larry osborne
4 Years Lost
Cause of Conviction: Murder (x2); Arson; Burglary; Robbery
County: Whitley
Trial/Plea: Trial
Race: White
Year : 1999
Sentence: Death
Time Served: 4
Date Sentence Vacated: April 26, 2001 (conviction reversed); August 8, 2002 (acquittal on retrial)
Reason Sentence Vacated: Principal evidence at trial was not subject to cross-examination
Cause of Wrongful Conviction: Reliance on coerced testimony of a juvenile witness
On December 14, 1997, the mother of 17-year-old Larry Osborne reported to the police that her son had heard the sound of breaking glass coming from the direction of the Davenport home. He heard this sound while riding a motorbike nearby with his 15-year-old friend, Joe Reid.
The police determined that an intruder had broken a window before entering the home, and brought Reid in for questioning. Reid initially denied any involvement in the crime, but after four hours, he changed his statement and implicated Osborne. Forty minutes of the interrogation tape is mysteriously missing from the police records. In the moments following the missing portion of the tape, police assure Reid that the prosecutors will be told that he cooperated. To this, Reid responded, “Is this going to get me out of all this stuff?” Reid was taken before the grand jury where he implicated Osborne.
Reid passed away prior to trial and there was no other evidence connecting Osborne to the murder. The judge allowed Joe Reid’s Grand Jury testimony to be played to the trial jury. Prosecutors further contended that Osborne could not have heard breaking glass over the sound of the motorbike. Osborne was convicted and sentenced to death. He was the youngest person on Kentucky’s death row.
In 2001, Osborne’s conviction was overturned by the Kentucky Supreme Court, ruling that the admission of the grand jury testimony violated Osborne’s Sixth Amendment right to cross-examine his accuser. Osborne was retried in 2002, where his defense team presented the testimony of a sound engineer who showed it was possible for Osborne to hear glass breaking while on a motorbike some distance away. Osborne was acquitted and released from custody.
For more information on the case:
https://www.law.umich.edu/special/exoneration/Pages/casedetail.aspx?caseid=4216