Welcome, Guest: Register On Nairaland / LOGIN! / Trending / Recent / New
Stats: 3,143,139 members, 7,780,062 topics. Date: Thursday, 28 March 2024 at 09:07 AM

Missouri Man Exonerated After 42 Years Behind Bars - Crime - Nairaland

Nairaland Forum / Nairaland / General / Crime / Missouri Man Exonerated After 42 Years Behind Bars (900 Views)

Dr. Olufunmilayo Ogunsanya Exonerated Of Rape Accusation By UK Medical Tribunal / Dowen: Sylvester's Mum In Tears As Students & Staff Are Exonerated (Video) / Two Ladies Accused Of Lesbianism In Kano, Exonerated By Hisbah Board (2) (3) (4)

(1) (Reply) (Go Down)

Missouri Man Exonerated After 42 Years Behind Bars by Nobody: 5:06pm On Nov 24, 2021
A Missouri man wrongfully convicted of a triple murder in 1978 and imprisoned for more than 42 years has been exonerated and released.

Kevin Strickland, 62, has maintained his innocence since his arrest at age 18. He was sentenced in June 1979.

Mr Strickland said outside court: "I didn't think this day would come."

It was the longest wrongful incarceration in state history, but under Missouri law he is unlikely to receive any financial compensation.

According to data from the National Registry of Exonerations, which has logged exonerations since 1989, it would also be the seventh longest wrongful sentence acknowledged in the US.
A judge on Tuesday ordered the immediate release of Mr Strickland from state custody, after 15,487 days behind bars.

Lawyers for the Midwest Innocence Project, who have worked for months to help free Mr Strickland, told the BBC they were "ecstatic" about the news.

"We were confident any judge who saw the evidence would find Mr Strickland is innocent and that is exactly what happened," said Midwest Innocence Project legal director Tricia Rojo Bushnell in a statement.

She added: "Nothing will give him the 43 years he has lost and he returns home to a state that will not pay him a cent for the time it stole from him. That is not justice."

The state of Missouri only compensates prisoners exonerated through DNA evidence, not because of eyewitness testimony, according to the Midwest Innocence Project.

Mr Strickland was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for 50 years after he was linked to the deadly ransacking of a home in Kansas City on 25 April 1978.

On that night, four assailants shot three people inside the home: Sherrie Black, 22, Larry Ingram, 22, and John Walker, 20.

A fourth victim - Cynthia Douglas, 20 - escaped with injuries after pretending to be dead. On a hunch from her sister's boyfriend, police arrested the teenage Mr Strickland and then reportedly pressured Ms Douglas to pick him out of a line-up.

Mr Strickland told police he had been at home watching television. No physical evidence ever linked him to the crimes.
His first trial in 1979 ended with a hung jury, after one black juror on a 12-member panel held out for his acquittal.

At his second trial, an all-white jury found Mr Strickland guilty of one count of capital murder and two counts of second-degree murder.

Years later, Ms Douglas would recant her lone eyewitness testimony, writing to the Midwest Innocence Project that "things were not clear back then, but now I know more and would like to help this person if I can".
Ms Douglas died before she could formally recant her testimony against Mr Strickland, but her mother, sister and daughter have all testified in court that she picked "the wrong guy".

Prosecutors in Jackson County began reviewing Mr Strickland's conviction last November and - under a new Missouri law - filed a motion calling for his immediate exoneration and release.

"Under these unique circumstances, the Court's confidence in Strickland's conviction is so undermined that it cannot stand, and the judgment of conviction must be set aside," wrote Judge James Welsh in Tuesday's ruling.

Ms Rojo Bushnell of the Midwest Innocence Project said the process has "shown how incredibly difficult it is for the system to correct a mistake. The prosecutor agreed Mr Strickland is innocent and it still took months. It should not be that hard."

Source : BBC world news.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-59396598

Re: Missouri Man Exonerated After 42 Years Behind Bars by illicit(m): 5:30pm On Nov 24, 2021
shocked
Re: Missouri Man Exonerated After 42 Years Behind Bars by IamSalt: 5:39pm On Nov 24, 2021
42 years wasted without compensation??

Issa wa o!!!
Re: Missouri Man Exonerated After 42 Years Behind Bars by LilMissFavvy(f): 5:51pm On Nov 24, 2021
The lady who did this should have been arrested and locked behind bar, sadly, she is dead. It took her evil heart over 40yrs to speak the truth.
Re: Missouri Man Exonerated After 42 Years Behind Bars by Ahmback(m): 6:02pm On Nov 24, 2021
Damn! That's a painful story
Re: Missouri Man Exonerated After 42 Years Behind Bars by Neddstark: 5:50am On Nov 25, 2021
He just had to be black. African Americans have suffered
Re: Missouri Man Exonerated After 42 Years Behind Bars by Assimhaven: 6:47am On Nov 25, 2021
Wow
Re: Missouri Man Exonerated After 42 Years Behind Bars by Coolgent(m): 6:54am On Nov 25, 2021
Immediately i read the heading i knew it must be a black man cry
Re: Missouri Man Exonerated After 42 Years Behind Bars by mysticwarrior(m): 7:13am On Nov 25, 2021
This is miscarriage of justice, this man life was just wasted for 42 bitter years, there is nothing more mentally agonizing than being made to suffer for a crime you did not commit.
Re: Missouri Man Exonerated After 42 Years Behind Bars by ideatoprince18(m): 7:20am On Nov 25, 2021
Hh
Re: Missouri Man Exonerated After 42 Years Behind Bars by BlackPantherxXx: 10:54am On Nov 25, 2021
angry
Re: Missouri Man Exonerated After 42 Years Behind Bars by Kaypeeboss(m): 6:11am On Nov 26, 2021
LilMissFavvy:
The lady who did this should have been arrested and locked behind bar, sadly, she is dead. It took her evil heart over 40yrs to speak the truth.
Your gender...very quick to jump into conclusions and that's why she hurriedly and wrongly identified him as the suspect,42 years gone like that...wtf
Re: Missouri Man Exonerated After 42 Years Behind Bars by Osiris12: 7:33am On Nov 26, 2021
This is not gonna happen in the case of mr Bah olaniyi.



