Citing juror misconduct, a Marion County judge ordered...

Citing juror misconduct, a Marion County judge ordered a new trial for Walter Dye. Dye was convicted and sentenced to death for the July 1996 murders of 3 children. But Judge Patricia Gifford of Marion Superior Court reversed the sentence and conviction because a juror lied about her background. Gifford wrote that the juror, Jackie Gunn, lied about her family background in questionnaires issued to potential jurors. Gunn concealed that her brother had been convicted of 2 homicides in California and had been sentenced to death. She also hid the fact that she had been a victim of sexual abuse as a child and that she and other family members had been arrested and convicted of crimes. The children, Hannah Clay, 14, Celeste Jones, 7, and Lawrence Cowherd III, 2, were killed July 22, 1996, in the Near-Eastside apartment of Dye's estranged wife, Myrna Dye.