As he languished in a Missouri prison for nearly three decades, Lamar Johnson never stopped fighting to prove his innocence, even when it meant doing much of the legal work himself.
Lamar Johnson, center, and his attorneys react on Tuesday, Feb. 14, 2023, after St. Louis Circuit Judge David Mason vacated his murder conviction during a hearing in St. Louis, Mo.
Thanks to a team of lawyers, a Missouri law that changed largely because of his case, and his own dogged determination, he can start to put his life back together. “It’s persistence,” the 49-year-old said Friday in an interview with The Associated Press.“You have to distinguish yourself. I think the best way to get attention, or anyone’s attention, is to do much of the work yourself,” Johnson said.
At a December hearing on Johnson’s innocence claim, eyewitness James Gregory Elking testified that the detective had “bullied” him into naming Johnson as a shooter, allegedly telling Elking, “I know you know who it is,” and urging him to “help get these guys off the street.” “He said, ‘You might not believe me, but I’m innocent,’” Kidd recalled. “I said, ‘Oh yeah? You might not believe me but I’m innocent, too!’”
“Growing up where I grew up, death, shootings, all those kinds of things are kind of normal,” he said. Working in hospice, “You develop a greater appreciation of life, as you see someone go through that death process.” “He just did all of that groundwork on his own from his jail cell, with nothing but paper and stamp,” Runnels said.St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner believed Johnson was innocent. But her efforts to help him were blocked when the Missouri Supreme Court, in March 2021, ruled that Gardner lacked the authority to seek a new trial 28 years after the conviction.
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