After 28 years in prison, man walks released.
On Tuesday, Lamar Johnson, 50, was acquitted of murder after serving nearly 28 years of a life sentence.
Since 1994, Johnson has maintained his innocence in the murder of his buddy Marcus Boyd, 25.
“Evidence so reliable” that Johnson was innocent “really passes the test of clear and convincing,” said Missouri judge David Mason.
Johnson left the courthouse foyer two hours after the ruling on 14 February, thanking the judge and all those who worked on his case and refused further interviews.
St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner, who filed a motion in August to release Johnson after an investigation with the Innocence Project convinced her he was speaking the truth, hailed the verdict.
Mr. Johnson. Thanks. “You’re free,” she told the journalists.
Gardner suggested Johnson spend time with his lawyers and family.
‘This is Valentine’s Day and historical,’ she remarked.
Johnson was imprisoned by the Republican state attorney general.
In an email, office spokesman Madeline Sieren said the investigation will be closed.
She reiterated the office’s efforts to imprison Johnson.
As he indicated when sworn in, Attorney General (Andrew) Bailey is devoted to executing the laws as established. Sieren wrote.
‘Our office protected the rule of law and tried to uphold the initial verdict that a jury of Johnson’s peers considered proper based on the facts given at trial.’
During
‘Yet, when this State’s top law enforcement office could hide from a courtroom no more, it provided nothing to contradict the massive body of evidence that the circuit attorney and Lamar Johnson had assembled,’ they stated.
His lawyers said Johnson hopes to reconnect with his family and enjoy things he was denied for most of his adult life while inside.
‘Today offers gladness, but nothing can replace what the state robbed from him. They stated nothing can restore the nearly three decades he spent apart from his daughters and family.
The evidence that proved his innocence was there at his trial, but those who saw no value in two young Black men from the South Side kept it hidden or ignored.
Johnson won’t receive compensation because the case didn’t involve DNA.
Missouri rarely compensates exonerees.
Two masked men shot Marcus Boyd on his front doorstep in October 1994, and Johnson was convicted of murder.
Authorities and prosecutors said the homicide was over drug money.
Johnson claimed he was with his girlfriend when the crime occurred.
Phil Campbell, a second suspect, pleaded guilty to a reduced charge for a seven-year sentence while Johnson was convicted and sentenced to life.
Johnson testified in December that he was with his girlfriend on the night of the crime, save for a few minutes when he left a friend’s house to sell drugs on a corner several blocks from the victim’s murder.
Erika Barrow, Johnson’s then-girlfriend, testified that she was with him all night except for a five-minute break when he sold drugs. She said Johnson couldn’t get there and return in five minutes due to the distance between the friend’s and Boyd’s homes.
A crucial witness recanted his evidence and a prison inmate said he, not Johnson, killed Campbell.
Three years after Boyd was murdered, James Howard, 46, was sentenced to life for murder and other offences.
At the hearing, he said he and Campbell robbed Boyd because he owed a friend money from drug sales. Johnson wasn’t there either.
Howard testified that he shot Boyd in the neck and back, and Campbell shot him in the side.
Howard and Campbell had signed statements admitting to the crime and denying Johnson’s involvement. Campbell died.
In December, James Gregory Elking testified that he was on the front porch with Boyd trying to acquire crack cocaine when the two gunmen with black ski masks came around the house and started the attack.
Elking, who eventually served several years for bank robbery, first claimed authorities he couldn’t identify the gunmen.
He watched the lineup nonetheless. Elking stated that Detective Joseph Nickerson told him, “I know you know who it is,” and asked him to “help get these men off the street” when he could not identify a shooter from the lineup.
Elking named Johnson as a shooter after feeling “bullied” and “pressured.” Gardner’s office said Elking received at least $4,000 for testifying.
‘It’s haunting me,’ he said of putting Johnson to prison.
Nickerson denied coercing Elking. In December, he testified that Elking identified Johnson using only the shooter’s eyes. Nickerson claimed Johnson’s eyes differ. ‘It’s obvious.’
A jail cell discussion was the major evidence against Johnson, according to 1995 prosecutor Dwight Warren. William Mock, a jailhouse informant, told investigators that Campbell and Johnson said, “We should have shot that white boy,” referring to Elking.
Warren said Johnson’s conviction would have been “iffy” without Mock’s testimony.