News Archive
IU McKinney Wrongful Conviction Clinic Client Wins Exoneration
05/12/2017
William Barnhouse, a client of Professor Fran Watson, ’80, and the IU McKinney Wrongful Conviction Clinic, has been exonerated now that a judge has granted a motion to dismiss the rape charge that sent him to prison. The motion was granted May 10.
Barnhouse walked out of the Delaware County Courthouse on March 8 a free man after spending 24 years and 11 months in prison for a crime that recent DNA testing results indicate that he did not commit. Professor Watson signed on one year ago to serve as co-counsel in Barnhouse’s case with the Innocence Project’s attorneys Seema Saifee and Barry Scheck. The Innocence Project’s mission was to have DNA testing conducted on a 1992 rape kit from the crime at issue. Prosecutors could have charged Barnhouse again, but the exoneration eliminates that possibility.
Barnhouse’s case marks the 350th person exonerated by DNA evidence in the United States, according to the Innocence Project.
News about the motion appeared on Indianapolis television station WXIN, and the Muncie Star Press, among other news outlets.
Professor Watson is the founding director of the Wrongful Conviction Clinic at IU McKinney. She is a clinical professor of law and teaches in the Criminal Defense Clinic and the Wrongful Conviction Clinic.
