Beach supporters seek parole hearing

HELENA (AP) — An attorney for a Montana State Prison inmate who is serving a 100-year sentence without the possibility of parole for a murder he says he didn't commit is asking the state parole board to recommend he receive a parole hearing.

Attorney Peter Camiel tells the Great Falls Tribune (http://gftrib.com/1aFoeHT ) he sent an application for commutation, or a reduction of sentence, to members of the state Board of Pardons and Parole on Wednesday on behalf of Barry Beach. The application includes more than 200 letters of support.

The board in 2007 denied Beach a recommendation for a gubernatorial pardon.

Camiel noted the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that life sentences without parole can't be given to juvenile offenders. Beach was 17 at the time of Kimberly Nees' death in Poplar in 1979.