DawgTalkers.net Forums Thread Like Summary - Exonerated after 40 years, wrongfully convicted

Missouri man jailed for over 40 years exonerated; judge says he was wrongfully convicted in 3 killings

Kevin Strickland, 62, has always maintained that he was home watching television and had nothing to do with the 1978 killings.

By The Associated Press

A Kansas City man who has been jailed for more than 40 years for three murders was wrongfully convicted in 1979 and will be released, a Missouri judge ruled Tuesday.

Kevin Strickland, 62, has always maintained that he was home watching television and had nothing to do with the killings, which happened when he was 18 years old.

Judge James Welsh, a retired Missouri Court of Appeals judge, ruled after a three-day evidentiary hearing requested by a Jackson County prosecutor who said evidence used to convict Strickland had been recanted or disproven since his 1979 conviction.

Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt fought efforts led by Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker and other legal and political leaders to free Strickland. Schmitt, a Republican running for the U.S. Senate, said Strickland was guilty. Gov. Mike Parson declined Strickland’s clemency requests.

Strickland was convicted in the deaths of Larry Ingram, 21; John Walker, 20; and Sherrie Black, 22, at a home in Kansas City.

The evidentiary hearing focused largely on previous testimony from Cynthia Douglas, the only person to survive the April 25, 1978, shootings. She initially identified Strickland as one of four men who shot the victims and testified to that during his two trials.

But she later said she was pressured by police to choose Strickland and tried for years to alert political and legal experts to help her prove she had identified the wrong man, according to testimony during the hearing from her family, friends and a co-worker. Douglas died in 2015.

During the hearing, attorneys for the Missouri Attorney General’s office argued that Strickland’s advocates had not provided any kind of paper trail that proved Douglas tried to recant her identification of Strickland, saying the theory was based on “hearsay, upon hearsay, upon hearsay,”

Two other men convicted in the killings later insisted that Strickland wasn’t at the crime scene, The Kansas City Star reported. They named two other suspects, who were never charged.

During his testimony, Strickland denied suggestions that he offered Douglas $300 to “keep her mouth shut,” and said he had never visited the house where the murders occurred before they happened.

Strickland is Black, and his first trial ended in a hung jury when the only Black juror, a woman, held out for acquittal. After his second trial in 1979, he was convicted by an all-white jury of one count of capital murder and two counts of second-degree murder.

In May, Peters Baker announced that a review of the case led her to believe that Strickland was innocent.

In June, the Missouri Supreme Court declined to hear Strickland’s petition.

In August, Peters Baker used a new state law to seek the evidentiary hearing in Jackson County, where Strickland was convicted. The law allows local prosecutors to challenge convictions if they believe the defendant did not commit the crime. It was the first time — and so far the only time — that a prosecutor has used the law to fight a previous conviction.

The hearing was delayed several times by motions filed by Schmitt’s office, one of which successfully argued to have all judges in the 16th Circuit, which includes Jackson County, recused from the hearings, citing a letter in which the circuit’s presiding judge said he agreed Strickland should be exonerated. Welsh was then appointed to preside over the hearing.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-new...-judge-says-was-wrongfully-conv-rcna6501

We really do need a complete overhaul of the criminal justice system. Courts, Police, Prisons, Laws, and every type of person involved in any way, rather parole officer, probation officer, corrections officer, etc.; they all need to be trained better and screened better. There are just so few checks and balances in our system. We shouldn't make it easier on actual criminals, but we should and can do better.

There are certainly tweaks to the system that could be addressed. I think first and foremost is that prosecutors should not be elected officials as they are in most state and local jurisdictions. It gives them every motivation to get a conviction even if they find out they were wrong. It gives them the motivation to charge people with crimes they know overstep the actual infraction in order to get them to plea deal down which shows as a conviction. Their conviction rate is all important in being re-elected and admitting they made a mistake certainly won't play well at election time.

It would be nice to expect the police to be better informed and educated in terms of the law. However, you can't expect people to get paid what cops get paid and then expect some super high standard from them. If you want better, more accountable police, then you would certainly have to up the pay. I do feel however making them more accountable for bad behavior on the part of law enforcement would be a good idea. I also think a national data base to stop bad cops from becoming a cop somewhere else would be important.

So I guess I fall somewhere in the middle. I doubt Peen and I would agree on the tweaks that need to be made, but to the extent between a complete overhaul and tweaks to the system, I'd say I come closer to siding with him.

Those are misleading stats, as to be realistic, the cost of living would have to be the same in all locations.

The cost of living is not the same across the United States.

It is the relative cost to the location that we are considering.

I think I know and understand the point he's making, and it isn't so much about education as it is time of quality training for the given craft/specialty in question. It has been his premise all along- and I don't disagree. In fact, his 'numbers list post' was in support of his original premise. I was able to follow his train of thought, and understood not only both posts, but their relationship to each other. I'm pretty sure you could, too. And just in case you couldn't... well lucky for you, I just provided you with a "follow-the-dots" map to get you caught up. You now have no excuse to not meet us on this field of play.

Let's stay on message here, shall we?

His point is valid.