‘Enough is enough’: Exonerees, politicians call for Kevin Strickland’s release at rally

Through the prison grapevine, Reginald Griffin and other incarcerated men believed, decades ago, that Kevin Strickland did not belong there.

“You’d see him walking by and you’d say, ‘Hey man, I don’t even know why that guy’s in prison,’” recalled Griffin, who was incarcerated with Strickland in the 1980s at the state prisons in Jefferson City and Cameron. “Because everybody knows he is innocent.”

Griffin — who remembered Strickland as “easy going” — was himself wrongly convicted of a prison murder in 1988. He spent time on death row before he was freed in 2012 and exonerated the next year, which cleared his name.

On Saturday, Griffin and a handful of other exonerees were among more than 50 people gathered outside the Jackson County courthouse calling for the release of Strickland, who local and federal prosecutors say is innocent in a 1978 triple murder.

“Enough is enough,” said Larry Smith, who spent 26 years in prison for a Detroit murder before he was exonerated, later noting that the prosecutor’s office that put Strickland away now says that was a grave mistake.

The rally was organized, in part, by a group of exonerees based in Michigan that recently started calling themselves the National Organization of Exonerees. They called on the judge overseeing Strickland’s evidentiary hearing that starts Monday, during which Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker and her team will argue he is actually innocent, to set him free.

Among the speakers was Rep. Ashley Bland Manlove, a Kansas City Democrat and chair of the Missouri Legislative Black Caucus, as well as Spencer Toder, a St. Louis Democrat running for U.S. Senate.

Toder said it was his understanding the evidence of Strickland’s innocence is “fairly resounding” and noted that when prosecutors say “this is just absurd, you know it’s absurd.”

In a 2020 investigation, The Star reported that, for decades, two men who pleaded guilty swore Strickland was not with them and two other accomplices during the killings at 6934 S. Benton Ave. in Kansas City. A third, uncharged suspect also said Strickland is innocent. The only eyewitness to the shooting later recanted her identification of him and wanted him freed, prosecutors say.

On May 10, Strickland, 62, received rare support from Baker who said he is “factually innocent.” Baker filed a motion seeking to free him when a new law that allowed her to do so went into effect in August. The Missouri Attorney General’s Office has fought her efforts, contending Strickland, who was 18 when he was arrested, is guilty and received a fair trial.

If Baker’s office prevails and Strickland is exonerated, his imprisonment will mark the longest known wrongful conviction in Missouri.

At the rally, several exonerees noted that Strickland did not get to say goodbye to his mother, who died Aug. 21 shortly after one of his hearings was delayed; that wrongful imprisonment causes a pain only those who have lived through it can understand; and that, because they were freed, they were among the lucky — that there are more Kevin Stricklands in prisons across America.

“Every prosecutor’s office in this country has sent somebody innocent to prison at one point or another,” said Kenneth Nixon, executive director of the Michigan group who was exonerated in February after spending 16 years in prison. “Statistics say it. ... People get it wrong. As long as people are running the system, there is room for error.”

Michigan exoneree Chamar Avery, who spent eight years in prison, said anybody can be the victim of wrongful conviction.

“This can happen to you, this can happen to your kids,” he said, standing beside the other exonerees. “It happened to us.”

Geoff Gerling, who worked as director of the Midwest Innocence Project in 2011 and 2012, said innocence projects get hundreds of applications seeking investigation each year. He recalled Strickland’s case as standing out as one that deserved more research.

“It’s a testament to how long this entire process really takes,” said Gerling, who is running for a spot on the Jackson County Legislature, later adding: “A lot of innocent people stay in jail for a very long time, and this is a great example of that.”

Several exonerees plan to attend Strickland’s evidentiary hearing to show their support. Evidence will be presented over several days.

It remains unclear when the judge might make a decision.