Innocent Missourian Ricky Kidd finally celebrated his freedom 23 years too late

Imagine yourself seeing Fourth of July fireworks for the first time in 24 years, because for the past two decades America — the land of the free — has kept you behind bars for a crime you didn’t commit. Would you be angry? Would you hate America, and feel betrayed? Or would you merely be remorseful, in mourning for those years you’d unjustly lost? Can you imagine feeling hopeful or filled with joy and gratitude?

I spent this Fourth of July with a man in just such a position: Ricky Kidd, who spent 23 years in prison for a murder someone else committed. It was his first celebration of America’s Independence Day since he found his own independence from America’s incarceration system. And if you asked Ricky how he felt, he would not tell you he was filled with anger or bitterness but joy and hope. It was an occasion of celebration for him, and a reminder for me of how it can be too easy to take freedom for granted.

Since his release, Ricky has striven to embrace new experiences and live life to the fullest. As he says, “Freedom is the ability to live life fully.” During my Fourth of July celebration with him, Ricky rode a riding lawnmower, set off fireworks and went fishing for the first time in his life. These may seem like small things, but they constitute important American traditions. They are symbols of independence — both personal and political — and, more important, they symbolize opportunities to live life fully and to choose one’s own experiences. Often, we assume that we and everyone else in America will always have the opportunity to choose to do things like that whenever we want, but many do not.

Every Fourth of July marks an occasion of reflection on America. Commentaries abound in media outlets looking back on what America is, has been and can be. It can be all too easy, however, to forget that when we live in a democracy, reflections on our country are also reflections on ourselves. When we have the freedom to speak, to march, to act and to vote freely in support of what we believe, we must also reflect on what we have done and can do to make this country what it promises to be.

This year, I was brought to consider Ricky Kidd and his experience. But Ricky is not alone. I got involved with Midwest Innocence Project because of men and women like Ricky who were being held behind bars against all notions of justice. I could not turn a blind eye to fellow Americans who were promised freedom and liberty by the same government that unjustly ripped that freedom away. Take, for example, a man like Kevin Strickland: sentenced to life in prison and still incarcerated for more than 40 years now, even after the true perpetrators of the crime have since come forward and confessed. Midwest Innocence Project has already worked to exonerate 10 people who collectively served more than 250 years in prison for wrongful convictions, and we are still working now to liberate nine more who have already served more than 200 unjust years.

So, as we move on from this 245th Independence Day, we should not forget just how precious and too often precarious the freedom we have is. What’s more, we ought to remember people like Ricky Kidd, Kevin Strickland, Lamar Johnson, Michael Politte and so many others who have had their freedom unjustly stolen by American institutions meant to safeguard that sacred liberty.

And we would do well not just to remember them and their suffering but recognize our advantage and power, when we still have our freedom, to help those who do not. If you would like to fulfill that American promise, to help those “yearning to breathe free,” consider supporting Midwest Innocence Project. Perhaps with your assistance, many more Americans like Ricky Kidd may have the freedom to hope, gazing upon “bombs bursting in air” over a land more truly free than it was before.

Midwest Innocence Project holds its annual gala July 22, featuring honorary chair Dante Hall and keynote speeches from exonerees Faye Jacobs, Floyd Bledsoe and Ricky Kidd. To learn more, visit themip.org.

Andrew Brain is chairman of the board for the Midwest Innocence Project.

This story was originally published July 15, 2021 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Innocent Missourian Ricky Kidd finally celebrated his freedom 23 years too late."