Illegal in Virginaia Accused of Murdered Released Again

The reunion was no less emotional for beingness minor and breezy. On the cold, sunny morning time of Jan. 4, Lamar Edward Barnes stepped out of the Sussex II country prison in Waverly, Virginia, and into the embrace of waiting family members. For the commencement time in 2 decades, he was a free man.

He also turned and hugged 2 of the people who helped secure his release from prison for a offense he did non commit: Professor Jennifer Givens, director of the Innocence Project at the University of Virginia School of Police, and acquaintance managing director and Professor Juliet Hatchett '15. A third member of the team, Simonne Brousseau '20, was delayed past bad weather just present in spirit. Besides present — but watching from distant because he had COVID-xix — was Zach Gaver 'xx, a former clinic pupil who worked on the instance for more than two years.

"Everyone was blithesome," Hatchett recalled. "It's non the sort of event that you always become used to."

After several years of investigation and advancement by the clinic, Barnes received a pardon from Gov. Ralph Northam in the terminal days of his term. "This absolute pardon reflects Barnes' innocence of the convictions handed down to him ….," the governor's office said in a statement.

Barnes hugs his female parent at a restaurant later his release.

Barnes had spent almost xx years behind bars after existence charged in early 2002 with killing Amy McRae and wounding her fiancé, Mark King, at a house in Portsmouth. McRae died but her unborn infant and Rex survived. Barnes, who has maintained his innocence from the beginning, was convicted in August 2003 of kickoff-caste murder, malicious wounding and firearms charges, and was sentenced to life without parole plus 28 years.

The case came to the attention of the clinic only in 2018, Hatchett said. Brousseau and Gaver assisted Givens and Hatchett, get-go every bit students in the for-credit Innocence Project class, and later through the Innocence Project'south pro bono clinic. After finishing a clerkship, Brousseau rejoined the team, working pro bono as an associate with the Washington, D.C., part of the law firm Faegre Drinker.

Conducting a comprehensive investigation, the Innocence Project team was able not only to rebut the commonwealth's evidence against Barnes but to establish an affirmative alibi as well. All three surviving victims, who were the chief witnesses confronting Barnes at trial, recanted their testimony. 2, who were teenagers at the time, admitted that they had never known the bodily gunman's identity and had succumbed to prosecutorial pressure to identify Barnes at trial. King, who survived a gunshot wound to the caput, was adamant that Barnes was not the man who shot him or his fiancé, swearing in a statement that he had just identified Barnes considering prosecutors threatened him with prison to secure his testimony.

The team also plant witnesses who swore that Barnes was never at the scene of the crime, though Barnes' court-appointed lawyer had non called them to testify at trial. These witnesses explained that Barnes was playing video games at an apartment complex at the time of the shooting and that an alternate doubtable had committed the crime. Provided admission to Barnes' file past the current democracy's chaser in Portsmouth, the Innocence Project lawyers discovered that prosecutors had committed misconduct, suppressed exculpatory show and failed to disclose that the alternative doubtable was cooperating with local police.

Armed with this prove, the project submitted Barnes' example to the Virginia Office of the Attorney Full general's Conviction Integrity Unit of measurement, which began its own investigation early terminal year and besides concluded that Barnes was innocent. The projection filed for a writ of habeas corpus in land circuit court every bit well as a petition for a writ of actual innocence in the Virginia Court of Appeals. While those actions were awaiting, Northam intervened and awarded Barnes a pardon Jan. 4.

The case is i of several recent victories for the Police School'south Innocence Projection. But in the month of January, two other clients — Eric Weakley and Jervon Tillman — received full pardons from Northam, and ii boosted clients — Kevin "Suge" Knight and Gilbert Merritt – were released from prison on conditional pardons. Founded in 2008 at the urging of now-UVA President Jim Ryan '92, and then vice dean, in coordination with so-Dean John C. Jeffries '73, the Innocence Project offers a yearlong, for-credit grade in which students proceeds applied experience investigating and litigating wrongful convictions beyond the commonwealth. Students can besides participate in a split up, non-credit pro bono clinic. In 2019, the project launched a policy team to advocate for more systemic reforms to Virginia'south criminal justice law.

"This instance was incredibly of import to me," said Brousseau, who spent more than 2 years working on it. "Every finding pointed towards [Barnes'] innocence."

Securing a prisoner'due south release is not the final step in the project's piece of work, withal. They also try to put support networks in identify to help newly released clients reenter society. The project'southward website, for case, posts a link to Barnes' Amazon wish list and then interested people can buy items such as article of clothing or gift cards to help him get back on his anxiety.

"I feel expert, son, I'm talking most existent proficient. I don't even have the words to explain it," Barnes said on his cousin'due south Facebook Live video shortly afterward his release. That'south the sort of response that means everything to Givens, Hatchett and their students.

"Our piece of work can be massively depressing," Hatchett acknowledged. "Y'all see horrible suffering and tragedy. But you can also see victories — like this 1 — against all odds. That is what gets us in here every day."

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Source: https://www.law.virginia.edu/news/202201/innocence-project-client-pardoned-released-after-20-years-prison

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