The Schnader Team Representing William Barnes Featured in Several Articles Detailing His Request for Parole

Samuel Silver was featured in the November 15 Associated Press article “Man Cleared in Old Police Shooting Seeks Parole,” which ran in several publications and on-line media outlets, including The Philadelphia Inquirer, the Wilkes-Barre Times Leader, and msnbc.com. The piece detailed the efforts being made by Mr. Silver and a team of Schnader attorneys in seeking the release of William Barnes, who was acquitted of murder charges five months ago but remains incarcerated because of a technical parole violation.

In legal documents filed with the parole board on November 15, the Schnader team – which also includes Bruce Merenstein and Nilam Sanghvi – called Barnes’ continued imprisonment “illogical and unjust.” Barnes was initially paroled in April 2007, and Mr. Silver contended the parole board’s reasons for releasing him still stand: he expressed remorse for his actions, he was employed and performing community service after his release, he has stayed out of trouble, and has shown no evidence of returning to a life of crime. “In short, Mr. Barnes has exhibited the precise type of conduct, both within the correctional system and outside, that warrants the granting of parole,” he argued in the legal brief.

Mr. Silver also argued that the board’s denial of parole in 2009, when Barnes was awaiting trial, is based on arguments that are not supported by evidence and contradict the good report from two years earlier granting his parole. At the time of his arrest, Barnes was living in a halfway house and working at a supermarket. He also was lecturing at Temple University and Eastern State Penitentiary, now a museum, where he once served time.

On November 20 The Philadelphia Inquirer published an editorial calling upon the Board of Probation and Parole to grant Mr. Barnes’ request for parole, and on November 23, The Legal Intelligencer also covered the Schnader team’s latest efforts on behalf of Mr. Barnes.

Please click here to read the Associated Press article.

Please click here to read The Legal Intelligencer article.

Please click here to read the Philadelphia Inquirer’s editorial.