attorney from the ap- Gunn’s conviction was affirmed by the Cal- Kevin Gunn’s Case pellate prosecutor’s ifornia state courts, his pro se state habeas Featured In “Obvious office to prosecute the corpus petition was denied, and after his case. The defendant habeas corpus petition was denied by the Answers” had a right to be prose- federal district court in San Diego he ap- cuted by someone pealed to the federal Ninth Circuit Court of bvious Answers” is an annual pub- with proper prosecuto- Appeals, where his appeal was also denied. “Olication produced by Julie Rea rial authority, a per- You can read “An Accumulation of Errors” about issues related to the legal system and sonal privilege she did by clicking here. wrongful convictions. not waive.” Sources: Ms. Rea has first-hand experience in what it The Lawrence County Julie Rea outside the Obvious Answers webpage, is like to be wrongly convicted. She was DA elected to retry Rea. courthouse after her http://obviousanswers.presspublisher.us acquittal on July 26, An Accumulation of Errors, By Hans Sherrer, Obvious convicted in March 2002 of murdering her After more than two 2006. years of Answers, September 22, 2011 10-year-old son Joel in 1997 by stabbing The Julie Rea Harper Case, Downstate Inno- him to death in their Lawrenceville, Illinois she was released on bail pending her retrial. cence Project, University of Illinois Springfield home. Represented by a single public de- Unlike her inadequate representation during Rea-Harper conviction overturned, The Wolf Law fender who conducted minimal investiga- her first trial, during her retrial she was Firm, June 28, 2004 tion of her case, the jury rejected her represented by six pro bono lawyers, in- “Through the Window: The Terrifying True Story of cluding two lawyers from Northwestern Cross-Country Killer Tommy Lynn Sells,” Diane Fan- defense that a masked intruder stabbed her ning, St. Martin’s True Crime, May 2003 son, and she was sentenced to 65 years in University’s Center on Wrongful Convic- prison. tions. On July 26, 2006 she was acquitted by a jury that heard the evidence of Sells Weeks after Rea’s sentencing ABC’s 20/20 confession to her son’s and other aired her story. That program was seen by significant exculpatory evidence. Man Convicted Of Diane Fanning who was writing a book Released After His “Vic- about Tommy Lynn Sells who “Obvious Answers” recently included an was on ’ . Fanning noticed article about the case of Kevin Gunn by tim” Marries Him And that Joel’s murder had similarities to a mur- Justice Denied’s Editor and Publisher Hans Has His Child der committed by Sells in Springfield, Mis- Sherrer that is one of the most outrageous souri. She wrote a letter to Sells that cases of misidentification in American legal harvan Kumar was sentenced to life in vaguely asked if he was involved in another history. prison after he was convicted in 2007 of murder about the same time as the Spring- S raping Kamini Nayak in Jodhpur, India, field murder. In June 2002 Sells wrote Fan- Gunn is a giant: he is a light skinned black which is about 600 miles north of Mumbai. ning admitting to Joel’s murder and he man 6'-9" tall and he weighs over 300 provided details that had not been released pounds. He was convicted in 1999 of com- After his conviction Nayak married Kumar to the public. Fanning’s book, “Through mitting two daylight robberies of elderly and when they were able to have marital the Window: The Terrifying True Story of people on public sidewalks in San Diego relations she became pregnant. Cross-Country Killer Tommy Lynn Sells,” that were witnessed by more than a dozen was published in May 2003, and it con- people. Every witness, including the vic- Kumar filed a petition to quash his convic- tained Sells’ confession to Joel’s murder. tims, described the assailant as 5'-10" to tion that relied on new evidence he did not The information Fanning’s book led to the 6'-3" tall, and weighing 180 to 220 pounds rape Nayak. Based on Kumar’s new evi- Downstate Illinois Innocence Project (DIIP) with very dark shiny skin. Not only is Gunn dence and that his alleged victim married at the University of Illinois Springfield be- dramatically larger than the robber who had him and had his child, the Rajasthan High coming involved in Rea’s case. Sells a much different skin tone, but Gunn had Court in Jodhpur quashed the judgment of matched the description of the person she airtight alibis for being inside of stores dur- the trial court. Four years after his convic- said killed her son, and an investigation by ing two of the robberies. In addition the tion Kumar was released in July 2011 from the DIIP discovered an eyewitness who saw police were provided with the license plate the Jodhpur Central Jail, where some of Sells in Lawrenceville the weekend of Jo- number and a description of the robber’s India’s most notorious criminals are impris- el’s murder. getaway car, and it didn’t match the car Gunn drove. Yet, Gunn was convicted by a oned. The new evidence of Rea’s innocence was jury. Then the day after his convictions the incorporated into her direct appeal, and in jury foreman wrote the San Diego County June 2004 the Illinois Court of Appeal did and told him the jurors overturn her conviction --- but they did it on were only able to convict Gunn because the legal basis that the trial judge shouldn’t they were “proactive” in filling in all the have allowed a special prosecutor to try the prosecution’s missing evidence against case over defense objections, because he Gunn! The evidence positively excluding had not been sworn in as an assistant state’s Gunn as the robber and the admitted jury misconduct of convicting him based on evi- attorney before calling a grand jury or try- Jodhpur Central Jail (The Hindu) ing the case. The appeals court ruled that: dence they made up didn’t make any differ- ence when the judge sentenced Gunn to 17 “Because the defendant specifically years in prison. Sources: challenged the legitimacy of the prose- Conviction suspended in rape case, The Times of India, cutor, the trial court erred in allowing an July 27, 2011

JUSTICE DENIED: THE MAGAZINE FOR THE WRONGLY CONVICTED PAGE 16 ISSUE 53 - WINTER 2013