On Monday, October 26 the Missouri Supreme Court issued an order assigning Judge Lisa White Hardwick as a special judge to rule on Reginald Clemons’ writ of habeas corpus challenging his conviction for the murders of Robin Kerry and Julie Kerry and asking for a new trial.
With the addition of Judge Hardwick – who sits on the Missouri Court of Appeals, Western District – seven judges will now be considering the case. Judge George Draper previously recused himself from the case, leaving the seven-member bench with only six jurists.
Given that Judge Michael Manners, appointed a special master in the case in 2009, issued his report to the court more than two years ago, many legal observers speculated that Judge Hardwick was added to the bench, in effect, to break a tie.
Her selection was praised by Mike Wolff, dean of Saint Louis University School of Law and former chief justice of the Missouri Supreme Court.
“Excellent choice,” Wolff told The American. “Judge Hardwick is very bright, experienced – an African-American judge and Harvard Law grad.”
Judge Hardwick has served on the Court of Appeals since 2001 and served as chief judge 2010-2012.
In Judge Manner’s August 2013 report, he found that Clemons failed to prove his innocence in the 1991 murders of the Kerry sisters, for which he was convicted in 1993 as an accomplice and sentenced to death. Since the writ of habeas corpus is a civil action initiated by Clemons, he has the burden of proving his innocence, which was assumed in his jury trial.
Despite warnings issued in chambers and from the bench, Clemons proceeded to plead the Fifth Amendment 29 times in the evidentiary hearing before Judge Manners, on grounds that his answer might incriminate him. Though Clemons answered a few questions to deny that he murdered the Kerry sisters or directly aided in their murders, he refused to answer a string of questions relating to their rapes.
Clemons was charged with raping the Kerry sisters, though never tried for rape. Clemons confessed to raping Robin Kerry, but not Julie Kerry. Two days after his interrogation by St. Louis police – and after being sent to the hospital for treatment of injuries – Clemons filed a complaint that he had been denied the rights to silence and counsel during his interrogation. He also claimed that his confession was coerced and scripted after an hour and a half of beatings.
Though he was not tried for rape, the charge of rape was used as a “sentence enhancer” by prosecutor Nels C. Moss in his successful push for the death penalty.
Judge Manners did rule that the state suppressed evidence from a parole officer who noted that Clemons had an injury consistent with a police beating after his interrogation. Judge Manners ended his opinion on a dramatic note where he explicitly stated reasonable doubt as to whether or not Clemons’ confession to rape was coerced by St. Louis police.
Had the trial court ruled that the confession was coerced, his confession would not have been entered into evidence and heard by the jury that convicted Clemons and sentenced him to death.
Clemons’ execution previously was scheduled by the Missouri Supreme Court for June 17, 2009, before a federal court issued a stay of execution while it ruled on a separate procedural matter. In the meantime, the Missouri Supreme Court shockingly opened a new evidence phase by appointing Judge Manners as a special master with subpoena powers, opening a new evidence phase that ended with his August 2013 report.
