‘We respect the decision’: Gov. Mike Parson responds to Kevin Strickland exoneration
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Kevin Strickland exonerated
Kevin Strickland spent 42 years in a Missouri prison for a crime that he, and prosecutors, says he didn’t commit. Prosecutors argued in a 25-page motion that Strickland’s innocence is “clear and convincing.” Missouri Gov. Mike Parson and the state Attorneys General’s Office have contended that Strickland received a fair trial and should not be freed.
A judge on Nov. 23, 2021, granted Jackson County prosecutors’ motion to exonerate Kevin Strickland in a 1978 triple murder and ordered his immediate release, confirming that Strickland suffered one of the longest wrongful convictions in U.S. history.
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Missouri Gov. Mike Parson, who was the first official to doubt Kevin Strickland’s wrongful conviction, said Tuesday he “respected” a judge’s decision to free Strickland.
Judge James Welsh granted Jackson County prosecutors’ motion to exonerate Kevin Strickland in a 1978 triple murder and ordered his immediate release, confirming that Strickland suffered one of the longest wrongful convictions in U.S. history.
Parson tweeted that he signed into law a bill that gave local prosecutors the power to seek to free prisoners they have deemed innocent. Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker sought Strickland’s release through that law.
“The Court has made its decision, we respect the decision, and the Department of Corrections will proceed with Mr. Strickland’s release immediately,” Parson said.
In June, more than a dozen state lawmakers as well as Kansas City’s City Council urged Parson to pardon Strickland, which he did not. He called Strickland’s clemency application not a “priority” amid a backlog of nearly 3,000 requests.
“Through a full pardon, you have the power not only to correct my wrongful conviction, but also to ensure that my innocence is finally recognized,” Strickland wrote in response to Parson in June.
Not long after, Parson pardoned Mark and Patricia McCloskey, the St. Louis couple who brandished guns at Black Lives Matter protesters in June 2020.
Kansas City’s City Council passed a resolution, urging Parson to pardon Strickland later that month. At the time, Parson responded to the resolution saying he was not “willing to put other people at risk.”
In a statement, Chris Nuelle, a spokesman for the Missouri Attorney General’s Office, which argued Strickland was guilty, said the office “defended the rule of law and the decision that a jury of Mr. Strickland’s peers made after hearing all of the facts in the case.”
“The Court has spoken, no further action will be taken in this matter,” he said.
This story was originally published November 23, 2021 at 3:18 PM.
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