Montana is finally taking a step in the right direction. It was reported July 1, 2008 that the Montana Supreme Court added Barry Beach´s case to the upcoming docket. Centurion Ministries has until July 11th to finalize a thirty page brief stating Barry´s cause. So far so good. The Montana Attorney General´s office then has thirty days to respond. Another dodge and parry begins.
The Attorney General´s office has not been Barry´s friend in the past 25 years. Marc Racicot, who reportedly vowed to keep him incarcerated, had the dubious pleasure of maintaining Barry´s status quo. Hopefully current Montana Attorney General Mike McGrath will not follow in Racicot´s allegedly corrupt footsteps. Placing this case on the docket is the right thing to do.
Poplar residents have known the truth in this case since day one. The lies and deceit lived in secret almost like Agatha Christie´s Murder on the Orient Express. The players, and others who held damning knowledge, shamelessly resolved to keep their mouths shut. Easy to do in the little drugged-up, strung-out, out-of-the-way town of Poplar, Montana.
The initial sloppiness of the investigation, coupled with the arrogance of ambitious local politicians and the second rate Feds assigned to the case, led to this 25 year embarrassment that places Montana in the national spotlight. The question is: how are they going to get out of this one?
The answer is easy. They have to admit they made a mistake--a big one. And pay up.
Montana authorities do not even have to face the truth if they do not possess enough testicular fortitude to do so. All they have to do is admit there was no hard evidence to put Barry Beach in prison for the murder of Kim Nees in the first place. Never has been. A coerced confession is all they had; oh, and a bucket of prosecutorial misconduct dumped into the jurors' laps.
In spite of Barry Beach´s confession, just about everyone else in Poplar knows he was not down by the Poplar River the night Kim Nees was murdered. In fact, he was never with Kim Nees that night. The people of Poplar know who committed the crime. They know it was covered up. There are many who remember what they saw; and, last I checked, a group of girls in a pickup truck does not resemble Barry Beach at all.
But folks are afraid.
Many are afraid of Marc Racicot. Interesting, don´t you think? Why should one be afraid of the former governor, a public servant, a man who is purportedly ´for the people´? Could it be his rumored links to the railway and the hi-line drug running and unsolved murders are true? Could it be he covered up a lot more than evidence? Could it be that the Nees family helped him get into politics, and he kept quiet, at best out of a skewed sense of loyalty, at worst out of his own nefarious ambition? Could it be reopening the Kim Nees case will be a proverbial Pandora´s Box, releasing skeletons and cumuli that would cast a pall unlike anything Montana has ever experienced?
Others are afraid of reprisal in town. They are afraid for their businesses, their homes, their lives. In all of the excuses I heard, Sissy Atkinson´s and Maude Grayhawk Kirn´s names always come up, along with a few others. Certainly the beating Kim Nees received that took her life that night was not unlike other beatings inflicted by that same roaming group of female mongrels. It was not the first time they did it, nor the last. The only actual difference is most of the other victims of this feminine nastiness lived to tell about it. All seemingly plausible excuses to Poplar residents; but, certainly not plausible to the rest of the United States.
Interestingly, some anonymous bloggers on the Montanans for Justice website recently surfaced posting dimwitted messages offering that "lives would be destroyed" and "families ripped apart" if the Kim Nees case were reopened. No one worried about that 24 years ago, now, did they? No one worried what would happen to a young man who would be wrongly imprisoned. No one worried about the false sense of justice for putting the wrong man in jail. No one worried about the toll it would take on both the victim´s family or the accused man´s family. No one worried because they were all saving their own disgustingly pathetic carcasses--only to boast later they had gotten away with murder. Yes, better to keep it in the box. One man´s life to save so many other derrieres. Seems almost fair if you look at it from a criminal´s perspective.
What happened is done. It is only a matter of time that those who committed the crime will pay. The Poplar group is a selfish lot, and the first one to crack will throw the rest under the bus. There will be so many fingers pointing, it will look like a Palm Beach County election.
But, all that is secondary to what needs to happen now.
The people of Montana are standing before an open door, leading to justice. They have placed one foot in the right direction. Barry Beach deserves to receive justice first. After that, Montana can search for the truth so Kim Nees may have justice as well. Until then, Montana must swallow hard and admit its mistake by taking that second step toward justice and free Barry Beach. Following his release, restitution should be provided for years stolen and a life derailed.
