MEDIA CONTACT: Patricia Tremmel at 847-491-4892 or p-tremmel@northwestern.edu

May 18, 2004

Law Center Seeks New Trial in Murder Case

CHICAGO --- The Center on Wrongful Convictions at Northwestern University School of Law May 10 petitioned the Lawrence County Circuit Court to set aside the conviction of Julie Rea Harper for the murder of her 10-year-old son — a crime that a serial killer on death row in Texas has claimed he committed. 

Harper consistently has maintained her innocence, insisting that an intruder broke into her Lawrenceville, Ill. home at 4:30 a.m.  Oct. 13, 1997, stabbed her son Joel Kirkpatrick to death in his bed and then attacked her. Although Harper suffered injuries consistent with her account, the prosecution argued at her 2002 trial that it simply was not credible that an intruder would enter a home, kill a little boy for no apparent reason, but fail to kill the mother. The jury found Harper guilty, and she was sentenced to 65 years in prison. 

In the petition filed May 10, Northwestern attorneys point out that, contrary to what the jury may have been led to believe, there was at the time of the crime a serial killer roaming the country and committing similar crimes — Tommy Lynn Sells. He has now confessed numerous times to murdering Joel Kirkpatrick. The petition states that Sells’ confession is corroborated by statements of disinterested witnesses who reported seeing a stranger matching Sells’ description in the Lawrenceville area before and after Joel’s murder.

In addition, John Allen, the Texas Ranger who has investigated Sells for the past four years and has documented Sells’ movements during a 17-year period, considers the confession to be “compelling evidence” of his guilt. “Under the circumstances,” the petition continues, “no fair-minded person could dispute that Sells’ confession, along with the corroborating evidence and Ranger Allen’s expert opinion, might have resulted in a different verdict.”

“There can be no confidence in the accuracy of a criminal conviction if the jury is not able to consider all of the relevant evidence before reaching a verdict,” said Karen Daniel, senior staff counsel at the Center on Wrongful Convictions and lead attorney in the case. “In Julie's case, through no fault of either side, the jury did not have the opportunity to hear evidence that a known child killer has admitted to entering Julie's home and murdering her son. No matter what prosecutors' personal opinions are as to Julie’s guilt or Sells’ credibility, we hope that they will not seek to usurp the fact-finding function of the jury, and will agree that a new trial is in order.”