The Naked Truth/Jamala Rogers
This Is Not a Money Problem
While Kyle Rittenhouse was getting off for a double murder in Wisconsin, history was being made in a Missouri courtroom. Kevin Strickland was exonerated for a 1979 triple homicide. Strickland’s release makes his confinement of 43 years the longest wrongful imprisonment in Missouri history and one of the longest in the nation.
Strickland’s wrongful conviction is one of many in Missouri that began to see the light of day past the small but committed circle of family, friends and other supporters. The election of reform prosecutors has shown a bright light on these cases, especially with the creation of conviction integrity units.
Much to the chagrin of rogue cops, prosecutors and judges, these offices review cases of wrongful convictions, first holding their own offices accountable to restore public integrity in the judicial system. Many of these cases are rooted in the tough-on-crime and so called war on drugs of the 1970s and 1980s. Prosecutors racked up convictions by any means necessary to advance their slimy political careers.
The Republican State attorney general has bullied his way into the Missouri wrongful conviction cases, obstructing the reform agendas of the two female prosecutors in Kansas City and in St. Louis. Kimberly Gardner was the first African American overwhelmingly elected in St. Louis in 2016 and re-elected in 2020. Jean Peters Baker was elected in 2012. Both women took on powerful white men early in their first terms of office. Baker prosecuted a Catholic bishop for failing to report child sexual abuse in the church. Gardner sought a grand jury indictment of then Missouri Governor Eric Greitens for felony invasion of privacy in a sexual blackmail scandal.
Like most wrongful convictions, the case of Kevin Strickland is rife with deliberate legal maneuvers on the fast track to prison. These include no physical evidence, fabricated evidence, racially biased juries, forced confessions of witnesses by prosecutors, forced confessions of defendant by police and all manners of prosecutorial misconduct.
Strickland’s struggle for justice accelerated with a motion for a new trial by Prosecutor Baker and the ensuing publicity around it. It was also fueled by the knowledge that Missouri Attorney General Schmitt was an obstacle for no good reason other than trying to maintain the racist status quo.
Rittenhouse has been showered with attention and resources by conservatives — everything from money to a possible movie deal. Nothing like rewarding bad behavior.
Strickland is a victim of an unjust system perpetuated by the folks who’ve made Rittenhouse an undeserving hero. Strickland is not eligible for compensation from the state because his exoneration was not based on DNA. Because of poor medical treatment in Missouri prisons, he is confined to a wheelchair because of spinal stenosis. To add insult to injury, he is not eligible for re-entry programs offered to ex-felons.
The good news is that his GoFundMe has raised $1.4 million for life after prison at the time of my writing this article. While this is confirmation from thousands of donors that the system wronged this particular individual, it doesn’t come close to making whole Kevin, his family and his community. No amount of money can do that.
More importantly, throwing dollars at the problem is not the answer. Nor is an occasional sympathetic judge like Judge James Welsh. Or the limitations of righteous groups like the Midwest Innocence Project who took on the Strickland case. Justice-seeking people must be as willing to tackle this bankrupt system to the ground as quickly as they reach in their pockets for a donation.
In his own words, Strickland challenged us to take on the civic responsibility to make the judicial system more just and humane. He says that means dismantling it and rebuilding it from the ground up, starting with corrupt cops.
I’m all in. What about you?
