Kevin Strickland Exonerated after 43 years in Prison. White Prosecutors Used All White Jury to Wrongly Convict Black Man. Racist Authorities in Missouri Deny Any Compensation

From [HERE] For the first time in more than four decades in prison, Kevin Strickland allowed himself to make a wish list of all the things he would do if he were to be exonerated for a triple murder he has long said he did not commit.

A judge on Tuesday exonerated him after more than 43 years in prison, making his case the longest confirmed wrongful-conviction case in Missouri’s history — and one of the longest-standing such convictions in the nation’s history. He was released shortly after the judge issued his decision.

Strickland was convicted of the 1978 murders of Sherrie Black, 22, Larry Ingram, 21, and John Walker, 20, even though no physical evidence linked him to the crime scene, family members provided alibis and the admitted killers said he was not there. The case was built on the testimony of Cynthia Douglas, the sole survivor and eyewitness, who later attempted multiple times to recant her testimony because she said she was pressured by police.

“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,” Judge James Welsh wrote Tuesday. “The State of Missouri shall immediately discharge Kevin Bernard Strickland from its custody.”

Tricia Rojo Bushnell, his attorney and executive director of the Midwest Innocence Project, said Strickland’s case was “a great example of how much a system cares about finality over fairness.”

He is not eligible for any compensation from the state for the 43 years he spent behind bars — one of the longest-standing wrongful convictions in the nation’s history.

That hasn’t stopped his supporters from stepping in instead, raising more than $1 million through a GoFundMe campaign to help him start a new life. [MORE]

While legal experts and elected officials in both parties supported Strickland’s case for exoneration, top Republicans in Missouri pushed back. Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt (R), who is running for the U.S. Senate in 2022, said he believed Strickland committed the murders. Andrew Clarke, an assistant attorney general, argued that Strickland not only received a fair trial in 1979 but has “worked to evade responsibility” for decades.

Gov. Mike Parson (R) agreed with them, saying before Strickland was exonerated that pardoning him would not be a “priority.” Not long afterward, he pardoned Mark and Patricia McCloskey — a White couple who gained national notoriety for brandishing guns at peaceful social-justice protesters in St. Louis last year and pleaded guilty to firearms charges.

Spokesmen for Parson and Schmitt did not make them available for interviews.

Four Black men were accused of rape in Jim Crow Florida. 72 years later, they’ve been exonerated.

Days before finding out he would be exonerated, Strickland spoke to The Post about his life and his chance at exoneration. Even with the groundswell of support, he said, decades of imprisonment left Strickland “pessimistic” about whether he would be released.

“I mean, I’m hoping for the best,” he said, “but I’m anticipating the worst.” [MORE]