Keith Carnes’ family drove 4 hours to see him released from prison Friday. They’re still waiting
On Friday evening, Keith Carnes’ family drove more than four hours to the South Central Correctional Center in Licking, Missouri, expecting him to be released after he had spent close to two decades in prison.
But when they arrived, Carnes had not been released. His family, along with Latahra Smith, a private investigator and founder of the KC Freedom Project, spent the night and have been waiting outside the prison most of the day Saturday hoping he would be released.
As of Saturday afternoon, he still was not free.
It’s likely Carnes will not be released until Monday, said Stephanie Burton, an attorney who has been retained to address the delay in Carnes’ release.
“It’s infuriating,” Burton said in a phone interview Saturday. “He should be a free man. They are violating his rights at this point.”
The Jackson County Prosecutor’s Office announced Friday it would not retry Carnes after his conviction for a 2003 murder was set aside by the Missouri Supreme Court.
Carnes, 51, was convicted in 2006 for armed criminal action and first-degree murder for the killing of 24-year-old Larry White.
He has maintained he is innocent.
After the announcement from Jackson County Prosecutors, Carnes mother, Eve Moffatt, and his brother, Kevin Carnes, thought they would get to see and hug Carnes. They thought he’d be immediately released. They thought they would be back in Kansas City late Friday night, so Smith drove them down.
But when they arrived they were informed Carnes would not be released. The prison had not received an order from the Missouri Department of Corrections to release him, Burton said.
They were still in Licking waiting for his release on Sunday.
Karen Pojmann, a spokeswoman for the Missouri Department of Corrections, did not immediately respond to requests for comment Saturday.
Moffatt, Kevin Carnes and Smith checked into a motel near the prison and barely slept. They had to buy toiletries and phone chargers. They had not prepared for an overnight trip.
On Saturday they arrived to the prison around 8 a.m. and hoped to see Carnes walk out a free man. Still, that still did not happen. Moffatt and Kevin Carnes instead visited with Carnes for about two hours inside the prison.
“Both of them are trying to keep up the hope and be patient but it’s very frustrating,” said Michelle Smith, director of community engagement and outreach for Missourians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, who has been with the family Saturday. “It’s very frustrating, very upsetting that she cannot take her son home, which is what she’s been trying to do for 19 years.”
Moffatt has been able to visit Carnes periodically in the more than 18 years he has been in prison, Michelle Smith said. When Moffatt saw him Saturday, she told Michelle Smith after that he had lost a lot of weight.
The prison does not allow people to wait on its grounds so Moffatt, Kevin Carnes, Michelle Smith and Latahra Smith have been waiting in an open field near the prison. State Rep. Kimberly Ann Collins, a Democrat from St. Louis, was been at the prison on Saturday talking with prison officials fighting for Carnes’ release.
Burton said Carnes should not have to wait any longer to be released.
“It’s a few more days that they have stolen out of his life,” Burton said. “It’s a few more days that they have stolen him from his mother’s arms.”
This story was originally published April 9, 2022 at 6:00 PM.
