St. Louis: The conviction of a man who had already served nearly 28 years of a life sentence for a murder he has always maintained he did not commit was overturned by a Missouri judge on Tuesday.

When Circuit Judge David Mason announced his decision, Lamar Johnson, 50, closed his eyes and shook his head slightly as a female member of his legal team patted him on the back.

Mason stated that there had to be "reliable evidence of actual innocence — evidence so reliable that it actually passes the standard of clear and convincing" before making his decision.

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After the hearing, a court representative stated that Johnson would be "processed out," but that he should soon be available outside of the courthouse.
Johnson's release was sought after by St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner in an August motion, which led to a hearing before Mason in December.

In vacating Mr. Lamar Johnson's sentence after his erroneous conviction in 1995, the courts "righted a wrong today," Gardner said in a statement following the hearing on Tuesday. Most importantly, we rejoice alongside Mr.

Johnson leaving the courtroom free, accompanied by his family.
Gardner expressed her "pleasure" that Johnson would have the chance to be the kind of man and community member he desired.

At the hearing in December, the Missouri attorney general's office argued that Johnson should stay behind bars. Marcus Boyd was shot dead by Johnson in 1994, and Johnson was found guilty of murder. The murder was attributed by police and prosecutors to a dispute over drug money. Johnson insisted on his innocence right away, claiming he was miles (or kilometers) away with his girlfriend at the time of the crime.

Gardner claimed that she was convinced Johnson was telling the truth following an investigation her office carried out with assistance from the Innocence Project. Two men in ski masks shot and killed Boyd on his front porch on October 30, 1994. Johnson was found guilty and given a life sentence, but another suspect, Phil Campbell, pleaded guilty to a lesser charge in  exchange for a seven-year prison term.

In his testimony at the hearing in December, ohnson claimed that, aside from a brief break when he left a friend's house to sell drugs on a corner a few blocks from the scene of the crime, he was with his girlfriend on the night of the crime.

Erika Barrow, Johnson's then-girlfriend, testified that she was with Johnson the entire evening save for the roughly five minutes when he left to make the drug sale. She claimed that Johnson would not have been able to travel there and back in five minutes due to the distance between the friend's house and Boyd's house.

A crucial witness who later changed his testimony and a prisoner who claims he, not Johnson, joined Campbell in the murder served as the main arguments for Johnson's release.

For a murder and several other crimes that occurred three years after Boyd was killed, James Howard, 46, is currently serving a life sentence. The decision to rob Boyd, who owed one of their friends money from the sale of drugs, was made by him and Campbell, he said in testimony at the hearing. In his testimony, Howard claimed that he shot Boyd in the side and Campbell claimed that he shot Boyd in the back of the head and neck.

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Years ago, Howard and Campbell signed affidavits confessing to the crime while denying Johnson was involved. Later, Campbell passed away.

When the two shooters in black ski masks approached the house and started the attack, James Gregory Elking, who was trying to buy crack cocaine with Boyd at the time, was on the front porch, according to testimony he gave in December. Elking, who later served time in prison for robbing a bank, initially admitted to police that he was unable to identify the shooters.

He consented to watch a lineup anyhow. Elking claimed that Detective Joseph Nickerson told him, "I know you know who it is," and pleaded with him to "help get these guys off the street" after he was unable to identify anyone in the lineup as the shooter.

Elking identified Johnson as one of the shooters, claiming he had been "bullied" and "pressured." Elking reportedly received at least $4,000 after consenting to testify, according to Gardner's office.

He admitted that his part in Johnson's imprisonment, saying, "It's been haunting me." Nickerson denied using pressure on Elking. In his December testimony, he stated that Elking's recognition of Johnson was based solely on the features of the shooter's face that he could see—his eyes. According to Nickerson, Johnson appears to have one eye that is different from the other. "You can see it very clearly."

Beyond Elking's testimony, according to Dwight Warren, who prosecuted Johnson in 1995, the primary evidence against Johnson was a conversation that was overheard in a jail cell. At the time, investigators received information from William Mock, a jailhouse informant, who overheard Campbell and Johnson discussing how they should have shot Elking.

Charles Weiss, Special Assistant to the Circuit Attorney, attempted to cast doubt on Mock's credibility at the hearing in December by pointing out that he wanted his release as a reward for helping the prosecution. He had been granted probation after making a comparable jailhouse discovery in Kansas City, Missouri, years earlier.

As a violent drug dealer who had been detained "probably three times" before Boyd's death but was never found guilty due to the refusal of witnesses to testify, Johnson was described by Nickerson. When Judge Mason heard that, he took a moment to think before asking, "You sure this isn't a case where you guys were a little bit rushed to make a conviction?"

After the office of then-Attorney General Eric Schmitt successfully argued that Gardner lacked the authority to request a new trial so many years after the case was decided, the Missouri Supreme Court denied Johnson's request in March 2021.

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A state law that makes it simpler for prosecutors to obtain new hearings in cases where there is new evidence of a wrong conviction was passed as a result of the case. In accordance with that law, Kevin Strickland was released from prison last year. He had served more than 40 years in prison for a triple homicide in Kansas City.