{"id":280,"date":"2023-02-15T23:23:20","date_gmt":"2023-02-15T23:23:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/falseallegationshub.com\/?p=280"},"modified":"2024-03-12T23:47:25","modified_gmt":"2024-03-12T23:47:25","slug":"missouri-man-freed-as-murder-conviction-overturned-after-three-decades","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/falseallegationshub.com\/?p=280","title":{"rendered":"Missouri man freed as murder conviction overturned after three decades"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Lamar Johnson, sentenced to life for the killing, was released after judge found \u2018reliable evidence of actual innocence<\/strong>\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Missouri<\/a> judge on Tuesday overturned the conviction of a man who has served nearly 28 years of a life sentence for a killing that he has always said he didn\u2019t commit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lamar Johnson, 50, closed his eyes and shook his head slightly as a member of his legal team patted him on the back when Judge David Mason issued his ruling. In coming to his decision, Mason explained that there had to be \u201creliable evidence of actual innocence \u2013 evidence so reliable that it actually passes the standard of clear and convincing\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Greg<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Johnson walked free after he was processed out at the courthouse. Beaming, he walked up to reporters in the courthouse lobby about two hours after the ruling and thanked everyone who worked on his case, as well as the judge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is unbelievable,\u201d said Johnson, who didn\u2019t take any questions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

St. Louis attorney Kim Gardner, who filed a motion in August seeking Johnson\u2019s release after an investigation her office conducted with help from the Innocence Project convinced her he was telling the truth, applauded the ruling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMr Lamar Johnson. Thank you. You\u2019re free,\u201d she said before the gathered press.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gardner said this is a time for Johnson to spend with his attorneys and family.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is Valentine\u2019s Day and this is historical,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Republican-led state attorney general\u2019s office fought to keep Johnson locked up. A spokeswoman for the office, Madeline Sieren, said in an email that the office will take no further action in the case. She again defended the office\u2019s push to keep Johnson behind bars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAs he stated when he was sworn in, attorney general [Andrew] Bailey is committed to enforcing the laws as written,\u201d Sieren wrote. \u201cOur office defended the rule of law and worked to uphold the original verdict that a jury of Johnson\u2019s peers deemed to be appropriate based on the facts presented at trial.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Johnson\u2019s attorneys blasted the state attorney general\u2019s office after the hearing, saying it \u201cnever stopped claiming Lamar was guilty and was comfortable to have him languish and die in prison\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYet, when this state\u2019s highest law enforcement office could hide from a courtroom no more, it presented nothing to challenge the overwhelming body of evidence that the circuit attorney and Lamar Johnson had amassed,\u201d they said in a statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Johnson plans to reconnect with his family and enjoy the experiences he was denied for most of his adult life while locked up, his lawyers said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhile today brings joy, nothing can restore all that the state stole from him. Nothing will give him back the nearly three decades he lost while separated from his daughters and family,\u201d they said. \u201cThe evidence that proved his innocence was available at his trial, but it was kept hidden or ignored by those who saw no value in the lives of two young Black men from the South Side.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Johnson was convicted of murder for the October 1994 killing of Marcus Boyd, who was shot to death on his front porch by two masked men. Police and prosecutors blamed the killing on a dispute over drug money. Johnson maintained his innocence from the outset, saying he was with his girlfriend miles away when the crime occurred.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While Johnson was convicted and sentenced to life, a second suspect, Phil Campbell, pleaded guilty to a reduced charge in exchange for a seven-year prison term.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Johnson testified at a December hearing that he was with his girlfriend on the night of the crime, except for a few minutes when he stepped outside of the home of a friend to sell drugs on a corner several blocks from where the victim was killed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Erika
Erika Barrow, Lamar Johnson\u2019s former girlfriend who testified in his defense at his murder trial, reacts after his conviction was vacated on Tuesday. Photograph: Christian Gooden\/AP<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Johnson\u2019s girlfriend at the time, Erika Barrow, testified that she was with Johnson that entire night, except for about a five-minute span when he left to make the drug sale. She said the distance between the friend\u2019s home and Boyd\u2019s home would have made it impossible for Johnson to get there and back in five minutes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The case for Johnson\u2019s release was centered around a key witness who recanted his testimony and a prison inmate who says it was he \u2013 not Johnson \u2013 who joined Campbell in the killing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

James Howard, 46, is serving a life sentence for murder and several other crimes that happened three years after Boyd was killed. He testified at the hearing that he and Campbell decided to rob Boyd, who owed one of their friends money from the sale of drugs. He also said Johnson wasn\u2019t there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Howard testified that he shot Boyd in the back of the head and neck, and that Campbell shot Boyd in the side.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Howard and Campbell years ago signed affidavits admitting to the crime and claiming Johnson was not involved. Campbell has since died.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

James Gregory Elking testified in December that he was on the front porch with Boyd, trying to buy crack cocaine, when the two gunmen wearing black ski masks came around the house and began the attack. Elking, who later spent several years in prison for bank robbery, initially told police he couldn\u2019t identify the gunmen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He agreed to view a lineup anyway. Elking testified that when he was unable to identify anyone from the lineup as a shooter, detective Joseph Nickerson told him, \u201cI know you know who it is,\u201d and urged him to \u201chelp get these guys off the street\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Saying he felt \u201cbullied\u201d and \u201cpressured\u201d, Elking identified Johnson as one of the shooters. Gardner\u2019s office said Elking was also paid at least $4,000 after agreeing to testify.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been haunting me,\u201d he said of his role in sending Johnson to prison.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nickerson denied coercing Elking. He testified in December that Elking\u2019s identification of Johnson was based on all that he could see of the shooter\u2019s face \u2013 his eyes. Johnson has one eye that looks different than the other, Nickerson said. \u201cYou can clearly see it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dwight Warren, who prosecuted Johnson in 1995, said that beyond Elking\u2019s testimony, the main evidence against Johnson was an overheard jail cell conversation. A jailhouse informant, William Mock, told investigators at the time that he heard Campbell and Johnson talking when one of them said, \u201cWe should have shot that white boy,\u201d apparently referring to Elking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Warren acknowledged that convicting Johnson would have been \u201ciffy\u201d without Mock\u2019s testimony.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In March 2021, the Missouri supreme court denied Johnson\u2019s request for a new trial after then attorney general Eric Schmitt\u2019s office argued successfully that Gardner lacked the authority to seek one so many years after the case was adjudicated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The case led to the passage of a state law that makes it easier for defendants to get new hearings in cases where there is fresh evidence of a wrongful conviction. That law freed another longtime inmate, Kevin Strickland, last year. He had served more than 40 years for a Kansas City triple killing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lamar Johnson, sentenced to life for the killing, was released after judge found \u2018reliable evidence of actual innocence\u2019 A Missouri judge on Tuesday overturned the conviction of a man who has served nearly 28 years of a life sentence for a killing that he has always said he didn\u2019t commit. Lamar Johnson, 50, closed his eyes and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":282,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32,20,1,35,12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-280","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-innocence-project","category-the-legal-system","category-uncategorised","category-usa-cases-by-country","category-wrongful-convictions"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/falseallegationshub.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/falseallegationshub.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/falseallegationshub.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/falseallegationshub.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/falseallegationshub.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=280"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/falseallegationshub.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":284,"href":"https:\/\/falseallegationshub.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280\/revisions\/284"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/falseallegationshub.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/282"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/falseallegationshub.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/falseallegationshub.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/falseallegationshub.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}