KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The KC Freedom Project hosted a rally Wednesday morning outside the Jackson County Courthouse to raise awareness of prosecuting attorneys’ role in affecting change — or maintaining the status quo — within the criminal justice system.
“We intend to hold the prosecutor's office accountable for their complicity in a system that fails to uphold justice for its most vulnerable members,” KC Freedom Project said in a release announcing the protest.
Protesters accused Jean Peters Baker’s office of “mishandling of police brutality cases” and “protecting police officers who commit murder” in calling for Jackson County to establish a Conviction Integrity Unit to review such cases.
"There is no true justice without prosecutor accountability and transparency,” KC Freedom Project organizer Latahra Smith said in a statement.
KC Freedom Project noted that Baker never attempted to bring “charges against the officers who murdered Ryan Stokes, Terrance Bridges, Donnie Sanders, Cameron Lamb and others.”
Baker noted that several members of her office have met with Smith regarding a 2003 murder case involving Keith Carnes and to discuss the Jackson County Prosecutor’s Conviction Review Unit, which Baker said in a statement her office established in 2017.
The Conviction Review Unit “examines post-conviction claims of innocence where credible evidence of innocence that was not known at the time of conviction exists," according to the Jackson County website.
Smith and KC Freedom Project don’t think it’s enough and have called for an independent Conviction Integrity Unit.
“We demand Baker immediately establish a working, independent board that does not ask applicants seeking case review to waive due process,” KC Freedom Project said in a statement,
Protest organizers also called on Baker’s office to review all cases overseen by former Jackson County Prosecutor Amy McGowan, including Carnes’ 2005 murder conviction and Byron Case’s 2002 conviction.
Baker noted that McGowan left office more than a decade ago and her office has “cooperated with all inquiries from other agencies regarding her cases.”
McGowan was the prosecutor who failed to disclose exculpatory evidence that kept Ricky Kidd in prison for more than 23 years and also was accused of withholding evidence in Richard Buchli II’s murder case, a conviction that also was subsequently overturned.
McGowan retired in October as chief assistant district attorney in Douglas County, Kansas, after Kidd’s conviction was overturned last summer.
Baker’s office said it is aware of its role in the criminal justice system and “we don’t take that responsibility lightly.”
Last month, 41 Action News reported on a blistering letter she sent to Kansas City, Missouri, Chief of Police Rick Smith regarding his department’s lack of cooperation in incidents involving possible KCPD misconduct.
Baker also issued a statement June 1, which called for policing reforms, and later last week denounced municipal charges filed against nonviolent protesters arising from recent demonstrations near the Country Club Plaza.
Baker also spoke Friday at a Black Lives Matter protest outside KCMO City Hall, calling for police reform with respect to misconduct investigations and union contracts.
Additionally, Baker said her office has supported letter-writing campaigns to the Missouri governor regarding excessive sentencing in some instances, including one case that resulted in a convict’s early release.
“We have also not ‘declined to press charges’ in all of the officer-involved shootings listed by KC Freedom Project,” Baker said in a statement. “Some of those cases remain under active investigation.”
Nonetheless, KC Freedom Project is unsatisfied with Jackson County’s response to such incidents: “We hold the position that investigations into police misconduct and police shootings must be conducted by officials other than police and the prosecutor's office.”
The Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 99, which is the Kansas City chapter and represents the KCPD, has been unhappy with Baker’s calls for reform and chastised her for not meeting with protesters Wednesday outside her office.
@jeanpetersbaker is front and center 1 week ago calling out police unions but today when a group protesting outside her office invites her to discuss where her office has failed, she’s nowhere to be found - instead issuing a statement #shameful
— KCFOP (@kcfop) June 10, 2020
—
