defendant’s.
[8] At a subsequent job, Melnikoff was found incompetent and fired by the State of Washington for his inability to analyze hair.
Racicot claimed that footprints found at the scene, which did not match Beach's, could have been left by police, even though the prints indicated bare feet and sandals.
At trial, Racicot's argument placed a high level of significance on Beach's knowledge of what Nees was wearing the night of her murder.
The transcript suggested Via believed Nees was wearing a brown plaid shirt, very similar to the inaccuracy that appeared in Beach's confession.
The detective denied any wrongdoing, but some believe that Beach was fed details of the murder to make his confession more convincing.
[3] The lead detective who interrogated Beach in Louisiana, John "Jay" Via, was accused of misconduct in many cases over many years.
[11] According to Via's personnel file, he was suspended without pay on at least four occasions, placed on one-year probation, twice threatened with the possibility of termination, and ordered to undergo a neurological examination to ascertain whether there was anything "organically or physically wrong with his ability to think and remember".
Beach claimed that he gave the confession because he had been instructed to do so and was told that he could prove his innocence later when he was transported back to Montana.
[3] Beach requested help from Centurion Ministries, who agreed to research his case after their investigators reviewed the facts of the case and noticed an absence of physical evidence that tied Beach to the murder, despite the abundance of evidence collected at the crime scene.
[14] Centurion's investigators uncovered evidence, including testimonies from people who said that a group of girls confessed to killing Nees.
[8] In August 2006, Centurion Ministries submitted an application for clemency on Beach's behalf to the office of then-governor Brian Schweitzer.
[16] Centurion Ministries used the analysis of Professor Richard Leo, an expert in false confessions, to support Beach.
[4] The Montana Board of Pardons and Parole rejected the application on August 23, 2007, stating that "no proof of innocence, or newly discovered evidence of nonguilt" was presented.
"It is apparent to us that it would have been impossible to create so detailed and so correct a false confession in any event: but the validity of that observation is underscored brightly by the facts that Mr. Beach knew and explained much which the officers had not been able to piece together," the board said.
Montana Attorney General also claimed that none of the evidence exonerated Beach or suggested multiple attackers were involved.
Camiel argued that the circumstances of the case had changed since the board rejected his earlier request for clemency.
Senator Conrad Burns, former Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer and Billings Mayor Tom Hanel wrote letters to the Board supporting Beach's petition for clemency.
The bill, which grew out of Beach's case, says the governor can consider any clemency application regardless of the board's recommendation.