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To: Missouri Legislature
This petition has been raised for Walter (Arkie) Barton - an Innocent from Death Row in Missouri. Arkie's conviction has now been reversed, and he sits in County jail awaiting a FIFTH trial.
(Sadly, this is Arkie's second petition. The original with 796 signatures was hacked into, either by someone with a grudge, or someone who may be concerned about too many people now being convinced of his innocence - who knows? - and removed. So, I apologise for any inconvenience if you've already signed the previous petition.)
Please read the text of the following newspaper article:) - copied from The Daily Journal, St. Francois, Co., Wednesday, November 20, 1996.
NEW TRIAL FOR DEATH ROW INMATE
Jefferson City, Mo. (AP) - The Missouri Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered a new trial for death row inmate Walter Barton because part of his lawyer's closing argument was blocked by the trial judge.
Barton, 40, was convicted of first-degree murder in 1994 by a Christian County Circuit Court jury for killing Gladys Kuehler in her trailer home in 1991. He was sentenced to death.
The prosecution said Mrs Kuehler was killed between 3pm and 4pm and that a friend called the trailer around 3:15pm, and Barton answered the phone.
Barton's attorney noted the woman's granddaughter said she'd talked to her for about 25 minutes, sometime after 3pm.
His attorney said since the neighbour was certain of the time, the granddaughter's call was later, meaning Barton wasn't there when the murder occurred.
The prosecution's objection to the defense attorney's comments was sustained by the trial judge and that line of argument was dropped.
"The argument by defense counsel was obviously essential to Barton's defense that he could not have committed the murder," the court ruled. "It was also justified by the facts in the record. Therefore, the trial court abused its discretion by sustaining the inmate's objection and denying the defense this argument."
Regarding the above article. The prosecutor has given Eviction as a motive for the murder. What he's failed to mention is the fact that the 3:15pm caller was the trailer park OWNER - who testified that when he spoke with Arkie - he was perfectly normal. If there was "bad air" between the trailer park OWNER and Arkie because of an alleged eviction - wouldn't you expect a stronger response? And what would Arkie have been doing there that day performing maintenance tasks for the old lady if she had evicted him? And why would she have given him a loan for 50 dollars - she wrote a cheque that day which Arkie never received. But that cheque was found AFTER being removed from the trailer on the day of the murder. There are fingerprints on it - but not Arkie's.
There was also a hair found in the victim's hand - not Arkie's nor the victim's. There are three people who testified that Arkie was in their car with them at 3:50pm - being given a lift to his place of employment to pick up his paycheck. They're fairly sure that he was still wearing the same clothes from earlier that day. Is this likely to be the case if you've stabbed someone within the previous hour, over 37 times?
The prosecutor has also released that the granddaughter and a neighbour found the body - nothing about Arkie being present at the time. He was picked up, collected, and taken to the site with these people to discover the body. He offered to kick the door in, and that offer was declined. Considering this was an old lady who's been incommunicado for a period of time and who is not in the best of health, and who time would have been of the essence with - isn't this delay questionable in itself?
Arkie's case stinks. Not least because the previous judge has been removed because of bias in the case - for commending a jailhouse witness who was testifying against Arkie to the judge in another county, which resulted in those charges being dropped. Strange coincidence?
And the MAIN Jailhouse witness - the jury were told that the woman only had six counts of bad checks. It transpires that the woman had no less than EIGHTEEN counts against her - of far more severity than bad checks. She was a considerable con-artist - had several aliases and social security numbers. This is the person who the charges were dropped against, in exchange for her testimony.
If our cars broke down after going to a bad garage - would we take them back there? NO. But we have no problems with placing the responsibility for the destruction of an innocent man's life in the hands of a prosecutor who's already brought about the FIFTH trial with Misconduct. Does anyone seriously believe that True Justice - or Arkie's innocence of guilt - is of any consequence to the prosecutor under these circumstances?
In the meantime - Missouri taxpayers pay for this farce out of their hard-earned money. My husband has already lost FOURTEEN years of his life - and may stand to forfeit it entirely. Is this JUSTICE?
Please sign to show your disgust with this case, and the faults and failings of the Justice System.
Many thanks.
Sincerely,
The Undersigned
Posted by lichtundjesus
at 6:19 PM EST
