Why Lamar Johnson’s lawyers say he’s innocent and seek ‘an end to this injustice’
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Jail informant helped send Lamar Johnson to MO prison
Lamar Johnson, a Missouri man who St. Louis’ top prosecutor says was wrongfully convicted, was sentenced to life in prison partly on the word of jailhouse snitch William Mock, who also traded information in Kansas City.
Since 1983, dubious testimony from jailhouse informants like Mock has contributed to sending 10 people to Missouri prisons for crimes they did not commit, according to the National Registry of Exonerations. They collectively spent more than 120 years behind bars and account for about a fifth of the state’s 52 confirmed wrongful convictions.
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Did jailhouse snitch send innocent man to prison? It’s happened to 10 others in Missouri
How the St. Louis prosecutor concluded Lamar Johnson had ‘nothing to do’ with 1994 murder
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Why Lamar Johnson’s lawyers say he’s innocent and seek ‘an end to this injustice’
Lamar Johnson speaks from prison: ‘I just need my life, my freedom’
Lamar Johnson has spent more than 9,700 days in Missouri prisons for a 1994 murder that his attorneys and St. Louis’ top prosecutor say he did not commit.
Last year, Johnson’s lawyers filed a petition in Cole County, where he is imprisoned at the Jefferson City Correctional Center, about 10 miles east of the state’s Capitol, seeking his release.
“In the quarter-century since Johnson was wrongly convicted, the evidence of his innocence has steadily mounted while the evidence of guilt has totally collapsed,” his attorneys wrote. “No credible evidence remains to support the verdicts against Johnson.”
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His lawyers allege his unconstitutional convictions were the result of perjured testimony and false evidence. That included testimony from William Mock, an “experienced and calculating jailhouse snitch” who Johnson’s lawyers say was never credible.
Johnson hopes to have his claims heard during an evidentiary hearing later this year, which could lead to his exoneration.
His lawyers will go up against the Missouri Attorney General’s Office, which contends Johnson is guilty.
Read Johnson’s claims for relief here:
This story was originally published June 5, 2022 at 5:00 AM.
