More than a year and a half after St. Louis prosecutors determined that Lamar Johnson was innocent of murder for which he is serving a life sentence, he remains in prison.
Its decades-long commitment to upholding convictions—even those marred by police or prosecutorial misconduct—has left Missourians languishing in prison for years.
The dispute marks the latest clash in the ongoing battle over Lamar Johnson’s case, which could determine the future of prosecutor-led conviction integrity units in the state of Missouri.
Eleven retired Missouri judges, including a former state supreme court justice, contend a St. Louis judge wrongly denied a hearing for a man convicted of murder even though the prosecutor has concluded he is innocent and was framed by local police and prosecutors.
In a rare move, St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kimberly Garner has filed a civil rights lawsuit against the city of St. Louis, the local police union and special prosecutors, contending they each have participated in thwarting her efforts to seek justice and equal rights for racial minorities in the city.
The court’s action transferring the case to the Missouri Supreme Court came as the appellate court dismissed an appeal by Lamar Johnson of St. Louis who is seeking to overturn his conviction based on the local prosecutor’s finding that Johnson was framed by police and prosecutors for a 1994 murder.
The filing marks the latest clash in an increasingly fraught battle between St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kimberly Gardner and the Missouri Attorney General’s office over Gardner’s effort to correct what her office has concluded is the wrongful conviction and ongoing incarceration of Lamar Johnson.
Armed with a chorus of support from outside legal groups, the St. Louis city prosecutor this week appealed a judge’s refusal to consider the prosecution’s conclusion that a local man had been framed for a 1994 murder and that his conviction should be overturned.
A St. Louis judge rejected a motion by the city’s top prosecutor to overturn a murder conviction based on the prosecutors’ conclusion that an innocent man was convicted. The judge’s opinion found several apparent conflicts of interest by the prosecutors’ office; but, the defense noted, said nothing about the facts that the prosecutors’ office said proved the prisoner is innocent.
The Missouri Attorney General’s office this week rebuked arguments from the city of St. Louis Circuit Attorney, defense attorneys and more than 40 prosecutors across the country, contending in a legal brief that a local judge has no right to consider vacating a conviction of a prisoner the prosecutor says is innocent.