ST. LOUIS — After serving nearly three decades of a life sentence, Lamar Johnson officially walks free for a crime he has always insisted he did not commit.
“This is unbelievable,” he told reporters in the courthouse lobby after the conviction was overturned.
In 1994, Johnson was convicted of murder for the killing of Marcus Boyd, who was shot to death on his front porch by two masked men. Boyd’s death arose from a dispute over drug money, said police and prosecutors investigating the case. Johnson maintained his innocence from the beginning, citing his girlfriend as an alibi, and claimed he was with her miles away when the crime was committed.
James Howard, the key witness, admitted that he shot Boyd in the back of head and neck, while accompanying the second suspect Phil Campbell, who was sentenced to a seven-year term after pleading guilty. Another man, James Gregory Elking, also testified saying he was on the front porch with Boyd when the two gunmen attacked. Initially, Elking testified that he couldn't identify the gunmen, but was pressured to pick someone from a lineup of people. Elking named Johnson as one of the killers. He later recanted this testimony.
The law helped free Kevin Strickland, another longtime inmate who had been imprisoned for more than 40 years due to a Kansas City triple murder.
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