After spending nearly 30 years of his life on death row in Arizona, Barry Jones – the victim of a mistrial – has been released from prison. A judge approved the plea deal between the prosecution and the defense, while the man, who is now 64, pleaded guilty not to the murder of a 4-year-old girl (for which he was convicted) but to a partially different, i.e. not having sought urgent care for the little girl.
A medical review of the case failed to conclude that Jones caused the fatal injuries. The new 25-year sentence has also already been served.
His attorney, Cary Sandman, said the plea deal acknowledges his client spent much of his life on death row "despite compelling evidence that he was innocent."
It was May 1994 when Jones had driven the little girl, Rachel Gray, and her mother - at the time his girlfriend - to the hospital, where the girl was pronounced dead. For the investigators Rachel had died of a laceration of the small intestine caused by blunt abdominal trauma. Jones had been accused of beating and raping the victim, hence the arrest and death sentence.
But experts eventually found evidence that Rachel's fatal injury occurred before the penultimate day of her life, while she was not in Jones' care. The judge then ordered the defendant to be released or retried. Upheld by an appellate court but overturned by the supreme court, according to which the federal legal system generally prohibits the consideration of new evidence of ineffective legal assistance. The only way out then was a plea deal in which Jones had to admit that he "failed to seek or contributed to Rachel Gray's failure to seek medical treatment."
(Unioneonline/ss)
