Exonerees know injustice, so they’re in Kansas City for innocent Kevin Strickland

It takes a heck of a special man to spend nearly two decades languishing in prison for a crime he did not do and then, when finally granted his freedom, dedicate what’s left of his life to fighting to free others also wrongly convicted.

Kenneth Nixon is such a man. I don’t meet men like him every day. But Saturday I met five other exonerees who will spend this week in court, in support of Kevin Strickland.

On Monday, under a new Missouri law, Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker will argue in court that Strickland, who has spent more than 40 years in prison, should be freed because he is innocent.

Nixon became emotional talking about Strickland’s case. “What is happening in Missouri isn’t even about his innocence anymore,” he said. “It’s government fighting government and the only person suffering in this game is Kevin Strickland.”

He’s right and it’s disgusting and inhumane.

After a months-long review, in May, Baker, with the support of federal prosecutors in western Missouri, Jackson County’s presiding judge and other officials announced that Strickland, now 62, did not commit a 1978 triple murder.

Finally, after months of legal sparring, Baker’s office and Strickland’s lawyers will face off with lawyers who work for Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt, who, touting his “Save America” slogan (obviously meant only to include those conservatives like himself whose votes he’s vying for), has lined up for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Sen. Roy Blunt.

Despite what prosecutors across the state have said is overwhelming evidence of Strickland’s innocence, Schmitt contends Strickland is guilty and received a fair trial in 1979. That is not what the evidence says. Schmitt and his buddy, Gov. Mike Parson, who refused to pardon Strickland earlier this year, are putting politics ahead of a man’s freedom. It’s cruel, but sadly not unusual.

The case has attracted national attention and caught the eye of Nixon and other exonerees.

During the 15 years and nine months Nixon spent locked behind bars in Michigan for a double murder and arson he did not commit, he befriended Corey McCall, who was serving a 16-year sentence for six counts of murder and armed robbery, crimes he did not commit.

The two spent years professing their innocence before, with the help of the Western Michigan University-Cooley Innocence Project, they got their cases reviewed by state and county law enforcement conviction and integrity units. The two spent many months, “talking about coming home,” Nixon said.

Nixon, 35, went to prison when he was 19. When he came out, his two children were nearly grown and his grandmother had died. ”I missed so much.”

McCall, 39, went to prison six days after his 23rd birthday. Now he’s trying to build the relationship he never got with his four children. “I was stripped of everything I loved, everything I had.”

I can’t imagine that. Nor can I imagine anyone denying freedom to a person — Strickland — who has been deemed innocent by the very law enforcement agency that wrongly convicted him.

Two men cleared of crimes founded national organization

Nixon was freed in February. McCall was freed in June, “a dream come true.” The two connected with other exonerees in Michigan and founded the National Organization of Exonerees. “We have been going hard to add conviction and integrity units in county and city law enforcement agencies across the country,” McCall said.

“We are trying to bring awareness to wrongful convictions all over the country,” Nixon said. Why? “Because we’ve been right where they are. We are doing for them what we wish people did for us.’’

Yes, all over the country people are in prison who should not be. Movies have been made about this. And still, “there are a lot of people who don’t believe this happens,” Nixon said. “A lot of prosecutors believe they get it right every time. They don’t.”

“If not for a conviction and integrity unit both of us and many others would have died in prison. ‘Thank you’ isn’t a big enough word.”

Just by telling their stories of time lost, this group of men got the first big win on Thursday. The Board of Commissioners in Washtenaw County, Michigan, approved adding a full-time position to manage their Conviction Integrity and Expungement Unit to investigate possible false convictions.

Now these exonerees are in Kansas City. On Saturday they were joined by about 70 other people who, like them, believe in Strickland’s innocence, at a rally for Strickland on the steps of the Jackson County Courthouse.

On Monday, the exonerees will don bright yellow T-shirts and sit in the courtroom so Strickland knows they support him. Of course, that alone won’t free the man, but they’re certain that Strickland will feel some love knowing folks are fighting for him. At least, that’s what Nixon and McCall told me, and they should know.

“We want the world to know we are exonerees,” Nixon said. “When we wear these yellow shirts, we want the world to know this is what injustice looks like. Any time an innocent person is locked in a cage for something he didn’t do, there is no justice in that.”

I’m hoping along with the exonerees that Strickland finds justice. He’s been searching for it too long.

This story was originally published November 8, 2021 at 5:00 AM.

Mará Rose Williams

Opinion Contributor,

The Kansas City Star

816-234-4419

Mará Rose Williams is The Star’s Senior Opinion Columnist. She previously was assistant managing editor for race & equity issues, a member of the Star’s Editorial Board and an award-winning columnist. She has written on all things education for The Star since 1998, including issues of inequity in education, teen suicide, universal pre-K, college costs and racism on university campuses. She was a writer on The Star’s 2020 “Truth in Black and White” project and the recipient of the 2021 Eleanor McClatchy Award for exemplary leadership skills and transformative journalism.