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Date: 12-31-1979
Case Style:
Case Number: 16CR79000361
Judge: Kevin Harrell
Court: Circuit Court, Jackson County, Missouri
Plaintiff's Attorney: Not Available
Defendant's Attorney: Trial Lawyer's name is unable. Tricia Rojo Bushnell with the Innocents Project represented Defendant on his post conviction relief.
Description: Kansas City, Missouri criminal defense lawyer represented Defendant charged with three counts of first-degree murder.
Kevin Jackson, age 19, was charged with first-degree murder for allegedly killing three people.
The only witness against him was a survivor. On March 2, 1979, Kevin Strickland was indicted in the Circuit Court of
Jackson County for three counts of murder based on the shooting deaths of three
individuals in Kansas City on April 25, 1978. Case No. 16CR79000361. Following a
four-day trial, a jury found Strickland guilty of one count of capital murder, and two
counts of second-degree murder. On June 29, 1979, the circuit court sentenced
Strickland to life imprisonment without possibility of parole for fifty years for
capital murder, and to ten years’ imprisonment for each of the second-degree
murder convictions.
Strickland has been continuously incarcerated since his convictions in 1979.
the Missouri General Assembly enacted
§ 547.031, RSMo. See S.B. 53 & 60, 101st Gen. Assembly, 1st Reg. Session (2021).
Section 547.031.1 permits a prosecuting or circuit attorney to “file a motion to
vacate or set aside the judgment [of conviction] at any time if he or she has
information that the convicted person may be innocent or may have been
erroneously convicted.”
Outcome: Defendant was found guilty and sentenced of life in prison. The only witness against him recanted. There was no legal way for Defendant's conviction to be reversed without a change in the law, which was enacted. Defendant was found to be innocent in fact and was released after 42 years in prison.
Plaintiff's Experts:
Defendant's Experts:
Comments: Editor's Note: Strickland, age 62, was released from prison after 43 years, as a result of efforts by the Innocent Project and Tricia Rojo Bushnell.