USA: Kevin Strickland released after 43 years in prison being innocent

A Missouri judge (USA) ordered the release of Kevin Strickland, who has spent 43 years in prison, on Tuesday, considering that this African-American was wrongly convicted of a triple murder in 1978.

In his decision, Justice James Welsh concluded that there was “no physical evidence that directly implicated Strickland” in the murder of Sherrie Black, Larry Ingram and John Walker in Kansas City, Missouri.

“Strickland he was convicted solely on the testimony of a witness (Cinthya) Douglas, who later reverted to his statements, in which she identified him as one of the four perpetrators “ of the crime, Welsh argued in his resolution.

Consequently, the judge requested this Tuesday “the immediate release” of Strickland, 62 years old.

This man was convicted in 1979 by an all-white jury and sentenced to life in prison without bail for 50 years.

Strickland He was tried twice: the first trial was declared void, as the jury was unable to agree to produce a verdict, and the second was when he was found guilty.

Over the years, efforts have multiplied to review this case in search of an exemption from Strickland, culminating in a hearing this month in which incriminating evidence was examined and his defense presented other exonerating evidence.

Strickland He is the inmate who has mistakenly spent the most years behind bars in the state of Missouri and one of the longest wrongly imprisoned in US history.

In 2009, the same witness who accused him of being involved in the crime and who later gave up, tried to launch a process to free him.

In an email to the Midwest Innocence Project, Douglas requested information on how to help “someone wrongly accused”: “This incident happened in 1978, I was the only eyewitness and things were unclear back then, but now I know more and I want to help this person if I can ”.

However, Douglas passed away in 2015 before he could officially revoke his testimony.

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