This week, we bring our readers some joyful news – Lamar Johnson, a man who was wrongfully convicted in 1994 for the murder of his friend Marcus Boyd, has been found innocent and released by the order of Judge David Mason. He was set free after 28 years spent in prison after a wrongful murder conviction.
In a brief hearing, Mason signed his 46-page judgment in front of a packed courtroom and delivered a brief soliloquy recounting his time and effort deliberating Johnson’s case over the holiday break. The anticipation prior to the judge’s decision was palpable in the courtroom, as cameras for local television stations and the national TV show “48 Hours” fixated on Mason. Among the crowd were fellow wrongful conviction exoneree Ricky Kidd, Bobby Bostic and Michael Politte, former Missouri Supreme Court chief justice Michael Wolff, attorneys from MacArthur Justice Center and ArchCity Defenders, and civil rights legends Jamala Rogers and Rev. Darryl Gray. Finally, the judge read the last page of his order:
“This Court finds that there is clear and convincing evidence of Lamar Johnson’s actual innocence and that there was constitutional error at the original trial that undermines the judgment.”
The hearing comes after a nearly two-month wait as Mason drafted his final order. A supporter in the courtroom commented that the delay was caused by the Attorney General’s Office, which had demanded the use of the “official” transcript instead of the one that was prepared by Johnson’s team in real time during the proceedings. Because of this unnecessary hurdle, Mason’s clerk had to transcribe an entire week of trial testimony for the judge’s review.
In December, attorneys for Johnson presented their case to prove Johnson’s innocence including recanted statements by Greg Elking, the only eye witness to Boyd’s murder, and testimony by former detective Joe Nickerson, who admitted to substantial flaws in the investigation. Johnson’s attorneys also presented evidence from one of the actual shooters – who is currently incarcerated for an unrelated murder – and who stated to the assistant attorney general, “Ask me how he died. I killed him the exact same way I killed Boyd.”
Lacking any evidence negating Johnson’s innocence, the Missouri Attorney General, unsurprisingly lost every single argument made during trial. Day after day, assistant AGsblundered and bumbled through the proceedings, failing to present any evidence that proved Johnson was guilty. Mason, a former assistant attorney general, seemed especially frustrated by the attorney general’s conduct. Citing the nefarious conduct of Missouri’s current senatorial disgrace Eric Schmitt who was the attorney general at the time of his office’s abysmal trial performance in the St. Louis City Circuit Court.
Any decent person would be hiding under a rock after Mason’s public scoldings during the December proceedings, but the Attorney General’s Office apparently doesn’t experience shame or conscience. Or contrition or remorse, or really any normal human emotions. The Attorney General’s Office isn’t necessarily known for its upstanding behavior — in a 2014 landmark wrongful conviction case, Missouri v. Woodworth, the entire Attorney General’s Office was disqualified and removed from the case by a Platte County judge after evidence of misconduct showed prejudice and direct harm. In a 2018 case,
Hawley v. Beger, the behavior of the Attorney General’s Office under part-time gazelle Josh Hawley was found to have been “particularly repugnant,” in the state attorneys’ withholding evidence and making false representations to the court. Rarely these days does the Missouri Attorney General seem to find himself on the right side of history or real justice.
Even after Mason’s order finding him innocent, Johnson was forced to wait more than two excruciating hours before the City Sheriff’s Office would release him. At one point, Sheriff Vernon Betts, the de facto apologist for the Attorney General, addressed the crowd of media, family, and supporters to announce that “Jefferson City” – meaning the Department of Corrections – had to approve Johnson’s release. At one point, another sheriff’s department employee told members of the crowd that the Attorney General wanted Johnson to go back to Jefferson City to be processed. But a judge’s order is a judge’s order, and Mason did not need any approval from the Attorney General’s Office or the Department of Corrections to release Johnson. And yet that’s exactly what the state authorities did, violating Johnson’s civil rights by refusing to release him pursuant to Mason’s findings as reporters and supporters alike witnessed.
Johnson’s long-overdue release finally happened after 28 years. We applaud Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner for doing the minimum by initiating this case and stepping out of the way so that Johnson’s attorneys could secure his release. Now, if we could only get her to stop relying on the death penalty…__________________
Apparently chaos in St. Louis can’t compete with a scandal brewing in the St. Louis County Council – not this week, at least. Recent communications between County Councilman Ernie Trakas and a group of right-wing extremist parents have revealed that Trakas may have inappropriately used his county council position to solicit clients for highly-politicized lawsuits for both other attorneys and his former law firm, Evans & Dixon. Trakas’ Missouri bar directory listing now shows his firm as the “Child & Parental Rights Campaign,” an extremist group known for attacking transgender children, working to repeal Title IX protections for girls & women, andfiling frivolous lawsuits against school districts.
Some of Trakas’ “extracurricular activities” since October have included recruiting parents to sue their children’s public schools – including for COVID-19 mitigation strategies, making accommodations for special needs students, supporting LGBTQ+ students, and teaching accurate history of race & politics in Missouri – and meeting with them to discuss how to collect evidence and opt-in to litigation. According to public records obtained through a Missouri Sunshine request, Trakas relied on diet pills and essential oil scammers to communicate with other parents and to organize secret meetings using his then-law firm’s resources.
If there were ever an example of political insider trading, this would be it.
The emails and social media messages exchanged paint a disturbing picture, one where an elected official is using his access to non-public information to solicit clients for other firms to sue the very county he is sworn to serve. Considering the legislative and legal assaults against children from vulnerable backgrounds, many St. Louis County parents are undoubtedly shocked to learn about councilmember Trakas’ interfering side job.