Sixth-grade teacher looks back at the wrongful conviction of former student Anthony Harris

NEW PHILADELPHIA — Anthony Harris, who was convicted of killing his 5-year-old neighbor in 1999 at the age of 13 but had that conviction overturned on appeal, was a kind, hardworking student who could never be involved in a murder, his sixth-grade teacher told ABC News.

Jennie Arbogast, who taught Harris a year before Devan Duniver's murder, spoke exclusively to ABC News' "20/20" for the first time since Harris' ordeal. She said she has feelings of regret over her community's response to her former student's arrest and wrongful conviction.

Devan's body was found in a wooded area behind her home on Baker Avenue NW in New Philadelphia in 1998. Police arrested and charged Harris with her murder. In 2000, the 5th District Court of Appeals, based in Canton, ruled that Harris' taped confession, which was the key piece of evidence used to prosecute him, was coerced, and he was released from custody.

"I was picturing my student sitting in that conference or standing at my desk doing his best to answer the questions the way he would think I wanted him to answer them," she told ABC News.

Arbogast, who was not asked to testify during Harris' trial and only followed the proceedings, said there should have been more of a show of support for Harris.

"I felt like our mostly white community had let him down. I felt like Anthony should've had a parade of people behind him saying 'absolutely not,'" she said.

Arbogast said she was disturbed by the reports that Harris was interrogated by an officer alone and confessed to the killing. Harris told ABC News that he felt immense pressure to confess so that he could go home.

Arbogast said Harris would "answer questions in a way that he would think the adult would want him to answer them."

"I felt like they asked him leading questions and he was answering them in a way that he was being helpful," she said. "I just felt like they didn't even bother to find out what happened to that little girl."

Arbogast said Harris' case was still on her mind long after he was released from prison.

She wrote a letter to the editor of American Lawyer magazine in 2009 after it published a follow-up piece on the case. She expressed remorse for not doing more during Harris' two years of legal battles.

"I never told Anthony that I thought him a good student and I believed in him. And I never for a moment believed him guilty, not for a second. As a teacher, I felt I failed him by not somehow reaching out to him and saying that I believed in him. Maybe if one person had, others would have, too," she wrote.

Arbogast said she hoped those who wrongfully pegged Harris as a killer remember the trauma inflicted on him and express some remorse.

"But I hope that one day, he will not be seen by the naysayers at all," she said. "I hope that history does his side of the story right."

The full story will be shown on “20/20” today from 9:01 p.m. to 11 p.m. on ABC, and Saturday on Hulu.

These video excerpts from the "20/20" episode are available online:

• What Anthony Harris says he experienced during police interrogation as 12-year-old: https://abcn.ws/3kJmHZ2.

• Residents recall search for 5-year-old Devan Duniver two decades after her death: https://abcn.ws/3FhsFKj.

• Teacher shares message to former student wrongfully convicted in unsolved murder case: https://abcn.ws/38Twqt0.

• Trailer: https://bit.ly/3kxa3MF.

This article originally appeared on The Times-Reporter: Teacher speaks about wrongful murder conviction of former student