The only physical evidence to implicate Joe was a latent partial palm-print that the state’s
examiner testified matched him. This was consistent with Joe’s admitted presence in the
bedroom prior to the rape. The police had collected seminal fluid and blood, but the state
chose not to present it in court and then destroyed it before it could be tested by the defense.
The prosecution also presented testimony from a police officer who got a “glimpse” of an
African American youth running from the victim’s house after he observed Joe Sullivan at the
police station being interrogated as the suspect in the sexual assault. He identified Joe as the
fleeing youth.
Finally, the prosecution presented testimony from the victim, who, despite being coached
through a rehearsal of her testimony outside the presence of the jury, could not affirmatively
identify Joe Sullivan as the perpetrator. Joe was made to say in court what the victim
remembered her assailant saying to her, but she testified that Joe’s voice “could very easily
be” that of the perpetrator.
Joe was convicted by a six-person jury after a trial that lasted only one day. Opening
statements began sometime after 9 A.M., and the jury returned its verdict at 4 : 55 P.M. Joe’s
appointed counsel was later suspended from practice in Florida and never reinstated. The
defense lawyer had filed no written pleadings and uttered no more than twelve transcript
lines at sentencing. There was a great deal to say that was never said.
At the time of his arrest in 1989 , Joe Sullivan was a thirteen-year-old boy with mental
disabilities who read at a first-grade level, had experienced repeated physical abuse by his
father, and had suffered severe neglect. His family had disintegrated into what state officials
described as “abuse and chaos.” From age ten until his arrest, Joe had no stable home; he had
no fewer than ten different addresses within this three-year period. He spent most of his time
on the streets, where police stopped him for violations including trespassing, stealing a bike,
and property crimes committed with his older brother and other older teens.
Joe had been brought to court and adjudicated on a single occasion, when he was twelve
years old. The juvenile probation officer assigned to Joe’s case attributed his behavior to the
fact that “he is easily influenced and associates with the wrong crowd.” She observed that
“[i]t is apparent that Joe is a very immature naive person who is a follower rather than a
leader” and that he has the potential to “be a positive and productive individual.”
Joe’s record of mostly misdemeanor-level juvenile incidents—nearly all of which were
nonviolent and which did not merit more than a single court adjudication in a two-year
period—was viewed differently by the sentencing judge, who concluded that “the juvenile
system has been utterly incapable of doing anything with Mr. Sullivan.” The court concluded
that Joe had been “given opportunity after opportunity to upright himself and take advantage
of the second and third chances he’s been given.” In truth, Joe was never given a second,
much less a third, chance to “upright himself,” but he was nonetheless characterized at age
thirteen as a “serial” or “violent recidivist” by prosecutors. The judge sentenced him to life
imprisonment without the possibility of parole.
Despite numerous potentially meritorious grounds for appeal, Joe’s appointed appellate
counsel filed an Anders brief—indicating his belief that there were no legitimate grounds for