‘Why’s he still in there?’ Missouri lawmakers ask Parson to pardon Kevin Strickland

The Republican chair of the Missouri House committee that oversees the state’s prison system said Friday he is sending a letter to Gov. Mike Parson requesting a pardon for Kevin Strickland, the Kansas City man incarcerated for more than four decades for a 1978 triple homicide that prosecutors now say he did not commit.

Rep. Andrew McDaniel of Deering, who chairs the House Corrections and Public Institutions Committee, said he’s heard from three other Republicans and five Democrats in the state legislature who plan to co-sign the letter.

“Why’s he still in there?” he said. “I’m pretty strong on keeping people locked up that did crimes but if there’s somebody that’s in there that’s innocent, just let him out.”

Strickland was not on the list of 36 pardons Parson issued this week, though Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker had said she was hopeful the governor would pardon him. The Missouri Supreme Court also this week declined to hear his petition for freedom, which Baker supported.

Baker on Thursday said if all else fails, she’ll file a motion in the case herself, first thing in the morning on Aug. 28. Under newly passed legislation that is sitting on Parson’s desk for approval, that’s when prosecutors could begin asking judges to throw out convictions in cases in which they find new evidence of innocence.

McDaniel said there’s no need for the state to wait. He said Thursday night was the first time he heard about Strickland’s case, which was highlighted on MSNBC during a segment of The Rachel Maddow Show based on the The Star’s reporting.

In an investigation in September, The Star reported that two men who pleaded guilty in the killings for decades swore Strickland was not with them and two other accomplices during the shooting. The lone eyewitness also recanted and wanted Strickland released.

Additionally, a third suspect, who was never charged, said in 2019 that he knew there “couldn’t be a more innocent person than” Strickland, according to a Midwest Innocence Project investigator.

Local prosecutors in Missouri currently have no power to right wrongful convictions themselves. Baker has declared Strickland innocent, but the Missouri Supreme Court ruled in a St. Louis case this year that there is no legal mechanism for prosecutors to ask to overturn such convictions.

Under the new legislation, prosecutors’ requests could still be opposed by the Missouri Attorney General’s office, which has frequently contested defendants’ petitions in innocence cases over the past two decades.

The Star’s Luke Nozicka contributed reporting.