Man charged with murder for 1964 shooting

PHILADELPHIA, Sept. 4 (UPI) -- Philadelphia District Attorney Lynne Abraham said Tuesday that she can prove that a man who shot a police officer in 1964 is responsible for his recent death.

William Barnes, now 71, was arrested Sunday and charged with killing Walter Barclay, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported. Barclay died last month at 64, 41 years after Barnes shot him during a burglary, leaving him paralyzed from the waist down.

Barnes has spent 15 years in prison for the shooting but Pennsylvania law allows new charges to be filed in cases involving delayed deaths. The law, however, has generally been used where the interval is no more than five years or so.

At a news conference Tuesday, Abraham said that a medical examiner ruled that Barclay died from an infection directly linked to the shooting.

"The law is that when you set in motion a chain of events, a perpetrator of a crime is responsible for every single thing that flows from that chain of events -- no matter how distant -- as long as we can prove the chain is unbroken," Abraham said.

She said that Barclay also suffered "intractable, continuous, ceaseless and horrible pain."