armywife210
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the link didn't work for me... ?
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Hi Armywife!
link didnt work for me either, it says video has been removed from utube because of terms of use violations - what ever they are.
Does anyone know where else video can be watched?
Cami, How's it going honey? I stated in a previous post that Julie Rae Harper was acquitted in her second trial and if you remember correctly the FBI had placed Tommy Lynn Sells in Lawrenceville, IL a few days prior and he bought a bus ticket out of town I believe in St. Louis Missouri?) early the next morning (Even though this article doesn't specify that) to Winnemucca, NV. After that if I remember correctly he murdered someone in Missouri or Texas (Can't really remember after all this time)??? Read forward, I posted what I had read years ago, I don't live to far from where this happened... Take Care Cami, long time no talk... Hopefully I won't get in trouble for posting all this? Ann, Keep Smiling! :innocent: :twocents: :croc:
"Downstate Illinois Innocence Project corroborates Sells' confession: Investigation by the Project resulted in eyewitness testimony from Alan Berkshire who saw Sells in Lawrenceville the weekend Joel was killed; and the testimony of Sandra Wirth, who reported selling a bus ticket in Winnemucca, Nevada two days after Joel was killed to a man who matched the suspect Julie described to police. Winnemucca is significant because Texas Rangers could place Sells there after Joel was killed. Texas Ranger John Allen reviewed the evidence gathered by UIS. This evidence convinced Ranger Allen that Sells confession to the murder of Joel Kirkpatrick was genuine.
UIS presents exonerating evidence to the Prisoner Review Board: On Oct. 24, 2003, the Downstate Illinois Innocence Project presented compelling evidence corroborating the confession of Tommy Lynn Sells.
Diane Fanning testified as to the circumstances of how Sells confessed to the murder of Joel Kirkpatrick. Former state police crime scene investigator Alva Busch pointed out inaccuracies in the interpretation of crime scene evidence of one of the State's experts at the first trial that contributed to Julie's wrongful conviction.
Bill Clutter, Director of Investigations for the Downstate Illinois Innocence Project, presented a summary of the evidence corroborating Sells' confession.
At the urging of the Prisoner Review Board, prosecutor David Rands and Sgt. Pea of the Illinois State Police traveled to Texas on Nov. 6, 2003 and conducted an audio- recorded interview of Sells. Sells gave details that only the killer would know. Sells told prosecutors that during the struggle the woman clung to his leg as he drug her inside the house. Six years earlier, Julie had described grabbing the intruder's leg and of being dragged on the carpet. A nurse who treated Julie observed what appeared to be rug burns on her leg.
Despite 53 points of corroboration to Sells' confession to the murder of Joel Kirkpatrick, prosecutors continued to insist they disbelieved the confession based on the few facts Sells got wrong, taking the same position prosecutors in DuPage County took in the Nicarico case when they were presented with the confession of serial killer Brian Dugan in 1985.
UIS discovers evidence of police perjury: The media coverage from the Prisoner Review Board hearing prompted the former mayor of Lawrenceville and the former chief of police to contact the Downstate Innocence Project with evidence suggesting that a Lawrence County Sheriff deputy testified falsely at Julie's first trial, providing false evidence which contributed to her conviction. The Deputy, who was first on the scene, made no report about searching the back yard for footprints on an intruder. However, at trial, Deputy Dennis York testified that before entering the house he shined his flash light down on the wet dew-covered grass and could find no evidence of a perpetrator's footprints in the back yard where Julie described the intruder striking her to the ground and calmly walking away. York testified, "I shined the yard with my light. It was heavy dew. I seen no fresh track in the yard." However, this testimony is contradicted by a neighbor who walked the same area in his barefeet and said the grass was dry. After Julie was convicted, her new husband Mark Harper contacted a meteorologist who reviewed weather records for that morning. This expert concluded there would have been no dew on the ground that morning. Key evidence was discovered by UIS that was never provided to Julie's defense attorney by prosecutors. This withheld evidence was an audio-taped interview of Deputy York that was conducted on the morning of the crime by the Lawrenceville police chief David White. The audio interview contradicted York's trial testimony by stating he went immediately inside the house and never mentioned searching the back yard for footprints in the dew. This audio tape was never provided to the defense during Julie's first trial. Yet, his testimony was used by prosecutors as evidence that there was no intruder."
Also I will add this:
"But the most obvious difference between the first trial and the second was the fact that someone else had voluntarily confessed to the crime. Tommy Lynn Sells, a convicted killer, is housed on Texas death row as the result of a somewhat similar crime sneaking into a residence in the wee hours and stabbing a young child to death. Sells claims to have murdered as many as 50 people across the country. Though a handful of his confessions have been proven false, law-enforcement officials in Texas confirmed his guilt in 15 killings and two attempted murders before Sells stopped cooperating with their investigation. Five of those crimes involved victims he stabbed as they slept.
In Joels case, Sells recall wasnt perfect; as with other statements he had given, Sells muffed details when he began talking about the crime, some five years after it occurred.
Parkinson consistently refers to all Sells statements as either garbage or that Tommy Lynn Sells crap.
In fact, about the only thing that didnt change between the two trials was Parkinsons perspective on the case. The soundbite he delivered after Harpers 2002 conviction and the comment he offered two weeks ago after her acquittal were almost exactly the same:
To believe her, a person came into the house in the middle of the night with no forced entry . . . took a steak knife in a darkened kitchen, went down the hallway, turned left, stabbed this little boy to death for absolutely no reason, then struggled with her, didnt kill her, and left actually walked away from her in her back yard, pulling off his mask. . . . Thats enough for me, Parkinson says. Her story didnt make sense.
