News

The Price of Innocence

Continued from page 1

According to Innocence Project data, two thirds of the inmates who have been cleared by DNA were convicted because eyewitnesses identified the wrong person. After traumatic events, victims' memories are often inaccurate, especially when the assailant is of a different race. In this case the victim was white and the attacker was black.

Since returning to St. Louis in 2002, Johnson has struggled to find work and is still living with his aunt. Prior to going to prison, he worked in a dry-cleaning plant.

"A lot of people out here still treat me like I committed the crime," Johnson says.

Johnson had hoped the Missouri Legislature would compensate him for the years he spent in prison. A bill passed last spring will pay inmates who are exonerated by DNA up to $18,000 a year for every year they are wrongfully incarcerated. Johnson is ineligible, though, because the compensation is not retroactive.

In an e-mailed statement, State Representative Richard Byrd of Kirkwood says Johnson and two other Missourians who were exonerated may be compensated "if it appears that there will be funds available."

The St. Louis city counselor's office is reviewing Johnson's lawsuit and will likely ask the court to dismiss the city from the case, says Carl W. Yates III, associate city counselor. He asserts that the city does not oversee the police department or the circuit attorney's office.

In the past, courts have shielded prosecutors from civil lawsuits brought by plaintiffs who were wrongfully convicted. However, Johnson's attorney says wrongful conviction lawsuits are a new field and courts have recently ruled that prosecutors are not immune when they act as investigators. According to the lawsuit, "Throughout the investigation, prosecutor Moss acted not as a prosecutor but as an investigator."

A study conducted by the nonprofit watchdog group Center for Public Integrity found that appellate courts cited Moss for misconduct 24 times. In seven cases judges actually reversed convictions Moss had won because of prosecutorial misconduct.

• 1
• 2