Kevin Strickland Exonerated After 43 Years, Wrongly Accused
How evidence to prove his innocence was documented in court papers but yet he was sent off to prison fe
A judge set Kevin Strickland, 62, free on Tuesday, noting that there was no physical evidence tying him to the crimes and that the main witness against him had tried to recant her testimony within the same year the murders happened.
How many heartbreaking stories like this exist? Way too many to count and there are others just like Strickland sitting behind bars and many have died behind bars. Strickland is one of the fortunate one of the penal system who got a chance to be free in the face of his youth being taken away 43 years ago for a crime he did not commit. This has been the plight of so many innocent Black men since slavery.
November 23, Kevin Strickland, 62, was exonerated for a 1978 triple murder in Kansas City that put him behind bars for 43 years, upon his release his first stop was to his mother’s grave, Rosetta Thorton, who died in August and later when out to dinner with friends and his attorney, Ms. Rojo Bushnel, who set up a Gofund Me account for her client.
Strickland always maintained his innocence and that he had no role in the April 25, 1978 murders of Sherrie Black, 22, Larry Ingram, 21, and John Walker, 20. Strickland’s life was taken away from him without any evidence relating him to the crime and was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for 50 years and two concurrent 10-year sentences.
On this fateful day, Judge James Welsh, of Missouri’s Western District Court of Appeals, saw that Strickland had been convicted in spite of lacking evidence to tie him to this triple murder or the crime scene as another man convicted in the killings testified that Strickland had not been involved and an eye witness and a survivor of the attack in 1978, Cynthia Douglas, had later tried to recant her testimony. After being treated for gunshot wounds during that attack, she identified two of four men responsible for the attack but could not identify the other two.
Ms. Douglas chose Strickland who was in custody and was an associate of two of the men, Vincent Bell and Kilm Adkins, Douglas had identified. They pleaded guilty for their roles in the murder and Bell was adamant that Strickland was not involved or present at the crime scene and play no part in the murders.
In less than a year, after Strickland’s conviction, Ms. Douglas realized she had identified the wrong man and shared her mistake with close friends and this was noted in the court records. Nothing changed until she sent an email to the Midwest Innocence Project, a nonprofit organization dedicated to investigating and litigating for the wrongfully convicted.
Per her exact words to this non-profit organization:
“I am seeking info on how to help someone that was wrongfully accused,” wrote Ms. Douglas, who died in 2015. “This incident happened back in 1978, I was the only eyewitness and things were not clear back then, but now I know more and would like to help this person if I can.”
Ironically, Mr. Strickland had contacted the same nonprofit seeking help and the group took up his case and began the investigation where Mr. Bell and Mr. Adkins had sworn that Strickland was not with them during the attack.
After his case was reviewed upon the request of a Jackson County prosecutor who conveyed that the evidence used to convict Strickland had been recanted and disproved, which prompted an immediate hearing where the judge conveyed that Strickland convictions were so undermined that they could not stand and the judgment must be set aside.
Jean Peters Bakers, the Jackson County Prosecutor conveyed that Strickland exoneration brings justice, finally to a man who tragically suffered so greatly due to his wrongful conviction.
With all the evidence proving Strickland’s innocence, the Missouri attorney general, Eric Schmitt, a Republican running for U.S. Senate in 2022, fought the exoneration. Why, when the evidence of Strickland’s case proved his innocence along with the eye witness testimony?
It is people like Schmitt who choose to keep this man behind bars for 43 years as an innocent man and others like him. Missouri voters really need to take a good hard look at a man who lacks integrity and ethics before re-electing him to any office. How does one fight the facts to keep another incarcerated after 43 years of imprisonment?
It is an awful travesty that Strickland cannot get any compensation for all the time he was wrongfully incarcerated because his exoneration happened with DNA evidence.
This is straight ridiculous and shameful. I pray Strickland sues the city for every day he spent in jail and all the involved parties. The only person to get a pass would be the eyewitness who tried to stop his conviction 43 years ago and contacted the non-profit to help set Strickland free.
In conclusion, the best end to this story is Strickland finally gets his freedom even though his youth is gone, but hopefully with the Gofund Me account will provide enough funds to get him somewhat on his feet. All this will take some time.
The judicial system, the courts, all these racist politicians, and their ill will against people of color need to be aware that what comes around goes around sooner or later. Karma is real and does not discriminate!
For additional reads:
