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Certain of her brother's innocence,Betty Anne Waters put herself through law school and won him his freedom.
For more than three years,Betty Anne Waters had watched helplessly as her older brother Kenny languished in a Massachusetts prison.Convicted in 1983 of first-degree murder,Kenny was serving a life sentence for a crime that hissister was convinced he hadn't committed.At first Betty Anne had put her faith in the appeals process.But as each motion was denied,and the money to pay the lawyers ran out,she became desperate."Nothing seemed to be working,"says Betty Anne,46."What were we going to do?"
The answer was both simple and startling.In 1986 Betty Anne,a homemaker who had dropped out of school in the 11th grade,decided to become a lawyer and fight for her brother's freedom on her own.On March 15 her efforts came to fruition when,after more than 18 years behind bars,Kenny walked out of a Cambridge,Mass.,court a free man,his sister at his side.Defense attorney Barry Scheck,who helped on the case in the latter stages,says of Betty Anne."She's a remarkable person."
The crime her brother hads been convicted of was especially brutal.On May 21,1980,Katharian Brow,48,had been found murdered in the home that she shared with her husband,Charles.She had been stabbed 30 times and robbed of $1,800 in cash that she kept in a linen closet.The crime scene was splashed with blood,some of which investigators believed had come from the killer as Brow fought for her life.The next day police questioned Kenny Waters,then 26,who at the time was already facing charges of assaulting a police officer.Kenny worked at a diner frequented by Brow,who openly talked about the money she had.But investigators had nothing concrete to link the crime to Kenny,who subsequently moved away for two years before returning to Rhode Island.It was then that two ex-girlfriends,one of whom is the mother of his daughter Mandy Marsh,now 22,claimed he had admitted to them that he killed Brow.Another witness testified that Kenny hated Brow because she had helped send him to reform school after he was caught breaking into her house at age 10.
Still,there were problems with the prosecution's case.One of the ex-girlfriends acknowledged that she and Kenny had been drinking when she heard the alleged confession.As for the bloody towels and curtains recovered from the crime scene,they established only that Kenny had the same blood type as the murderer.More to the point,the police hadn't noticed so much as a scratch on Kenny immediately after the crime.Kenny and Betty Anne were confident he would be acquitted.But during the five-day trial the jury bought the prosecution's version of events and convicted him."We were devastated,"says Betty Anne."I haven't thought too much about that day because it hurts too much."
Instead she focused on clearing her brother.But her vow to help him by getting a law degree posed a daunting challenge for Betty Anne,then living in East Greenwich,R.I.,who had only a General Equivalency Diploma.The hardest part,though,was managing her home life.In 1990 she and her husband,Richard Corrente,had divorced,leaving her to raise her sons Richard Jr.,now 19,and Benjamin,17,as a single mother.She earned money by waitressing,augmented by student loans and some modest financial aid."I was trying to be a good mother,but it was hard,"she says."I had lots of homework,and I'd fall asleep at night with tons of books around my bed."
In 1995 she entered Roger Williams University law school in Bristol,R.I.There,in her third year,she did a research paper on the new science of DNA testing and quickly realized that it might be what she needed to free her brother.But it wasn't clear that the blood-soaked towels and curtains from the crime scene still existed,given that under Massachusetts law such physical evidence may be discarded 10 years after all appeals are exhausted.
Graduating in 1998.she passed the Rhode Island and Massachusetts bar exams.She began working as her brother's attorney,making formal requests for evidence.After repeated inquiries,a clerk at the courthouse in Cambridge finally located the evidence box from the Brow case in a basement storage area.Sifting through it,Betty Anne came upon the 19-year-old bloody items.She immediately called Kenny."He was ecstatic,"recalls Betty Anne."He said,'That's it,we're out of here.'"
First,though,Betty Anne needed the help of the Innocence Project,an organization formed by attorneys Scheck and Peter Neufeld to review DNA evidence in old cases and use it to free those wrongly convicted.Each year the Innocence Project receives hundreds of requests,but Betty Anne's stood out."You could see the passion in her letter."says Scheck,whose book Actual Innocence is a study of some of the Project's most notable cases."You could see the sacrifices she'd made and the dedication she had."With the assistance of Scheck's team,Betty Anne had the evidence tested.Some blood samples proved to be from Brow.But the tests showed that the remainder could not have come from Kenny,leaving a criminal court judge in Cambridge little choice but to vacate the conviction.
It is unclear what will happen to Kenny next.But Betty Anne and Scheck consider a retrial unlikely.Remarkably,Kenny isn't bitter about his years in prison."Life's a learning experience."he says."You learn from everything.I've learned quite a bit [from this].You always have to stay positive.If you go negative,you won't survive."
