MO governor candidate vows to free DeValkenaere as Republicans weigh in on conviction
A Republican candidate for Missouri governor said on Monday that, if elected, he would pardon Eric DeValkenaere, the first white Kansas City Police Department officer ever convicted of killing a Black man.
“Today I make this promise– in my first week as governor, I will pardon Eric DeValkenaere,” Sen. Bill Eigel from Weldon Spring said in a statement. “I will not stand idly by as our streets are overtaken with crime and corrupt prosecutors go after the men and women in uniform. Eric should be home with his wife and three children, not rotting in prison.”
The campaign promise comes as Eigel faces a tightly contested Republican primary for governor against Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft and Lt. Gov. Mike Kehoe. While Eigel appears to have gone the furthest among the candidates in his promise to free DeValkenaere, Ashcroft and Kehoe have also indicated a willingness to entertain a pardon.
Eigel’s statement comes just days after Ashcroft was asked at an event hosted by KCMO Talk Radio’s Pete Mundo whether he would pardon DeValkenaere.
“I’ll definitely consider it and I’ll look at any information they want to bring to me,” Ashcroft responded, according to an audio recording of his comments obtained by The Star. In a follow-up to The Star, Ashcroft said he was “committed to a close review of Eric DeValkenaere’s conviction and consideration of a pardon.”
Kehoe also weighed in on the case during a radio interview with Mundo in February, saying DeValkenaere “needs to be home with his kids, not in prison.”
Kehoe’s campaign pointed to that interview in a statement to The Star on Monday, saying Kehoe “has a long history of supporting the DeValkenaere family and has already been on the record for being in support of bringing Eric home to his wife and children.”
“Although other candidates in this race claim to back law enforcement with strong statements, Kehoe is the only one with a record of backing men and women in law enforcement,” said Gabrielle Picard, Kehoe’s campaign spokesperson, pointing to his endorsements from the Missouri Fraternal Order of Police and the Missouri State Troopers Association.
DeValkenaere’s supporters have mounted a public campaign for his pardon. Republican Gov. Mike Parson, who terms out of office this year, has also openly entertained the possibility of clemency but has not yet announced a decision on whether he will commute his sentence.
The former police detective’s case has been a cause célèbre of sorts for Republicans who have attempted to frame his conviction as political. However, numerous courts have upheld his 2021 conviction and any commutation of his sentence is almost certain to provoke an explosive backlash in Kansas City.
House Minority Leader Crystal Quade, a Springfield Democrat running for governor, criticized Eigel in a statement on Monday saying that politicians should be focusing on issues such as building the economy and supporting working families.
“Bill Eigel and other extremists are a joke who are trying to gain attention by dividing Missourians,” she said. “I’ll spend my time working on solutions to actually make our communities safer.”
DeValkenaere is currently serving a six-year sentence for fatally shooting 26-year-old Cameron Lamb in 2019. DeValkenaere shot Lamb as Lamb was backing his pickup truck into his garage.
The former KCPD detective has maintained his innocence following his conviction on charges of second-degree involuntary manslaughter and armed criminal action in 2021. He remained free while he appealed his sentence, but reported to prison after the Missouri Court of Appeals affirmed his conviction in October.
The Missouri Supreme Court in March declined to take up DeValkenaere’s case, effectively ending his appeals process in state courts and putting any chance of ending his sentence in the hands of a Missouri governor.
DeValkenaere is being held in a prison outside of Missouri for his safety. Parson did not include DeValkenaere in his office’s list of pardons and commutations released last week.
Missouri governors have the power to delay, reduce, or eliminate the punishment of state-level crimes under the Missouri Constitution. Parson has used the clemency power far more than his modern predecessors, issuing more than 600 pardons in the past three years – more than any other Missouri governor since the 1940s, according to the Associated Press.
DeValkanaere’s family made a formal clemency request with Parson’s office in October. Shortly after Eigel’s announcement on Monday, DeValkenaere’s wife, Sarah, thanked him on social media for weighing in on the case.
“Thank you so much for supporting Eric,” Sarah DeValkenaere wrote on X, formerly Twitter. “This was a political prosecution and a complete miscarriage of justice.”
This story was originally published June 3, 2024 at 1:21 PM.
