Joseph Burrows

On the night of November 8, 1988 family members of eighty-eight year old farmer, William Dulin, found his body near his Sheldon Illinois home. He had suffered a gunshot wound to the head. It did not take long before investigators had a tip and by their estimates solved the crime. The morning after William's body was found a man named Chuck Gullion walked into a bank expecting to cash a check for $4,500. The name on the check was William Dulin. The bank teller had heard about the discovery and called the police. Investigators arrived and arrested Guillion along with his companion, Gayle Potter.

The two would be interrogated but it seems that Guillion knew nothing beyond the fact that Potter had asked him to cash the check at the bank. Potter would freely admit to forging the check. But, investigators were less worried about that check than they were about catching who had murdered William Dulin. It is not clear how long it took but Potter would tell investigator that she had witnessed the murder but he had not been a part of it. She claimed that two men, Joseph Burrows and his friend, Ralph Frye had forced her to the Dulin farm where they were going to attempt to get some money from Dulin. In Potter's story Burrows had been the person to shoot William Dulin. Investigators immediately went and arrested the two men. Both would initially proclaim their innocence but investigators pressed and were able to get twenty-two year old Ralph Frye, who has been described having “slight cognitive disabilities” which is a nice way of saying he had issues with intelligence, to confess.

Despite the fact that there was nothing linking either Burrows or Frye to the scene and it was Potter who had injuries, and who's blood would be found at the scene, the investigators made a deal with Potter. She would plead guilty to the forgery charges. She would also admit to taking part in the crime and testify against both Burrows and Frye. Considering that Burrows was the only one to still insist on his innocence, he was the only one to go to trial. Frye would also plead guilty and also agree to testify against Burrows. For their parts Potter would receive a sentence of twenty-three years while Frye would receive thirty.

In early 1989 Joseph Burrows would go to trial in Iroquois County where the crime was committed. The prosecution was seeking the death penalty. The only evidence the prosecution had was the testimony of Potter and Frye. The defense presented several witnesses who said that Burrows was at his brother's home, some sixty miles away, at the time of the crime. The trial would end in a mistrial when the jury failed to come to a decision. Prosecutors were determined to try him again. In July of 1989 a new trial would commence. This time the proceedings were held in Kankakee County, just the next county over. Again it seems that the prosecution only had the testimony of Potter and Frye. In re-trials the defense most often has the upper hand on things because unless new evidence comes to light generally the case from a prosecution standpoint does not change. So a defense attorney can tweak things and possibly find more things to raise the issue of reasonable doubt. What defense attorneys do not usually do is eliminate witnesses that could testify where the defendant was at the time of a crime. However, defense attorney, Don Boyer, did just that this time. When asked later why he did not present the witnesses from the first trial who had testified that Burrows was at his brothers home he said he did not feel that the jury would have found them credible. No one seems to understand this line of thinking. So when it was all said and done Joseph Burrows was convicted in the first degree murder of William Dulin and the following month the judge sentenced him to death.

In 1992 an appeals court upheld Burrows' conviction and sentence. At that point Ralph Frye contacted a reporter from Chicago. Frye would tell reporter Peter Rooney that he had lied at Burrows' trial because he had been threatened and manipulated by the investigators. Apparently someone, somewhere found this recantation to be credible because the case was reopened. It is unclear at what point attorney Kathleen Zellner took on the case but she began representing Burrows.

You may remember Kathleen Zellner. She is currently most famous for being the attorney for Making a Murderer star, Steven Avery. As of 2016 Zellner had gotten seventeen people exonerated, some death row inmates, in twelve different cases. One of the biggest things that Zellner would learn is that at some point Gayle Potter had written a friend asking the to lie to the investigator and say that they had seen Potter in Burrows' truck on the night of the murder. Zellner would later accuse prosecutor, Tony Brasel, of purposely hiding this letter from the defense. She would ask that charges be brought against him. For his part Brasel would allege that the letter “must have” been put in a file by and investigator and that he had never seen it. While the courts denied charging Brasel they would say that a violation had occurred when the defense had not been made aware of the letter. Just how Zellner got it is unclear. At any rate over the next several months Zellner would often visit not just her client but also Gayle Potter who was serving her sentence in connection with the crime. A hearing was held in which both Potter and Ralph Frye would testify that they had lied at Joseph Burrows' trials.

