St. Louis Observer: August 19, 2022
Warrant amnesty day coming to STL City; SLMPD opposes independent oversight, reforms to police chases; Ferguson-Florissant School District investigated for excessive suspensions
Editor’s Note
Last year, a new Missouri law took effect, giving prosecuting attorneys the discretion and power to reopen criminal cases where convictions had been obtained within their jurisdictions. An opportunity to right past wrongs, Missouri prosecutors have been legislatively empowered with the legal authority and standing to ask a judge to overturn, or “set aside,” a criminal conviction that they believe lacks evidence and credibility, or “integrity.” These are no minor motions - in filing a “Motion to Vacate” or “Motion to Set Aside the Judgment,” a prosecutor essentially alleges that one of her predecessors acted inappropriately and in the process of violating a person’s civil rights, that predecessor erroneously convicted an innocent person.
This is no small ask of the court - but more often than not, it is the right thing to do.
An estimated 4 - 6% of all convictions in the U.S. (a gross underestimate, in our opinion) were wrongfully obtained. With 2 million persons incarcerated in our country, that means that 80,000 to 120,000 innocent people at this moment are sitting in jail or prison for a crime that they did not commit. In Missouri alone, more than 3,000 persons are believed to be wrongfully convicted - and this is very likely an underestimate of the actual number.
This is unconscionable.
Considering the new(ish) ability to address those wrongful convictions, the lack of action by Missouri prosecutors is even more inexcusable.
Only one prosecutor in the entire state - Jean Peters Baker - has initiated legal proceedings under the new law. And she was successful. And after more than 40 years of proclaiming his innocence from behind bars, Kevin Strickland was finally liberated from his wrongful conviction.
But after Strickland’s November release, no other prosecutor in the state has wielded that same power.
Next door, St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell currently holds power to challenge nearly half of Missouri’s death sentenced-convictions. Ousted-and-disgraced former prosecutor Bob McCullough obtained - among other things - six capital punishment convictions during his time in office, and all six have allegations of prosecutorial misconduct and blatant civil rights violations. But St. Louis County has something the City doesn’t: a mechanism to challenge a conviction obtained in that jurisdiction. Right now, Prosecutor Bell has an application form that persons can complete and submit to his office’s Conviction and Incident Review Unit - the specific department within the prosecutor’s office that investigates potential wrongful convictions. The application form and eligibility instructions are publicly available here.
At noon on August 29, our friends at the Missouri Justice Coalition will rally at the corner of Tucker and Market Streets in Downtown St. Louis - right under Circuit Attorney Kimberly Gardner’s window - to demand that the City’s “top cop” reconsider her inaction on numerous high-profile wrongful convictions obtained in the City, including that of Lamar Johnson, who has proclaimed his innocence of a murder conviction since 1994. The City still does not have its own conviction integrity unit to review wrongful convictions obtained in our names, and there has been little indication that Gardner plans to exercise her new legislative powers to free Johnson - as is her obligation to do.
We encourage all our readers who are able to do so to attend this rally.
In the News
Police, prosecutorial, and judicial accountability
Nex weekend is Warrant Reset Day, alongside the Second Chance Job Fair, aiming to help St. Louis City residents clear any outstanding warrants and to connect them with open positions within the City government. A few weeks ago, Municipal Courts Administrative Judge Newton McCoy signed a dismissal order clearing out more than 24,000 low-level citations predating July 1, 2018. [St. Louis American/Staff]
The unified police opposition to the creation of the Division of Civilian Oversight is raising concerns about SLMPD’s willingness to adapt to a political climate that overwhelmingly favors reforming law enforcement. Instead of participating in drafting the legislation that would impact disciplinary hearings and oversight, police have instead publicly lied about not being invited to those discussions and have made false statements that the current Internal Affairs Division has been able to resolve outstanding police complaints. [Riverfront Times/Ray Hartmann]
Cannabis proponents are voicing their opposition to Amendment 3, a ballot initiative that would in part legalize adult-use consumption of marijuana and in part further criminalize possession under certain circumstances. The constitutional amendment, which voters will decide on November 8, further prioritizes mega corporations that already hold medical cannabis production licenses and would continue to shut out Black-, women-, and minority-owned businesses seeking to enter the market. [Kansas City Beacon/Meg Cunningham]
The rising number of innocent deaths connected to St. Louis police-involved pursuits has led to surviving family members demanding immediate policy change as to how law enforcement engages fleeing suspects. Ten people have died and six have been critically injured in the last eight months, specific to police-involved pursuits. Both SLMPD and St. Louis County Police rely upon a decades-old policy for determining when to chase a suspect; there is little indication that the departments are willing to revise these policies. [Riverfront Times/Monica Obradovic]
Kansas City has filed a lawsuit against the state of Missouri, asking to strike down a new state law that requires the city to allocate at least 25% of its entire budget to the Kansas City Police Department. Kansas City police are still under state control, the only city in the state where local elected officials have next-to-no authority over the police department or how its budget is spent. [Missouri Independent/Jason Hancock]
Economic development & housing
Provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act have repealed and replaced parts of the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) that allocated more than $4 billion in debt relief to Black and minority farmers, leaving thousands of distressed farmers of color without the same financial resources that were allocated to white farmers under ARPA. Many farmers have waited more than a year for the promised debt relief under ARPA, but legal challenges left those funds in limbo until Congress voted to repeal the allocation. [Harvest Public Media/Dana Cronin]
Further reading
Ferguson-Florissant School District is under investigation by both legal aid law firms and the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education after an excessively high number of suspensions during the pandemic-truncated 2020 school year. The school district’s suspensions represented approximately 10% of all long-term suspensions issued in the entire state, but the district has defended the indefensible by asserting “safety” as the basis for the extraordinarily high number of suspensions. [St. Louis Post-Dispatch/Tony Messenger]
Starting next academic school year, UMKC will offer in-state tuition to students from all 50 states in an effort to remove the financial barriers that often prevent students from earning and completing degrees necessary for certain careers. The university is also removing some of its requirements for automatic hurdles. Finally, UMKC is increasing the scholarship amount for all Pell Grant recipients which would cover any remaining tuition costs after the grant is applied. [KCUR/Jodi Fortino]
A ballot initiative pushing for the legalization of recreational-use cannabis will be put before voters in November, but the proposed new law would not decriminalize possession and would add new marijuana-related misdemeanors into the state constitution. Current license holders for cannabis production under the state’s medical marijuana laws would receive elevated priority in processing applications for recreational use, further excluding Black-, women-, and minority-owned businesses from entering the market. [KCUR/Savannah Hawley]
Beyond the Paywall
To read these below articles in full, please visit SLPL.org and access these articles through the Digital Content tab. St. Louis City & County residents can read these publications for free using their library cards.
“Messenger: Mental health crisis has people stuck in county jails, waiting for treatment,” by Tony Messenger, St. Louis Post-Dispatch
“Ex-Jefferson County prosecutor admits having sexual contact with defendant,” by Joel Currier, St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Legislative Update
St. Louis City Board of Aldermen
The St. Louis City Board of Aldermen currently is in recess. The Board will reconvene on September 16, 2022.
BB 26 and BB 29, sponsored by Ald. Megan Green (Ward 15), would put before City voters the ballot issue of enacting a surcharge on developers who reduced the number of units for housing rehabs and redevelopment. The bills were assigned to the Neighborhood Development Committee on May 13.
BB 56, also sponsored by Ald. Clark Hubbard (Ward 26), would allocate emergency funding for rental and other housing assistance. The bill was perfected and passed by the entire board on July 13.