A man serving a sentence of 40 years to life for sexually assaulting young girls will have another chance to file an appeal after the Vermont Supreme Court ruled last week that the failure of his attorney was an “egregious example of injustice.”
Barry Babson, 52, of North Bennington, was convicted after a jury trial in Bennington criminal court of aggravated sexual assault and sexual assault. The charges were based on two separate police reports.
Two of the victims testified during Babson’s sentencing in 2005 and told the court they blamed themselves because Babson not only sexually assaulted them but their sisters and friends as well.
During the sentencing hearing, Babson showed no remorse.
“I don’t care what half the people think in this world. I am going to appeal this, so it won’t be over. If I have my way, we’ll be back at trial again. And again and again and again. And it won’t be over,” he told Judge David Suntag.
Babson was sentenced to serve 40 years to life, which Suntag said was one of the lengthiest sentences he had ever imposed.
In 2007, Babson filed a request for post-conviction relief, citing “ineffective counsel” in general and the admission of testimony by his wife and by a doctor who had examined a girl Babson sexually assaulted.
That appeal was dismissed in February 2011, and a second petition was filed in July 2011. In a decision filed on Aug. 29, Justice John Dooley, writing for the Vermont Supreme Court, said the second appeal “languished on our docket because of inaction by appointed counsel.”
The second appeal listed Mark Furlan as Babson’s attorney. The issues raised on appeal again posed questions about whether Babson’s trial attorney, Frederick Bragdon, should have objected to certain evidence and whether some witnesses should have been allowed.
The state filed a motion in support of Babson but only for the purposes of supporting his legal rights to due process.
In her motion, Bennington County Chief Deputy State’s Attorney Christina Rainville said Babson committed “unspeakable, heinous crimes” and said he was justly convicted by a jury.
Rainville said the Vermont Supreme Court acted correctly in upholding his conviction and Judge John Wesley did the right thing in appealing Babson’s first post-conviction relief petition.
“Any appeal that Babson would have filed from (Wesley’s) decision would have, no doubt, been denied because any appeal would have no merit. Nonetheless, however, Babson had an absolute right to an appeal and he never got one,” Rainville wrote.
Dooley wrote in the Supreme Court decision that Babson’s attorney, appointed by the Defender General, had not helped Babson preserve his appeal rights and said the help he got at the Supreme Court level was “only marginally better.”
“The failure here is not simply of the assigned (attorney) to timely file a notice of appeal but of the whole system thereafter to protect (Babson’s) rights,” Dooley wrote.
The high court reinstated Babson’s appeal. He was convicted of sexually abusing an 11-year-old girl multiple times throughout a period of several months. Prosecutor David Fenster, who is now Addison County State’s Attorney, said during Babson’s sentencing that Babson used to tell the girl he was sexually abusing her “because she was bad.” ..Source.. by Patrick Mcardle
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