While serving as a state Senator, Dan

Weinberg first learned more about issues facing the justice

system.

Then Weinberg, of Whitefish, learned

about the Barry Beach case. After nearly three decades in prison,

Beach is seeking to prove his innocence. Beach was convicted of and

received a 100-year sentence for the 1979 murder of a 17-year-old

Poplar girl.

“I don’t think he committed this crime

— justice isn’t being done,” Weinberg remembers thinking about the

trial.

Legal proceedings to determine whether

a new hearing will be held in the Beach case are ongoing in Fergus

County District Court. Beach claims he gave a false confession to

the crime and none of the physical evidence links him to the

murder.

It was more than three years ago that

Weinberg first learned about Beach. Since then he has educated

himself more about wrongful conviction and created an organization

to assist those who claim innocence.

The Montana Innocence Project, founded

in 2008, is a statewide nonprofit organization dedicated to

exonerating inmates who are wrongly convicted and preventing

wrongful convictions. MTIP provides pro-bono legal and

investigative assistance to prisoners who pass screening.

Much of the project’s work focuses on

using DNA-testing for physical evidence. Around the country, some

273 people have been exonerated on the basis of DNA testing,

according to the national Innocence Project.

“DNA has shown us how fallible forensic

science can be — it has turned it on its head,” Weinberg said. “Eye

witnesses are not as accurate as we once thought, hair comparison

isn’t reliable and confessions can be coerced.”

Weinberg, who serves as president on

the group’s board of directors, brought along several Whitefish

residents to the MTIP. Vice president is Frank Sweeney and serving

on the board of directors are retired United States Magistrate Bart

Erickson, Paula Sweeney and Parker Kelly.

Weinberg, along with other involved in

MTIP, gathered in Whitefish last week. MTIP participated in the

state Office of Public Defender conference held at Grouse Mountain

Lodge. In addition to assisting with a training session, MTIP

brought Kirk Bloodsworth to the conference. Bloodsworth spoke about

his experience as the first death row inmate in the country to be

exonerated on the basis of DNA testing.

Erickson points to cases like

Bloodsworth’s for why he is involved in MTIP. In addition to

serving as a federal judge, Erickson has served as a public

defender and says he’s worked both sides of the courtroom.

“The worst thing that can ever happen

to a defense attorney, prosecutor or judge is for an innocent

person to be in prison,” he said. “I firmly believe that.”

The worst outcome is that the wrong

person is in jail and the guilty person is free, he noted.

Attorney Paula Sweeney agrees. Sweeney

served as a trial lawyer in Dallas, a place she said that leads the

nation in exonerations. When she first learned that she thought it

must be because Dallas was worse at convicting the wrong

person.

“But it isn’t that they make more

mistakes,” she said. “It’s the policy they had to keep evidence.

Prisoners have been exonerated because they were able to use

DNA-testing on that evidence. That’s why it’s so important to

preserve evidence, but it doesn’t always happen.”

The MTIP is advocating for holding onto

evidence that could exonerate those who are innocent. A bill in the

state Legislature that would have allowed inmates convicted in

homicide and sexual assault cases to request long-term preservation

of DNA evidence died in committee during the 2011 legislative

session.

“Having that evidence to free people is

important,” Weinberg said. “We’ve got the technology that we didn’t

have 15 to 20 years ago to look and see if there is reason to think

someone is innocent.”