Lamar Johnson testified on Thursday, Dec. 15, 2022, during his wrongful conviction hearing. Johnson was sentenced to life in prison for the 1994 murder of Marcus Boyd.
It’s the question that in some way or another has been asked in a ºüÀêÊÓƵ courtroom this past week. At stake is whether Lamar Johnson’s 1995 murder conviction, for the shooting death of Marcus Boyd, will be overturned.
Assistant Attorney General Miranda Loesch was the first to pose the question in her opening statement.
“Which version do you believe?†she asked Circuit Court Judge David Mason, who will ultimately determine Johnson’s fate.
Loesch and her fellow attorneys are arguing that Johnson is guilty. They want Mason to believe the version of the story told to jurors 27 years ago, about how Johnson and other gunmen murdered Boyd.
Johnson told his version on Thursday, saying police targeted the wrong person.
“This is the first time you’ve had to tell your story,†attorney Charlie Weiss said after Johnson walked to the witness stand and faced a full courtroom. It was a statement more than a question, but Johnson answered it anyway.
“Yes, sir.â€
Weiss is working as a special prosecutor appointed by Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner, who filed the motion to vacate Johnson’s conviction following passage of a new Missouri law giving prosecutors an avenue to undo past wrongs.
“Did you kill Marcus Boyd?†Weiss asked.
“No, sir.â€
“Did you ever murder anyone?â€
“No, sir.â€
And so it went for four and a half hours as Johnson proclaimed his innocence and answered questions in mostly soft-spoken, quick, staccato answers finished with “sir†or “ma’am.†The questions came from Weiss, Loesch, Johnson’s attorney Lindsay Runnels, and Mason.
He broke down crying once, when Runnels asked him to read from a letter he wrote to the judge in his original case, shortly after the conviction.
“It’s the most terrifying experience of my life,†he read, while fighting back tears. “I pray that some day I will be given a chance to become a real man.â€
Johnson’s two grown daughters sat in the courtroom, as well as a grandson wrapped in a dinosaur blanket while sleeping in a stroller. Ginny Schrappen was there, and Mike Jarvis. They’re the members of Mary Mother of the Church Catholic parish in south ºüÀêÊÓƵ who have been pen pals and supporters of Johnson. Schrappen has written Johnson for 25 years and visited him in prison for more than a decade.
“We all became convinced that Lamar was innocent,†Jarvis told me. “You only had to talk with him for a few minutes and you could see it in his eyes.â€
Those eyes, if you believe the now-recanted testimony of the key witness in the case — James Greg Elking — are what put Johnson in prison. They’re the only things that Elking could see through the masks that Boyd’s killers wore.
Mason already told observers in the court what he thinks about that eyewitness testimony from the original trial — it’s tainted. But whether that conclusion will be enough to free Johnson comes down to whom Mason believes in other aspects of the case — and whether he believes the law that led to this hearing gives him the latitude to make a ruling.
Memories fade over a couple of decades. Every witness in Johnson’s case, including the original prosecutor, has given testimony that has been inconsistent with something they said previously or what other witnesses remembered.
Mason knows that is his challenge. “The amount of time that has gone by makes proof very difficult for everyone,†he said Thursday. “Sometimes, law leaves us feeling that there is a lack of justice.â€
It’s the concept of justice that brought the Rev. Darryl Gray to the courtroom every day. Gray and I met when he was leading protests after the uprising in Ferguson in 2014. “No justice, no peace,†was the chant then, and there’s a thread that connects that narrative to the underlying theme of Johnson’s case.
For Black people in ºüÀêÊÓƵ, hearing allegations of police and prosecutor overreach, as Johnson’s attorneys have alleged, is nothing new.
“For us, this is business as usual, too often,†Gray says. “This is real in our community every day. That is what is so disheartening.â€
Gray was in the courtroom Thursday to support Johnson. He believes in Johnson’s case and roots for his freedom. But Gray also knows he doesn’t have a vote.
After Johnson left the stand, I asked Gray what he thought would happen in the case.
“Will Lamar be exonerated?†he asked. “Who does the judge believe?â€
Federal civil rights lawsuit filed against city of ºüÀêÊÓƵ and police officers involved in 30-year-old wrongful conviction case.Â
Lamar Johnson wipes tears from his eyes as he testifies on the stand during the fourth day of his wrongful conviction hearing in ºüÀêÊÓƵ on Thursday, Dec. 15, 2022.