An African American sentenced to life in prison for the killing of three white men was cleared by a judge after spending 43 years in prison.
Kevin Strickland, a life in a cell, is now 62 years old and has only two wishes: “To go to my mother's grave and to the ocean, which I have never seen in person”.
It is the Washington Post that recounts yet another case of bad justice in the US, with a probable streak of racist prejudices.
It is the longest case of wrongful conviction in Missouri and one of the longest in US history.
Strickland was convicted in 1978 of the murder of Sherrie Black, 22, Larry Ingram (21) and John Walker (20), despite the absence of physical evidence linking him to the crime scene, the alibi provided by more family members and the admission of the killers that he did not participate in the triple crime.
The case was built entirely based on the testimony of Cynthia Douglae, the sole survivor of the attack, who nevertheless came under pressure from the investigators and then tried to retract, but to no avail.
“Under these unique circumstances, the court's confidence in the Strickland conviction is so undermined that it cannot hold, so the sentence must be overturned,” Judge James Welsh wrote, decreeing the detainee's immediate release.
Decision criticized by the Republicans of Missouri, governor in the lead, and by the attorney general.
THE EVENT - On April 25, 1978, 21-year-old Vincent Bell - a neighbor from whom his father had told him to stay away -, Kim Adkins (19), Terry Abbott (21) and a sixteen-year-old stopped outside the Strickland home , who after a short chat preferred to stay at home with her newly born daughter.
The group then organized a punitive expedition to a bungalow to avenge a loss to gambling with loaded dice. tying and killing three young men. Douglas pretended to be dead and was spared, then managed to break free and ask for help.
Shortly after the police raid on Strickland's home, he was taken to the barracks for recognition. Meanwhile, one of the investigators pressured Douglas to name him guilty, so the African American was tried and convicted. The alibis were useless, not even the confession of two of the killers, who admitted that their friend was not present at the scene of the massacre.
And Dougals herself, after the killers' testimony, approached the DA to retract, but was threatened with being charged with perjury.
Now, after 43 years, the door to freedom and the road to the ocean is open for Kevin. But in the meantime a life has passed in front of him.
(Unioneonline / L)
