Bullock’s decision to grant Beach clemency follows a law passed earlier this year by the Montana Legislature which allows the governor to overrule decisions by the Montana Board of Pardons & Parole. Beach, 53, is serving a 100-year sentence at Montana State Prison in the beating death of high school classmate Kimberly Nees in the small town of Poplar, in northeast Montana.
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A Montana man convicted of murder and who claimed innocence has been granted clemency.
Bullock a year ago asked the state parole board to consider whether Beach served enough time in prison.
Montana’s governor granted clemency on Friday to a man convicted of murder as a teenager in the 1979 bludgeoning death of a female classmate in a case that ignited debate about severe punishment of teen offenders. “You don’t get out of here after twenty-some years and have a secure future”, Beach said.
“I’ve yet to actually read the governor’s order, so I don’t know what the terminology is, but it’s my understanding it is a few type of a time served, so no, the chances of coming back this time which was probably my worst experience in life to be honest with you was having to come turn myself in and come back to this place”. It took me a couple years to overcome that moment.
Flanked by supporters, the 53-year-old Beach told reporters he expected “a lot of healing and a lot of tears” during the four-hour drive back to his Billings home.
A cousin of the victim, Glenna Nees Lockman, said Friday it was shameful Beach had been released without someone else being charged in the crime. If it’s not Barry Beach, go to court and prove who it is’.
Members of Kimberly Nees’ family said Friday that releasing Beach with so many questions unanswered was a mistake.
“I never dreamed that this would be what it will be”, Beach said, as he looked westward to 10,168-foot tall Mount Powell in the Flint Creek Range.
Beach confessed to killing Nees in 1983 after authorities in Louisiana picked him up for an unrelated crime. Beach will remain on probation for 10 years, supervised by the state Department of Corrections. Jon Tester, former Gov. Brian Schweitzer and former Republican US Sen.
Democratic Gov. Steve Bullock signed a clemency order allowing his release Friday. Instead, Bullock pointed to Beach’s time served and good behavior while also acknowledging the unusually harsh nature of his sentence.
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“In the spring of 2014 when the parole board basically blocked Beach’s application for clemency and refused to forward that to the governor, even though he has written to them and requested that he be given the opportunity to weigh in on it, I felt that signaled to me that that there was something broken in our system”.
