BACKGROUND: "
The case against Strickland, who was 18 when he was arrested, was “thin from its inception” and relied almost entirely on the testimony of a traumatized woman who was shot during the murders, prosecutors now say. They began reviewing Strickland’s conviction in November after speaking with his lawyers and reviewing a Star investigation into his innocence claim. For decades, two men who pleaded guilty in the April 25, 1978, murders at 6934 S. Benton Ave. swore Strickland was not with them and two other accomplices during the shooting. The lone eyewitness also recanted and wanted Strickland released. A third suspect, who was never charged, said in 2019 that he knew there “couldn’t be a more innocent person than” Strickland, according to a Midwest Innocence Project investigator."--------------------------------------------------------------------------
PUBLISHER'S NOTE: This Blog is interested in false eye-witness identification issues because wrongful identifications are at the heart of so many DNA-related exonerations in the USA and elsewhere - and because so much scientific research is being conducted with a goal to making the identification process more transparent and reliable- and less subject to deliberate manipulation. I have also reported far too many cases over the years - mainly cases lacking DNA evidence (or other forensic evidence pointing to the suspect - where the identification is erroneous - in spite of witness’s certainty that it is true - or where the police have somehow rigged the identification process in order to make a desired identification inevitable.
Harold Levy: Publisher: The Charles Smith Blog.
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PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "
On the week Jackson County prosecutors intend to file their motion, a group of exonerees that recently started calling themselves the National Organization of Exonerees plans to travel to Jefferson City to hold a “rally for justice” for Strickland and Lamar Johnson, who St. Louis prosecutors say has been wrongly imprisoned for the past 26 years for a 1994 murder. Two members of that group, Kenneth Nixon and Marvin Cotton, both of whom were exonerated of murder in Michigan, traveled to Missouri last month to show support for Strickland at a hearing. At the time, they said they and other people freed after wrongful conviction were “shocked and appalled” by the fact Strickland and Johnson remain in prison though local prosecutors have deemed them innocent."
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STORY: "Kevin Strickland innocence claim hearing rescheduled in Missouri; exonerees plan 'justice' rally," by Reporter Luke Nozicka, published by The Kansas City Star on August 10, 2021.
GIST: "A hearing during which Kevin Strickland’s attorneys would have argued his proclaimed innocence before a DeKalb County judge has been moved to November.
Judge Ryan Horsman was set to decide whether to free Strickland, who remains imprisoned for a 1978 triple murder in Kansas City that he maintains he did not commit, at the conclusion of the two-day evidentiary hearing initially scheduled for later this week.
Now that won’t happen until a rescheduled three-day hearing from Nov. 17 to 19.
But before then, Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker plans to file a motion later this month asking a judge in Kansas City to exonerate Strickland. That’s when new legislation takes effect giving local prosecutors that power.
Strickland, 62, could be freed through that new avenue before November. During a hearing Monday in DeKalb County, Horsman wondered if the case in his court was a waste of resources, the St. Joseph News-Press reported.
Three months ago, Strickland received rare support from Jackson County prosecutors who concluded he is “factually innocent” in the April 25, 1978, shooting at 6934 S. Benton Ave. He was 18 when he was arrested.
Read more here: https://www.kansascity.com/news/local/crime/article253389478.html#storylink=cpy
Strickland’s innocence claim has been in the courts since. His lawyers filed his petition in DeKalb County — where he remains behind bars at a prison in Cameron — after the Missouri Supreme Court declined to hear the case.
In recent weeks, the Missouri Attorney General’s Office, which contends Strickland is guilty, has requested a host of records in the case. Its subpoenas included asking for all communications between the prosecutor’s office and officials who joined their call for Strickland’s exoneration, including Mayor Quinton Lucas and federal prosecutors in western Missouri.
The attorney general’s office also requested any communication between the prosecutor’s office and “any media outlet, including but not limited to the Kansas City Star,” which has reported on Strickland’s case extensively.
Jackson County prosecutors — who called the subpoenas “remarkable in their breadth and ambiguity” — objected to that request, arguing it asks for things not relevant to the case. Reporters contact the prosecutor’s office every day, they argued.“On its face, this request seeks every communication” between media outlets and the prosecutor’s office’s communications director since the office’s inception, they said in court filings.
Local prosecutors said they would disclose evidence like police reports and witness statements, but asserted that other requests “seek only to divert attention from the critical issue at hand: whether Kevin Strickland is actually innocent.”
The attorney general’s office has since said it will narrow its requests. That included asking for the prosecutor’s office’s communication between media outlets from Jan. 1, 2020, to the present.
A pre-trial conference in the case has been set for Oct. 14
JEFF CITY ‘RALLY FOR JUSTICE:
On the week Jackson County prosecutors intend to file their motion, a group of exonerees that recently started calling themselves the National Organization of Exonerees plans to travel to Jefferson City to hold a “rally for justice” for Strickland and Lamar Johnson, who St. Louis prosecutors say has been wrongly imprisoned for the past 26 years for a 1994 murder.
Two members of that group, Kenneth Nixon and Marvin Cotton, both of whom were exonerated of murder in Michigan, traveled to Missouri last month to show support for Strickland at a hearing.
At the time, they said they and other people freed after wrongful conviction were “shocked and appalled” by the fact Strickland and Johnson remain in prison though local prosecutors have deemed them innocent.
The group recently created a fundraiser to help pay for travel and lodging for about 40 to 50 people to attend the rally on the week of Aug. 30. It had raised $355 as of Tuesday afternoon."
The entire story can be read at:
PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments. The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at: http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith. Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at: http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com. Harold Levy: Publisher: The Charles Smith Blog; -----------------------------------------------------------------
FINAL WORD: (Applicable to all of our wrongful conviction cases): "Whenever there is a wrongful conviction, it exposes errors in our criminal legal system, and we hope that this case — and lessons from it — can prevent future injustices."
Lawyer Radha Natarajan:
Executive Director: New England Innocence Project;
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FINAL, FINAL WORD: "Since its inception, the Innocence Project has pushed the criminal legal system to confront and correct the laws and policies that cause and contribute to wrongful convictions. They never shied away from the hard cases — the ones involving eyewitness identifications, confessions, and bite marks. Instead, in the course of presenting scientific evidence of innocence, they’ve exposed the unreliability of evidence that was, for centuries, deemed untouchable." So true!
Christina Swarns: Executive Director: The Innocence Project;
