wrongful conviction

Missouri Gov. Mike Parson rejected a bill that would allow compensation for more people who were wrongfully convicted of a crime. Parson argued that taxpayers should not be responsible, but supporters of the legislation say that exonerees deserve to be compensated for the state's mistake.

The vetoed bill would have increased payments for Missouri prisoners who were freed after being found innocent, and expanded who is eligible for compensation. But Republican Gov. Mike Parson said the state should not have to pay for the mistakes of local prosecutors.

Opponents of the death penalty want Missouri to abolish the practice. They say it's not a deterrent — the system is flawed and it gives too much power to the government.

With just a day left before the Missouri legislative clock runs out, some of the bills left unfinished include one to legalize sports betting, another to create an open enrollment system for public schools, and a ballot item to raise the threshold to amend the Missouri Constitution.

Neither Lamar Johnson nor Kevin Strickland have received compensation from the Missouri for the decades they spent wrongfully incarcerated. That’s because Missouri law only allows for payments to prisoners who prove their innocence through specific DNA testing — which was not the case for either man. A new Missouri Senate bill would change that.

Attorney Lindsay Runnels of the Kansas City-based law firm Morgan Pilate has represented Lamar Johnson since 2015. Johnson was freed this week after serving 28 years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit.

Lamar Johnson was freed from prison after a Missouri judge found there was clear and convincing evidence he did not murder Marcus Boyd in 1994. But since DNA evidence wasn’t used to set aside his conviction, Johnson is not eligible for state restitution.

Judge David Mason ruled that there was no longer clear and convincing evidence to keep Lamar Johnson in prison for a 1994 murder in St. Louis. Despite the opposition of Missouri's attorney general, Johnson will become the second person freed under a recent state law allowing prosecutors to bring innocence cases.

Under state law, Attorney General Eric Schmitt's office isn't required to participate in wrongful conviction cases, but Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker says that Schmitt acts as if his primary duty is to defend convictions rather than seek justice.

St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner is trying to vacate Johnson’s 1995 murder conviction, a crime that Johnson has long held he did not commit. But she’s facing pushback from the attorney general’s office.

This week was the first time in court that Johnson was able to say in his own words why his 1995 conviction for the murder of his friend Marcus Boyd should be set aside. The only eyewitness in the original case recanted his testimony, while a convicted murderer serving a life sentence testified that he, not Johnson, killed Boyd.

Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner has filed a motion to set aside the conviction of Lamar Johnson, who was sentenced to life in prison for a 1994 murder that he did not commit. A key witness in that case testified this week that police detectives “pressured” and “bullied” him into identifying Johnson from a lineup.