Lamar Johnson is finally free after nearly three decades in prison from a wrongful conviction

After 28 years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit, Lamar Johnson is finally a free man thanks to YOU.

Back in 1994, he was arrested and charged for the murder of a man named Marcus Boyd, and was given a life sentence.

That's an entire lifetime missing birthdays, holidays, time with his family, all while spending those decades pleading his innocence.

With supporters like you, we helped elect Kim Gardner as St. Louis Circuit Attorney and her Conviction Integrity Unit first began working to free Lamar in 2019 after an investigation conducted with the help of the Innocence Project found that he was wrongfully convicted.

Kim knew that our justice system had failed Lamar and set forth to rectify it. But the Missouri Supreme Court ruled she didn’t have the authority to exonerate him, and denied Lamar’s request for a new trial because of how far back the case was adjudicated.

This is what Real Justice DAs are up against — systems that continue to hurt people and not take accountability when it steals a person of their livelihood.

That push back didn’t stop there. The former Republican Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt also opposed the release of Lamar and repeatedly tried to strip Kim of her power.

But through it all, Kim persevered in her search for justice for Lamar.

And that perseverance led to ground-breaking policy changes in the state — with the Missouri General Assembly enacting a law that gave Kim and other prosecutors the ability to overturn wrongful convictions.

Now, Lamar has his freedom back after spending nearly three decades behind bars.

That is the DIRECT result of the extensively tireless efforts of Real Justice-backed St. Louis Circuit attorney Kim Gardner and it wouldn’t have happened if supporters like you didn’t join us to make sure that she was re-elected.

This is exactly why we work so hard on a daily basis to elect DAs who work to free those who were wrongly convicted, hold cops accountable, and protect the rights of everyday people. Our work in electing and defending justice-minded DAs across this country is incredibly important and saves lives, and we can’t do it without you.

Will you make a contribution today to help us continue electing prosecutors like Kim who work to free wrongfully convicted people nationwide? Our DAs have helped overturn over 200 wrongful convictions and thousands more continue to sit in jail for crimes they didn’t commit.

The change we need in our criminal legal system will not happen overnight — it is through consistent hard work and putting progressive leaders in power that we will start to see real systemic change.

In solidarity,

Real Justice

 

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