Joyce reopens 1980 murder case for which Larry Griffin was put to death
Daniel R. Brown
Of the St. Louis American
On June 21, 1995, Larry Griffin, a St. Louis resident, was put to death by the State of Missouri for the murder of Quintin Moss on June 26, 1980. Griffin was convicted of the murder on June 26, 1981. Based on new evidence produced from an investigation by the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, it now appears that the state killed Griffin for a crime that he did not commit.
Once presented with the new findings, Circuit Attorney Jennifer Joyce decided to reopen the investigation of the Quintin Moss murder.
“We are at the beginning of our investigation, but the information provided me was enough to warrant sufficient concerns on my part that I thought that this matter should be opened and reviewed thoroughly and meticulously and with an open mind,” Joyce said.
At a press conference held Tuesday, Congressman Wm. Lacy Clay was joined by attorney Barry Scheck, along with Wallace Moss, Quintin’s older brother, and Wallace Conners, a survivor of the 1980 drive-by shooting in which Moss was murdered. Others present included Theodore Shaw, president of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, and Samuel R. Gross of the University of Michigan Law School, who conducted the investigation that seems to exonerate Griffin
“What I have heard recently is very troubling and leads me to believe that an innocent man was executed for this murder while the real killers have not been brought to justice,” Clay said.
“I have spoken personally to the police officer who was first on the scene on June 26, 1980, and to Mr. Wallace Connors, who was shot himself at that time. Their stories are believable and they fit together, but they are absolutely inconsistent with what the jury heard at trial.”
Though he was injured in the same shooting and “easy to find,” according to the NAACP report, Moss “was contacted by neither defense nor prosecution and did not testify at the trial.”
“Larry Griffin was convicted on the basis of the testimony of one man. A man by the name of Robert Fitzgerald claimed in his testimony that on June 26 of 1980 he saw this drive-by shooting and that he could identify Larry Griffin as one of the shooters,” Gross said.
In a dissenting opinion in Griffin’s appeal from his conviction, Justice Blackmar of the Missouri Supreme Court wrote in 1983, “The only eyewitness to the murder had a seriously flawed background, and his ability to observe and identify the gunman was also subject to question.”
Of Fitzgerald’s testimony, Gross said, “That is the only evidence that linked Larry Griffin to this crime. We have now talked to three people that say that Mr. Fitzgerald was not there at the time of the shooting.”
One of those witnesses, Wallace Conners, tearfully proclaimed Griffin’s innocence during the press conference as he recounted the day’s events.
“I looked into the car and there were three occupants, none of which I knew. They turned left off of Sara onto Olive, increasing speed, and then some shooting started. I didn’t recognize nobody. I didn’t know nobody at all. I was shot in the buttocks as I was trying to get away from the shooting,” Conners said.
“Larry Griffin definitely was not in the car. I know Larry Griffin personally. I never talked to anyone. No one ever asked me what happened at the scene. I will tell all of y’all that Larry Griffin did not commit this crime, was not in the car. He was not the shooter.”
