A US judge has overturned the life sentence of a man jailed for nearly 30 years

A Missouri judge on Tuesday overturned the conviction of a man who served nearly 28 years of a life sentence for murder. which he has always claimed not to have committed.

Lamar Johnson50, closed his eyes and shook his head slightly as a woman from his legal team patted his back as Circuit Judge David Mason delivered his decision.

Before announcing his decision, Mason said that to assess the case there had to be “reliable evidence of actual innocence, evidence so reliable that it exceeds the standard of clarity and conviction.”

A court official said after the hearing that Johnson would be “processed” but should soon be available outside of court.

St. Louis circuit attorney Kim Gardner filed a motion in August demand the release of Johnsontriggering a hearing in December before Mason.

“Today the courts corrected an error: quashing the sentence of Mr. Lamar Johnson, following his wrongful conviction in 1995,” Gardner said in a statement after Tuesday’s hearing. “Most importantly, we celebrate with Mr Johnson and his family as he walks out of the courtroom a free man.”.

Gardner said she was “pleased that Mr Johnson had the opportunity to be a man and a member of the community”.

The Missouri attorney general’s office argued in the December hearing that Johnson should remain in jail.

Johnson was convicted of murder for the fatal shooting of Marcus Boyd in 1994. Police and prosecutors attributed the murder to a dispute over drug money. From the start, Johnson maintained his innocence, saying he was with his girlfriend miles away when the crime happened.

Gardner said an investigation by her office with the help of the Innocence Project convinced her that Johnson was telling the truth.

Boyd was shot and killed on the porch of his home by two men wearing ski masks on October 30, 1994.. While Johnson was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison, a second suspect, Phil Campbell, pleaded guilty to a reduced charge in exchange for a seven-year prison sentence.

Johnson testified at the December hearing that he was with his girlfriend the night of the crime, except for a few minutes when he left a friend’s house to sell drugs on a corner in several blocks from where the victim was killed.

“Did you kill Marcus Boyd? asked a lawyer.

“No, sir,” Lamar Johnson replied.

Johnson’s girlfriend at the time, Erika Barrow, testified that she was with Johnson all night except for a five-minute lapse when he left to deal drugs. She said the distance between the friend’s house and Boyd’s house would have prevented Johnson from coming and going in five minutes.

The case for Johnson’s release centered on a key witness who recanted his testimony and an inmate who said it was he, not Johnson, who joined Campbell in the killing.

James Howard, 46, is serving a life sentence for murder and various other crimes that occurred three years after Boyd’s death. He testified in court that he and Campbell decided to rob Boyd, who owed money to one of his friends for selling drugs.

Howard testified that he shot Boyd in the back of the head and neck, and that Campbell shot Boyd in the side.

“Was Lamar Johnson there? asked Jonathan Potts, an attorney for Johnson.

“No,” Howard replied.

Howard and Campbell signed affidavits years ago, admitting the crime and stating that Johnson was not involved. Campbell has since died.

James Gregory Elking testified in December that he was on the porch with Boyd, trying to buy crack, when two gunmen wearing black ski masks surrounded the house and began the attack. Elking, who later spent several years in prison for bank robbery, initially told police he could not identify the gunmen.

He agreed to see a program anyway. Elking testified that when he couldn’t name anyone in the queue as the shooter, Detective Joseph Nickerson told him, “I know you know who that is” and urged him to “help get those guys out.” street guy”.

Saying he felt “harassed” and “pressured”, Elking named Johnson as one of the shooters. Gardner’s office said that Elking was also paid at least $4,000 after agreeing to testify.

“It haunts me,” he said of his role in sending Johnson to jail.

Nickerson denied coercing Elking. He testified in December that Elking’s identification of Johnson was based on all he could see of the shooter’s face: his eyes. Johnson has one eye that looks different from the other, Nickerson said. “You can see it clearly.”

Dwight Warren, who indicted Johnson in 1995, said that beyond Elking’s testimony, the main evidence against Johnson was a conversation overheard in a jail cell. A prison informant, William Mock, told investigators at the time that he overheard Campbell and Johnson talking when one of them said, “We should have shot that white boy”, apparently referring at Elking.

Warren acknowledged that convicting Johnson would have been “uncertain” without Mock’s testimony.

At the December hearing, Special Assistant Circuit Attorney Charles Weiss tried to raise concerns about Mock’s credibility, noting that he was seeking release from jail as a reward for his help in the case. . He had successfully won parole after a similar revelation in prison years earlier in Kansas City, Missouri.

Nickerson described Johnson as a violent drug dealer who had been arrested for murders “probably three times” before Boyd’s death, but was never convicted because witnesses did not testify.

Judge Mason heard this, paused, then asked: “Are you sure this isn’t a situation where they were in a bit of a rush to do a sentencing?”

“Not at all, Your Honor, not at all,” Nickerson replied.

In March 2021, the Missouri Supreme Court denied Johnson’s request for a new trial after then-Attorney General Eric Schmitt’s office successfully argued that Gardner lacked the authority to seek one so long. years after the award of the lawsuit.

The case led to the passage of a state law that makes it easier for prosecutors to obtain rehearings in cases where there is new evidence of a wrongful conviction. That law freed another long-time inmate, Kevin Strickland, last year. He had served over 40 years for a triple murder in Kansas City.

With information from AP

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