JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — On May 31, 2021, Missouri Governor Mike Parson granted 36 pardons and a man deemed innocent by Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker was not included on the list.
On Tuesday, the Missouri Supreme Court denied Kevin Strickland’s case without an explanation.
Strickland, 61, was arrested when he 18 years old in relation to three shooting deaths in 1978.
The Kansas City Star published an investigation in September reported that two men who pleaded guilty to fatally shooting Larry Ingram, 21; John Walker, 20, and Sherrie Black, 22, said that Strickland was not with them when it happened.
Cynthia Douglas, the only surviving eye witness, said she was pressured by detectives to identify Strickland as the shooter, according to The Star.
“All those who have reviewed the evidence in recent months agree: Kevin Strickland deserves to be exonerated,” Baker said Monday. “This is a profound error we must correct now.”
Peters Baker said her office is “pursuing all avenues of exoneration.”
If exonerated, Strickland will have experienced the longest wrongful imprisonment known in Missouri history.
