CLIENT
Lamar Johnson
- Exonerated: February 14, 2023
- County of Conviction: St Louis City, MO
- Convicted of: First degree murder
- Sentence: Life without parole
- Years Served: 27+
Lamar Johnson was freed on February 14, 2023, after 27 years in prison.
In the state of Missouri, when is innocence enough to earn a man’s freedom?
In 2018, the St. Louis conviction integrity unit found a plethora of reasons Lamar deserves a new trial, at the least, if not his unequivocal freedom:
- Undisclosed payments by police to a key eyewitness
- Credible confessions from two other men
- Prosecutor’s failure to disclose a jailhouse informant’s criminal history
- Police officers lying and hiding exculpatory evidence
After St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kimberly Gardner filed a motion for a new trial in July 2019, the local judge said prosecutors don’t have the authority to retroactively correct a wrongful conviction.
Hallmarks of wrongful conviction present in this case:
- Rampant official and prosecutorial misconduct
- Flawed eyewitness testimony
- The use of jailhouse informants to secure conviction
Media and News Coverage:
- Press Release 02/14/2023
- Order in Lamar Johnson’s case
- Watch Lamar’s hearing and associated news clips here
Further reading on Lamar’s case: