Kevin Strickland’s innocence claim hearing postponed after AG asks court for delay
A hearing during which Jackson County prosecutors would have argued Kevin Strickland is innocent has been delayed to give the Missouri Attorney General’s Office more time to prepare for it, a panel of judges decided Wednesday.
It means that prosecutors will have to wait to make their case before a Jackson County judge that Strickland, 62, has been wrongly imprisoned for more than 40 years. If prosecutors had prevailed, the hearing that had been scheduled for Thursday would have lead to Strickland’s release as early as Friday, which would have allowed him to attend his mother’s funeral the next day.
Instead, Judge Kevin Harrell has set a case management conference for 9:30 a.m. Thursday.
In a statement, Strickland’s lawyers said while the hearing was delayed, “justice will not be denied.” They called it “untrue” that the attorney general’s office needs more time to prepare for the hearing, considering it has “fought to deny” Strickland a day in court for years.
Strickland’s attorneys noted that he will miss his mother’s funeral as a result of the ruling in the Missouri Court of Appeals’ Western District.
“That is not justice,” his attorneys said. “We hope that everyone who is also enraged and aghast at this process will consider and remember who decides justice in each of their jurisdictions.”
The appeals court said in order for the attorney general’s office to “meaningfully participate in the hearing,” it must be notified of the hearing more than three days ahead of time.
The attorney general’s office, under Eric Schmitt, contends Strickland is guilty.
In a statement Wednesday, Schmitt’s spokesman Chris Nuelle said Strickland was convicted in the killings by a jury. He noted the Missouri Supreme Court previously declined to hear Strickland’s case.
“Those victims deserve justice,” Nuelle said.
Utilizing a new law that went into effect Saturday, Jackson County prosecutors filed a 25-page motion Monday that argues Strickland’s innocence is “clear and convincing” in the April 25, 1978, triple homicide in Kansas City.
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 on 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 appeals court, the attorney general’s office asked that the Thursday hearing be canceled and that their previous motions be considered.
The appeals court granted that motion, saying that the attorney general’s office does in fact have the right to file motions in the case. It ordered Harrell to consider and decide those motions “on their merits.”
Senate Minority Leader John Rizzo, who wrote the provision in the law that allows prosecutors to ask judges to exonerate prisoners deemed innocent, said the legislation was not intended to allow the attorney general’s office to file motions in relation to the hearing.
“This ruling creates new powers out of thin air while ignoring both the letter of the law and the legislative intent behind it,” said Rizzo, a Democrat from Independence.
The appeals court, he added, was setting “dangerous legal precedent” that the attorney general is using to “needlessly delay justice for the wrongfully imprisoned.”
Earlier Wednesday, Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas said he remained disappointed by how long the case has dragged on and hoped 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.”
In a statement, Kenneth Nixon — executive director of a group that recently started calling itself the National Organization of Exonerees — accused the attorney general’s office of keeping an innocent man in prison, “all on the taxpayers’ dime.”
“Eric Schmitt is crusading against justice,” Nixon said.
This story was originally published September 1, 2021 at 4:47 PM.
