Julie Rea Harper
- Client: Julie Rea Harper
- Date: July 2006
- Location: Clinton County Circuit Court - Carlyle, Illinois
Summary:
A not guilty verdict obtained in retrial that received significant news media coverage involving a clearly innocent woman who was wrongfully convicted and imprisoned for the murder of her young son.
On Wednesday, July 26, 2006, a jury returned a verdict of not guilty in favor of our client, Julie Rea Harper. This is yet another example of Schiff Hardin's strong pro bono commitment and a vivid illustration of how our efforts can achieve justice to right a terrible wrong.
On October 13, 1997, at 4:30 a.m., Joel Kirkpatrick was stabbed to death as he lay in his bed by someone wielding a knife taken from the kitchen. His mother, Julie, at the time a PhD candidate in educational psychology at Indiana University, awoke to noises from Joel's room. She went into his room, saw that his bed was empty, and then was knocked over by an intruder. She chased him through the house and out into the yard. He bashed her head into the ground, dazing her and then walked away.
The police immediately suspected Julie. Although everyone they talked to said that Julie was a loving and caring mother, and she had no history of mental illness, the State never believed her story. They were left with the following questions: Who does this? Who would break into a house to murder a child - nothing was taken - for no reason and forget to bring a murder weapon?
They investigated for several years. Julie took two polygraph examinations which she passed. The investigation raised more questions than answers. Nonetheless, the State indicted Julie in 2000. She was convicted at trial. Julie was sentenced to 65 years in prison.
ABC-TV's 20/20 program then ran a show on the case. It was a balanced piece. The theme was not "innocent woman convicted." Instead, it was "isn't this odd?" A woman writing a book on Tommy Lynn Sells, a serial killer who was on Death Row in Texas, saw the show and wrote to Sells as follows: "I saw a show where a mother was convicted of killing her son. The prosecutor said: 'No one would break into a house to kill a kid he had never met and forget to bring a murder weapon.' We know that's not true, right?" Sells had committed four or five murders (out of the 50 or so he committed) that fit this pattern. Sells wrote back and asked if it was in Illinois and if it was two days before the murder he committed in Springfield, Missouri. (He had murdered a little girl, Stephanie Mahaney, on October 15, 1997). This led to Sells making a number of confessions - including many details that were wrong and some that were right - including to the State. He also followed with several recantations.
Julie's appeal was granted on the most technical of technicalities: The State's Attorney Appellate Prosecutors who handled the case were appointed pursuant to the wrong statute. A new trial was granted, and Schiff Hardin was asked to take the lead as Julie's trial counsel and assist the Northwestern University's Center on Wrongful Convictions. A motion for change of venue from Lawrenceville, Illinois, where the crime was committed, was granted and the case was tried in Carlyle, Illinois (about an hour from St. Louis).
The trial was, of course, tense and hard fought. The emotional swings defied description. It lasted more than two weeks and involved nearly forty witnesses. The jury returned a verdict of not guilty after more than twelve hours of deliberations. The verdict was carried on the first page of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and it has received significant regional and some national coverage.
As important as this case was in achieving justice for our client, it may also have much wider ramifications. It has brought to light the dangers of prosecutorial abuse and the need to reform the criminal justice system in Illinois and elsewhere to provide defendants accused of murder and other particularly serious crimes with proper and experienced legal counsel.
People v. Harper, 2nd Judicial Circuit, Case no. 04-CF-104 (2005)