KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Jackson County Prosecuting Attorney Jean Peters Baker and Missouri Gov. Mike Parson traded barbs Tuesday with each claiming the other is politicizing the appeal and possibility of a pardon for former Kansas City, Missouri, Police Det. Eric DeValkenaere.
Faith leaders in Kansas City gathered Tuesday afternoon on the steps of the Jackson County Courthouse downtown to discuss the now-public conversation swirling around the possibility that DeValkenaere — who shot and killed Cameron Lamb on Dec. 3, 2019, in the 4100 block of College Avenue — may be pardoned.
Emanuel Cleaver III, senior pastor at St. James United Methodist Church, expressed concern about the “harm to the city” that would follow if Parson uses his unlimited power to grant pardons in DeValkenaere’s case.
“Governor, if you pardon DeValkenaere, you will create more tension in the city and we will be left to pick up the pieces while you are not here,” Cleaver said. “... We’re pleading with the governor, ‘Please reconsider.’”
Cleaver, who said he fears Parson has already made up his mind, said he and other faith and community leaders would welcome the chance to discuss the case with the governor and called on people in the community “who care about justice and doing what’s right” to voice concerns they may have to the governor’s office.
Rev. Dr. Rodney Williams, pastor at Swope Parkway United Christian Church, said a pardon would undermine the concept of equal protection under the law and “erodes the integrity of this state.”
“So, we say to the governor — ‘Do not pardon this person,’” Williams said. “Cameron Lamb’s life was worth more than that, and we are expecting you to act in good faith.”
Cleaver noted that DeValkenaere has not spent a day behind bars, while Lamb would have turned 30 on Thursday. Lamb’s family plans to mark the milestone privately and did not speak at the press conference.
“I would be deeply ashamed if he takes this action,” Rev. Dr. Steven Jones, co-pastor at First Baptist Church in Kansas City, Missouri, said. “It’s the wrong action to take. Eric DeValkenaere deserves to serve jail time for what he did. He had a fair trial and the result of that trial was a conviction. We need to see that conviction honored.”
Jones called DeValkenaere’s conviction “one step in the right direction to establish some accountability for police officers in Kansas City. As it stands now, if he does issue this pardon, there’s no accountability, and essentially what the governor's saying is, ‘I’ve got your back — whatever you want to do in Kansas City. It’s open season.’”
Jones and Cleaver were among those who used the moment to call for a restoration of local control of KCPD, which is run by the governor-appointed Board of Police Commissioners.
Cleaver noted DeValkenaere is the first KCPD officer ever convicted for killing a Black man.
“I don’t want to say it’s racial, but it certainly sounds racial for him to be pardoned," Cleaver said.
After a grand jury indictment in June 2020, DeValkenaere was convicted of involuntary manslaughter and armed criminal action during a four-day bench trial in November 2021.
He was sentenced to six years in prison in March 2022 but immediately filed a notice of appeal. The formal appeal was filed in November 2022, but the Missouri Attorney General’s Office, which handles conviction appeals in the state, has yet to respond to DeValkenaere’s appeal, drawing the ire of Missouri Court of Appeals Western District Chief Judge Gary Witt.
Jackson County Prosecuting Attorney Jean Peters Baker went on the offensive Tuesday with a letter urging Parson not to pardon DeValkenaere, especially with the appeal still pending, while Parson’s office countered Baker was playing “political games.”
Sean O’Brien, a professor at the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law, noted the Missouri governor’s power to pardon is unrestricted and unchecked by the judiciary.
“In my experience, politics never doesn’t enter into the governor’s decision to issue or withhold a pardon,” O’Brien said.
Parson’s office shared he’s received around 3,700 clemency requests and granted 538 pardons and 20 commutations, including pardoning Mark and Patricia McCloskey after the couple brandished weapons at peaceful protestors. He notably refused to grant Kevin Strickland, who has since been exonerated by a judge, a pardon.
“Blow up the governor’s phone and send him some emails if you don’t like what’s going on,” said Michael Brooks, pastor at Oasis Church International and president of the Concerned Clergy Coalition. “Let’s make our voices heard.”
Statewide leaders also weighed in on the possibility of a DeValkenaere pardon.
“Police officers sworn to ... uphold the law must be held accountable when they violate it, especially when their illegal actions have fatal results,” Missouri House Minority Leader Crystal Quade, a Democrat from Springfield, said in a statement. “By pardoning convicted killer Eric DeValkenaere, the governor not only would deny justice to the victim but shred any faith Missourians have that the law applies equally to all. The Jackson County Prosecutor’s Office has fought to ensure justice is done in this case. If the governor won’t help them uphold the law, he should at least stay out of their way.”
Another statewide leader was critical of Parson’s record with respect to pardons.
“In August 2021, Governor Parson pardoned Mark and Patricia McCloskey who brandished firearms at peaceful protestors — most of whom were Black — who were marching against police violence against Black Americans,” Missouri State Rep. Marlene Terry, chair of the Missouri Legislative Black Caucus, said in a statement. “If the governor follows through with his plan to pardon a former Kansas City police officer convicted of wrongfully killing a Black Missourian, it would only bolster the impression he left in 2021 that he believes different systems of justice should exist for white Missourians and Missourians of color.”
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