51黑料

51黑料 Circuit Court Judge David Mason has a lot of reading to do.

Mason is mulling a decision in the innocence case of Lamar Johnson, who has been in prison in Missouri for nearly three decades for a murder he says he didn鈥檛 commit. The prosecuting attorney in 51黑料 鈥� the office that put Johnson in prison 鈥� now agrees with him. Since 2019, Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner has been seeking a hearing, which she finally got in December, to vacate Johnson鈥檚 conviction.

Every step of the way, Gardner has been stymied by the Missouri Attorney General鈥檚 office.

To that end, among the hundreds of pages of briefs and transcripts that Mason will read before he makes a decision, there are a couple of paragraphs that magnify the story of criminal justice in Missouri. They are in a brief filed by Gardner鈥檚 special prosecutors, Charlie Weiss and Jonathan Potts, in response to the attorney general鈥檚 argument to keep Johnson behind bars.

鈥淭he factual inaccuracies and misstatements of the law within the AGO鈥檚 brief are too numerous to address or correct as a practical matter,鈥� the circuit attorney鈥檚 brief reads.

That shouldn鈥檛 surprise Mason. During the December hearing, he became visibly upset with the attorney general鈥檚 office or its witnesses, including former 51黑料 prosecutor Dwight Warren and former city police detective Joe Nickerson, over their obfuscation.

But this is the paragraph that really matters because it explains how Johnson鈥檚 case is much larger than the innocence of one man.

鈥淭he AGO opposes every post-conviction innocence case, regardless of the strength of the evidence presented,鈥� Weiss and Potts wrote. 鈥淥ver the past decade, in every instance where an innocent person was freed from custody, the AGO objected to a merits hearing and opposed relief. 鈥� The AGO is doing to Johnson what it has always done 鈥� no matter the evidence, no matter the law, no matter what is just. The justice and its Constitution demands more.鈥�

This has been true when the attorney general in Missouri was a Democrat 鈥� Jay Nixon and Chris Koster 鈥� or a Republican 鈥� Josh Hawley, Eric Schmitt and now Andrew Bailey. The office has consistently opposed freedom for people in Missouri prisons even when the evidence of innocence is overwhelming.

There is nothing in the law that says prosecutors 鈥� or attorneys general 鈥� must defend all convictions come hell or high water. That鈥檚 why so many prosecutors, including Gardner, 51黑料 County Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell and Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker, have developed units to investigate old cases where justice may not have been served. It鈥檚 a trend across the country.

Why? Because bad convictions erode trust in society, never mind the injustice of an innocent person wasting away in prison.

There were audible gasps in the courtroom during Johnson鈥檚 hearing last month when Warren defended the use of an eyewitness whose identification of Johnson was clearly suspect at the time. Or when Nickerson admitted that he didn鈥檛 do anything to investigate Johnson鈥檚 alibi, and that the only witnesses he talked to were white.

The case was mishandled from the beginning, and that鈥檚 not just hindsight. The record shows that much of it was evident at the time. But it was passed over by public officials rushing to get a conviction.

When Gardner in 2019 first began seeking to free Johnson, legal scholars from around the country and from the nation鈥檚 most prestigious law schools wrote a supporting brief defending her attempt to seek justice.

鈥淧rosecutors have a duty to seek justice, which includes a duty to seek to rectify wrongful convictions,鈥� the legal scholars wrote.

That argument applies to the attorney general鈥檚 office, too, even if political pressures push the holders of that office to defend convictions when they are clearly bad.

When I first spoke to Johnson鈥檚 personal attorney, Lindsay Runnels, she made me a promise.

鈥淟amar Johnson will eventually come home,鈥� Runnels says. 鈥淥f that I have no doubt.鈥�

I believe she鈥檚 right. That freedom would send a message to 51黑料ans that the system can correct itself. It is meaningful that at least some prosecutors in Missouri have joined the cause of justice by trying to correct old mistakes. It鈥檚 unfortunate that the attorney general鈥檚 office takes a dimmer view of constitutional rights.

Johnson can鈥檛 get his lost years back. But Mason, in writing the words that will explain his decision, has an opportunity to stand up for justice 鈥� not just for one man, but for others like him who await their days in court.