After serving 28 years in jail for a crime he claims he didn’t commit, Lamar Johnson’s murder conviction was reversed by a Missouri Circuit Court judge on Tuesday. Despite the fact that Johnson is again a free man, according to state law, he is ineligible for compensation, according to CNN. The Midwest Innocence Project has since launched a GoFundMe to raise funds to help Johnson get back on his feet after spending decades in prison.
Johnson was found guilty of killing Markus Boyd in 1994. The next year, he was given a life sentence without the possibility of release. Police said Johnson and another suspect were responsible for Boyd’s gunshot death after the deadly incident. Philip Campbell was revealed to be the other suspect.
Although there was a “constitutional error” in Johnson’s trial, Judge David Mason said during the hearing on Tuesday that “there is clear and persuasive evidence of Lamar Johnson’s real innocence.”
Johnson’s request for a new trial was granted when St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kimberly Gardner said in a 2022 motion that the Black man’s conviction was largely the result of falsified eyewitness testimony. Gardner also said that detectives and prosecutors lacked professionalism.
According to CNN, Johnson’s murder conviction was quashed after the sole eyewitness at his trial changed his story. In sworn statements that he signed, Campbell, who has since gone away, also acknowledged taking part in Boyd’s slaying.
In December, the second suspect, James Howard, also testified in court that he and Campbell shot and killed Boyd after the two of them got into a drug-related argument. However, one of Johnson’s attorneys said that while Campbell was found guilty of killing Boyd, Howard was given a life sentence for a different homicide. The latter, though, was only imprisoned for around six years.
Johnson had an alibi at the time Boyd was slain as per Mason’s directive. The order further stated that prosecutors had not offered any tangible evidence linking Johnson to the tragic incident. James Elking was the lone eyewitness who recognized Johnson as one of the murders. According to the paper, Elking was widely relied upon by prosecutors.
Elking then renounced his earlier assertion that Johnson was the one who fired the first shot at Boyd during Johnson’s retrial, according to the order. According to the order, Elking also received more than $4,000 in “witness remuneration” prior to his trial. According to CNN, the money, which was paid by the prosecution, was not disclosed at the time.
Johnson’s conviction has been overturned, but he is not entitled to compensation. This is because his case wasn’t founded on DNA, according to KCTV.
It’s in Missouri. “That ability is really just nonexistent, so Missouri does not provide compensation for people who are wrongfully convicted, unless they’re exonerated through a very specific process where that person is requesting DNA testing and that DNA testing results in evidence that proves their innocence,” said Tricia Rojo Bushnell of the Midwest Innocence Project.
Johnson would have received $1.82 million, or $65,000 per year, had he been found guilty in Kansas on the wrong side of the law. Johnson’s GoFundMe page for the Midwest Innocence Project has received more than $120,000 so far.