Wrongful Conviction—Missourian David Robinson Walks Free

From left, Jennett McCaster, David Robinson and Pat Jackson
embrace after Robinson's release from the Jefferson City
Correctional facility May 14 in Jefferson City, Missouri.
Photo: Kassi Jackson, Southeast Missourian

"David Robinson walked away a free man Monday night, after nearly 18 years of being incarcerated for a murder he did not commit," writes Bob Miller in the Southeast Missourian.

David Robinson is another victim of police-prosecutor-prison state America. Innocence doesn't matter in a system that is simultaneously mindless and malicious.

Without the work of the Southeast Missourian newspaper bringing this injustice to the attention of the state, Robinson likely would remain in prison for life for a crime he did not commit.

From the AP:

Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley reviewed a judge’s ruling in February that found a police detective was 'lacking in candor or competence, or both.' That detective’s investigation helped send Robinson to prison for life in the fatal shooting of Sheila Box in Sikeston in 2001. The detective has resigned.

Hawley also evaluated the evidence available for a retrial. Since Robinson’s sentencing, another man has confessed to killing Box and two witnesses have recanted.

So, we have a system of dishonest cops, dishonest prosecutors, indecent Dept of Corrections bureaucrats in a country of by-standers. The deliverables are obscene.

The local Missouri paper freed this man against every crooked cop, prosecutor and prison bureaucrat for whom taking a human life is a game.

Would you help imprison a man you knew to be innocent? Most people would not, but the fact is we say nothing about those who perpetrate such crimes on routine basis in Missouri, Wisconsin, every state where cruel injustice and lies are objectives.

On May 5, 2018, the Southeast Missourian writes in its lead editorial after the Missouri Supreme Court "ruled that Robinson's constitutional rights had been violated when police and the state prosecution, led at the time by the Missouri Attorney General's Office, unfairly procured and presented testimony they knew to be false.":

Scott County Prosecutor Paul Boyd on Thursday said effectively that Robinson was not exonerated, because the state could continue to hold him and try him again without violating double jeopardy. While technically correct, the Supreme Court has in effect declared Robinson innocent and will now require the state to prove his guilt. With the court's approval of his habeas claim, Robinson no longer has to prove his innocence. Meanwhile, the evidence of the stunningly unjust way the Sikeston Department of Public Safety and the prosecution treated Robinson is there for everyone to see in court documents and this newspaper's extensive reporting on the case. Perhaps some introspection of how the county dispenses justice is in order, or even some contrition toward Robinson and his family are more prudent now than the parsing of the definition of the word exoneration. Maybe it's time for leadership in the county or the city of Sikeston to acknowledge the injustice that has been done. For now, the city of Sikeston has asked for a federal investigation into its past police practices regarding this case, only stating that it respects the Supreme Court's decision. As if it could do anything but.

Robinson's case is a reminder the role our police and prosecutors play in upholding our constitutional principles, and the importance of an impartial appeals system.

It also highlights the importance of attorneys who care about truth and justice. The Bryan Cave Law firm took on Robinson's case pro bono. Congratulations to them for carrying Robinson's torch.

Meanwhile, the Missouri Attorney General's Office has defended the jury's conviction at every turn, perhaps as expected. An exoneration shouldn't come easily, because a jury's decision is essential to our justice system. But it seems like a system that uses our tax dollars to defend a bad conviction for the sake of doing so is not a healthy system.

Judge Darrell Missey, in his scathing review of the handling of this case, quoted a previous ruling, Strickler v Greene, in his report to the Missouri Supreme Court:

"A prosecutor must seek truth rather than victory, 'because the prosecutor is considered the representative of not an ordinary party to a controversy, but of a sovereignty whose obligation to govern impartially is as compelling as its obligation to govern at all; and whose interest, therefore, in a criminal prosecution is not that it shall win a case, but that justice shall be done.'"

We couldn't agree more. It's time for the State of Missouri to let Robinson go.

Will anything change in Missouri's 'justice' system? No.

How about around the country where wrongful convictions abound from the same brand of sub-human cops, prosecutors and bureaucrats? No.

We live in a country where state-committed injustice is every bit as unchallenged as in Saudi Arabia, Israel, Iran, pick a monarchy or theocracy.

In Wisconsin, we have innocents Penny Brummer, Branden Dassey, Steven Avery for starters who remain in prison.

You can be sure there are many more. Every jurisdiction needs a Conviction Integrity Unit or a human governor to commute and pardon as in the Penny Brummer, Branden Dassey, and Steven Avery cases.

So WI Department of "Justice" doesn't care about justice in Brendan's case. They want him to rot in prison because they can't admit they went after innocent 16 yr old boy to convict his uncle.#makingamurderer#cjreform https://t.co/hLxeFy3MfC

— Jerome Buting (@JButing) May 10, 2018