# Julius Krause When Labanna Rohrbach and Julius Krause were arrested for the 1930 murder of a grocer, the 18-year-old Krause knew he was innocent -- and soon after that, [so did everyone else](http://books.google.com/books?id=SFz_GlHAYWAC\&pg=PA118\&lpg=PA118\&dq=julius+krause+prison\&source=bl\&ots=Bfs0pTmhKR\&sig=7I6K0WnaEFJpDOvYeqCQyaGtHkA\&hl=en\&sa=X\&ei=_FR4UtirI-WiigLWy4G4AQ\&redir_esc=y#v=onepage\&q=julius%20krause%20prison\&f=false), since Rohrbach had delivered a signed deathbed confession exonerating the man who had been convicted as his accomplice. When the authorities decided to quickly and incisively do f\*\*k-all with this information, Krause was left with one option: escape from prison to hunt down the man responsible. So, 10 years after his conviction, that's exactly what he did. While the authorities presumably conducted a hard-target search of every [gas station, residence, warehouse, farmhouse, henhouse, outhouse, and doghouse in the area](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_cczIWvBq4), Krause decided to make it easy on them by turning himself in 45 days later -- only he was accompanied by Curtiss Kumerle, the man guilty of the crime Krause was serving a sentence for. Krause had actually managed to track the guy down and convince him to confess, with Kumerle openly confirming that Krause was completely innocent. So, you'd assume that Julius Krause's ridiculous ordeal was over, right? Not quite: The state was still convinced that Krause was guilty for some reason, and even after the governor commuted his sentence from life to 20 years and recommended parole, the authorities kept him locked up for the entire sentence. See, here's where movie law diverges from actual law: In a movie, if you get locked up for a crime you didn't commit and then escape prison and prove your innocence, they don't hold your escape against you (since you shouldn't have been in there in the first place). But in the real world, escaping from prison is a crime itself. Likewise, real cops don't always applaud those private citizens who go out and do their jobs for them. Still, you'd think they'd have cut him *some* slack. Instead, Krause ended up serving more time for the murder he didn't commit than the guy who actually committed it: Kumerle (who was guilty) got out of jail [one month before](http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1350\&dat=19510515\&id=pIhOAAAAIBAJ\&sjid=UgAEAAAAIBAJ\&pg=1943,6501049) Krause (who was innocent). They probably had a good laugh about it later. \[1] * > 1\. [5 Wrongly Convicted People the Legal System Kept on Screwing](https://www.cracked.com/article_20718_5-wrongly-convicted-people-legal-system-kept-screwing.html), by Robin Warder· (December 06, 2013) [↩](https://www.paulkane.com/julius-krause.html#reffn_1) --- # Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question. Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter: ``` GET https://www.paulkane.com/julius-krause.md?ask= ``` The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language. The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation. Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.