Mo. Judge: System Failed at All Levels in Teen's Murder Conviction
The Missouri justice system failed at all levels as an apparently innocent teen was charged, convicted and found guilty as well on appeal in a college student’s 1992 murder, a state-court judge ruled today.
Saying that particular doubt was cast on the conviction of Joshua Kezer by the fact that an ex-boyfriend’s DNA was found under the fingernails of Angela Mischelle Lawless, Cole County Circuit Judge Richard Callahan granted a habeas corpus petition and ordered Kezer freed within 10 days unless the state opts to retry him, reports the Associated Press.
Callahan criticized special prosecutor Kenny Hulshof, who subsequently served six terms as a Republican congressman from Columbia before losing the 2008 governor’s race, for withholding key evidence from Kezer’s counsel and embellishing the facts in his trial closing.
“There is little about this case which recommends our criminal justice system. The system failed in the investigative and charging stage, it failed at trial, it failed at post-trial review and it failed during the appellate process,” writes Callahan in his opinion.
Kezer, now 34, was 17 when Lawless was murdered in 1992.
This is the fifth case in which prosecutorial errors by Hulshof has led to a reversal of a conviction in a death-penalty case, the news agency writes. It could not reach Hulshof, who now practices with a Kansas City-based law firm, for comment.
Related coverage:
Missourian: “Former U.S. Rep. Hulshof joins Kansas City law firm”
