CONVICTION OVERTURNED
Students in the Downstate Illinois Innocence Project at University
of Illinois at Springfield celebrated a victory last week when the Fifth District
Appellate Court set aside the murder conviction of Julie Rea-Harper. She is
serving a 65-year prison sentence for the stabbing death of her 10-year-old
son, Joel Kirkpatrick.
Tommy Lynn Sells, a serial killer on Texas’ Death Row, has confessed to the
crime, as detailed in an Illinois Times cover story [Dusty Rhodes, “Who
Killed Joel?” July 24, 2003].
A bond hearing set for Wednesday will reveal whether the state plans to appeal
the district court decision. If bond is granted, Rea-Harper could be released
from prison within days.
WE HAVE A WINNER
Illinois Times staff writer Dusty Rhodes won first place for
feature writing among papers with circulation of 50,000 or less in the annual
Association of Alternative Newsweeklies’ editorial contest. Rhodes’ award-winning
story examined the death in police custody of Springfield resident Andy Sallenger
[“Why Andy Won’t Die,” March 13, 2003].
The judges applauded Rhodes for “her alertness to complexity” and described
her reporting as “rigorous, intimate, and possessed of a keen ear.”
Rhodes, who joined Illinois Times in September 2002, previously worked
for the Dallas Morning News, Dallas Observer, and the Anchorage
Daily News.
Former Illinois Times staff writer and editor Pete Sherman, now a reporter
with the State Journal-Register, was named a third-place winner in the
religion writing category for his profile of Roman Catholic activist Stephen
Brady of Petersburg [“Defender of the faith,” June 19, 2003].
The Association of Alternative Newsweeklies is a trade organization for more
than 120 non-daily free-circulation newspapers, including the Chicago Reader,
the Riverfront Times of St. Louis, and the Village Voice. The
awards were presented last week in San Antonio. A complete list of winners is
at www.aan.org.
This article appears in Jul 1-7, 2004.
