Lawyers set up fundraiser for Kevin Strickland, say they’re confident he will be freed
The Midwest Innocence Project on Thursday set up an online fundraiser for Kevin Strickland, who prosecutors say has spent more than 40 years in prison for a triple murder he did not commit.
In the GoFundMe campaign, his attorneys said they were confident Strickland, 61, will be released from the prison in Cameron by the end of the year. But he will face “many hurdles adjusting to life” on the outside, they wrote.
The legal organization is asking for donations to help Strickland pay for basic necessities and a place to live if he is released.
“Mr. Strickland has suffered an unimaginable atrocity and no one helped him,” the fundraiser reads. “Today, he needs your help.”
On May 10, Strickland received rare support from Jackson County prosecutors, Kansas City’s mayor and other officials who called for his exoneration and release. They said he is innocent in the April 25, 1978, killings at 6934 S. Benton Ave. in Kansas City.
Strickland, who was arrested when he was 18, has been imprisoned for more than two-thirds of his life. He could be freed through a few avenues.
His lawyers Wednesday refiled his petition in DeKalb County after the Missouri Supreme Court declined to hear his case.
Missouri Gov. Mike Parson could also pardon Strickland. His office is aware of the case, but Strickland was not among 36 people pardoned on Memorial Day.
If all else fails, Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker said she hopes to file a motion asking a judge to exonerate him Aug. 28. That’s when a bill, if signed into law by Parson, would clear the way for innocence claims to be brought before trial courts when a prosecutor believes a prisoner is innocent.
If Strickland is exonerated, he will not receive a dime from Missouri. The state’s compensation law only allows payments to innocent people exonerated through DNA evidence, which would not be the case for Strickland.
On Thursday, Baker said there is “no doubt” that law should change. There must be a better model, she said, than providing exonerees “nothing.”
“Especially when the system knows it made the mistake,” she said.
The only other way Strickland could receive compensation is if lawmakers pass special legislation dictating they pay him a certain amount, or if he can find someone to sue who violated his civil rights and is not immune from civil liability.
“Both of those are difficult and at his age, he’d be lucky to survive to see a judgment, frankly,” Sean O’Brien, a University of Missouri-Kansas City law professor, told The Star last month.
Exonerees are eligible for compensation in other states. Recently, Kansas paid Lamonte McIntyre $1.55 million for serving 23 years for two murders he did not commit in Kansas City, Kansas.
Tricia Rojo Bushnell, one of Strickland’s attorneys, has said while money will do nothing to regain Strickland’s decades behind bars, compensation would be a “good faith effort” to give him a new start at life.
“They will have taken away decades of his life and given him nothing back,” Rojo Bushnell said.
Strickland’s fundraiser can be found at www.gofundme.com/help-kevin-strickland-after-wrongful-conviction.
This story was originally published June 3, 2021 at 6:19 PM.
