Larry Osborne
Released August 1, 2002 !
NEWS ABOUT LARRY'S RELEASE
Larry Osborne, 22, was ''still
in shock'' after his acquittal yesterday, his lawyer said. He spent two
years on death row after being
convicted of the December 1997 murders of an elderly Whitley County
couple.
Larry Osborne -- the youngest
person on Kentucky's death row -- was acquitted yesterday at his retrial
in the December 1997 murders
of an elderly Whitley County couple. He was freed immediately and left
the courthouse with his father.
Osborne, 22, whose 1998 conviction
was overturned last year by the state Supreme Court, becomes
the first person in Kentucky
on death row to be found innocent since the state reinstituted the death
penalty in 1976.
''We are very happy,'' his lawyer, Gail Robinson, said yesterday. ''The jury did the right thing.''
Whitley Commonwealth's Attorney
Allen Trimble could not be reached for comment late yesterday.
There was no answer in numerous
calls to his home.
Osborne, who had been held
since his arrest on Dec. 31, 1997, when he was 17, spent two years on
death row.
He walked out of the courtroom
a free man yesterday, Robinson said. She said he broke down when
the jury returned the innocent
verdict yesterday afternoon after about four hours of deliberation.
''He just sat there sobbing,'' Robinson said. ''He's still in shock.''
Osborne was not available
for comment yesterday. Robinson said he was with his father and was still
working out plans on where
to stay.
Osborne won a retrial after
the Supreme Court ruled last year that Whitley Circuit Judge Paul Braden
was wrong to allow into evidence
at the first trial a statement made by a witness who later died,
Osborne's alleged 15-year-old
accomplice. That witness, Joe Reid, drowned in a swimming accident
five months before Osborne's
first trial.
Death penalty opponents said
yesterday that the case underscores their argument that innocent
people risk conviction and
execution in Kentucky.
''Huge, huge mistakes -- like innocent people going to death row -- do occur,'' Robinson said.
The Rev. Patrick Delahanty,
chairman of the Kentucky Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, said it's
an example of how the system
fails people like Osborne.
''This guy was innocent and
they put him on trial, they didn't have the evidence and they convicted
him,'' Delahanty said. ''That's
the system in Kentucky.''
Howard Mann, who helped prosecute
Osborne in the first trial, said Trimble had a difficult case to
make without the testimony
of Reid. But he said Trimble was able to present new evidence at the
retrial, including a pair of
pliers found at Osborne's home. The victims' son testified he had left the
pliers at his parents' house
the day before they were killed.
Mann said the new evidence ''didn't compel the jury to go either way.''
Frankfort lawyer Kevin McNally,
Robinson's husband and a national expert on capital cases who
represents people appealing
the death penalty, said Osborne becomes the 102nd person on death row
nationwide to be acquitted
since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976.
''I think what it means is that there are so many questionable cases on death row,'' McNally said.
Delahanty and other death
penalty opponents have long pushed unsuccessfully for a Kentucky law to
ban the death penalty for defendants
who were juveniles at the time of the crime. Yesterday, they said
Osborne would have been spared
a death sentence if Kentucky had such a law.
''We shouldn't have a death penalty -- particularly for teen-agers,'' Robinson said.
Osborne was charged with
the Dec. 14, 1997, slayings of Sam Davenport, 82, and his wife, Lillian
Davenport, 76, after a break-in
at the home where the couple had lived for 46 years. The prosecutor
said someone disabled the elderly
couple, possibly hitting them on the head, then set the house on
fire.
The Davenports died of smoke inhalation.
Osborne became a suspect
after his mother, Pat Osborne, called police to report that her son had
heard breaking glass as he
and Reid rode past the Davenport home on a motorbike, according to the
court record and testimony
at the first trial.
Authorities said the break-in
occurred on the evening of Dec. 13 and the murders early on Dec. 14; Pat
Osborne called police around
1 a.m. on Dec. 14. The Davenports died around 12:30 a.m. on Dec. 14,
court records said.
On Dec. 31, police began
questioning Reid, who insisted as he had previously that neither he nor
Osborne had anything to do
with the crime. He stuck to that story for most of the interview.
But at the end of a four-hour
interview, Reid changed his story and told police that Osborne had
committed the crime while Reid
watched from outside, according to court records. Police told him
afterward they would assure
prosecutors that Reid had cooperated with them.
''Is this going to get me out of all this stuff?'' Reid asked, according to court records.
Osborne was arrested the same night.
Before Reid could testify
at trial, he drowned while swimming in Jellico, Tenn. His death was ruled
accidental.
But the prosecution presented
Reid's statement at trial anyway, over objections of defense lawyers
who argued it was wrong to
present evidence from a dead witness who couldn't be cross-examined.
They also argued that Reid's
statement was full of inconsistencies.
Osborne was retried this
time without Reid's statement. Robinson said that substantially weakened
the prosecution's case.
She said Osborne took the stand at the five-day trial and testified on his own behalf.
''He said what he's said
from day one,'' Robinson said. ''He said, 'I didn't have anything to do with
this.'
''
Staff writer Joseph Gerth
contributed to this story.
| The Information
below is from Larry's original webpage when he was still on death row.
Larry wrote the CCADP for assistance back in 1999 sending photo's and a pen pal request. |
LARRY OSBORNE – Death Row Inmate #127516
Information provided by the
Kentucky Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty and the Catholic Conference
of Kentucky
On December 13, 1997,
Sam and Lillian Davenport were killed in Whitley County, Ky. when
someone broke into their
home and set it on fire.
