skip to main |
skip to sidebar
From left, Josh Kezer of Columbia applauds as Dennis Fritz greets Darryl Burton as the former inmates told their stories of wrongful imprisonment as part of a Midwestern Innocence Project fundraiser Wednesday night in Neff Hall Auditorium at the University of Missouri.
Photo by Parker Eshelman
Josh Kezer speaks to audiences across the county warning of the reality of wrongful convictions. He doesn’t do it for himself or the publicity; he passionately tells his tale for all the men and women he believes deserve a new day in court.
In front of a standing-room-only classroom last night on the University of Missouri campus, Kezer and two other exonerated inmates told their stories in an effort to raise money for the Midwestern Innocence Project. Through fundraising, the organization provides legal counsel for prison inmates in cases that have a high probability of being overturned.
Sean O’Brien, an associate professor at the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law and Midwestern Innocence Project board member, is one of many masterminds who head exoneration cases or work to find an attorney to handle a case. With a staff of two attorneys, a fundraiser, legal secretary and several volunteers in Kansas City, he works to conduct the groundwork needed to jump-start a potential exoneration case.
“We want people to be able to put a face on the issue,” O’Brien said. “People understand there are innocent people in prison, but this makes it real to them.”
O’Brien and project attorneys rely on volunteers to sort through the 700 cases the project has on file. Only two or three cases will be selected this year, he said, sometimes making a successful exoneration into a five-year process.
DNA evidence and testing technologies have contributed to clearing numerous inmates nationwide, including 20 Missouri cases since 1980. Typical components of an exoneration case include eyewitness misidentification, junk science, false confessions, lousy lawyering and snitch testimony, O’Brien said. Each of the three exonerated speakers’ cases was a mixed bag of such components, including snitch testimony.
Kezer was 17 when he was arrested for shooting a Southeastern Missouri State University student three times. He was prosecuted in Scott County and served 16 years in state prison. He was exonerated last February after a rebuke of prosecutor-turned-Congressman Kenny Hulshof.
In a 44-page decision, a Cole County circuit judge said Hulshof withheld key evidence from defense attorneys and embellished details in his closing arguments. Conflicting testimony and three jail inmates who had claimed Kezer confessed to the killing later acknowledged they lied in hopes of getting reduced sentences.
“They didn’t care about the truth. I should have never been arrested,” Kezer said. “That’s not me saying that. That’s out of the judge’s mouth.”
Also sharing his story was former high school science teacher Dennis Fritz. Ron Williamson and Fritz were convicted in the sexual assault and murder of a 21-year-old woman who was found strangled in December 1982 in Ada, Okla. In 1988, both men were convicted, partially because of microscopic hair comparisons done as part of a scientific testing method that has since been largely discredited.
Fritz and Williamson, who served 11 years in prison, also were convicted based on testimony by witness Glen Gore, an informant later shown by DNA testing to have been the real killer. Gore was later convicted of rape and murder.
“I was convicted by snitch testimony,” Fritz said. “These were the dirtiest of the dirty and the lousiest of the lousy. They needed to find me guilty.”
Fritz’s tale became the subject of a John Grisham book, “The Innocent Man.”
St. Louis resident Darryl Burton served the longest time in prison of the three speakers. For 24 years, he worked to clear his name of a murder he did not commit. He said he found faith and his grown-up daughter in the process.
Burton was convicted in 1985 of a gas station murder on the basis of testimony by two people claiming to be witnesses. No physical evidence or motive was offered at the trial, but the two witnesses made deals with the prosecutor in exchange for their testimony because they faced unrelated felony charges.
“I thought it would take 24 hours for them to realize they made a mistake and let me go,” Burton said. “It took 24 years.”
By Brennan David
Thursday, February 4, 2010
On March 22, 2009, John Grisham and Dennis Fritz ( who is one of the two innocent men featured in Mr. Grisham’s first non-fiction book, The Innocent Man ) met in St. Louis at the legendary Renaissance Hotel, and brought the house down of around 500 people in the name of Innocence. The fundraiser was hosted by the Midwestern Innocence Project from Kansas City, Missouri. It’s Director, Tiffany Murphy, and Co-Director, Jay Swearingen, were among the excited crowd, who packed the spacious ballroom in anticipation of meeting John Grisham—the world’s greatest legal-thriller writer and advocate for justice.
