As a professor in the Legal Studies program at University of Illinois at Springfield,
Larry Golden is used to lecturing students about profound philosophical concepts
and traditions of the justice system. But as co-founder of the Downstate Illinois
Innocence Project, he is getting an eye-opening education himself in what he
calls “the real nitty gritty” of the legal system.
Take, for instance, the concept of posting bond. Most people perceive bond as a sort of refundable deposit, the tangible symbol of a defendant’s promise to show up at court. The fine print, however, says the court can keep the bond and use it to pay all sorts of costs — the public defender, various investigators, and expert witnesses. Furthermore, if the defendant is found guilty, the county can also deduct court costs, restitution, and fines from the bond.
But what if an appeals court vacates the conviction? What then becomes of the bond money? Can the defendant reclaim any portion?
It’s this level of hair-splitting detail Golden is absorbing as he and his DIIP colleagues work on the case of Julie Rea-Harper, the Lawrenceville mom convicted in 2000 of murdering Joel Kirkpatrick, her 10-year-old son. Rea-Harper always said her son was killed by an intruder who scuffled with her after she startled him inside her house in the wee hours of Oct. 13, 1997. Sure enough, years after the murder, and after her trial and conviction, a serial killer on Texas’ Death Row voluntarily confessed that he had stabbed a child in Illinois on that date, and struggled with a woman on his way out of the house.
Last month, Rea-Harper’s conviction and indictment were vacated by the 5th District of Illinois Court of Appeals based on improper appointment of the special prosecutor in the case. Freed from Dwight Correctional Center on July 8, she was promptly arrested and re-charged for her son’s murder [see Dusty Rhodes, “Never say die,” July 15].
At her bond hearing on July 16, Rea-Harper appeared before Judge Robert Hopkins, the same judge who presided over her original trial. To the surprise and disappointment of her family and friends, Hopkins set bail at $750,000 — a quarter of a million more than bail at her first trial — despite her record of appearance in court and the confession of the serial killer.
“The reason given by judge was that Julie had already been in prison so now she knew what she was going to face and is therefore more of a flight risk,” says her mother, Jane Rea. “But Julie knew what she was going to face when she was being wrongfully indicted the first time. She is certainly no flight risk.”
Rea-Harper’s attorneys immediately asked if she could be refunded any part of the $50,000 she posted for her first trial. Court records show that all $50,000 is gone. The bulk of it was used to pay her public defender and expert witnesses, but about $12,500 was deducted as a fine and restitution. A hearing on the motion was tentatively scheduled for July 26, but may now be delayed due to a subsequent defense motion to replace the judge in the case.
Rea-Harper’s family, who spent their life savings on her first trial, is trying to raise $75,000 to get her out of jail.
This article appears in Jul 22-28, 2004.
