‘I have doubts’: 2 more jurors say MO prisoner claiming innocence deserves new trial
Two additional jurors who voted to convict a Missouri man of killing his mother more than 20 years ago now believe he deserves a new trial based on evidence they never heard.
Michael Politte, then 14, immediately became the prime suspect in his mother’s 1998 murder after he found her body burning on the floor of their Hopewell home in eastern Missouri, his lawyers say. Four years later at 18, Politte was convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison.
Politte, now 37, and his sisters maintain he was wrongly convicted. Two jurors who voted to convict him, including one who contacted his lawyers in October, have said they also believe he is innocent and should be freed to correct “this wrong.”
Another juror in 2017 said he did not think “justice was served” when Politte was convicted. He did not believe Politte was innocent, but also did not think the teenager could have killed his mother by himself.
Within the last three weeks, two additional jurors have signed affidavits in which they say Politte should receive a new trial.
“In fact, I believe he should have had a new trial already,” wrote Michael Short, of Farmington. “I question why it has taken so long since new evidence has been known for years.”
In their petition before the Missouri Supreme Court, Politte’s attorneys argued he was convicted because of a biased investigation, faulty fire science and an incompetent new public defender at trial. They hope it leads to his exoneration.
In court filings, the Missouri Attorney General’s Office said Politte is not innocent and argued that the “evidence of guilt was overwhelming” in the case against him. The office also contended that affidavits from jurors “attempting to undermine the verdict” are not admissible.
Among the evidence at trial, the AG’s office noted, was the claim that Politte — after attempting suicide at a juvenile detention center a month after his mom died — uttered, “I haven’t cared since December 5th. That’s when I killed my mom.”
Politte’s attorneys, however, say he said “when they” killed his mom.
“What he actually said has been hotly disputed ever since,” his lawyers wrote.
Jurors express concern
On Dec. 5, 1998, Politte and a friend awoke to smoke at his mother’s mobile home, according to his petition. He told law enforcement he found the burning body of his mother, Rita, in her bedroom. She had also suffered blunt force trauma to her head.
Investigators quickly decided the fire was started with gasoline. They zeroed in on Politte as a suspect. But no blood or other injuries were found on him, his petition alleges. Investigators also misinterpreted his trauma as indicators of guilt, his lawyers said.
Law enforcement did not investigate other viable suspects, including Politte’s father — recently divorced from his mother — who had been ordered to pay a “significant” financial settlement the week before she died, his petition claims. Additionally, witnesses said a cousin of Politte’s father was seen around the home shortly after the fire. A murder weapon was never found.
At trial, the case against Politte rested largely on testimony from fire investigators who said the blaze was started by an accelerant and that Politte had gas on his shoes — the only physical evidence linking him to the crime. But the state has conceded in the intervening years that Politte did not have gas on his shoes, according to his petition.
In total, Politte’s attorneys have obtained affidavits from five of the nine jurors who are still alive. Short and other jurors said they learned of additional evidence through the news and by watching an MTV documentary series that featured Politte’s case.
At trial, Short was more sure of Politte’s guilt because none of his relatives, including his father, testified on his behalf, according to his affidavit. But he said jurors should have known that Politte’s father was a suspect, which explained why he was not there. He called the trial “completely one-sided” and said Politte’s defense attorney “did not give us anything.”
“Had my fellow jurors and I known all of the evidence about alternative suspects, and had we known that the gasoline evidence presented by the prosecution was false, and that there was no gasoline on Michael’s shoes, it would have been a much harder decision,” Short wrote. “If we had heard about this evidence at trial, I am not at all sure that I would have convicted.”
Jurors made the best decision they could with the evidence presented, Short wrote. But, he said, “now I have doubts and concerns.”
The other juror to more recently sign an affidavit, Linda Crites Roberts, of Doe Run, said the thing that stands out to her from the trial are the photographs of Rita Politte’s body. The images gave her nightmares.
At trial, she thought it seemed like even Politte’s attorney believed he was guilty. Years later, she wrote, her now son-in-law who went to high school with Politte said “there was no way” he could have murdered his mother.
“He said that Michael was not that type of person,” Roberts wrote.
Other jurors are now convinced Politte has been locked up for 22 years for a crime he did not commit.
One of them, Linda Dickerson-Bell, called the verdict “a terrible mistake” in her affidavit. She recently told St. Louis Public Radio that she thought voting to convict Politte was wrong even at the time.
“I think I was lied to and I think the justice system failed us,” she told the radio station.
Megan Crane, co-director of the MacArthur Justice Center’s Missouri office, which represents Politte, previously told The Star that it is “striking” when jurors come forward to say they got the verdict wrong. But she said it’s not surprising given that the “only evidence” against Politte — the claim that he had gas on his shoes — was undeniably false.
“The state’s prioritization of finality over fairness is premised on protecting the jury’s verdict,” Crane said last month. “That goes out the window when the jurors themselves believe he is innocent and want their verdict reversed.”
Politte remains imprisoned at the Jefferson City Correctional Center.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
This story was originally published November 17, 2021 at 1:41 PM.
