Richmond VA Jan 12 2013
Bennett S. Barbour, proven innocent of a 1978 rape by DNA testing in 2010, died Thursday at a hospice in Richmond.Barbour, 57, suffered from brittle bone disease for much of his life and was in pain from bone cancer in recent years.He lived long enough to have his name cleared of the rape by the Virginia Supreme Court last year and, after the intervention of Gov. Bob McDonnell, he was able to vote in November for the first and last time.
“That really made him feel a lot better about himself,” said Maureen Barbour, one of his four sisters.
McDonnell said this morning that, “It is with great sadness that I learned of the passing of Bennett Barbour. Bennett had waged two fights: a long battle with bone cancer and a long effort to clear his name of a wrongful rape conviction more than 30 years ago.”
“My office worked with him to restore his voting rights so that he was able to exercise his right to vote on November 6 for the first and sadly only time,” said the governor. “Our thoughts and prayers are with Bennett's loved ones in this difficult time,” he said.
Barbour, however, passed before the convicted rapist now charged with the 35-year-old assault in Williamsburg could be tried and before he could obtain compensation from the state for wrongful imprisonment.
Maureen Barbour said her brother died in his sleep Thursday afternoon. He is also survived by his mother, Dorothy Barbour, 86; two brothers; a daughter, Zekita Barbour; and three grandchildren.
A native of Ruthville, in rural Charles City County, Barbour was convicted of the rape of a College of William and Mary student in Williamsburg, in a case of mistaken identity.
Barbour, who lost his new wife as a result of the rape conviction, always maintained he was innocent. He served four and a half years in prison for the rape and unrelated burglary and grand larceny charges for which he pleaded guilty in 1978.
Then in 2010 DNA testing -- part of the Virginia Department of Forensic Science's post-conviction DNA project -- failed to identify Barbour's genetic profile in evidence left at the scene of the rape, but did identify the DNA of a convicted rapist, James Glass, who is set to be tried for the 35-year-old crime on Feb. 27.
Though he lived just a few miles from Ruthville where he was arrested in 1978, authorities did not locate Barbour using registered mail. He did not learn testing had cleared him until last year when a volunteer lawyer, Jon Sheldon, located him.
The delay in locating Barbour prompted the General Assembly to pass legislation that made public the identities of more than 70 other persons convicted of crimes decades ago whose DNA was not identified by recent testing.
The Innocence Project and others are now studying those cases to see if there are any other wrongly convicted persons among them.
Last fall, as the election approached, Barbour obtained a voter identification card mistakenly believing he was eligible to vote after the Virginia Supreme Court cleared him of the rape conviction.
However, because he had the other, lesser felony convictions and $1,100 in unpaid court costs, he was ineligible to vote.
After his predicament was reported in The Times Dispatch, volunteers raised money to pay his court costs and McDonnell stepped in and made it possible for Barbour to cast a ballot.
Always a slightly built man, he was rail thin on Nov. 6 when he voted at the Charles City Social Center in a wheelchair. “It really felt good, it really did,” said Bennett afterwards.
James Neale, a Charlottesville lawyer representing Barbour, said state Sen. Donald McEachin, D-Richmond, filed a bill this week that would provide $162,844 to Barbour with an emergency clause that would make it law immediately upon passage.
The law providing for the compensation of wrongfully imprisoned persons states in part that: "No estate of or personal representative for a decedent shall be entitled to seek a claim for compensation for wrongful incarceration."
Neale said, “My understanding is it will have to be amended given his death. I hope that that doesn’t call into question its passage." Neale said it was important to Barbour the legislature recognize his exoneration and compensate him.
“It’s another opportunity for the attorney general’s office and the governor’s office and certainly for the legislature to express the absolute unacceptability of the wrongful conviction and do everything we can for Mr. Barbour’s legacy and for his family,” said Neale.
Neale said that when he last spoke with Bennett recently, “he was very happy there at Manor Home and, amazingly, he felt like he was a lucky man.”
Matthew Engle and Deirdre Enright, with the Innocence Project at the University of Virginia law School who helped Barbour win his writ of actual innocence from the Virginia Supreme Court, said they were saddened by his death.
“For more than three decades, he fought to clear his name after being wrongfully convicted of rape. We know that he was grateful that the commonwealth finally acknowledged his innocence when DNA testing exonerated him,” said Enright.
She said, “We hope that the commonwealth will now compensate his family, who also suffered greatly through this ordeal, but stood unwaveringly by his side.”
Nate Green, the Williamsburg/James City County commonwealth's attorney, said, “No words or comments from a prosecutor can ever set right the horrible truth that Mr. Barbour was convicted and incarcerated for a crime he did not commit.”
“I can only hope that the fact that he lived long enough to be exonerated, and to see his name cleared of this awful crime, brought him some level of peace,” said Green, who was in grade school when Barbour was prosecuted.
Maureen Barbour said this morning that funeral arrangements were incomplete.
Source: Richmond Times Daily