wheezer
01-09-2009, 04:46 PM
It's official: Barnes exonerated on all charges
UTICA —
Steven Barnes didn’t want to cry Friday morning, but he couldn’t help it.
“I just wanted to say this is the happiest day of my life,” Barnes said as he choked back emotion and lowered his head in silence while a courtroom packed with family, friends and news reporters anxiously looked on.
Moments earlier, the sound of applause greeted the announcement in Oneida County Court that 42-year-old Barnes was officially exonerated of all the murder, rape and sodomy charges he was wrongfully convicted of nearly 20 years ago in the 1985 slaying of 16-year-old Kimberly Simon.
“I’m glad this nightmare is over,” said Barnes as he used both arms to brace himself against a podium. “I want to thank the community and all the support I had from family and friends.”
Up until Barnes was released from prison Nov. 25 based on recent DNA tests that proved he did not sexually assault Simon, much of Barnes' friends and family never stopped believing in the Marcy man’s innocence.
They also never lost faith in the type of person that Barnes always was.
“I couldn’t be prouder of him,” Barnes’ mother, Sylvia Bouchard, said shortly after Oneida County District Attorney McNamara dismissed the remaining indictment against Barnes Friday.
“That’s my boy,” she said. “I could never be ashamed of him.”
But, Bouchard then added, “I’m ashamed of our judicial system for allowing this to happen, and they did allow this to happen.”
Although McNamara quietly disappeared from the courtroom as family and news reporters flocked to Barnes, the district attorney did take a moment to publicly apologize to Barnes for something that happened long before he ever took office.
http://www.uticaod.com/news/x497784091/Its-official-Barnes-exonerated-on-all-charges
Rest of article at link.
UTICA —
Steven Barnes didn’t want to cry Friday morning, but he couldn’t help it.
“I just wanted to say this is the happiest day of my life,” Barnes said as he choked back emotion and lowered his head in silence while a courtroom packed with family, friends and news reporters anxiously looked on.
Moments earlier, the sound of applause greeted the announcement in Oneida County Court that 42-year-old Barnes was officially exonerated of all the murder, rape and sodomy charges he was wrongfully convicted of nearly 20 years ago in the 1985 slaying of 16-year-old Kimberly Simon.
“I’m glad this nightmare is over,” said Barnes as he used both arms to brace himself against a podium. “I want to thank the community and all the support I had from family and friends.”
Up until Barnes was released from prison Nov. 25 based on recent DNA tests that proved he did not sexually assault Simon, much of Barnes' friends and family never stopped believing in the Marcy man’s innocence.
They also never lost faith in the type of person that Barnes always was.
“I couldn’t be prouder of him,” Barnes’ mother, Sylvia Bouchard, said shortly after Oneida County District Attorney McNamara dismissed the remaining indictment against Barnes Friday.
“That’s my boy,” she said. “I could never be ashamed of him.”
But, Bouchard then added, “I’m ashamed of our judicial system for allowing this to happen, and they did allow this to happen.”
Although McNamara quietly disappeared from the courtroom as family and news reporters flocked to Barnes, the district attorney did take a moment to publicly apologize to Barnes for something that happened long before he ever took office.
http://www.uticaod.com/news/x497784091/Its-official-Barnes-exonerated-on-all-charges
Rest of article at link.