Theres a certain irony to the fact that Parkinsons original version of that quote, broadcast May 31, 2002, on the ABC news magazine 20/20, prompted Sells confession. Diane Fanning, a true-crime author who was then putting the finishing touches on a book about Sells, happened to be watching that night [see Dusty Rhodes, Who killed Joel? July 24, 2003].
Though she thought she had completed her research, Fanning kept up her correspondence with Sells. When she saw Parkinson on TV, she knew that Sells, who had no access to TV, would get a chuckle out of the prosecutors blustery quote. So in her next letter Fanning wrote:
The other night, I was watching a story on TV about a woman who was in jail for killing her son. She claims someone broke into her house and killed him. You could say, Yeah right, lady. Weve heard that story before. But then you listen to the law enforcement guys and the prosecuting attorney and they are so full of stupid opinions. When they were asked why they only pursued her in this case, they said: 1) There were no strange fingerprints in the house; 2) No stranger would just come into her house and kill her child; 3) It was so violent, it had to be someone with a very close relationship to the child; (And heres my very favorite on the stupid scale) 4) A person does not come in to someones else [house] without a weapon and then pull a knife out of the kitchen drawer in the house and use it.
She supplied no other details, so she was stunned by Sells response: About that woman claims someone broke into her house, he wrote, was that like maybe two days before my Springfield, MO murder? Maybe on the 13th?
Fanning didnt remember the date flashed on TV, so she contacted 20/20 and learned that yes, Joel Kirkpatrick had been killed on Oct. 13, 1997. Sells had already been indicted for the Oct. 15 abduction, rape, and murder of 13-year-old Stephanie Mahaney in Springfield, Mo.
This discovery, Fanning says, created a quandary. Her deadline was approaching, and she had no time to substantiate Sells claim to this killing. Besides, she had already heard the official legal view by way of Parkinsons appearance on TV.
I couldnt decide whether to put it in my book or not, she says. I thought: If I put it in my book and its not true, it could damage my credibility but if it is true, there will be people out there who will read this and know enough to do something about it."
I realize this is a very old thread but I just watched a show on ID about the Julie Rea Harper case, which I am familiar with, and it dawned on me that the Darlie fan club must have jumped all over this one.
It's been a while, but clearly it got some attention, although I must admit, less than I thought it would. Probably because Sells was in jail at the time Darlie killed the boys.
I too believe that Julie was guilty. It was actually mentioned on the show (On the Case with Paula Zahn) that Sells was about to have a date set for his execution when he made his confession to Fanning, so the confession naturally bought him time, as it always does when a known killer starts adding victims to his list.
Add that to all the inconsistencies in both his story and Julie's and it really surprises me that she was acquitted. She totally lucked out with Diane Fanning wanting to publicize her book and Sells seeing that date setting looming on his horizon.
Thankfully, Darlie cannot latch onto it, or certainly already would have.
I believe Julie is guilty of the murder of her son. Sells confessed but has since recanted his confession. His confession was full of inconsistencies as you noted, he didn't even have the description of Julie's house correct.
From what I understand (and mind you, the first trial transcript is sealed so I've never read it), the police really dropped the ball as far as evidence collection. I read an article that talked about photos of the bed that clearly showed fibers yet they were never collected.
If Harper is guilty, she's one of the luckiest murderers of all time.
I also found this http://www.truthinjustice.org/who-killed-joel.htm
I have been rading the other thread on webslueths about Juile & Joel the people made some good points on there about the cases....
here is some could this have been something that happened in Darlies case, a random act, She seemed like a snooty girl that thought she was all rich & better....Maybe she snubbed somebody & made them mad and they decided to get her back! JUST LIKE IN JULIES CASE HERE IS SOME INFO
Tommy Sells says he went into that house because he ran into Julie (with her son) at a convenience store and she treated him badly. He followed them home that very minute from the store and sat in front of their house. He later went back. He said he went into a room, saw a body and started "cutting/stabbing" and heard someone coming down the hall. He said she fought with him and he pushed her and she came back at him again. He said he would have stabbed her, but he had already left the knife behind, so he got the hell out of there. He was then asked if he felt bad that she was being held responsible for a crime he may have committed and he said hell no, that he was happy about it because of the way she treated him and she could go to hell (or something of the sort). This doesn't sound to me like a guy who wants to just be a nice guy and get the lady out of trouble. He also said that sometimes killing someone close to the person he hated was even better than killing the person because it hurts them more.
The Julie Rea Harper Case
Investigation by the Project resulted in eyewitness testimony from Alan Berkshire who saw Sells in Lawrenceville the weekend Joel was killed; and the testimony of Sandra Wirth, who reported selling a bus ticket in Winnemucca, Nevada two days after Joel was killed to a man who matched the suspect Julie described to police. Winnemucca is significant because Texas Rangers could place Sells there after Joel was killed. Texas Ranger John Allen reviewed the evidence gathered by UIS. This evidence convinced Ranger Allen that Sells’ confession to the murder of Joel Kirkpatrick was genuine.
I've never heard of Rea case, except for what I just read and though for the most part it sounds quite different from Darlie's. For one, Tommy Lynn Sells confessed to the murder, and according to jurors they found Rea's testimony believable. Darlie has never been believable, imo.
Idk, as I said, my knowledge on the case if virtually zilch, other than what I just read here and in another article or two. Still, the Texas Rangers are generally much more credible than your average law enforcement agency. Thanks for bringing up the discussion though, it's an interesting case and comparison.
http://www.uis.edu/innocenceproject/cases/exonorees/jrharper/