Kevin Strickland, a Black man convicted of triple homicide in 1978, was exonerated this month after spending 43 years in prison. But the state of Missouri does not have to pay him one cent for forever changing the course of his life, thanks to state law. That's where his supporters come in, Strickland's attorney Tricia Rojo Bushnell told The Washington Post Friday in a phone interview. A GoFundMe campaign to raise money for Strickland has led to $1.65 million in donations, just short of a $1.75 million goal.
“Missouri is not going to pay Mr. Strickland a dime, but the whole world is going to make sure he’s compensated,” Bushnell, executive director of the Midwest Innocence Project, told the Post.
Judge James Welsh issued the ruling that freed Strickland, 62, on Tuesday after determining no actual evidence tied him to the scene of the crime. Sherrie Black, 22, Larry Ingram, 21, and John Walker, 20, were killed in a shooting that other people admitted to carrying out, but prosecutors zeroed in on the testimony of one eyewitness who later recanted, the Post reported. That witness, Cynthia Douglas, emailed the Midwest Innocence Project in 2009, and she died six years later in 2015 with Strickland still in prison. The email containing her recanted testimony was sent under the subject line, “Wrongfully charged.”
“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,” her message read.
At the time of the murder, Douglas had been drinking and smoking with Ingram, Black, and Walker, while watching the television show Three’s Company in a bungalow, the Post reported. All four of them were tied up when intruders barged in and ultimately shot them. Douglas, who suffered a wound to the thigh, played dead until the killers left, the Post reported.
An all-white jury convicted Strickland of the crime and sentenced him to life in prison in 1979 even though his wasn't one of the dozens of fingerprints reportedly found on the shotgun used in the homicide. “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,” Welsh wrote in a ruling the Post obtained. “The State of Missouri shall immediately discharge Kevin Bernard Strickland from its custody.”
Missouri law only allows for compensation in wrongful convictions when a person's innocence is proven by DNA testing, the Post reported. “It’s a very small minority of people who receive that,” Bushnell said. “The vast majority of folks who are exonerated are exonerated through non-DNA evidence and the vast majority of crimes do not involve DNA at all. So what we see in Missouri is folks get home and they are provided nothing.”
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Strickland told reporters during a news conference in Cameron, Missouri that he was “still in disbelief” that he was released. He learned about his freedom watching the news on TV. He said when asked if he had any words for the judge: “Thank you for reviewing all the no evidence that was against me to begin with. I really appreciate him taking his time to listen and understand what really happened in 1978 and how I was an easy mark and the police took advantage of me. I’d like to tell him, ‘thank you for listening.’”
The Midwest Innocence Project wrote on the campaign page the nonprofit organized for Strickland before he was released from prison:
RELATED: Despite evidence and local prosecutor arguments, Missouri AG says Kevin Strickland is guilty
“Missouri is not going to pay Mr. Strickland a dime, but the whole world is going to make sure he’s compensated,” Bushnell, executive director of the Midwest Innocence Project, told the Post.
Judge James Welsh issued the ruling that freed Strickland, 62, on Tuesday after determining no actual evidence tied him to the scene of the crime. Sherrie Black, 22, Larry Ingram, 21, and John Walker, 20, were killed in a shooting that other people admitted to carrying out, but prosecutors zeroed in on the testimony of one eyewitness who later recanted, the Post reported. That witness, Cynthia Douglas, emailed the Midwest Innocence Project in 2009, and she died six years later in 2015 with Strickland still in prison. The email containing her recanted testimony was sent under the subject line, “Wrongfully charged.”
“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,” her message read.
At the time of the murder, Douglas had been drinking and smoking with Ingram, Black, and Walker, while watching the television show Three’s Company in a bungalow, the Post reported. All four of them were tied up when intruders barged in and ultimately shot them. Douglas, who suffered a wound to the thigh, played dead until the killers left, the Post reported.
An all-white jury convicted Strickland of the crime and sentenced him to life in prison in 1979 even though his wasn't one of the dozens of fingerprints reportedly found on the shotgun used in the homicide. “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,” Welsh wrote in a ruling the Post obtained. “The State of Missouri shall immediately discharge Kevin Bernard Strickland from its custody.”
Missouri law only allows for compensation in wrongful convictions when a person's innocence is proven by DNA testing, the Post reported. “It’s a very small minority of people who receive that,” Bushnell said. “The vast majority of folks who are exonerated are exonerated through non-DNA evidence and the vast majority of crimes do not involve DNA at all. So what we see in Missouri is folks get home and they are provided nothing.”
YouTube Video
Strickland told reporters during a news conference in Cameron, Missouri that he was “still in disbelief” that he was released. He learned about his freedom watching the news on TV. He said when asked if he had any words for the judge: “Thank you for reviewing all the no evidence that was against me to begin with. I really appreciate him taking his time to listen and understand what really happened in 1978 and how I was an easy mark and the police took advantage of me. I’d like to tell him, ‘thank you for listening.’”
The Midwest Innocence Project wrote on the campaign page the nonprofit organized for Strickland before he was released from prison:
RELATED: Despite evidence and local prosecutor arguments, Missouri AG says Kevin Strickland is guilty