‘A travesty’: Kevin Strickland’s mother laid to rest as he remains in Missouri prison
When Jackson County prosecutors announced in May they had determined Kevin Strickland is innocent, he envisioned speeding down Interstate 35, away from the Cameron prison where he remains incarcerated, to see his ailing mother.
During each of their conversations, Strickland would tell his older brother, L.R., how badly he wanted to sit beside Rosetta Savannah Thornton, who suffered from dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. They knew she didn’t have much time.
“I got to get there,” Kevin Strickland said of making it to another brother’s home, where Thornton stayed. “I got to get there.”
But Strickland was heartbroken to learn his mother, 85, died on Aug. 21, more than 100 days after Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker held a news conference to say her office concluded Strickland has spent 42 years in prison for a 1978 triple murder he did not commit.
Loved ones had hoped Strickland, 62, would be able to attend his mother’s funeral services Saturday at Graceway Church along Blue Ridge Cutoff in Raytown, where relatives came to mourn. A hearing during which prosecutors would have argued Strickland is innocent before a judge had been set for Thursday. It could have led to his release as early as Friday.
But the hearing was canceled after the Missouri Attorney General’s Office, which contends Strickland is guilty, filed an emergency petition saying it needed more time to prepare for it. An appeals court sided with the attorney general. Attorneys will argue over motions at a Sept. 13 hearing, but an evidentiary hearing has not been rescheduled.
As he sat inside the church Saturday morning, L.R. Strickland, 65, remained “shocked” the hearing was pushed, considering local prosecutors assert there is “no question” his brother has suffered one of the nation’s longest wrongful convictions. He said he was “totally bewildered” to learn the attorney general’s office, under Eric Schmitt, is fighting his brother’s release, noting that the lone eyewitness to the murders told numerous people she wanted to recant her identification of Strickland and see him freed.
“What more could you ask for?” L.R. Strickland said.
L.R.’s wife, Stephanie Strickland, called it “a travesty” that her brother-in-law missed his mother’s funeral. It was the same word U.S. Rep. Cori Bush of Missouri used to described the situation in a Twitter post days earlier.
Strickland’s mother was born in 1936 in Dumas, Arkansas. She moved to Kansas City in 1954 and met their father, L.R. Strickland Sr., two years later. They had five children, including Kevin Bernard Strickland, whose nickname, “Nordy,” stems from his middle name.
Thornton, who later remarried, worked for restaurants and catering services, including at a BBQ joint in Gladstone. She retired from the old Menorah Medical Center, where she worked in housekeeping, L.R. Strickland said.
“She loved cooking, fishing, music, going to the boat, driving fast, and her dog, Roxy the Rottweiler,” according to her obituary, which noted she also enjoyed dancing. “She was known to have moves better than MC Hammer!”
Each day, Thornton read from her Bible — the “epitome of a Christian, God-fearing woman,” relatives wrote. A fan of the Royals and Chiefs, she could also be heard shouting every Sunday, “Get ‘em.” Later in life, she taught her grandchildren to “search the yard for worms” and to pick okra.
Thornton leaves behind 22 grandchildren and 17 great-grandchildren, among a host of other family members. “Now that’s what you call a legacy,” loved ones wrote in her obituary.
She was often on the phone with her imprisoned son and visited when she could, L.R. Strickland said. She always believed in Kevin Strickland’s innocence, he said. L.R. took her to see Kevin in 2019; it was happy, but she struggled at times to identify them.
Strickland’s incarceration has been a “drain” on his family, his brother said. When he was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole for 50 years in 1979, relatives would drive more than 150 miles to see him at the Missouri State Penitentiary in Jefferson City.
He was traumatized by his brother’s incarceration and called it “a nightmare” to see him with other prisoners.
If Kevin Strickland is freed, he will stay with a family member until he can find housing. L.R. Strickland said he’ll have to begin life like a teenager might, considering he won’t be compensated by the state of Missouri and he will not be entitled to Social Security benefits.
“He’s at the end of his road and he’s going to have to start like he’s at the beginning of it,” L.R. Strickland said. “We’ve got to try to hold on to hope. He’s not dead yet, so I guess he can continue to do the best he can.”
Asked at the end of an interview with The Star if there was anything else he wanted to add, L.R. Strickland replied: “I would like for everyone to know that this situation could be anyone.”
“You can be falsely accused and left with no hope,” he said.
This story was originally published September 4, 2021 at 12:51 PM.
