Man freed after 42 years for a crime he didn't commit

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A Kansas City man who was jailed for more than 40 years for three murders was released from prison on Tuesday after a judge ruled that he was wrongfully convicted in 1979.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/202 ... conviction

Kevin Strickland, 62, has always maintained that he was home watching television and had nothing to do with the killings, which happened when he was 18 years old.

He learned of the decision to free him when the news scrolled across the television screen as he was watching a soap opera in prison. He said fellow inmates began screaming.

Under Missouri law Strickland is not able to get compensation and must return his wheelchair. Facing homlessness Strickland told reporters he would "crawl out and find a cardboard box to sleep in under a bridge somewhere".
https://www.bakersfield.com/ap/national ... ccfc7.html

Global outrage at Missouri law has mean't donors have provided Mr Strickland with $434,000 which should hopefully find him somewhere to sleep after his release from prison.
https://www.kansascity.com/news/local/a ... 96422.html

The best argument against capital punishment is, to me, just how often we've gotten convictions wrong.

I am glad he finally got his freedom.

Yep....and the $434,000!

From the charitable donations of people around the globe.

I hope he finds a nice house or apartment, and is able to live his life in peace.

I hope so too.

I watched a documentary about another long-term inmate who did commit a robbery where one of his henchmen killed a cop . The shooter got life with parole but that fellow also got life (which seemed harsh).

He went to jail in the 1970s as an 18 year old and was only eventually released in 2019. His immediate family were all dead and the grandkids apparently wanted nothing to do with him so the cameras followed him as he went from a half-way house to a shelter.

What struck me was how lost he was. As I watched I realised as an old man he wished he could return to prison where he at least knew more certainty.

Anybody would feel lost if they went straight from a halfway house to a shelter.

He was really confused why everybody was staring at some hand held device on the streets of NY. He thought it was some type of alarm/pager (the only thing that made sense to him). I was surprised he was never exposed to mobile phones in prison. He felt we walked into a different planet to the one he left in the 1970s,