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In the United States, Kevin Strickland was exonerated and released from prison Tuesday, November 24 after having spent 43 years of his life there. But the Missouri justice system, which wrongly convicted him of a triple murder in Kansas City in 1978, offers the now 62-year-old man no financial compensation. An unprecedented crowdfunding campaign, however, succeeded in mobilizing and raising funds for his relief.
With our correspondent in Houston, Thomas Harms
In four days, the Gofundme page in support of Kevin Strickland surpassed $ 1.5 million.
As this Afro-American has spent his entire adult life in prison, he does not have enough to survive, nor a pay slip that would allow him to have access to health insurance. This while he has health problems and is in a wheelchair.
Strickland was released last Tuesday by a Missouri Court of Appeals judge, who admitted that the evidence leading to his imprisonment has since been withdrawn or struck down.
First, the main witness tried for years (between 2009 and 2015 when she died) to retract her testimony, claiming that she was forced by police to charge Kevin Strickland. Then, the fingerprints found at the scene of the Kansas City triple murder in 1978 are not his. In addition, two other defendants have also refuted the presence of Strickland at the scene of the crime.
But this state only allows victims of miscarriage of justice to be compensated if they are exonerated through DNA testing. Which is not the case with Strickland.
Since his release on Tuesday, nearly 28,000 donors around the world have offered between $ 5 and $ 10,000.
On the day of his release, after four decades in prison, Kevin Strickland had these words: “ The American justice must now be dismantled and completely rebuilt. »
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