KENTUCKY MAN IS NATIONS 102^nd DEATH ROW EXONEREE

KENTUCKY MAN IS NATIONS 102^nd DEATH ROW EXONEREE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Thursday, August 1, 2002 Contact: BRENDA BOWSER

202 – 293-6970 bbowser@​deathpenaltyinfo.​org

KENTUCKY MAN IS NATION’S 102^nd DEATH ROW EXONEREE

Juvenile Offender Larry Osborne acquit­ted of 1997 double murder

WASHINGTON, DC — Larry Osborne became the nation’s 102^nd exon­er­at­ed death row inmate since 1973, accord­ing to an announce­ment made today by the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC). Osborne was sen­tenced to death in 1999 fol­low­ing his con­vic­tion for the mur­der of two elder­ly vic­tims in Whitley County, Ky. He was 17 at the time of the crime and has spent over three years on Kentucky’s death row.

The Kentucky Supreme Court reversed Osborne’s con­vic­tion based on its find­ing that the tri­al court allowed inad­mis­si­ble hearsay tes­ti­mo­ny from a wit­ness, Joe Reid. Reid passed away pri­or to the orig­i­nal tri­al and, there­fore, could not face cross-exam­i­na­tion dur­ing Osborne’s first tri­al. At his re-tri­al com­plet­ed today, Osborne was acquit­ted of all charges and set free.

“As the num­ber of death row exonerees con­tin­ues to rise, the risk of fatal error with­in our sys­tem becomes increas­ing­ly clear,” said Richard C. Dieter, DPIC Executive Director. ​“This is fur­ther evi­dence that our sys­tem of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment is so seri­ous­ly flawed that all exe­cu­tions should be stopped.”

Osborne is the fourth death row exon­er­a­tion in 2002, and the first man to walk free from Kentucky’s death row since the state restored the death penal­ty in 1975. The first 2002 exoneree was Juan Melendez, a Florida man who spent near­ly two decades on death row before a judge ordered his release. Ray Krone, the nation’s 100^th exoneree and the sec­ond death row inmate to be freed this year, was released in April in Arizona after DNA tests exclud­ed him from the crime. The third exoneree was Thomas H. Kimbell, Jr., of Pennsylvania. He spent four years on Pennsylvania’s death row before the jury at his retri­al acquit­ted him of all charges in May.

For more infor­ma­tion about this case, please con­tact Osborne’s attor­ney, Gail Robinson, at (502) 227‑2142. To speak with oth­er death penal­ty experts, please call Kevin McNally (502) 227‑2142 or Richard Dieter at DPIC (202) 293‑6970.