Kevin Strickland’s long-awaited evidence hearing in innocence claim starts Monday
READ MORE
Kevin Strickland exonerated
Kevin Strickland spent 42 years in a Missouri prison for a crime that he, and prosecutors, says he didn’t commit. Prosecutors argued in a 25-page motion that Strickland’s innocence is “clear and convincing.” Missouri Gov. Mike Parson and the state Attorneys General’s Office have contended that Strickland received a fair trial and should not be freed.
A judge on Nov. 23, 2021, granted Jackson County prosecutors’ motion to exonerate Kevin Strickland in a 1978 triple murder and ordered his immediate release, confirming that Strickland suffered one of the longest wrongful convictions in U.S. history.
Expand All
Jackson County prosecutors head to court Monday for day one of Kevin Strickland’s long-awaited evidentiary hearing, during which they will argue he is innocent and try to prompt a judge to free him.
It will be the first time in decades that Strickland, 62, will appear in a Jackson County courtroom. Over the course of his 42 years in prison, Strickland has tried by himself, at least 17 times, to get his claims heard. He has never received a hearing.
On Monday, Strickland goes to court with the rare support of Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker, whose office in May announced it had determined Strickland is “factually innocent” in a 1978 triple murder in Kansas City.
She has not been alone in calling for Strickland’s release. Federal prosecutors in western Missouri, Jackson County’s presiding judge, Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas and other officials have agreed he should be exonerated.
“Now that we know, he must be released soon, rather than quibble over procedural hurdles,” Lucas said in a letter released May 10. “This man has served 43 years for something he did not do.”
Since then, Strickland has gained the support of other officials. In June, more than a dozen state lawmakers as well as Kansas City’s City Council urged Missouri Gov. Mike Parson to pardon Strickland. Earlier this month, St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell said he agrees with Baker that the evidence suggesting Strickland was wrongly convicted “is overwhelming.”
In a 2020 investigation, The Star reported that, for decades, two men who pleaded guilty swore Strickland was not with them and two other accomplices during the killings at 6934 S. Benton Ave. A third, uncharged suspect also said Strickland is innocent. The only eyewitness to the shooting later recanted her identification of him and wanted him freed, prosecutors have said.
Strickland’s supporters say the journey to Monday was a long one.
In May, his attorneys initially filed a petition seeking to free him in the state Supreme Court, which declined to hear it. At the time, Baker had no legal avenue to try to free Strickland. That changed Aug. 28, when a new law went into effect allowing prosecutors to file motions asking a judge to exonerate prisoners they deemed innocent.
An evidentiary hearing in the case has been delayed twice because of intervention by the Missouri Attorney General’s Office.
At the hearing on Monday, Baker’s office and Strickland’s lawyers will face off with Attorney General Eric Schmitt’s office, which contends Strickland is guilty and received a fair trial in 1979. The hearing before Judge James Welsh is expected to last several days.
A handful of men freed after wrongful conviction say they will be sitting in the courtroom to support Strickland, who was arrested when he was 18. Several of them are part of a Michigan group called the National Organization of Exonerees, which held a rally Saturday outside the courthouse to call for Strickland’s release.
“There’s no reason that people should be suffering for things that they didn’t do,” said Kenneth Nixon, head of the group who was exonerated in February after spending about 16 years in prison for a Detroit crime he did not commit. “It’s not right.”
Members of other groups turned out as well, including Miracle of Innocence, an Overland Park-based organization co-founded by two exonerees. Its executive director, Christopher Iliff, said they wanted to show that there was a “strong backlash” to the attorney general’s office’s “irresponsible behavior” in opposing Baker’s efforts to free Strickland.
Iliff said one of his organization’s founders, Darryl Burton — who was freed in 2008 after serving 24 years for a St. Louis murder he did not commit — did time with Strickland at the Missouri State Penitentiary.
“As soon as he comes out, we’re waiting there with a cell phone and transportation and everything he will need to get his life back on track,” Iliff said of Strickland.
If Baker prevails and Strickland is exonerated, his imprisonment will mark the longest known wrongful conviction in Missouri history.
This story was originally published November 8, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
.PNG)
