Kevin Strickland, 62, smiles as he speaks to the media after being released from prison Tuesday in Cameron, Mo.
Rich Sugg / The Kansas City Star via AP
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Rich Sugg / The Kansas City Star via AP
Kevin Strickland, 62, smiles as he speaks to the media after being released from prison Tuesday in Cameron, Mo.
Rich Sugg / The Kansas City Star via AP
A Kansas City man who was jailed for more than 40 years for three murders was released from prison Tuesday after a judge ruled that he was wrongly convicted in 1979.
Kevin Strickland, 62 years old, has always maintained that he was at home watching television and had nothing to do with the murder, which happened when he was 18 years old. He learned of this decision when the news flashed across the television screen while he was watching a soap opera. He said the inmates started screaming.
“I don’t necessarily get angry. It’s a lot. I think I created emotions that you all don’t know about,” he told reporters as he left the Western Missouri Correctional Center in Cameron. . “Joy, sadness, fear. I’m trying to figure out how to put them together.”
He said he wanted to join efforts to “keep this from happening to other people,” saying the criminal justice system “needs to be torn down and redone.”
Judge James Welsh, a retired Missouri Court of Appeals judge, ruled after a three-day evidence hearing requested by a Jackson County prosecutor who says the evidence used to convict Strickland has been dismissed or dismissed.
Welsh wrote in his sentencing that the “clear and convincing evidence” presented “undermines the Court’s confidence in the conviction.” He noted that there was no physical evidence linking Strickland to the crime scene and that a key witness had testified before her death.
“Under these exceptional circumstances, the Court’s confidence in Strickland’s convictions has been reduced to untenable levels, and conviction must be set aside,” Welsh wrote in the order. immediate freedom for Strickland.
Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker, who pushed for his freedom, quickly dismissed the criminal charges against him so he could be released.
“To say we are extremely pleased and grateful is an understatement,” she said in a statement. “This brings justice – finally – to a man who has suffered greatly as a result of this wrongful conviction.”
But Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt, a Republican running for the US Senate, said Strickland was guilty and had fought to keep him in custody.
“In this case, we defend the principle of law and the decision that a jury of Mr Strickland’s colleagues made after hearing all of the facts in the case,” said spokesman Chris Nuelle of the case. Schmitt said in a brief statement. “The court has spoken, no further action will be taken in this matter.”
Governor Mike Parson, who denied Strickland’s request for leniency, tweeted simply: “The Court has taken its decision, we respect the decision and the Department of Corrections will proceed with Mr Strickland’s immediate release. instantly.”
Strickland was convicted in the death of 21-year-old Larry Ingram; John Walker, 20 years old; and Sherrie Black, 22, at a house in Kansas City.
The evidence hearing focused primarily on the testimony of Cynthia Douglas, the sole survivor of the April 25, 1978 shooting. She initially identified Strickland as one of four men who shot the victims. and testified to it in his two trials.
Welsh wrote that she had doubts soon after her conviction but was initially “hesitating to act because she feared she might face perjury charges if she was publicly sworn in before she was sworn in.”
She later said she was pressured by the police to choose Strickland and tried for years to alert political and legal experts to help her prove she had misidentified the man, according to testimony from her family, friends and a colleague. . Douglas passed away in 2015.
During the hearing, attorneys for the Missouri Attorney General’s office argued that Strickland’s advocates had failed to provide a trail of paperwork proving Douglas attempted to declare her identity to Strickland, saying that This theory is based on “rumor, when rumor, when rumor”.
The judge also noted that two other men convicted in the murder later insisted Strickland was not involved. They named two other suspects who have never been charged.
In his testimony, Strickland denied suggestions that he offered Douglas $300 to “keep her mouth shut”, and said he had never visited the house where the murders took place before they happen.
Strickland was black, and his first trial ended in a suspended jury when the only black jury, a woman, was acquitted. After his second trial in 1979, he was found guilty by an all-white jury of one count of murder and two counts of second-degree murder.
In May, Peters Baker announced that a The review of the case leads her to believe that Strickland is innocent.
In June, the Missouri Supreme Court declined to hear Strickland’s lawsuit.
In August, Peters Baker use new state law to seek an evidence hearing in Jackson County, where Strickland was convicted. The law allows local prosecutors to challenge a sentence if they believe the defendant has not committed a crime. This is the first time – and the only time so far – that a prosecutor has used the law to fight a previous conviction.
“Even if the prosecution were on your side, it would take months for Mr. Strickland to go home and he would still have to go home because of a system that would not pay him any restitution for 43 years. he’s gone,” said Tricia Rojo. Bushnell, executive director of the Midwest Innocence Project, who stood by Strickland when he was released.
The state only allows unjust prison payments to people who are exonerated through DNA evidence, so Strickland does not qualify.
“That’s not justice,” she said. “I think we hope that people are paying a lot of attention and really asking the question ‘What will our justice system be like?'”
