‘Praise the Lord!’: Officials who support Kevin Strickland celebrate his release
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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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Officials who called for Kevin Strickland’s freedom months ago praised a judge’s decision Tuesday to grant Jackson County prosecutors’ motion to exonerate and free him.
“To say we’re extremely pleased and grateful is an understatement,” Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker said. “This brings justice — finally — to a man who has tragically suffered so, so greatly as a result of this wrongful conviction.”
By granting Baker’s motion to free Strickland, Judge James Welsh confirmed that Strickland, now 62, suffered Missouri’s longest wrongful conviction and one of the longest in U.S. history.
On Twitter, Mayor Quinton Lucas, who was among those who called for Strickland’s release in May, said Kansas City welcomes him back. The community, Lucas wrote, owes him “more than we can imagine and we commit to doing all we can to support him.”
“Kevin Strickland will be freed,” Lucas wrote. “Praise the Lord! My heart breaks that his mother never got the chance to see him free, but I am heartened that we have justice.”
Strickland’s mother, Rosetta Savannah Thornton, 85, died on Aug. 21, more than 100 days after Baker held a news conference to say her office concluded Strickland had spent 42 years in prison for a 1978 triple murder he did not commit.
Relatives had hoped Strickland would be freed and could attend the funeral. But a hearing that could have led to his freedom was delayed because of motions filed by the Missouri Attorney General’s Office, which contended Strickland was guilty.
On Twitter, House Minority Leader Crystal Quade called the judge’s order “amazing news.”
“Kevin Strickland will be able to spend the holidays as a free man for the first time in 43 years,” she wrote. “But, he won’t receive a dime from MO, which wrongfully convicted him.”
In Missouri, the wrongly convicted are almost always spit out of the system with nothing from the government that imprisoned them. Instead, they rely on nonprofits and other exonerees to get back on their feet, post-conviction lawyers say.
That’s because Missouri’s compensation law only allows for payments to prisoners who prove their innocence through a specific DNA testing statute. That was not the case for Strickland, or most exonerees across America.
Quade posted the link to an online fundraiser set up for Strickland that had, as of recently, raised about $38,000. That’s around $900 for each year he was behind bars, donated by everyday citizens.
A group of Michigan exonerees that have started calling themselves the National Organization of Exonerees said Tuesday was a “great day” for justice in America.
“Kevin Strickland was wrongfully condemned to a natural death nearly 44 years ago due to the failures of a broken criminal justice system,” the group said in a statement, later adding: “Mr. Strickland’s mother unfortunately will not see the Justice bells ring on this day. But her legacy clothed in the flesh of the man that has endured hell will shine forth in the name of all the mothers that have lost sons and daughters to wrongful convictions.”
In a statement Chris Nuelle, a spokesman for the attorney general’s office, said the office “defended the rule of law and the decision that a jury of Mr. Strickland’s peers made after hearing all of the facts in the case.
“The Court has spoken, no further action will be taken in this matter,” he said.
On Twitter, Missouri Gov. Mike Parson noted that he signed into law a bill that gave local prosecutors the power to seek to free prisoners they have deemed innocent. Baker sought Strickland’s release through that law.
“The Court has made its decision, we respect the decision, and the Department of Corrections will proceed with Mr. Strickland’s release immediately,” Parson write.
In June, more than a dozen state lawmakers as well as Kansas City’s City Council urged Parson to pardon Strickland, which he did not. He called Strickland’s clemency application not a “priority.” Not long after, Parson pardoned Mark and Patricia McCloskey, the St. Louis couple who brandished guns at Black Lives Matter protesters in June 2020.
Strickland’s innocence was the focus of a September 2020 investigation by The Star, which interviewed more than two dozen people, including two men who admitted guilt and swore Strickland was not with them and two other accomplices during the killings. The Star also reported that the lone eyewitness to the murders, whose testimony was paramount in the case against him, told relatives she wanted to recant her identification of him and believed she helped send the wrong teenager to prison.
Jackson County prosecutors began reviewing Strickland’s conviction in November 2020 after speaking with his lawyers and reviewing The Star’s investigation.
Following a months-long review of the case, Baker’s office in May announced that Strickland is “factually innocent” in the April 25, 1978, triple murder at 6934 S. Benton Ave. in Kansas City and should be freed immediately.
Baker filed her motion seeking to free him when a new law, which allows local prosecutors to do so, went into effect in late August.
As of Tuesday morning, Strickland remained at the Western Missouri Correctional Center in Cameron. He was expected to be released by the afternoon.
This story was originally published November 23, 2021 at 1:02 PM.
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