A day after news emerged that Lamonte McIntyre might have to wait months or even years to be compensated for his wrongful conviction, the Wyandotte County district attorney issued a strongly worded statement calling for changes in the criminal justice system.

“The act of silence by those in power (has) continued to perpetuate the mistakes of the past on the backs of the less fortunate and powerless,” Mark A. Dupree Sr. said in an “open letter” released Tuesday.

It was Dupree who, in 2017, helped McIntyre walk free when he stopped contesting the facts of McIntyre’s innocence midway through an exoneration hearing.

Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt’s office has asked a judge to rule against McIntyre’s effort to be paid under a 2018 Kansas law that provides for the wrongfully convicted to receive compensation.

McIntyre was convicted in 1994 for double murder and spent 22 years in prison before his conviction was overturned. As a result, Dupree’s office created the Conviction Integrity Unit that is tasked with reviewing wrongful conviction claims.

“I have something much deeper, my faith and a connection to everyday people who want a fair shake and are sick and tired of people in positions using their power to help their friends and screw everyday citizens,” he said.

McIntyre was arrested at 17 and was sentenced to separate life sentences in the shotgun killings of Doniel Quinn, 21, and Donald Ewing, 34, as they sat in a car.

McIntyre, now in his 40s, had maintained his innocence and said he didn’t know either man. The case against him included no gun, motive or physical evidence tying him to the crime.

He was freed in October 2017. The state of Kansas soon passed a law to compensate people like McIntyre who were wrongly imprisoned. Then-Gov. Jeff Colyer signed the law at McIntrye’s church. McIntyre expected to receive more than $1.5 million, educational assistance, counseling and other social services.

In July, Schmidt’s office said that the state was “without sufficient information to form a belief as to the truth” of the core allegations in McIntyre’s petition – namely, that he is innocent. Schmidt asked that McIntyre receive nothing and that a judgment be entered against him.

McIntyre’s case now appears poised to stretch on for nearly two years.

Dupree said the case “is a symptom of a larger and scarier issue in our criminal justice system and across the nation …

“Convictions of yesterday should hold integrity tomorrow, and if it does not, our system should act and not remain silent.”

Dupree said he plans to release recommendations for comprehensive criminal justice reform next year.