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Jun. 10—Kevin Strickland has spent more than 40 years in prison for a triple murder in Kansas City that prosecutors now say he did not commit.
Strickland's case and his fight for freedom have received national attention. Here, we answer some of your questions about him.
Who is Kevin Strickland?
Kevin Strickland, 18 at the time, was living with his family at 5540 Jackson Ave. in Kansas City when he was arrested.
He had dropped out of Southeast High School and had recently applied to join the military. He figured he could see the world and marry his girlfriend that way. He was also the father of a 7-week-old daughter.
Strickland has maintained his innocence in the April 25, 1978, shooting at 6934 S. Benton Ave. that left 20-year-old John Walker, 22-year-old Sherrie Black and 21-year-old Larry Ingram dead. A fourth victim, the only eyewitness to the crime, was wounded.
Now 62, Strickland has said he was at home at the time, watching TV and talking on the phone to his girlfriend. The only eye witness to the killings later recanted her testimony, saying Strickland had been wrongly charged.
He remains behind bars at a prison in Cameron, Missouri.
Why is he in a Missouri prison?
The most damning evidence against Strickland came from the eyewitness, 20-year-old Cynthia Douglas.
At trial, Douglas said there was "no question" Strickland was one of the four gunmen.
On the night of the killings, she told police she could only identify two of the four suspects: Vincent Bell and Kilm Adkins. She identified Strickland the next day after she described a shotgun-wielding suspect to her sister's boyfriend, who suggested that perpetrator might be Strickland.
Strickland's first trial in 1979 ended in a hung jury of 11 to one, with the only Black juror holding out for acquittal. He was convicted two months later by an all-white jury.
Douglas later recanted her testimony. In 2009, she wrote an email to the Midwest Innocence Project saying she wanted to help Strickland, who she described as having been "wrongfully charged."
Who says he is innocent?
In an investigation published in September, The Star reported that, for decades, two men who pleaded guilty in the killings swore Strickland was not with them and two other accomplices during the shooting.
A third suspect, who was never charged, in 2019 said he knew Strickland was innocent.
Douglas, the eyewitness who recanted, also told relatives she wanted nothing more than to see Strickland freed.
After a months-long review, the Jackson County Prosecutor's Office in May said that it had determined Strickland is "factually innocent." The region's top prosecutors called for his exoneration and immediate release.
Additionally, federal prosecutors in western Missouri, Jackson County's presiding judge, Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas and members of the team that convicted Strickland four decades ago now all agree he deserves to be exonerated.
Why hasn't he been freed?
Earlier this week, 13 state lawmakers called on Gov. Mike Parson to pardon Strickland. Parson, however, has indicated that Strickland's clemency application would not be "a priority" in a backlog of about 3,000 requests.
Even though Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker has called for Strickland's release, prosecutors in Missouri have no legal tools to seek to free prisoners they have deemed innocent.
That could change on Aug. 28, if a bill on Parson's desk is signed into law. Baker could then file a motion in Jackson County asking a judge to exonerate Strickland, which she has said she intends to do.
Earlier this month, the Missouri Supreme Court declined to hear Strickland's case, so his attorneys refiled his petition in DeKalb County, which is where he remains imprisoned...Parson said Strickland's application was not a priority in a backlog of 3,000..so how the hell did the McCloskys get pardoned so fast in that case. Strickland has been waiting for decades while they only waited a few weeks.
