ST. LOUIS — A man who spent nearly 30 years wrongly imprisoned for murder is suing the city of ºüÀêÊÓƵ and the police officers who conducted the investigation.
Lamar Johnson says the city, police and prosecutor’s office violated his constitutional rights by conducting a flawed investigation, coercing witnesses and ignoring his alibi before he was convicted of a 1994 killing in the city’s Dutchtown neighborhood.
Johnson was freed last year after a ºüÀêÊÓƵ judge vacated his conviction, but he did not receive money from the state of Missouri.
Missouri pays people in the case of wrongful convictions $50 to $100 for every day they were imprisoned, but only if they are exonerated by DNA evidence. Johnson was instead freed after a judge determined there was clear and convincing evidence of Johnson’s innocence.
Now, Johnson’s suit seeks an unspecified amount of damages from the city and authorities who put him in prison.
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“In the final chapter of this injustice that stole over 28 years of Johnson’s life, he now sues defendants for their unconstitutional misconduct that caused his wrongful arrest and convictions which inflicted enormous and irreversible harm,†the lawsuit says.
Johnson was convicted in 1995 of killing Marcus Boyd and sentenced to life in prison.
For years, he submitted various appeals and petitions to no avail. Then, in 2019, ºüÀêÊÓƵ Circuit Attorney Kimberly M. Gardner’s office reported misconduct by the lead detective in the case, drawing national attention.
In 2022, Gardner’s office petitioned to vacate Johnson’s sentence. Less than a year later, a cadre of attorneys appeared in court to argue for his innocence.
They presented evidence that the prosecution’s key witness had been coerced into identifying Johnson as the masked man who killed Boyd in exchange for money and dismissed traffic tickets and warrants.
They said Johnson had a reliable alibi — he was three miles away from the murder at his girlfriend’s house on the night Boyd died. And another man already serving life in prison for a different murder, James Howard, admitted that he was the one who pulled the trigger.
Ultimately, Judge David C. Mason found there was clear and convincing evidence of Johnson’s innocence, and Johnson walked out of court last year a free man for the first time since he was 20 years old.
His release became one of the crowning achievements of Gardner’s tenure in office. She resigned in May amid a lawsuit seeking her removal and an effort by the state legislature to strip her of most of her power.
After his release, Johnson’s attorneys started a GoFundMe page that has . Johnson posted an update in July where he updated donors about his experiences flying on an airplane, seeing the ocean and walking his daughter down the aisle.
“There’s still much I intend to do over the coming days, months and years,†he wrote. “This includes continuing to get my life together and having a little fun along the way; raising awareness about wrongful convictions to prevent it from ever happening; and helping others in general — in both big and small ways — just as you helped me.â€
Johnson traveled to Jefferson City last year to testify before lawmakers in favor of a bill that would compensate others like him who were freed from prison for crimes they did not commit.
That bill ultimately failed, but similar legislation has been filed this year.
Johnson’s lawsuit says he deserves compensation for how the police violated his constitutional rights and wrongfully prosecuted him. The suit argues he suffered abuse and illnesses while in prison and was denied his liberty and right to due process.
A spokesman for the city of ºüÀêÊÓƵ did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the lawsuit Wednesday.
A hearing has not yet been set in the case.
Kurt Erickson of the Post-Dispatch contributed to this report.