Midwest Innocence Project

Carnes, who is now 52, was convicted of killing 24-year-old Larry White in October 2003 and sentenced to life in prison. The Missouri Supreme Court set aside his conviction earlier this week.

At 43 years, Kevin Strickland served Missouri's longest wrongful conviction sentence. He and fellow exoneree Ricky Kidd share plans to raise awareness and prevent others from similar fates.

The two became acquainted while in Western Missouri Correctional Center. Now Kidd works to help Strickland with the challenges of adjusting to life on the outside.

In Missouri, very few inmates released after years of wrongful incarceration qualify for compensation.

Since the state of Missouri will not be compensating Kevin Strickland for the decades he spent wrongfully imprisoned, thousands of donors from across the country are making sure he has the support he needs.

After 43 years in prison, Kevin Strickland’s conviction was overturned but despite his wrongful incarceration, he won't receive any compensation from the state.

The attorney general's job is to seek justice, not to defend prior convictions, Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker told KCUR. "They exploited these victims again," Peters Baker said of Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt's office.

"The Court's confidence in Strickland's conviction is so undermined that it cannot stand," the judge wrote. Strickland's wrongful imprisonment for nearly 43 years is among the country's longest.

The Kansas City man has spent 43 years behind bars for a crime prosecutors now say he didn’t commit. A judge is considering whether to set him free, and Strickland’s exoneration, at least partially, depends on his hair.

A trial continues for a Kansas City police detective charged in the fatal shooting of a Black man. Plus, the fate of Kevin Strickland, a Kansas City man who has spent 43 years in prison for a crime prosecutors say he didn’t commit, is now in the hands of a judge.

“I feel really good about the case,” Kevin Strickland told reporters as Jackson County Sheriff's officers wheeled him out of the courtroom after his third day in court.

Prosecutors have said since May that Kevin Strickland is innocent. For the first time in four decades, he got to make his case to a judge.