Judge recuses herself
Link to murder case dates back to 1977
A judge recused herself yesterday at the defense's request in the trial of William J. Barnes, 73, who is charged with first-degree murder in the death of a police officer who died 41 years after Barnes had shot and paralyzed him.
Barnes had been scheduled for a jury trial in Common Pleas Judge Shelley Robins New's courtroom on Feb. 1. But his new defense team, led by Samuel Silver of the firm Schnader Harrison Segal & Lewis LLP, on Monday asked New to recuse herself because her name appeared on a 1977 state Superior Court decision in the Barnes case.
New, at the time, was a prosecutor. She said Monday that she had "absolutely no memory" of having worked on the Barnes case. She said she had started in the D.A.'s office in November 1976, with a period of training. The Superior Court had received the matter during post-conviction proceedings on Dec. 22, 1976.
New delayed her decision on the recusal until yesterday after Assistant District Attorney Ed Cameron said he wanted to investigate the Superior Court matter.
Cameron yesterday told New that his office found her name had been listed first on a prosecution brief submitted to Superior Court. New then granted the recusal request.
Afterward, attorneys went to Judge Benjamin Lerner's room so the trial could be reassigned. Lerner said Judge Renee Cardwell Hughes may be able to fit the trial into her schedule in May, but he has not yet been able to check with her because she is on vacation. Attorneys will check on the matter again on Sept. 9.
On Nov. 27, 1966, Barnes, then 30, shot Officer Walter T. Barclay Jr., then 23, after Barclay and his partner surprised Barnes, who was attempting to burglarize an East Oak Lane beauty salon.
Barclay, who was paralyzed from the waist down, died Aug. 19, 2007, of complications from a urinary-tract infection. Prosecutors then charged Barnes with murder, alleging Barclay's death resulted from an unbroken "chain of events" from the shooting.
Barnes' trial will likely shape up to be a battle of medical examiners. Silver earlier told New that he plans to retain Cyril Wecht, a nationally known forensic pathologist based in Pittsburgh. Barnes' former attorney, Bobby Hoof, had first retained Wecht.
In a 1968 trial, Barnes was convicted of shooting Barclay, and was then sentenced to 10 to 20 years in prison. Hoof has previously said that Barnes served 14 years, and then served the remaining six after having reoffended while on parole.