Missouri man waits for Missouri Supreme Court ruling, has already spent 26 years in prison- called innocent by current prosecutor

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    FAIRWAY, KS (KCTV) — Lamar Johnson has spent more than half of his life in prison for the 1994 murder of his friend Marcus Boyd.

Johnson had an alibi and thought speaking with police would clear things up. 26 years have now rolled by.

“They just made up case. And I don’t know how else to say it. I hate to say it. That’s exactly what happened. There’s no motive, no physical evidence, nothing to say I had something to do with this case,” Johnson said.

There are so many details in the investigation and trial which now seem shocking in hindsight. Johnson was largely convicted based on eyewitness testimony that identified him as the gunman in the dark, despite the fact that the killer wore a full-face mask.

“I want people to know that regardless of whether you’re white, Black, republican or democrat that this could happen to anybody,” Johnson said.

How should Conviction Integrity Units work? St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner took another look at Johnson’s case years ago. It took Gardner a full 70 pages to outline everything that went wrong.

She didn’t mince her words using phrases like unconstitutional police investigation and prosecutorial misconduct on the very first page. She ended her summary flat out calling what happened as, “Johnson’s wrongful conviction.”

Inside she outlines how others have admitted to the crime and cleared Johnson. She also details how the witness was compensated through a legal fund- something Johnson’s legal team had suspected for years.

Gardner filed a motion asking for a new trial, but a circuit court judge decided there should be a legal counterbalance.

Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt’s office is arguing it’s not the place of a prosecutor to argue on behalf of a defendant.

Gardner has maintained a prosecutor should seek justice, not a conviction rate. The whole legal mess has been bouncing through the courts for more than a year.

“He’s somewhat confused that things are out in the open and the facts out and he’s still waiting for a hearing. He’s a little frustrated,” said Lindsay Runnels, Johnson’s attorney.

The Missouri Supreme Court heard the issue in May but has yet to make a ruling.

In the meantime, Johnson waits in a prison where sections are on lockdown due to the coronavirus.

“It’s amazing to me that you really get down to the grit of this case. I am being denied just a simple hearing because of a procedural technicality and that cannot be more important that the possibility of somebody being wrongfully imprisoned for the rest of their lives,” said Johnson. “Missouri can do better. It can do better.”

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