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Bennett Barbour Research Papers

777 Words4 Pages

Jami Bull
Mr. Mollenger
Forensics Science
23 February 2018 Power of Proof The Innocence Project is a non-profit legal organization that helps people prove their innocence when wrongfully convicted through new DNA testing. 70% of eyewitnesses misidentified and 45% involved misapplication of forensic science. (“DNA Exonerations in the United States.”) The Innocence Project was founded in 1992 by Barry Scheck and Peter Neufeld. Bennett Barbour was one of the many to be saved by the Project. He was sentenced to 5 years and 30 years of parole for the rape of a young college girl. (“Bennett Barbour.” Innocence Project). The Innocence Project helped him when he felt hopeless and gave him a life not behind bars, his story is as life changing …show more content…

They had little evidence other than the victims description, hair, and seman. The victim described the culprit as a male who weighed about 145 pounds and was 5’6” tall. She has a line up and chose Barbours. Barbour had a brittle- bone disease and a pin in his elbow making him capable of committing this crime very difficult. He weighed about 115 pounds at the time of the arrest. Also, his blood type was B and the blood found at the crime scene was A; although, the victim's blood type was A. The hair also did not match Barbours. His alibi was watching tv was confirmed by three witnesses at trial. There was little to no physical evidence linking him at the crime scene, only the eyewitness testimony. He was convicted on April 14,1978, (“Innocence Project Bennett …show more content…

In 2004 Mark Warner ordered the DNA evidence to be retested from 31 cases. This cleared some other people who were wrongly convicted. So he retested about 800 more cases. After completing this task that took seven years they released this information. A man by the name of Sheldon contacted Barbour in 2012, and informed him on the new DNA testing and that they retested his. Resulting in Barbour to contact the Innocence Project, which agreed to represent him.
In June of 2010, he wasn't informed of his innocence till 18 months later, due to complications of locating him. They finally found the right man who convicted the crime and Barbour was ecstatic that he was finally proven innocent. He was 57 years old. He got to vote in his first presidential election he said “ it felt good, it really did”. Sadly, Barbour died on January 10th, 2013 he struggled with bone cancer. The Innocence Program gave Barbour the ability to vote and gave him his freedom

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