Missouri Gov. Mike Parson indicates Kevin Strickland pardon won’t be ‘a priority’
Missouri Gov. Mike Parson this week indicated that despite public outcry for Kevin Strickland’s exoneration and release, his clemency application would not be a priority in a backlog of about 3,000 requests.
“When something like that comes up, we look at those cases, but I don’t know that that necessarily makes it a priority to jump in front of the line,” Parson said during a Monday news conference. “We understand some cases are going to draw more attention through the media than others, but we’re just going to look at those things.”
Parson noted that Strickland — who Jackson County prosecutors this year determined is innocent — was tried “by a jury of his peers” and found guilty. But he added that he knew there was “a lot more information out there.”
The governor’s comments, his first about Strickland’s case, came hours after 13 state lawmakers, including several from the Kansas City area, called on Parson to pardon Strickland. In a letter to the governor, they said evidence has “come forth” proving Strickland’s innocence in a 1978 triple murder in Kansas City.
The letter was spearheaded by Rep. Andrew McDaniel, the Republican chair of the Missouri House committee that oversees the state’s prison system. Ten Democrats and three Republicans, including McDaniel, co-signed it.
On Tuesday, Strickland applied for clemency. He told Parson he does not want a commutation of his sentence, saying that anything less than a full pardon “would leave an unjust and undeserved stain on my criminal record.”
“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.
Strickland was not among 36 people pardoned by Parson on Memorial Day, but he could still pardon him at any point if he chooses to. Governors have the ability to even pardon prisoners who have not applied for clemency. His office is aware of the case but has not comment on it further.
In an email last week, Parson’s spokeswoman, Kelli Jones, said the governor and his legal team “continue to review clemency files and work to reduce the backlog inherited by his administration.”
Calls for Parson to pardon Strickland, who turned 62 on Monday, grew over the weekend.
The additional outcry came after Strickland’s case was highlighted Thursday night on MSNBC during a segment of Rachel Maddow’s show, which was based in part on a September investigation by the The Star into Strickland’s innocence claim.
Missouri House Minority Leader Crystal Quade, a Springfield Democrat, took to Twitter to say there was “not a single reason” for Strickland to remain in prison. He should have never been there, she said.
“This is beyond outrageous that, even though everybody agrees Mr. Strickland is innocent, Governor Parson is dragging his feet in pardoning him,” Quade wrote.
The ACLU of Missouri also weighed in on Saturday, urging residents to tell Parson to pardon him. Strickland, the organization said, should “not spend one more minute in prison.”
In his own tweet calling for Strickland’s release, Lucas Kunce, a Democrat who is running to replace retiring U.S. Sen. Roy Blunt, noted that Strickland was convicted by an all-white jury. Strickland’s attorneys contend that was by design.
“Every day he sits in prison is another injustice,” Kunce tweeted Saturday.
On May 10, Strickland received rare support from Jackson County prosecutors, Kansas City’s mayor and other officials who called for his exoneration. They said he is innocent in the April 25, 1978, killings at 6934 S. Benton Ave.
Strickland, who was arrested when he was 18, has been imprisoned for more than two-thirds of his life. If he is not pardoned by Parson, he could be freed through other avenues.
His lawyers last week refiled his petition in DeKalb County after the Missouri Supreme Court declined to hear his case. The first hearing in that case, a case management conference, is set for Aug. 9.
If all else fails, Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker hopes to file a motion herself asking a judge to exonerate Strickland on 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.
Parson on Monday said the bill would be “another tool” to help in situations like Strickland’s.
The governor began granting pardons in December after winning election to a full term. He has since issued them about once a month, a schedule he said he wants to continue to get through a backlog that’s built up from past administrations. He has issued more than 100 pardons and commuted a dozen sentences.
Last week, Baker said it “would be great” if Parson pardoned Strickland. Her staff has assured the governor’s office that prosecutors thoroughly reviewed Strickland’s case before determining he was wrongly convicted.
“I just believe that a governor who would issue 36 pardons this week would probably not, you know, permanently exclude Kevin Strickland,” Baker said Thursday.
The Star has reported that two men who pleaded guilty in the killings for decades swore Strickland was not with them and two other accomplices during the shooting. A third suspect, who was never charged, in 2019 told a Midwest Innocence Project investigator that he knew there “couldn’t be a more innocent person” than Strickland.
The lone eyewitness, Cynthia Douglas, also recanted and wanted nothing more than to see Strickland freed, her relatives said.
In a 2020 affidavit, Earl Wright, a longtime family friend of Douglas, said it was “common knowledge” on the street that Strickland, who went by the nickname Nordy, was the wrong man.
“Cynthia has told numerous people, including friends and people from the neighborhood, that Nordy wasn’t actually there that night,” Wright wrote.
This story was originally published June 8, 2021 at 3:15 PM.
