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The Unjust Conviction against Kristine Bunch
On June 30, 1995, Kristine Bunch, a single mother, woke to a house filled with smoke. She made her way to her son’s room, but the door was blocked by flames. Kristine went outside, broke the window, and tried to climb through it. However, neighbors pulled her away. Kristine ran to the front of the house, but the neighbors intervened again. The house was already consumed by fire. Kristine’s son, Anthony, perished.
Hours later, the authorities decided that the cause of the fire was arson. The police questioned Kristine about insurance, which she could not afford. Nonetheless, she was arrested within the week for murder.
Indiana Fire Investigators, Bryan Frank and James Skaggs, determined the cause of the fire to be arson by heavy distillates. The evidence was sent to the ATF for verification. William Kinard, a forensic chemist for the ATF concluded there were no heavy petroleum distillates and refuted the local conclusion.
However, Kinard agreed to alter his findings and testified in court falsely that there were distillates in other rooms that supported the arson claim.
No documentation was provided to the court or defense to prove or disprove Kinard’s testimony and theory.
Kristine’s defense lawyer argued that the cause of the fire should have been deemed undetermined, and likely accidental.
After a jury trial, Kristine was convicted on April 1, 1996, and sentenced to sixty years in prison.
In 2002, attorney Hilary Ricks learned of and accepted Kristine’s case.
The new defense team and forensic experts exposed the mistakes in the prosecutor’s case. They also covered arson myths like “pour patterns, concrete spalling, and alligatoring,” which were technical terms used at trial.
After securing ATF files, Hilary Ricks discovered that the prosecutor had violated the Brady Rule by not giving exculpatory evidence to the defense before the criminal trial. These files proved there was no petroleum distillates in Kristine’s home.
William Kinard had lied to the court and jury.
Even with these startling revelations, the prosecutor and court did not cooperate with Kristine’s appeal. They delayed and denied any motion for Kristine’s benefit, arguing that the jury would not have concluded differently.
Kristine appealed the court’s decision for the denial.
Kristine found redemption when her conviction was overturned on March 21, 2012.
Four Corners of Justice diagram scoring:
Lawmakers receive a score of -1.
The investigators receive a score of -5.
The prosecutor receives a score of -7.
The judge receives a score of -3.
All other components receive scores of 0.
Kinard is known to have falsified conclusions in more than just the Bunch case.
The following links are provided for additional insight.
If you would like a free PDF file of my book The End of Justice, please message YesToHellWith on the substack.com platform.
And always remember, The End of Justice is the absence of truth.
· https://painnocence.org/Files/Admin/Gregory-Brown-Facts-In-Support-of-Innocence.pdf
· https://ecf.insd.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/show_public_doc?12014cv0438-59
· https://casetext.com/case/carnevale-v-digiovanni-1
· https://indianainfamy.com/2022/03/04/this-day-in-infamy-a-mother-wrongly-convicted-of-murder/
· https://www.pressreader.com/usa/pittsburgh-post-gazette/20191218/281496458180760
· https://peopleslawoffice.com/wrongful-conviction-suit-filed-kristine-bunch/
· https://www.law.northwestern.edu/legalclinic/wrongfulconvictions/exonerations/in/kristine-bunch.html
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