Kansas let a jailhouse liar steal our father’s life. Spare other families this agony

We lost our father twice.

The first time was nearly 13 years ago when our family was torn apart by corruption, misconduct and the lies told by others that resulted in our father, Olin “Pete” Coones, being wrongfully convicted of a murder he did not commit. The second time was in February when he lost his battle with a cancer that grew inside him while he was in prison, and claimed his life only 108 days after his exoneration.

Now we know that our father’s wrongful conviction was not a unique occurrence. We also know that what happened to him was preventable, and it terrifies us to think how easily it could happen again if nothing changes. That’s why we testified in front of the Kansas Legislature and told our story: to help prevent the use of untruthful jailhouse witnesses like the one who led to our father’s wrongful conviction.

One of the key pieces of false evidence brought against our father were the words of an incarcertaed informant — a man whom neither our father nor his family had ever even known, who told lie after lie to a jury who believed him, and whose testimony ultimately led to our father’s conviction and nearly 13 years of unjust imprisonment.

Long after our father had been wrongfully convicted, while we were growing up without him, essential pieces of information were uncovered that had been withheld from his defense attorney showing that the jailhouse witness was not reliable. It was revealed that the informant had asked for a deal and bargained for a benefit in exchange for his testimony, that he had been coerced into giving testimony by the threat of more jail time, and that he had a history of dishonesty.

If this information had been given to our father’s defense before his trial, his attorney could have looked into the jailhouse witness’ false allegations and dubious background, and prepared a much stronger defense. If the jury had heard about the coercion and the deal sought by the informant for his testimony, they may not have voted to convict our father at all. If only, like any other expert witness, this man had been made to appear before the judge and was reviewed before giving his testimony — if any of these things had happened, our father would still have gotten the chance to be with us today.

We are angry. Angry that lies are valued more highly than the truth. Angry that an untrustworthy “witness” and a prosecutor used immoral practices and perjury to win at the expense of an innocent man’s life. We are angry that there is still nothing in place to protect innocent people from this happening again and again.

Now, we are urging the Kansas Legislature to take real action quickly to help prevent wrongful convictions based on unreliable testimony by passing House Bill 2366, which would implement safeguards and transparency surrounding the use of jailhouse witnesses. We testified for this legislation, and it passed on the House floor Thursday by a unanimous vote of 123-0. It is now before a conference committee. Last year, a similar bill did not make it to the finish line. Within that same year, our dad was exonerated and then passed away.

We cannot let another year pass without reform. Not passing this bill could quite literally mean life or death to an innocent person.

After everything he had to suffer, our father’s deepest wishes were to make sure nothing like this could happen to another innocent person, to give everyone the chance to defend themselves and for only the truth to be spoken in court. Our father believed that the system would always find a way to bring justice and truth to light. Perhaps if this bill had been in place 13 years ago, he would still be here today.

We hope that if anything, our pain and suffering and our father’s death are not in vain. In the short 108 days we spent with him after his release, we got to know something important about him: his desire for reform to keep anything as tragic and painful as what happened to our family to happening to anyone else’s.

By putting a system into place to make sure an individual’s words and actions are true and honest, we can keep his dream alive and make a positive and impactful change. We hope that our story can lead to that change, which is very much needed to prevent this sort of tragedy from striking any other family.

Melody Bitzer is the daughter of Pete Coones. She co-authored this with her brothers Ben Coones and Quinn Coones.