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Missouri Lawyers Media Features Lamar Johnson; Judge Throws Out Charges for Missouri Man Innocent of a 1994 Murder

2/15/2023
Missouri Lawyers Media

Missouri Lawyers Media recently featured the story of Lamar Johnson, as a St. Louis City Circuit Court Judge dismissed a conviction that kept him in a Missouri Jail for nearly 30 years this week, on Tuesday, February 14. 

St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner first filed a motion for a new trial for Johnson in 2019. In a statement, Gardner said this was a hard-won case.

"This case says that in the state of Missouri, a person’s right to justice and liberty is valued more than the finality of an unjust conviction," Gardner wrote. "My office fought long and hard, we took this case all the way to the Missouri Supreme Court."

Tricia Rojo Bushnell with the Midwest Innocence Project was on the team of attorneys that represented Johnson. The attorney team, which included the Midwest Innocence Project, Morgan Pilate and Lathrop GPM, issued a statement noting that the Missouri Attorney General’s Office had consistently blocked the hearing from occurring for four years.

"Yet, when this State’s highest law enforcement office could hide from a courtroom no more, it presented nothing to challenge the overwhelming body of evidence that the Circuit Attorney and Lamar Johnson had amassed," the statement read.

The case is Circuit Attorney, 22nd Judicial Circuit of Missouri, ex. rel. Lamar Johnson, 2222-CC09375.

Read the full article here [SUBSCRIPTION REQUIRED]: Lamar Johnson walks free.