Gayle Potter would ultimately confess that she had gone to the Dulin farm to ask William Dulin for money for drugs. Now, whether Dulin knew it was for drugs is unclear but Potter would claim he had loaned her money in the past and that her mother had worked for him as a housekeeper at some point. All of my research describes Gayle Potter as a “cocaine addict” so I suspect Dulin knew this too. According to Potter, Dulin refused to loan her the money this time and there was a scuffle. She would claim that the gun had gone off accidentally but to be fair I am unsure this is true. But she admitted that she had obtained an injury on her forehead in the scuffle. She had previously testified that the cut on her head had been a result of Burrows hitting her on the head with the gun. She knew she had to have an explanation as to her injuries, as well as her blood being found at the scene. When asked why she had implicated not just Burrows, but also Frye, Potter would say that she knew the two men and she believed that Burrows had recently broken into her mobile home. Now, Burrows did have a criminal history at that point that included burglary, but it was said that Potter was allegedly wrong in believing Burrows had robbed her. But, at the time she allegedly did not know this and thought she would get even with Burrows. She claimed that she knew she would get less time being an accomplice to a crime than admitting her role. For his part Frye maintained what he had told Peter Rooney, he had been threatened and manipulated by investigator to testify, something I am sure they denied.

Since the only evidence against Burrows had always been these two witnesses and there was evidence of the letter Potter had sent to her friend, the judge decided that he deserved a new trial. The prosecution of course vehemently disagreed. They appealed the judge's decision but lost. In the meantime Zellner had advocated for Burrows' release. Once again the prosecution argued against this but fearing the judge would release him asked for a high bail. In the end the judge disagreed with it all and while he did set a bail amount, he in turn waived it, and released Joseph Burrows on his own recognizance on September 8, 1994. Eventually, knowing that they literally had no evidence now against Burrows, the prosecutor would drop the charges.

The Dulin family was furious. Despite everything they believed that Joseph Burrows had murdered their family member. When Gayle Potter had last testified and had changed her story she had eluded to the fact that she believed that at this point she could not be charged and most of all sentenced to death in the murder because she believed it would constitute double jeopardy. While at the time legal experts stated they were unsure this was true since her deal, and testimony was allegedly based on a lie, it does not seem she was ever re-charged in any way for the murder. She would get a five year sentence later for perjury though. And, while she had already been sentenced to five years less than Ralph Frye, who she now says she lied to implicate, she would also receive five less years than he did when he too was charged with perjury. However, Ralph Frye's conviction for the murder of William Dulin was vacated and although he received a ten year sentence for perjury after spending eighteen years in prison he was released on July 8, 1996.

It would be said that after spending so much time in prison for a crime he did not commit, let alone over four years on death row, Burrows had a difficult time readjusting to society. He filed a civil suit against the police department and at some point was awarded $100,000. But, in 2005 he was convicted and sentenced to six years for “possession of chemicals” used in making methamphetamine. The information surrounding this was very vague and to be fair I would like to know more. Some could say that the police had it out for him. The Dulin family and apparently the prosecutors (despite having no evidence) were convinced that he was involved in William Dulin's murder. Now, I am not saying for a fact that he was not involved in any kind of criminal activity or he was not guilty, but it is not unheard of in cases in which someone has been exonerated that investigators are not out to get their man, again, on anything they can. Burrows was released in 2008.

Joseph Burrows would die in his Homer Illinois home on October 15, 2009 at the age of fifty-six of apparent natural causes.