On Tuesday, a Missouri man who served nearly 28 years in prison for a murder he said he did not commit was freed after a judge declared him innocent and overturned his conviction.
Fifty-year-old Lamar Johnson closed his eyes as Circuit Judge David Mason issued his ruling, with a member of his legal team patting him on the back. Mason said there had to be “reliable evidence of actual innocence — evidence so reliable that it actually passes the standard of clear and convincing.”
Johnson was processed out at the courthouse and regained his freedom, speaking to reporters in the courthouse lobby about two hours after the ruling and thanking everyone who worked on the case and the presiding judge.
“This is unbelievable,” Johnson said following his exoneration.
Johnson was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the Oct. 1994 murder of Marcus Boyd, who was shot dead on his front porch by two masked men. Police and prosecutors believed the killing was related to a dispute over drug money.
Johnson maintained his innocence from the outset, saying he was with his girlfriend miles away when the crime occurred.
St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner had filed the motion to release Johnson in August, following an investigation conducted by her office and the Innocence Project, a nonprofit seeking to assist those who have been wrongly convicted. She applauded the ruling after Johnson was set free.
“Mr. Lamar Johnson. Thank you. You’re free,” she said before the gathered press. “This is Valentine’s Day and this is historical.”
The Missouri state attorney general’s office fought to keep Johnson imprisoned. A spokeswoman for the office, Madeline Sieren, said in an email that the office will take no further action in the case. She again defended the office’s push to keep Johnson behind bars.
“As he stated when he was sworn in, Attorney General Bailey is committed to enforcing the laws as written,” Sieren wrote. “Our office defended the rule of law and worked to uphold the original verdict that a jury of Johnson’s peers deemed to be appropriate based on the facts presented at trial.”
Johnson’s attorneys, meanwhile, blasted the state attorney general’s office after the hearing, saying it “never stopped claiming Lamar was guilty and was comfortable to have him languish and die in prison.”
“Yet, when this State’s highest law enforcement office could hide from a courtroom no more, it presented nothing to challenge the overwhelming body of evidence that the circuit attorney and Lamar Johnson had amassed,” they said in a statement.
Johnson plans to reconnect with his family and enjoy experiences he was denied for most of his adult life while locked up, his lawyers said.
“While today brings joy, nothing can restore all that the state stole from him. Nothing will give him back the nearly three decades he lost while separated from his daughters and family,” they said. “The evidence that proved his innocence was available at his trial, but it was kept hidden or ignored by those who saw no value in the lives of two young black men from the South Side.”
In addition, due to the state laws of Missouri, Johnson is not eligible for compensation from the state for wrongful conviction. The Midwest Innocence Project therefore began a GoFundMe for him to try to get back on his feet, which met its $110,000 goal on Wednesday evening.
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