NIU College of Law Student Works for Wife’s Release
October 01, 2003
DeKalb-In a faltering economy, applications to law schools increase. Prospective students, motivated by the desire to shield themselves from the adversity of joblessness, seek legal education as a way to overcome the barrier of unemployment.
However, second-year NIU College of Law student Mark Harper did not seek admission based on the broad perspective of hedging his future employment bets; instead, he was motivated by a single, narrow reason: to free his wife from prison.
Indeed, Harper had considered a job switch, but the successful engineer, armed with a Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering and a Fulbright Postdoctoral Fellowship, originally thought the switch would move him from the field of metallurgy to that of semi-conductors. Never did he dream that law school would be what he chose.
But he gave up his career because he didn't want to "leave to chance" his wife Julie's release from what he believes is a wrongful first-degree murder conviction.
On Friday, October 24, at 1:00 p.m. in the James R. Thompson Center, Harper will begin to learn whether or not his new career choice will be helpful when his wife, Julie Rea Harper, appears at her executive clemency hearing before the Illinois Prison Review Board.
Julie Harper was convicted of murdering her 10 year-old son, Joel Kirkpatrick, in Lawrenceville, Illinois. Joel died on October 13, 1997; Julie was indicted one day short of three years later.
Mark Harper believes his wife's case is a classic case of wrongful conviction: ineffective original counsel, overzealous prosecution, lack of evidence. In September of this year, the original trial court agreed with the lack of evidence presented and sent two hairs found at the crime scene for DNA testing. If the DNA recovered does not match Julie's, she will be released.
But Mark does not wait for that; he says his wife's release is being sought through several avenues: the clemency hearing to be held this Friday; the introduction of evidence from Diane Fanning's Through the Window, a "true crime" book about Tommy Lyn Sales, a convicted serial killer who has acknowledged killing Joel; an appeal being led by the downstate Illinois Innocence Project, through Illinois University at Springfield; and a post-conviction appeal through the Illinois 5th District Court of Appeals that will allow for witnesses to testify who did not at the original trial.
At this Friday's clemenacy hearing, Mark may have the opportunity to begin practicing his still-being-formed legal skills: he may present the opening statement about Julie.
For more information, contact:
Melody Mitchell
Director, Alumni Events & Public Relations
815/753-9655l
L10CJS1@wpo.cso.niu.edu