KC Star reporter Luke Nozicka honored with award for reporting on Strickland case
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Kevin Strickland innocence claim
Kevin Strickland, 62, has spent the last 40-plus years in prison for a 1978 triple murder he says he did not commit. His lawyers, local prosecutors and Kansas City officials have urged he be released, but the Missouri Attorney General’s Office maintains he’s guilty.
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Kansas City Star reporter Luke Nozicka has been recognized with an award from the Innocence Network for his reporting on the Kevin Strickland case.
Nozicka was given the 2021 Jim Dwyer Award for Journalism. The award was announced Saturday, which marks Wrongful Conviction Day.
In September 2020, Nozicka’s story brought to light questions surrounding Strickland’s conviction in a 1978 triple homicide in Kansas City. Earlier this year, Jackson County prosecutors said Strickland was innocent and called for his release.
Strickland, 62, has spent more than 40 years in prison.
“I’m honored to receive this award, especially because it has been renamed after journalist Jim Dwyer, whose book on innocence I revisited while reporting on Kevin Strickland’s conviction,” Nozicka said.
The Star’s managing editor Greg Farmer said Nozicka has pursued truth and justice through his reporting on the case.
“We’re grateful for his determination and empathy, and we remain hopeful those who continue to stand in the way of justice will soon yield to the facts of this case as documented in Luke’s work,” Farmer said. “Mr. Strickland deserves so much better than the state of Missouri has given him.”
The Innocence Network created the award in 2010. Nominations are screened by a jury of national journalists. The jury discussion was overseen by Pulitzer Prize winner Maurice Possley, a former investigative reporter for the Chicago Tribune.
The organization said Nozicka’s work on the case has had “incredible impact,” noting that it illustrated flaws in Missouri’s criminal legal system and helped change state statute.
A law that went into effect last month allows prosecutors to ask a judge to reverse a conviction in an innocence case.
Strickland’s case has set off a legal battle between the county prosecutor’s office and the Missouri Attorney General’s Office, which contends Strickland is guilty. Interventions by the AG’s office have repeatedly delayed an evidentiary hearing which could free Strickland.
On Thursday, the Missouri Supreme Court granted a request from the attorney general’s office to disqualify all judges in Jackson County from hearing the case, further delaying the case’s resolution.
Strickand was charged in the 1978 shooting deaths of John Walker, 20, Sherrie Black, 22, and Larry Ingram, 21.
His first trial ended in a hung jury. A second all-white jury convicted him and he was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for 50 years.
Nozicka’s reporting included interviews with two men who were also convicted in the case who said Strickland wasn’t at the shooting. A key eyewitness had also recanted her testimony identifying Strickland as one of the gunmen. Cynthia Douglas died in 2015, but family members told Nozicka that she had said she picked out the wrong person and was pressured to identify Strickland.
This story was originally published October 2, 2021 at 11:00 AM.
