Using research by Bradford and the students, and the exhaustive legal research prepared by Drizin and Bobby Owens, a Northwestern University law student from Mississippi, Pickering and Winter finally succeeded in clearing Kennard's name. Judge Bob Helfrich accepted a petition from "Barbour, several former judges, a university president and others" to rehear the case. After arguments by Pickering and Winter, heading a blue-ribbon legal team, on May 17, 2006, Helfrich threw out Kennard's original burglary conviction, stating, "To me, this is not a black and white issue; it's a right and wrong issue. To correct that wrong, I am compelled to do the right thing." Barbour said that Helfrich's decision was the "appropriate, constitutional way for this innocent man to be exonerated."