Governor Schweitzer is in a precarious position between sinner and saint. He must chose wisely in this election year; only then can Montana save face in the eyes of the country.
The Attorney General´s office has not been Barry´s friend in the past 25 years. Marc Racicot, who reportedly vowed to keep him incarcerated, had the dubious pleasure of maintaining Barry´s status quo. Hopefully current Montana Attorney General Mike McGrath will not follow in Racicot´s allegedly corrupt footsteps. Placing this case on the docket is the right thing to do.
Poplar residents have known the truth in this case since day one. The lies and deceit lived in secret almost like Agatha Christie´s Murder on the Orient Express. The players, and others who held damning knowledge, shamelessly resolved to keep their mouths shut. Easy to do in the little drugged-up, strung-out, out-of-the-way town of Poplar, Montana.
The initial sloppiness of the investigation, coupled with the arrogance of ambitious local politicians and the second rate Feds assigned to the case, led to this 25 year embarrassment that places Montana in the national spotlight. The question is: how are they going to get out of this one?
The answer is easy. They have to admit they made a mistake--a big one. And pay up.
Montana authorities do not even have to face the truth if they do not possess enough testicular fortitude to do so. All they have to do is admit there was no hard evidence to put Barry Beach in prison for the murder of Kim Nees in the first place. Never has been. A coerced confession is all they had; oh, and a bucket of prosecutorial misconduct dumped into the jurors' laps.
In spite of Barry Beach´s confession, just about everyone else in Poplar knows he was not down by the Poplar River the night Kim Nees was murdered. In fact, he was never with Kim Nees that night. The people of Poplar know who committed the crime. They know it was covered up. There are many who remember what they saw; and, last I checked, a group of girls in a pickup truck does not resemble Barry Beach at all.
But folks are afraid.
Many are afraid of Marc Racicot. Interesting, don´t you think? Why should one be afraid of the former governor, a public servant, a man who is purportedly ´for the people´? Could it be his rumored links to the railway and the hi-line drug running and unsolved murders are true? Could it be he covered up a lot more than evidence? Could it be that the Nees family helped him get into politics, and he kept quiet, at best out of a skewed sense of loyalty, at worst out of his own nefarious ambition? Could it be reopening the Kim Nees case will be a proverbial Pandora´s Box, releasing skeletons and cumuli that would cast a pall unlike anything Montana has ever experienced?
Others are afraid of reprisal in town. They are afraid for their businesses, their homes, their lives. In all of the excuses I heard, Sissy Atkinson´s and Maude Grayhawk Kirn´s names always come up, along with a few others. Certainly the beating Kim Nees received that took her life that night was not unlike other beatings inflicted by that same roaming group of female mongrels. It was not the first time they did it, nor the last. The only actual difference is most of the other victims of this feminine nastiness lived to tell about it. All seemingly plausible excuses to Poplar residents; but, certainly not plausible to the rest of the United States.
Interestingly, some anonymous bloggers on the Montanans for Justice website recently surfaced posting dimwitted messages offering that "lives would be destroyed" and "families ripped apart" if the Kim Nees case were reopened. No one worried about that 24 years ago, now, did they? No one worried what would happen to a young man who would be wrongly imprisoned. No one worried about the false sense of justice for putting the wrong man in jail. No one worried about the toll it would take on both the victim´s family or the accused man´s family. No one worried because they were all saving their own disgustingly pathetic carcasses--only to boast later they had gotten away with murder. Yes, better to keep it in the box. One man´s life to save so many other derrieres. Seems almost fair if you look at it from a criminal´s perspective.
What happened is done. It is only a matter of time that those who committed the crime will pay. The Poplar group is a selfish lot, and the first one to crack will throw the rest under the bus. There will be so many fingers pointing, it will look like a Palm Beach County election.
But, all that is secondary to what needs to happen now.
The people of Montana are standing before an open door, leading to justice. They have placed one foot in the right direction. Barry Beach deserves to receive justice first. After that, Montana can search for the truth so Kim Nees may have justice as well. Until then, Montana must swallow hard and admit its mistake by taking that second step toward justice and free Barry Beach. Following his release, restitution should be provided for years stolen and a life derailed.
Governor Schweitzer is in a precarious position between sinner and saint. He must chose wisely in this election year; only then can Montana save face in the eyes of the country.
