The Maddening Case of Anthony Harris

by G.D., originally published at PostBourgie

One of the (many) reasons I oppose the death penalty is because of the shitty track record the criminal justice system has not just in the prosecution of capital offense but also for routinely botching non-capital felony cases. Why should we have faith in the system when it comes to deciding whether people should live or die?

This stance was affirmed when quadmoniker put me on to the case of Anthony Harris earlier today.

On the afternoon of June 27, 1998, Lori Duniver discovered that her five-year-old daughter, Devan, was missing from her home in New Philadelphia, Ohio. The following day, Devan’s body was found in a wooded area near her home. She had been stabbed seven times in the neck. Captain Jeffrey Urban (“Urban”) of the New Philadelphia Police Department led the investigation into Devan’s murder. Urban identified several “persons of interest” who might have killed Devan, including Devan’s mother, Lori, who had recently called a suicide hotline to report that she was depressed and considering harming herself and her children; Lori’s boyfriend, Jaimie Redmond, a drug addict and felon of whomDevan was afraid, who had previously kidnapped Devan for three days and beaten her with a belt, who may have been in the neighborhood of Devan’s house at the time of her disappearance, who was later found in possession of an unexplained pack of children’s playing cards, and whose alibi witness was later discovered to have given a false name and Social Security number to the police; Devan’s father, Richard, a violent alcoholic who had recently complained about having to pay child support for Devan and who refused to help Lori search for Devan after Devan’s disappearance, claiming to be too drunk to drive; Devan’s brother, Dylan, who was described by several individuals as violent and who had recently stabbed a cat; and Harris, a twelve-year-old, African-American neighbor of the (Caucasian) Duniver family.

Some background real quick. Both Anthony Harris and Devan Duniver lived in the same apartment complex in New Philadelphia, Ohio, which was 97% white as of the 2000 census. Anthony and Devan played together, and had once got into a scuffle when the little girl threw a brick at him.

A few days later, the police brought Anthony, who was then a slight, shy 12-year-old, in for what they called an “interview.”

After making some small talk, [Thomas Vaughn, a police chief from a nearby town] suggested to Anthony that the police had evidence linking him to Devan’s murder, such as finding Devan’s blood on his clothes and his footprints near Devan’s body. Anthony denied that he did anything wrong, but Vaughn, according to the transcript, kept pressing. “You’re sorry you did this, aren’t you? You didn’t mean to kill her, did you?”

“I didn’t kill her,” Anthony replied.Vaughn threatened that if Anthony didn’t confess, he would have to do a “voice stress test,” a technique that could tell whether he was lying, and then the child would be stuck with the results in court. “You know you did this crime,” Vaughn told the little boy, suggesting that he understood why he might be angry enough to kill Devan. “A lot of African Americans got a lot of hate built up over the years.”After Anthony repeatedly denied harming Devan, the boy finally relented.

“You stabbed her in the throat, didn’t you Anthony?” Vaughn insisted. “You did, didn’t you, Anthony?” “Yes.”

“Do you know how many times you stabbed her?”

“No.”

“More than once? Five or six times?”

“No.”

“Once or twice?”

“Probably twice.”

After 80 minutes, Vaughn asked Anthony to write down his confession, and Anthony started to cry. “Can I talk to my mom?”

Anthony’s mother who had been outside the room, walked in, and Vaughn started to tell her that Anthony had confessed. But Anthony stopped him.

“Wait. I’ll tell her that if I did it, I would have done it, but I didn’t do it, but I said I did it,” said the boy, seemingly confused by what had happened.

“You didn’t do it?” Cynthia Harris asked.

“No.”

“Then why did you tell him that you did?”

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