Missouri AG tries to prevent prosecutors’ hearing on Kevin Strickland innocence claim
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Kevin Strickland innocence claim
Kevin Strickland, 62, has spent the last 40-plus years in prison for a 1978 triple murder he says he did not commit. His lawyers, local prosecutors and Kansas City officials have urged he be released, but the Missouri Attorney General’s Office maintains he’s guilty.
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Update: Kevin Strickland’s innocence claim hearing postponed after AG asks court for delay
The Missouri Attorney General’s Office on Wednesday filed an emergency petition asking that an appeals court prevent Jackson County prosecutors from holding a hearing Thursday during which they will argue Kevin Strickland is innocent.
Jackson County prosecutors are scheduled to make their case before a judge that Strickland has been wrongly imprisoned for more than 40 years. The hearing could lead to his release.
The Missouri Attorney General’s Office, under Eric Schmitt, contends Strickland is guilty.
The hearing is set for 8:30 a.m. in front of Judge Kevin Harrell, who will decide whether to throw out the murder convictions that have kept Strickland, 62, behind bars for more than two-thirds of his life.
Utilizing a new law that went into effect Saturday, prosecutors filed a 25-page motion Monday that argues Strickland’s innocence in an April 25, 1978, triple homicide in Kansas City is “clear and convincing.” The evidence shows Strickland, who was 18 when he was arrested, should “not remain in custody a day longer,” they said in the motion, which is believed to be the first filed under the new law.
Strickland is not expected to be at the hearing scheduled for Thursday. The judge has ordered he be in his courtroom at 10 a.m. Friday.
Earlier this week, the attorney general’s office filed a motion requesting that the 16th Circuit Court of Jackson County and its judges recuse themselves from Strickland’s proceedings. They cited a letter Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker put out May 10, which said Dale Youngs, the circuit’s presiding judge, “concurs on behalf” of the court that Strickland’s conviction should be set aside.
Harrell, however, agreed with local prosecutors that the attorney general was not a “party” in the case and could not file such a motion.
In their filing in the Missouri Court of Appeals’ Western District, the attorney general’s office asked that the Thursday hearing be canceled and that their previous motions be considered. The office argued that Youngs’ statements cast a “shadow of impropriety over these proceedings” and again requested that judges in Jackson County be disqualified from participating in the case.
The office also argued that Harrell’s ordering of Strickland to be in his courtroom Friday further undermines “the appearance that justice is being fairly administered in this case.”
In court records, the attorney general’s office said a law clerk for Harrell informed attorneys involved in the case that Harrell will issue his decision on whether to exonerate Strickland at 10:30 a.m. Friday.
Lawyers with the attorney general’s office took issue with the fact that local prosecutors have not provided them with a list of witnesses, who they will be able to question during the hearing. With less than 24 hours to go, they argued they will not have time to depose those witnesses.
Asked about the hearing Wednesday, Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas said he remains disappointed by how long the case has dragged on and hopes Harrell frees Strickland.
“I am disappointed but not surprised by our grandstanding attorney general, who I see is trying to oppose even the hearing (from) proceeding,” Lucas told The Star, adding that he thanked Baker for doing “this important work.”
This story was originally published September 1, 2021 at 11:50 AM with the headline "Missouri AG tries to prevent prosecutors’ hearing on Kevin Strickland innocence claim."