The evening’s event started off with a bang, as Jay Swearingen introduced the Midwestern Innocence Project, and its related goals and objectives of freeing innocent men— from the tortures of being falsely convicted. Daryl Burton and Josh Kezer, who were recently released from long terms in prison, ( 24 and 16 years respectively ), were among the honored, exonerated people attending the featured fundraiser. Also included was Ellen Reasonover— who had spent 16 wrongful years for a murder she knew nothing about—who now resides in St. Louis, and, Johnny Briscoe, who had spent 24 years for a bogus rape charge he knew nothing about.
Master of Ceremonies, Ida Goodwin Woolfolk, started the evening’s event off by introducing Dennis Fritz, author of Journey Toward Justice—the co-companion book to John Grisham’s, The Innocent Man. Dennis took the podium and began to tell a shortened version of the terrible nightmare he had went through—of spending 12 years in prison after having been falsely convicted of 1st Degree Capital Murder. The crowd became very silent as Dennis spoke of the tremendous hurdles and obstacles he and his family had to overcome.
Dennis then blended his very painful circumstances to begin his introduction of John Grisham, and how his writing of The Innocent Man, has had a tremendous, positive impact upon our justice system. As Dennis shared his story of how he had met John, and worked with him during his writing of The Innocent Man, one could feel a stirring in the crowd—that was filled with anticipation and eagerness— to see and hear Mr. Grisham speak. Since John and Dennis had done several fundraisers before, it was easy to sense the already-developed friendship between the two.
Upon being introduced, the crowd roared with delight and exhilaration as John walked up to the podium. After Dennis and John hugged while passing the microphone, Dennis was called back to the podium and a celebration cake was brought out in his honor for his 10th year of freedom. A thunderous round of ovation filled the ballroom as Dennis finished blowing out the candles. What a wonderful touch for a perfect evening. As always, John displayed his eloquent demeanor and speaking ability, as he began describing, in detail, his writing of The Innocent Man. The crowd was entranced from the very beginning, as John conveyed to the audience how he had first gotten the idea, to write his first non-fiction book—after having read an obituary in New York City about the death of Ronnie Williamson.
As John continued to speak about his overall experiences in writing, The Innocent Man (and the reasons why), the crowd drifted into a noticeable, relaxed state due to John’s easy-going and down-to-earth manner. The audience’s pedestal perceptions had now faded. Now, the greatest legal-thriller writer in the world—whom everyone idolized—had also become in everyone’s mind and spirit, a real-to life person who shoots straight from the hip, without any pretense, whatsoever!
More than anything else, everyone in the audience became aware of what John was really all about:
He not only was able to talk the talk, but also, there was no doubt that he could walk the walk— by being a true, blue advocate of overall, by-the-book justice.
Next, the special awards ceremony began by commemorating the following attorney’s:
Cheryl Pilate, who was responsible for the exoneration for Ellen Reasonover and Darryl Burton ( in conjunction with The Centurion Ministries-Jim McCloskey ), Shawn O’brian, who pulled Joe Amrine out of prison after having served 25 years, and Attorney Charlie Weiss, who was directly responsible for helping to exonerate Josh Keezer.
Chris Koster, Missouri’s 41st elected Attorney General, then took the stage and acted as the auctioneer for the evening’s event. What a smashing success! An entire collection of Grisham’s originally-printed books, were sold to the highest bidder for a substantial sum of money.
Also, Steve Stolze who owned a condo in Hawaii, allowed it to be auctioned off for a substantial amount of money. Next, a dinner for six (6) with Robin Carnahan—Missouri’s Secretary of State—was sold to the highest bidder.
All of this auction money went to the Midwestern Innocence Project for their costly work of freeing wrongfully-convicted people. .
The finale of the evening’s event was an announced invitation for the 5 falsely convicted people ( including, Dennis Fritz ) to come to the stage— carrying a piece of paper with their prison numbers written on it— and after giving a brief, verbal description of what they had been charged with, and how much time they had wrongfully spent in prison, they raised their arms and ripped their prison numbers into. The crowd clapped loudly as each inmate delivered his ceremonial announcement of freedom. Wow!
What a powerful evening it was—for the cause of justice and freedom!
CLICK HERE for great photos of the event