［参考译文］确信哥哥无罪，贝蒂·安妮·沃特斯投身于法学院学习法律，终于使哥哥沉冤得雪，重获自由。
3年多来，贝蒂·安妮·沃特斯眼睁睁地看着她的哥哥在马萨诸塞州监狱里消沉下去。肯尼于1983年被定罪为一级谋杀，并被判终身监禁。但是他的妹妹始终坚信他是无辜的。起初，贝蒂寄希望于上诉。但是当每一次申请都被拒绝，请律师的钱都用光了的时候，她变得绝望了。“好像一切都无济于事，”46岁的贝蒂说：“我们该怎么办呢？”
这个问题的答案简单而惊人。1986年，贝蒂·安妮，一个仅念到11年级就辍学的家庭主妇，决定要成为一名律师并依靠自己的力量为她哥哥的自由而战。3月15日，她的努力终于取得了成果。在经历了超过18年的牢狱之灾后，肯尼终于在妹妹的陪同下走出马萨诸塞州的剑桥法庭，重获自由之身。在这个案子后期阶段帮忙的辩方律师巴里·舍克这样评价贝蒂·安妮“她是一个非凡的人。”
她的哥哥曾被判定的罪行特别残忍。1980年5月21日，48岁的卡塔琳娜·布劳在与其丈夫查尔斯共有的住宅里被谋杀。她被刺了30刀，藏在日用品壁橱里的1800美元现金被洗劫一空。整个作案现场鲜血四溅，案件调查者认为这里面包括了布劳为保命而反抗时，杀手自己留下的血迹。案发第二天，警方传讯了当时26岁的肯尼·沃特斯，那时他已经面临着袭警的指控。肯尼在一个布劳经常出入的餐馆工作。在那里，布劳对自己的钱公开宣扬。但是调查人员没有确凿的证据将这一案件和肯尼联系起来。肯尼后来移居他处，两年后才又回到罗得岛。就在那时，他的两个前女友，其中一个是他现已22岁的女儿曼迪·马什的母亲，声称肯尼曾经向她们承认是其杀死了布劳。另一名证人也证实了肯尼对布劳怀恨在心，因为他在10岁时私闯布劳的房子被逮住，继而在布劳的协同下，他被送进了改造学校。
但是在这个起诉案件中仍存在疑问。肯尼前任女友中的一名承认在她听到那个据称有嫌疑的供认前，她和肯尼一直在喝酒。而在案发现场发现的沾血的毛巾和窗帘，也只能证实肯尼和凶犯有相同的血型。更值得一提的是，警方在案发后并没有看到肯尼身上有什么抓伤。所以肯尼和贝蒂·安妮都对肯尼能无罪获释很有信心。但是在为期5天的庭审中，陪审团相信了原告律师的陈述，并且将他定罪。“我们都被惊呆了，”贝蒂·安妮说，“我没有再过多地想那一天。因为它带来的伤害太大了”。
贝蒂开始致力于为他哥哥洗清罪名。但是，她发誓要以取得法律学位来拯救哥哥的这种途径对她来说是一个非常严峻的挑战，当时，贝蒂·安妮住在罗得岛的东格林威治，只有普通同等学历证书。但是对贝蒂来说，最难的地方是料理家庭生活。1990年，她和她的丈夫理查德·科伦特离了婚，剩下她一个人作为单身母亲抚养现在已分别为19岁和17岁的儿子小理查德和本杰明。她靠当女招待挣钱，补之以学生贷款和一些微薄的资助，“我努力成为一个好母亲，但是这太难了，”她说，“我有非常多的家庭作业，晚上总是有大量的书堆在我床的周围伴我入眠。”
1995年，她进入罗德岛布里斯托尔的罗杰·威廉斯大学法学院，在她三年级的时候，写了一篇关于DNA检验的新科学论文，并且很快意识到这或许可以用于解救她哥哥。但是，并不清楚在案发现场发现的被血浸透的毛巾和窗帘是否还存在，因为依照马萨诸塞州的法律，在所有上诉都阐述完毕的10年后，此类物证可能会被丢弃。
贝蒂于1998年毕业，通过了罗得岛和马萨诸塞州的律师考试。她开始担任哥哥的辩护律师，正式为这个案件求证。在反复询问后，剑桥法庭的一名职员终于在一个地下储藏室发现了布劳案件的证据箱。经过仔细查找，贝蒂·安妮终于发现了那些已有19个年头的血迹证据。她马上打电话给肯尼。“他欣喜若狂，”贝蒂·安妮回忆道，“他说‘就是它了，我们可以沉冤得雪了’。”
但是首先，贝蒂·安妮需要由律师舍克和彼得·诺伊费尔德成立的组织——“无罪工程”的帮助，这一组织重新检查旧案件中的DNA证据并以此解救那些被错误定罪者。“无罪工程”每年都收到数以百计的请求，但是贝蒂·安妮从申请者中脱颖而出，“你从她的信中可以看到真情”，舍克说道，他的书《真实的清白无罪》是对这个计划中最著名的一些案例所作的研究，“你可以看到她所做出的牺牲和奉献。”在舍克小组的协助下，贝蒂·安妮请求对证据作了检验，一些血样被证明来自于布劳，但是检验表明，其余的血迹不是肯尼的，这使剑桥刑事法庭的法官别无选择，只得撤回定罪。
还不清楚在肯尼身上将发生什么，但是贝蒂·安妮和舍克认为重新审判的可能性不大。值得一提的是，肯尼对他的狱中岁月并没有心怀怨恨。“生活是一个学习的经历”，他说，“你从每件事中学到东西，从这件事中我也学到很多，你必须永远保持乐观，如果你变得消极了，你将无法生存。”