Midwestern Innocence Project hosts exonerated speakers

The Innocence Project provides legal services for people in prison.

By Samantha Sunne

Published Feb. 5, 2010

Josh Kezer, of Columbia, spent the majority of his 16 years in prison in the Missouri State Penitentiary, serving time for a murder he did not commit.

Kezer and two other wrongfully convicted men shared their stories at an event Wednesday evening at Neff Hall. Darryl Burton and Dennis Fritz, both of Kansas City, also served time for murders they did not commit.

The event, sponsored by the Midwestern Innocence Project, sought to raise awareness of wrongful convictions, MIP Staff Attorney Ken Blucker said.

Fritz said he spoke at the event to spread awareness that wrongful conviction could happen to anybody. Burton and Kezer spent a decade together at MSP, once called the bloodiest 47 acres in America, Kezer said. On his first day, Burton said he saw two men get stabbed.

At 18, Kezer was sentenced to 60 years in prison for second-degree murder and armed criminal action. Before he was exonerated, he spent 16 years in prison, throughout the entire Clinton and Bush presidencies, he said.

Now a resident of Columbia, Kezer works as a painter and public speaker. He said he spends his free time speaking to others about his experiences and hanging out with friends.

"Whatever normal is, that's what I'm trying to be," he said.

Kezer was freed last year due to a series of DNA evidence, new witness testimonies and original witness recantations. Kezer said he was also the victim of several Brady violations, meaning evidence was withheld from his defense.

Kezer said he struggled not to be angry with the people responsible for his wrongful conviction.

"You sit in that cell all them years, thinking, tempted to be angry, to just get lost in anger, thinking about certain people," Kezer said.

When one witness told a judge, 15 years after the trial, she had been mistaken in her testimony, Kezer said he was indifferent to her apology. But upon witnessing her tearful statement in the courtroom, he said he was moved to tears himself.

"That was a real healing moment for me," he said. "That really brought home a lot of the points that God had been trying to talk to me about, forgiveness and things like that."

When he spoke with his family, Kezer said he talked about Chicago sports, his progress in weight lifting, a handball game he played -- anything but the harsh realities of prison life.

"A few times I wrote a letter to my mom, and outside of the letter I said, 'Do not read this letter alone. Get somebody to sit down with you before you read this.' "

In prison, Kezer met several men who he believes are innocent. One, James Scott, was convicted of aiding and abetting a flood, a feat many people consider to be humanly impossible, Kezer said.

The Midwestern Innocence Project provides legal and investigative services to innocent people in prison, its Web site states.

MU professor Steve Weinberg, a member of the MIP Board of Directors, teaches a course at the School of Journalism where students learn to report on criminal justice. Weinberg said some of these students go on to take a clinic where they work on actual MIP cases.

Kezer said he would speak at both the MU and Washington University in St. Louis law schools within the next month.

"I like the opportunity to inspire people," he said. "I like the opportunity to lift people up and give them something else to live for."