Watch: Kevin Strickland enters Jackson County courthouse for first time in decades
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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.
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Kevin Strickland has spent 42 years, 4 months and 11 days in Missouri prisons.
That’s 15,474 days total.
On Monday, he was helped into the Jackson County courthouse for his first appearance in a courtroom in decades.
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.
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.
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.
BEHIND THE STORY
MOREOur coverage of Kevin Strickland's story
The Kansas City Star has been covering Kevin Strickland and his innocence claim since September 2020, when we published a deeply reported story from Luke Nozicka that explored the details surrounding the 1978 triple murder Strickland is accused of helping to carry out, as well as the men who have admitted guilt, and the the only witness to the murders saying Strickland is innocent. That report from The Star served in part as the basis for local prosecutors’ review of Strickland’s case in November 2020. Now, Jackson County prosecutors, Kansas City’s mayor and others agreed he deserved to be exonerated, but the state, and specifically the Attorney General’s Office maintains he’s guilty. Read more by clicking the arrow in the upper right.
Why is he still in prison?
Kevin Strickland has 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.” But previously, without the support of Missouri Gov. Mike Parson handing down a pardon or the state Attorneys General, prosecutors in Missouri have had no legal tools to seek to free prisoners they have deemed innocent. That changed in August 2021, however, in a new law that passed as part of a package of criminal justice reforms the Missouri legislature approved and sent to Gov. Mike Parson’s desk in May.
That law gives local prosecutors a mechanism previously missing in state law to pursue freedom for the wrongfully convicted, a step prosecutors’ offices around the nation are taking in the age of criminal justice reform. Prior to the law change, petitions to have convictions tossed have generally only come from the inmates themselves.
Strickland’s supporters say the journey to Monday was a long one.
Ahead of the hearing, Strickland’s older brother, L.R., said his family remains hopeful he will come home.
L.R. Strickland, 65, calls his brother “clearly innocent,” and has maintained he was at home with Kevin when 1978 the shooting unfolded nearly three miles away.
“We’ve waited so long for this,” he said.
This story was originally published November 8, 2021 at 11:31 AM.
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