INNOCENCE V. STATE OF MISSOURI
The road to Freedom starts with an investigator.
National Registry of Exonerations
3,475 EXONERATIONS SINCE 1989
MORE THAN 31,070 YEARS LOST
The Innocence Project
Between 2.3% and 5% of all prisoners in the U.S. are innocent. For context: If just 1% of all prisoners are innocent, that would mean that more than 20,000 innocent people are still in prison.
RSMO § 547.031
Until 2021, Missouri has no judicial outlet to allow prisoners to argue actual innocence unless they had the death penalty.
In 2021, Kim Gardner struck the need for an additional avenue. Her relentless efforts sparked the attention of the Missouri Supreme Court and they introduced Statute 547.031. This statue created an avenue for Prosecutors and their conviction integrity units to file a motion, at any time, if he or she has information that the convicted person may be innocent or may have been erroneously convicted.
INNOCENCE V. ATTORNEY GENERAL
KIM GARDNER/ LAMAR JOHNSON
Kim Gardner investigated Lamar Johnson's case herself. She found exonerating evidence in the form of payments made to "eyewitnesses" who was there to buy drugs from the victim at the time of the incident, a jailhouse snitch who had a history of receiving a favorable outcome in a non related offense and a written confession from the actual shooter. Even with all of this evidence Attorney General, Eric Schmitt, stayed consistent with defending Johnson's conviction. Shortly after Johnson was released, Andrew Bailey was appointed AG. Bailey's first mission as Missouri AG was to remove Kim Gardner from office, which he successfully did.
Thanks to Gardner's relentless efforts to fight for a miscarriage of justice, RSMO § 547.031 was created, allowing prisoners the only avenue to argue actual innocence.
JEAN P. BAKER/ KEVIN STRICKLAND
Jean Peters Baker, Jackson County Prosecutor, was the first to use the new bill to free Kevin Strickland who spent 43 years in prison for a crime he did not commit. The victim herself recanted years before Jackson County's CIU unit reviewed his case. Despite the overwhelming amount of exonerating evidence, Eric Schmitt fought to keep the case out of court and continued to defend the integrity of the conviction. Baker has endured countless political scrutiny and has since declared her resignation.
DO YOU SEE THE PATTERN?