He said he left the courthouse after 11 a. Officers examined his clothes and body and did not see any apparent blood stains or cuts. He was fingerprinted and questioned further but not charged. The case remained open for more than two years. Osborne said Marsh had told him that Waters confessed to her that he had killed a woman. It is unknown whether Osborne was ever compensated for the information he provided. Eventually, however, she agreed to cooperate and she told police that Waters had returned home on the morning of the murder with a long, deep scratch on his face.
Based on these statements, Waters was charged with murder. So Kenny was never a suspect. Two and a half years later, out of the blue, the police arrested Kenny and charged him with the murder. Wasn't Waters very worried? We thought Kenny was coming home with us. But then, of course, the trial began. And it was a different story. At the time of Kenny's arrest, Waters had checked with the diner in Ayer to make sure they still had the timecards that would prove his alibi.
But the girl in the office said, 'Yes, I just looked them out for the police, and they're on their way over now to pick them up. Waters began to panic. I knew that the police had had the timecards, but I couldn't take the stand and tell the jury, because I'd already been in the courthouse hearing evidence — and if you've heard evidence you can't then be a witness.
It was crazy. Things got much worse. An ex-girlfriend called Brenda Marsh, who had been living with Kenny at the time of the murder, testified that he'd come home drunk on the morning of the murder, covered in scratches. She said he'd not been to the diner to work, and nor did he go to the courthouse. According to Marsh — the mother of Kenny's only child — when the couple later broke up they had a drunken fight during which Kenny had confessed to the murder.
Another ex-girlfriend, Roseanna Perry, then testified that he'd subsequently made a drunken confession to her as well. The jury found Kenny guilty, and in May , at the age of 29, he was sentenced to life without parole. Even then, Waters didn't lose hope. Leave to appeal was granted, and once again Waters thought her brother would soon be coming home.
She said she'd only signed the affidavit because the Waters made her sign it. She was afraid if she recanted she'd go to jail for perjury.
Right up until that point, I really thought the system would work. I always thought only guilty people go to jail. That's why I was so shocked. How could Waters be so sure her brother was innocent? He can't defuse a situation, so if someone's going to fight with him he's going to fight back — but he's not an aggressor. Provoke him and he doesn't know how to handle it — but he's not going to break into somebody's house and try to kill them.
That's just not him. Plus, I knew the evidence. So I never doubted for a second that he was innocent. I always knew he was innocent. But her brother was losing faith. In despair, Kenny tried to kill himself. So that became the promise between us that would keep him alive. In her early 30s, married with two young sons at the time, Betty Anne enrolled at her local college.
Thus started her long journey through law school. In the process, Betty dedicated two decades of her life — and even lost her marriage. Betty Anne was left to bring up her two sons — Ben, then aged four, and Richard, six — while she juggled studying with bar work at night to make ends meet.
But the sacrifice was all worth it. Where do we go from here? The community college had been a less anxious time, because I was just keeping Kenny alive. But now what? This was the breakthrough she needed. When her brother was on trial, DNA was not yet an exact science. And just like that, after 18 years in jail, Kenny was exonerated. Even his ex-girlfriend recanted her testimony.
Speaking a mile a minute in the thick New England accent that reflects her upbringing in nearby Ayer, Mass. And I go into New York to help change criminal justice policies and go to legislatures to get statutes changed and to get DNA preserved, and I speak against the death penalty.
Things like that. It took 12 years, but I graduated.
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