Missouri man who maintains innocence welcomed with hugs, bike ride upon prison release
When Michael Politte walked Friday morning out of the Jefferson City Correctional Center, overjoyed and relieved, he saw the familiar face of a former prisoner among his crowd of supporters.
It was Rodney Lincoln, whose sentence was commuted in 2018 after he presented compelling evidence that he spent 36 years in prison for a St. Louis murder he did not commit. Lincoln first met Politte when, they maintain, they were doing other people’s time.
“Welcome home,” Lincoln told Politte as they hugged and shook hands.
Now 38, Politte and his sisters have said for two decades that he was wrongly convicted in the Dec. 5, 1998, murder of their mother, Rita Politte. Then 14, he quickly became the prime suspect after he found her body burning on the floor of their Hopewell mobile home in eastern Missouri, his lawyers said. He was convicted on faulty fire science following a biased investigation, they have argued.
Politte was greeted by a cheering group comprised of his sisters, lawyers and advocates as he was released on parole. Donning jeans and a plaid shirt, Politte embraced each of them saying, “I love you guys.”
Asked what was in his future, Politte told reporters gathered there: “Life.”
“I’m going to hangout with my family,” he said, adding: “Justice for Rita. This is her moment, also. She’s smiling today.”
Politte added that the fight to clear his name would continue. His legal battle seeking exoneration goes on, something he can now work toward from home with his sisters.
“This is not the end,” his lawyers with the MacArthur Justice Center, the Midwest Innocence Project and Langdon & Emison said in a statement earlier this year when Politte was granted parole. “Justice for the Politte family demands Mike’s exoneration and we will continue to litigate in court to overturn his conviction.”
In their court filings, Politte’s lawyers said no blood or other injuries were found on him on the day of the killing. Investigators also misinterpreted Politte’s trauma and stress 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, according to his attorneys.
Politte’s petition includes an affidavit from a former deputy sheriff who helped investigate the killing. She said investigators were split on whether Politte was guilty. Her doubts grew as she got to know him, and came to believe he was innocent.
Among those outside the prison Friday was Mike Glore, a childhood friend of Politte’s. The two used to ride bikes together as kids, so he brought two, red and black BMX bikes.
“It’s been 23 years since I rode a bicycle,” Politte said before hopping on.
They rode off of the prison grounds together.
In recent years, even the jurors who voted to convict Politte have raised concerns about their decision.
After learning of evidence they never heard at trial, two came to believe he was innocent and should be freed to correct “this wrong,” while others said he deserved a new trial.
One of the jurors, Linda Dickerson-Bell, of Bonne Terre, in an affidavit said she learned through an MTV documentary series, which featured Politte’s case, that there was not gasoline on his shoes. She called that evidence the “nail in the coffin” for her at trial.
“After learning about the new evidence, my guilt has only grown,” she wrote. “I now firmly believe ... that we made a terrible mistake.”
The Midwest Innocence Project, one of the organizations that represents Politte, set up a GoFundMe to help raise money for him.
The fundraiser exceeded its goal of $7,500 by bringing in more than $8,000 by Friday evening.
This story was originally published April 22, 2022 at 6:02 PM.
