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Appeals court to hear arguments for new trial
By CHARLES WILSON Associated Press
July 13, 2011
INDIANAPOLIS—
A lawyer for an Indiana woman who has spent 15 years in prison after
she was convicted of setting the fire that killed her 3-year-old son
told a panel of judges Wednesday that new science proves the fire was
an accident, not arson.
"Kristine Bunch is innocent. No arson occurred in this case," Ron Safer
told three judges on the Indiana Court of Appeals. Safer, who is
working pro bono with the Center on Wrongful Convictions at
Northwestern University School of Law to get a new trial for Bunch,
also told the judges that evidence that was withheld from her 1996
trial undermines the state's case against her.
A Decatur County jury convicted the Greensburg woman of murder and
arson in 1996 and she was sentenced to 60 years in prison. The same
judge who sentenced her then denied her petition for post-conviction
relief based on new evidence filed in 2006.
"The world's experts came in and testified about this," Safer said in
an interview earlier this week. "I don't think he opened his mind."
Prosecutors said Bunch poured kerosene in her son's bedroom and the
living room of their mobile home and lit it on fire. No formal motive
was ever given at the trial, court briefs say. But prosecutors said
that Bunch had asked a friend to take custody of her son Tony about a
year before the fire so she could "get away from it all" and made
inconsistent statements about the fire.
Safer said fire investigation has changed since the mid-1990s, and
investigators now have a better idea of how fires work. The burn
patterns that were interpreted at the time as signs that kerosene had
been poured in the mobile home are now understood to be marks left by
flashover, when virtually all combustible material in an enclosed area
ignites, according to court briefs.
Safer also said another point that disproves the fire began in the
bedroom is the fact that Tony died of smoke inhalation. He said that if
the fire had started in his room, Tony would have died of burns before
inhaling enough carbon monoxide to be fatal.
"The fire could not have been intentionally set," Safer told the
judges. "When the evidence shows that is not how the fire was set, you
must grant a new trial," he added.
But the judges seemed more concerned about the withheld evidence.
A lab report from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms found no
trace of kerosene in the boy's bedroom, despite investigators'
contention that part of the fire had been set there, Safer said.
But that report was not admitted into evidence during Bunch's initial
trial even though her lawyer had asked prosecutors for any evidence
that might tend to clear her. Prosecutors may not have known about the
report, but the ATF did, Safer said, and the state should have known
about it and released it.
Deputy Attorney General Ian McLean argued largely that the scientific
advances claimed by Bunch's attorneys were exaggerated and too
inconclusive to change the outcome of the trial. He told judges one
defense expert presented some of the same evidence at trial, but
experts now were more sophisticated.
"These are ... claims piled upon evidence that can't support it,"
McLean said.
McLean also pointed out inconsistencies in Bunch's story,
inconsistencies that Safer said likely were caused by confusion from
carbon monoxide poisoning. McLean also repeated prosecutors' claims
that Bunch had blocked the open doorway of her son's room with a chair,
but Safer claimed photo evidence showed the chair was actually standing
against a wall that had burned.
Court briefs filed by Bunch's attorneys also contend that investigators
ignored key evidence, including a history of electrical problems in the
home, and the fact that a previous occupant had used a kerosene heater
in the living room, which could have accounted for positive test
results there.
Safer said the case wouldn't stop even if the Court of Appeals sides
with the state.
"We'll go to the Indiana Supreme Court. If we don't get the right
ruling there, we'll take it to the federal court," Safer said in an
interview. "She's innocent. We're not going to let this rest."
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