KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The findings from a judge appointed by the Missouri Supreme Court doesn’t make any recommendations on the fate of Keith Carnes, but it details how he didn't get a fair shake during his original trial in Jackson County.
This is something that his family and advocates have been saying all along.
"Almost 20 years away from my son, that's a lifetime," Eve Moffatt, Carnes' mother said on Tuesday evening.
Moffatt has only seen her son a handful of times behind bars, for a crime the now 51-year-old insists he didn’t do.
"I miss kissing him and holding him and telling him how much I love him," Moffatt said.
Carnes is serving life in prison without parole for the 2003 murder of Larry White, who was gunned down at east 29th Street and Prospect Avenue in KCMO.
But advocates like Latahra Smith, who's been looking into Carnes' case for almost nine years, said there’s no physical evidence connecting Carnes to the shooting.
"From day one when I looked into it, you know, I could see there was multiple inconsistencies in the case," Smith, founder of the KC Freedom Project said.
The Missouri Supreme Court appointed a so-called "special master" in late 2020 to review the Carnes' claims of innocence.
The judge found that witnesses who initially said Carnes was the shooter later recanted their testimony and that prosecutors withheld evidence from Carnes' legal team, violating his constitutional rights.
"I believe it sheds a light on these cases of innocence in Missouri and that, you know, we, we need to pay attention to some of these cases," Smith said.
The judge’s findings now go to the Missouri Supreme Court who could dismiss the charges unless the attorney general's office intervenes. Or the court can call for a new trial.
"We really don’t know which way this is going to go," Smith said. "By faith I believe that Mr. Carnes is going to walk out of prison. But we have a faith system, and we also have a legal system here and the natural that we have to deal with."
With Carnes' future in limbo his mother is overwhelmed at times.
"Overjoyed, but same time, I'm scared, you know, scared, because I've been, I don't want to be let down," Moffat said. "I don't want to be let down."
A new trial would take place in Jackson County, and it would only happen if the prosecutor, Jean Peters Baker, pursues the case.
At this point her office said they're keeping an eye on all these developments and waiting to see what the Missouri Supreme Court ultimately does.
