It\u2019s been three years since Circuit Attorney Kimberly Gardner asked a St. Louis circuit judge to set aside the 1995 murder conviction of Lamar Johnson.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n It was the first exoneration case Gardner\u2019s conviction-integrity unit had brought forth \u2014 and a case that prosecutors statewide were watching closely.<\/span><\/p>\n But Gardner hit a major roadblock when the judge asked Attorney General Eric Schmitt to intervene.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Schmitt argued all the way to the Missouri Supreme Court that the state\u2019s elected prosecutors don\u2019t have the power to ask for a new trial, even if they have evidence \u2014 which Gardner claimed she had \u2014 that a person has languished in prison for decades wrongfully.<\/span><\/p>\n The <\/span>state\u2019s highest court sided<\/span><\/a> with Schmitt in March 2021, saying the Missouri legislature had to pass a law creating a pathway for prosecutors to correct wrongful convictions.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Legislators did that last year. But Johnson\u2019s case continued on \u2013 until Wednesday.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n That\u2019s when Gardner cited the new law to once again file a motion to set aside Johnson\u2019s conviction, claiming that she has \u201cclear and convincing evidence\u201d that he is innocent.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThe circuit attorney cannot, and will not, turn a blind eye to the conviction of an innocent person,\u201d the motion states.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n While the new state law gave Gardner and other prosecutors the authority to address wrongful convictions, it also <\/span>gave the attorney general the power<\/span><\/a> to insert himself into these cases.<\/span><\/p>\n Schmitt did that last year <\/span>when he argued against<\/span><\/a> Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker\u2019s motion last year for Kevin Strickland\u2019s release after 43 years in prison for a triple murder. The attorney general couldn\u2019t immediately be reached for comment regarding Gardner\u2019s new motion.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWe are hopeful that the court will hear our motion,\u201d Gardner said in a statement Wednesday, \u201cand correct this manifest injustice on behalf of Mr. Johnson to strengthen the integrity of our criminal justice system.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Johnson\u2019s defense team \u2014 which includes attorneys from the Midwest Innocence Project and the law firms of Morgan Pilate and Lathrop GPM \u2014 echoed the circuit attorney\u2019s sentiment.<\/span> \u201cFor 27 years, Lamar has waited for justice,\u201d his defense team said in a statement Wednesday. \u201cWe hope that today\u2019s detailed motion marks the beginning of the end of Lamar\u2019s road to freedom. We have long said the\u00a0 truth always finds a way, and that Lamar only needed a chance to tell it. The time has finally come.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \t<\/strong><\/p>\n Gardner\u2019s 59-page motion recounts the details of Oct. 30, 1994, when Marcus Boyd was shot and killed on his front porch.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Boyd was sitting on the front porch of his apartment with his co-worker Greg Elking, who had come by to repay a small debt he owed Boyd for drugs and to purchase some more drugs.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n At the time of the shooting, Leslie Williams, Boyd\u2019s girlfriend, was inside their upstairs apartment tending to their baby. Two black men wearing ski masks \u2014 who Gardner is now confident were named Phillip Campbell and James Howard \u2014 ran up from the side of the house without warning.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The men shot and killed Boyd, but Elking escaped and ran home.<\/span><\/p>\n At the time of the crime, Gardner\u2019s motion says, Johnson and his girlfriend were at their friend\u2019s apartment located at 3907 Lafayette in St. Louis, at least 10 minutes by car from the scene at 3910 Louisiana.<\/span><\/p>\n Gardner\u2019s investigators found old files in the Circuit Attorney\u2019s office where the only eye witness, Elking, was allegedly paid more than $4,000 to pick Johnson out of a line up. However, the documentation for these payments was never provided to the defense, even though Johnson\u2019s lawyers requested it repeatedly over the years.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThe fact that Elking, who was suffering from substance abuse and experiencing financial hardship, was being paid as encouragement to cooperate with the police was material evidence,\u201d the motion states.<\/span><\/p>\n Elking later wrote a letter to his pastor that confessed to knowing what he did was wrong and trying to atone for his sins. This letter was included in the motion.<\/span><\/p>\n The case against Johnson rested on a jailhouse informant, who was a \u201ccareer petty criminal in a desperate situation,\u201d the motion states, and who agreed to testify against Johnson in exchange for favors \u2013 many of which the prosecution allegedly didn\u2019t disclose at trial.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The late Phillip Campbell pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter and received a sentence of 7 years, which he served.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n In letters seized after Johnson\u2019s conviction, the motion states that Campbell identified the second shooter as James Howard, who lived down the street from Boyd.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Both Campbell and Howard have signed multiple affidavits confirming that they, and not Johnson, killed Boyd.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \t<\/strong><\/p>\n The new state law carves out a special role for the attorney general that he didn\u2019t have before, former Missouri Supreme Court judge Mike Wolff told The Independent last year.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThe attorney general is given a lane to drive in,\u201d Wolff said of the new legislation. \u201cBut it\u2019s not as big of a lane as he had in the Lamar Johnson case.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n In the circuit courts, the elected prosecutors represent the state. But in the Johnson case, a circuit judge appointed the attorney general\u2019s office to also represent the state, taking that power away from Gardner.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The new legislation states that if a prosecutor files a motion to vacate or set aside a judgment, the attorney general\u2019s office could appear, question witnesses and make arguments at the hearing.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n But the attorney general would not be a party in the case, as in the Johnson case, Wolff said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n If the prosecutor wins \u2013 as Baker did in Strickland\u2019s case \u2013 then that\u2019s the end of the attorney general\u2019s involvement. The prosecuting or circuit attorney would likely not call for a new trial, and the person would go free.<\/span><\/p>\n But if the prosecutor loses, they could file an appeal and the attorney general could file a motion to intervene or dismiss the appeal.<\/span><\/p>\n It\u2019s unclear what Schmitt will do in response to the new motion in the Lamar Johnson case.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n However for decades, the Missouri Attorney General\u2019s Office \u2014 whether led by a Republican or Democrat \u2014 has had a blanket policy of opposing any requests for relief in wrongful conviction cases.<\/span><\/p>\n According to an <\/span>investigation by the nonpartisan news nonprofit Injustice Watch<\/span><\/a>, the office has opposed calls for relief in nearly every wrongful conviction case that came before it and has been vacated since 2000.<\/span><\/p>\n
<\/span><\/p>\nThe case<\/h4>\n
The new law<\/h4>\n
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