He’s probably gonna be raped to death in jail
And his corpse raped again by a necrophilia
Re: Missouri Man Exonerated After 42 Years Behind Bars by MufasaLion: 7:40am On Nov 26, 2021
Wow! What a relief! Watching documentaries on prison and injustice has opened my eyes more on the immeasurable value of freedom. Can't imagine myself in a box! The psychological torture would kill me.
Re: Missouri Man Exonerated After 42 Years Behind Bars by MufasaLion: 7:42am On Nov 26, 2021
Osiris12:
This is not gonna happen in the case of mr Bah olaniyi.



He’s probably gonna be raped to death in jail
And his corpse raped again by a necrophilia

Mr. Bah will live all his life in a box. He deserves more than what he got.

1 Like

Re: Missouri Man Exonerated After 42 Years Behind Bars by MufasaLion: 7:43am On Nov 26, 2021
LilMissFavvy:
The lady who did this should have been arrested and locked behind bar, sadly, she is dead. It took her evil heart over 40yrs to speak the truth.

Funny how you could say this. If it were to be a fresh case and this innocent man was suspected, you would have pronounced him guilty in your "court."
Re: Missouri Man Exonerated After 42 Years Behind Bars by MufasaLion: 7:44am On Nov 26, 2021
mysticwarrior:
This is miscarriage of justice, this man life was just wasted for 42 bitter years, there is nothing more mentally agonizing than being made to suffer for a crime you did not commit.

No lies.
Re: Missouri Man Exonerated After 42 Years Behind Bars by MufasaLion: 7:45am On Nov 26, 2021
Neddstark:
He just had to be black. African Americans have suffered

It's so foolish and insensitive of you to pull out the racial card!
Re: Missouri Man Exonerated After 42 Years Behind Bars by LilMissFavvy(f): 3:51pm On Nov 26, 2021
So says your shallow mind. I know you are saying this because of Bah's rape thread. When he opened his first thread and talked about how he was unjustly imprisoned, I followed the story, I dropped no comment. When the second thread was opened, as soon as I read how the person in the CCTV footage was trying to unbuckle his belt, I knew he was the one, and that he was unbuckling to change up.
MufasaLion:


Funny how you could say this. If it were to be a fresh case and this innocent man was suspected, you would have pronounced him guilty in your "court."
Re: Missouri Man Exonerated After 42 Years Behind Bars by MufasaLion: 3:55pm On Nov 26, 2021
LilMissFavvy:
So says your shallow mind. I know you are saying this because of Bah's rape thread. When he opened his first thread and talked about how he was unjustly imprisoned, I followed the story, I dropped no comment. When the second thread was opened, as soon as I read how the person in the CCTV footage was trying to unbuckle his belt, I knew he was the one, and that he was unbuckling to change up.

Your assumption led you to this long thesis. In my post, did you see anything related to Bah? You assume too much and comment with emotional entitlement.
Re: Missouri Man Exonerated After 42 Years Behind Bars by Neddstark: 8:07pm On Nov 26, 2021
MufasaLion:


It's so foolish and insensitive of you to pull out the racial card!

Get lost.
Re: Missouri Man Exonerated After 42 Years Behind Bars by MufasaLion: 8:08pm On Nov 26, 2021
Neddstark:


Get lost.

Cry me a river.
Re: Missouri Man Exonerated After 42 Years Behind Bars by Neddstark: 9:58pm On Nov 26, 2021
MufasaLion:


Cry me a river.

Ok

(1) (Reply)

Nigerian Police Officer Shoots At Lady "In An Attempt To Kill" (video) / Man Stabbed To Death For Proposing To Another Man's Girlfriend / EFCC Arrests 31 Alleged ‘yahoo Boys’ In Benin, Recovers 9 Exotic Cars

(Go Up)

Sections: politics (1) business autos (1) jobs (1) career education (1) romance computers phones travel sports fashion health
religion celebs tv-movies music-radio literature webmasters programming techmarket

Links: (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) (9) (10)

Nairaland - Copyright © 2005 - 2024 Oluwaseun Osewa. All rights reserved. See How To Advertise. 28
Disclaimer: Every Nairaland member is solely responsible for anything that he/she posts or uploads on Nairaland.