(Caspar Benson/Getty Images).
Missouri is failing its citizens.
In most states, if someone is convicted of a crime they did not commit, they have a legal path to prove their innocence.
Missouri, however, is one of the few states where that path does not exist unless the person is on death row. That means if someone has rock-solid proof they were wrongfully convicted, the courts are powerless to act.
Legislation sponsored by State Reps. Terri Violet and Kimberly-Ann Collins would finally fix this glaring injustice by allowing people beyond death row to raise claims of actual innocence. This would give the wrongly convicted a way to prove they never should have been imprisoned in the first place.
It should not take bipartisan legislation to convince people that innocent Missourians should not spend decades behind bars, but here we are. Our state is dangerously behind the rest of the country. Texas, often held up as a tough-on-crime state, has laws allowing innocent people to petition the courts for relief. Illinois, Arkansas and Oklahoma all have mechanisms to correct wrongful convictions because they recognize that justice must take precedence over procedural finality.
Missouri, however, has taken the opposite approach, prioritizing finality over innocence at the expense of those wrongfully convicted. While other states have acknowledged that the integrity of the justice system depends on correcting mistakes, Missouri has slammed the door shut on the innocent unless they happen to be on death row.
And the consequences have been devastating.
Kevin Strickland spent 42 years behind bars for a crime he did not commit. He was convicted based on a single eyewitness who later admitted she was pressured by police. The system did nothing to correct it for four decades.
Lamar Johnson lost 28 years of his life to a wrongful conviction. His trial was riddled with prosecutorial misconduct, and the real perpetrator was known. Missouri’s attorney general fought his release for years, despite overwhelming evidence of his innocence.
Christopher Dunn was convicted at 18 years old and spent 34 years in prison before being exonerated. Even after a judge ruled he was innocent, Missouri law kept him behind bars because there was no legal process to free him.
Sandra Hemme spent 43 years imprisoned for a crime she did not commit, based on a confession coerced while she was heavily sedated.
Missouri’s current system does not just ruin lives. It erodes trust in the entire justice system. These cases prove that wrongful convictions happen, and when they do, the courts should have the power to fix them.
No conviction should be final when an innocent person is still in prison. HB 1075 does not threaten “law and order”.
They do not open the floodgates to frivolous appeals. They simply give innocent people a chance to prove their innocence, something nearly every other state allows.
For too long, Missouri has allowed “finality” to keep the innocent in prison. If Missouri claims to value justice, can it continue to ignore innocence?