Two young boys, Joe Reid
(15) and Larry Osborne (17), reported they heard glass breaking
when they passed the Davenport
house on their trailbike the night of the murders. Larry called
his mother, who called the
police. When the police arrived, the house was in flames.
That night Larry Osborne
was a hard working kid with no police record – but he had no way of
knowing that he had two
problems. First, the police suspected that his mother was the
mastermind of a local crime
syndicate. (This theory ignores the fact that Larry’s mother has an
IQ of 54, and has trouble
doing even simple tasks.) Second, there had been a series of murders
in Whitley County, and there
was pressure on the authorities to take action.
The police decided Larry
Osborne and his mother were suspects. They took Larry’s companion,
Joe Reid, alone, to the
police station for questioning. He was interrogated on December 14, on
December 16, and on December
31. He told the same story repeatedly, confirming the boys’
original statements.
During the interrogation
on New Year’s Eve the police told Joe Reid all the details from their
investigation of how the
crime was committed (even drawing a map and showing photographs
taken at the scene), and
then gave him a lie detector test. Joe told his story again. He was told
by police he "failed" the
test. There was a forty-minute break in the tape, and when it came
back on Joe Reid said that
Larry Osborne committed the murders. Joe Reid asked, "do I get
out of trouble?"
Joe Reid then told a somewhat
different version to a Grand Jury, and shortly thereafter
accidentally drowned in
a lake in Tennessee. He had never been cross-examined. He had never seen
a lawyer on his own behalf.
Larry Osborne denied any
involvement in the murders. There was no physical evidence
connecting him with the
murders.
The Whitley circuit judge
permitted the prosecutor to read to the trial jury Joe Reid’s Grand Jury
statement that Larry Osborne had committed the murders. There was no cross-examination.
The jury sentenced seventeen
year old Larry Osborne to die.
IS THIS FAIR?
LARRY OSBORNE DETAILS
The media coverage of
the series of murders in Whitley County and the
pressure for a solution
is found in TR VII, pp. 899-904, 912-915, Commonwealth
v. Osborne.
The testimony of the two
boys that they heard glass breaking and reported it to
the police through Osborne’s
mother is at TE V, 607.
The testimony of what the police found at the scene is at TE IV, pp. 581-584.
There was broken glass
at the scene and police found small bits of glass on
Osborne’s coveralls. Prosecutors
sought to tie this to Osborne’s involvement in
the murder, but expert analysis
showed that the glass on Osborne’s clothes did
not match the glass at the
crime scene. TE VI, 773-335.
A witness testified to
seeing someone near the murder scene earlier. The
description did not fit
Osborne. TE IV, pp. 562-567; TE V, 717.
The police interrogations
of Joe Reid were recorded and are in the transcript
except there is an unexplained
forty-minute gap in the tape before Joe Reid
changed his testimony. TRN,
Tab 3; Appellant’s brief, p. 8, 17.
Osborne has claimed his
innocence from the time he was charged to the
present time. While he was
held in the Whitley County jail two prisoners
escaped, but Osborne declined
to go with them. TE VIII, pp. 1000-1001.
Osborne’s conviction is currently under appeal.
Rev. Patrick Delahanty
Policy Analyst
613 Zane Street
Catholic Conference of Kentucky
Louisville KY 40203-3029
1042 Burlington Lane
Frankfort Kentucky 40601
Phones: Home: (502)581-9154; Office: (502)875-4345; Fax: (502)875-2841
Catholic Conference -
www.ccky.org
KCADP - www.kcadp.org
Kentucky Coalition to
Abolish the Death Penalty
PO BOX 3092
Louisville KY 40201-3092
(502)585-2895 Fax: (502)587-1356
To join KCADP, send $15 to above address.
Above information provided
by the Kentucky Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty and the Catholic
Conference of Kentucky
LARRY OSBORNE'S ORIGINAL PEN
PAL REQUEST TO THE CCADP:
Hello my name is Larry
Osborne. I'm 19 years old, white, native Kentuckian on Death Row
in Kentucky at the Kentucky
State Penitentiary where I await my execution. I'm seeking
correspondence with : someone
interested in establishing a lasting relationship with mutual
respect and honesty, and
above all else willingness to nurture a friendship in the midst of
adversity. My family
has all but abandoned me in this nightmare, being 19 years old is not
the easiest situation for
me.. I could use some companisonship / friendship and support.
I grew up in the mountains
of southeastern Kentucky. I love the outdoors, hiking, fishing
and hunting. As well
as every aspect of nature. I enjoy, Basketball, Wrestling, Rock
and Roll
music and NFL football.
I like good movies, mostly action packed and comedy. I enjoy
drawing. I also lift
a few weights and play basketball when allowed to go out side a couple
of hours a week.
I'm looking for someone who can shine a bit of light in this sometimes
dimly lit world I must live
in. Below is my address, and a picture of me holding
"The World's Largest Game
Cock" (Rooster) at Busch Gardens a year before my arrest. *
( * Larry's original photo
was deleted by NBCi in April
2001.)
Hope to hear from you soonest.
Sincerely Larry Osborne.
Larry Osborne #127516
6-G-3
P.O. Box 128
Eddyville, Kentucky
42038-0128 USA
RELEASED FROM DEATH ROW
EXONERATED
- NOW A FREE MAN !
The CCADP offers free webpages to over 500 Death Row Prisoners
Contact us for more information.
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