The Maddening Case of Anthony Harris
First, the police brought the boy in for a “relaxing” interview, and told his mother that it would be easier if she wasn’t in the room. But when she left, Anthony was immediately read his Miranda rights.
Second, there was no physical evidence whatsoever linking Anthony to the crime, as was suggested. Vaughn was lying.
Third, the voice stress analysis that the interrogator threatened to make Anthony take is notoriously unreliable — a federal government report found that using it to detect drug use was “no better than flipping a coin when it comes to detecting deception” — and cannot be used in court.
Finally, the police chief had been trained in a style of manipulative interrogation designed to extract confessions, and the group that trains people to use these methods warned that it could compel children to make false confessions.
But as soon as the boy confessed, Amanda Spies, the prosecutor, told the police to arrest him.
Anthony was formally arrested and charged with Devan’s murder, and the trial gripped the town. The principal evidence against Anthony was the dodgy confession. Tarin Hale, the public defender who was representing the boy, found that the only time he could have killed the little girl was a 15-minute window between 1:45 and 2 p.m on June 27. But at 2 p.m. on the day of the killing, Anthony was with Devan’s mom, who gave him $5 to help her look for Devan. The prosecutor’s own notes said that given the nature of Devan’s injuries, there should have been”blood spurting like crazy.” There was no blood on him when Duniver’s mother saw him that day. The prosecution pressed ahead anyway, and in her courtroom arguments Spies maintained that Devan wouldn’t have bled much. She was knowingly withholding exculpatory evidence. Anthony was convicted by Judge Linda Kate for the maximum sentence: incarceration until he was 21.
It would take the next few years and the yeoman pro bono efforts from attorneys from a prominent Cleveland law firm to have the judge’s decision overturned by an appeals court. (They called bullshit on the prosecution’s claim that there was info in the confession that only the killer would know.) Anthony went on to graduate from high school, and applied for the Marines. But when the Marine recruiter went to pick up his juvenile record from the courthouse, a livid Spies told him that Anthony would remain a suspect in the murder. Anthony’s application to the Marines was rejected.
Anthony’s laywers pressed ahead with a wrongful prosecution suit. The prosecutors and cops were now the defendants, and they moved to have the case dismissed.
When Judge Adams issued his decision in August 2004 rejecting the defendants’ motions to dismiss, his words conveyed barely contained outrage: “Despite the lack of any physical evidence to link Anthony to Devan’s murder, the police defendants consciously elected to pursue a confession from 12-year-old Anthony through unconstitutional means. . . . Chief Vaughn resorted to tactics that would compel a 12-year-old boy’s confession, regardless of his guilt or innocence.” As for Spies, her absolute immunity would not protect her against claims arising from her role in the investigation, including her instructions to arrest Anthony.
That fall the Baker & Hostetler lawyers sparred with the defendants in depositions. Anthony, when he was deposed, reluctantly talked about the toll the prosecution and imprisonment had taken on him, saddling him with serious emotional issues. “They ripped my family and [me] apart,” he testified. “It’s like they just stomped a hole in my life.”
A few months after the depositions, which lay bare deficiencies in the police investigation, the Baker & Hostetler team reached a settlement with officers Urban, Vaughn, and Staggers, and the cities of New Philadelphia and Millersburg. In February 2005 their insurers agreed to pay $1.5 million. For Warren and Mearns, the money wasn’t enough. They wanted an apology. The three officers signed a letter to Anthony stating: “We regret that you were wrongfully convicted of this crime. We apologize to you and your family for the events that led to your conviction.” Spies refused to settle.
Anthony reapplied to the military in the spring of 2005. This time Judge Kate resisted clearing his name. Responding to a letter from an Army recruiter seeking information, she stressed in a June 2005 letter that the appeals court never acquitted Anthony. She characterized the reversal as a technicality, and noted, “Mr. Harris remains eligible for prosecution.” Anthony never joined the Army.
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