Bennett Barbour Case Summary

Eyewitness Bennett Barbour was a 22 year old, black male who was charged and convicted of rape in the state of Virginia. Barbour fought for over thirty years o clear his good name. Barbour was sentenced on for the alleged rape on April 15 of the same year. Bennett received a ten-year sentence for which he served four and a half years in prison. Barbour was exonerated on May 24, 2012. On February 7, 1978, the 19-year-old student that attended the College of William and Mary reported that she was sexually assaulted at gunpoint. She informed police investigators that on that afternoon she went to her “fiancé’s apartment in Williamsburg, Virginia after her morning class was cancelled. When she attempted to enter the apartment with her arms full of groceries, she was then confronted

Warner order roughly 1,000 DNA samples to be tested, from crimes dating back to the 1970s. One of the cases belonged to Bennett. The results in Barbour's case came back in 2010. Bennett Barbour's DNA does not match that of the victim's attacker. Barbour was wrongfully convicted of the crime of rape and DNA testing performed on the biological material from the rape kit and other evidence proved his innocence. Supreme Court of Virginia vacated Barbour's conviction on May 24, 2012. It took 34 years for Bennett Barbour to clear his name. After his release from prison, Barbour settled in the Williamsburg area, were fought to find work, due to being a convicted felon. Barbour passed on January 10, 2013 from bone cancer. Bennett Barbour’s estate was award $162,527 from the Virginia State legislature in April 2014. The DNA evidence came back as a positive hit for James Moses Glass Jr. Glass a convicted sex offender who was out on parole at the time. James was found guilty of rape, abduction with intent to defile, and two firearms violations. In October 2014, Glass was sentenced to life in prison. The victim could not positively ID James Glass during the