UPDATE | Keith Carnes is now a free man, according to Latahra Smith, an advocate for Carnes with the KC Freedom Project.
Carnes says he knew that this day would come, and he is feeling "overwhelmed" and "happy" now that it is here.
"It took awhile, but better late than never," Carnes said. "All praise to God, my lord and savior Jesus Christ and all the people that he's brought into my life to help support me and prove my innocence."
After serving nearly two decades in prison, Carnes says it is his innocence that kept him optimistic that he would be set free.
"You don't just sit around and hope that this is going to happen for you — you put in the work," he said. "Together we were able to put it all together and make it happen."
Now that Carnes' work towards freedom has led to his release, he says he plans to relax.
ORIGINAL STORY | Three days after the Jackson County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office declined to refile charges against Keith Carnes, he is set to be released from prison.
Jackson County Prosecuting Attorney Jean Peters Baker sent a letter Monday morning to prison officials at South Central Correctional Facility — a state prison in Licking, Missouri, about four hours southeast of Kansas City — that acknowledges the dismissal of charges stemming from a 2003 first-degree murder case.
“On April 8, 2022 my office dismissed State of Missouri v. Keith Carnes, 16CR03006321-02,” Baker wrote in a letter to a corrections records officer at the prison. “I am including the Dismissal, which has been accepted by the court, with this communication. My office has no charges pending against Mr. Carnes.”
Missouri Department of Corrections officials confirmed to KSHB 41 News that Carnes’ release is imminent.
“The facility has now received the paperwork, and the release process has begun,” Karen Pojmann, a spokeswoman for the Missouri Department of Corrections, said in an email to KSHB 41.
While the decision not to retry Carnes for the murder of Larry White was announced Friday, the paperwork had to make its way through the courts and to South Central Correctional Center before the release process could begin.
The court order for Carnes’ release didn’t arrive until Monday morning, according to a prison official.
After reviewing a special master’s report regarding the handling of evidence in Carnes’ case, the Missouri Supreme Court granted a writ of habeas corpus filed on his behalf April 5.
The state high court ruled that prosecutors “failed to disclose material evidence” at his 2003 murder trial, effectively vacating his conviction.
A lawyer for Carnes, who has steadfastly maintained his innocence, informed him of the court’s decision on April 6: “You sent a chill up my back,” he said when learning he may soon be set free.
The Missouri Supreme Court decision gave leave for Jackson County to refile charges, because it wasn’t a finding of actual innocence, but Baker’s office decided against it after determining that the evidence against Carnes was “insufficient to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.”
The special master found an eye witness’ recantation to be valid and said other eyewitnesses placed Carnes on a nearby porch at the time White was shot and killed in the area of East 29th Street and Prospect Avenue in Kansas City, Missouri.
Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt’s office had opposed Carnes’ release.
KSHB 41 Reporters Cameron Taylor and Megan Abundis contributed to this story.
