1. The prosecution’s case alleged Barton hired his wife’s killers to scare her to move into Springboro so he could be police chief.
2. A key witness, who testified that he knew one of the killers, said he had participated in staged burglaries.
3. Prosecutors turned over a police report from a possibly staged burglary of a home owned by Ann and James Kelly in 1993, but nothing indicated they had reopened an investigation of this in 2004.
4. The 6th Circuit found this violated Brady v. Maryland, a landmark U.S. Supreme Court Ruling, essentially saying the prosecution withheld evidence that could have helped the defense.
5. “Barton did not learn of the State’s conversations with Kelly until after his trial, by dint of his own Investigation,” according to the 6th Circuit ruling.
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