KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A hearing during which Jackson County prosecutors would have argued Kevin Strickland is innocent has been delayed to give the Missouri Attorney General’s Office more time to prepare for it, a panel of judges decided Wednesday.
It means that prosecutors will have to wait to make their case before a Jackson County judge that Strickland, 62, has been wrongly imprisoned for more than 40 years. If prosecutors had prevailed, the hearing that had been scheduled for Thursday would have lead to Strickland’s release as early as Friday, which would have allowed him to attend his mother’s funeral the next day.
Instead, Judge Kevin Harrell has set a case management conference for 9:30 a.m. Thursday.
The Missouri Court of Appeals’ Western District said in order for the attorney general’s office to “meaningfully participate in the hearing,” it must be notified of the hearing more than three days ahead of time.
The attorney general’s office, under Eric Schmitt, contends Strickland is guilty.
In a statement Wednesday, Schmitt’s spokesman Chris Nuelle said Strickland was convicted in three killings by a jury. He noted the Missouri Supreme Court previously declined to hear Strickland’s case.
“Those victims deserve justice,” Nuelle said.
Utilizing a new law that went into effect Saturday, Jackson County prosecutors filed a 25-page motion Monday that argues Strickland’s innocence is “clear and convincing” in the April 25, 1978, triple homicide in Kansas City.
Earlier this week, the attorney general’s office filed a motion requesting that the 16th Circuit Court of Jackson County and its judges recuse themselves from Strickland’s proceedings. They cited a letter Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker put out on May 10, which said Dale Youngs, the circuit’s presiding judge, “concurs on behalf” of the court that Strickland’s conviction should be set aside.
Harrell, however, agreed with local prosecutors that the attorney general was not a “party” in the case and could not file such a motion.
In their filing in the appeals court, the attorney general’s office asked that the Thursday hearing be canceled and that their previous motions be considered.
The appeals court granted that motion, saying that the attorney general’s office does in fact have the right to file motions in the case. It ordered Harrell to consider and decide those motions “on their merits.”
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