US: African-American sentenced to more than 40 years in prison for misconduct - Released at 62
Kevin Strickland was convicted of misconduct when he was sentenced to life in prison by a white jury in 1979, after spending more than half a year in prison.
A 62-year-old African-American man has been acquitted by a Missouri court after serving more than 40 years in prison for misconduct.
Kevin Strickland was sentenced in 1979 to life in prison by a white jury for a triple murder he never confessed to.
"No material evidence linked him to the crime and he was convicted solely on the basis of the testimony" of a woman, who subsequently withdrew her testimony, Judge James Wells commented on his decision. In addition, two of the four real perpetrators of the murder raid stated that Strickland was not involved in the killings.
"The court's trust in Mr Strickland's guilt has been so undermined that he cannot support it," the judge concluded, ordering Isobit to be released immediately.
Jackson County Attorney General , who was seeking the reversal of the sentence, welcomed the decision. "At last, justice has been done for this man who suffered so much from this miscarriage of justice," Jane Peters Baker said in a statement.
Kevin Strickland's name will thus be added to the long list of Americans who have been misled. He is one of the unjustly convicted people who remained in prison for many decades. According to the National Exemption Archive, a plan involving several American universities, the approximately 2,500 people acquitted in the past 30 years have spent an average of 13.9 years in prison. The longest period was 47 years and 2 months.
Granting compensation for lost years has not always been an easy task. The Midwest Innocence Project, which is actively involved in the Strickland case, is conducting an online fundraising campaign to help him start his life outside prison.
Strickland recently told the Washington Post that after his release he wants to go to the grave of his mother, who died this summer, and see the ocean for the first time.
