Next month, 62-year-old Kevin Strickland is set to again have a hearing before a judge that could lead murder charges against him to be vacated.
The hearing was supposed to be held last week but was delayed as Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt’s office continued to seek additional time to review evidence in the case.
In an interview with CBS Morning’s Erin Moriarty, Strickland said he was losing patience.
“I hold fast in my faith that God ain’t going to let me die in this jail, but I’m losing belief that the system is going to work,” Strickland told Moriarty as he sat in a wheelchair in an interview room at the Western Missouri Correctional Center in Cameron, Missouri, about an hour north of Kansas City.
Earlier this year, Jackson County Prosecuting Attorney Jean Peters Baker took advantage of a new law that allows prosecutors to ask for a review of a defendants case.
In Strickland’s instance, that case is a 1978 triple murder in Kansas City.
Schmitt’s office has made several legal filings that have ended up delaying a judge reviewing the evidence. Schmitt has said publicly he remains convinced of Strickland's guilt.
“The delays and roadblocks that are being put up seem to be endless,” Strickland said in the CBS interview.
Despite the delays and new hearings, Strickland appears to have not given up hope.
“They’re still going to get it right,” he said.
Strickland has been in prison nearly all his life.
An all-white jury convicted Strickland in a 1978 triple murder at a house in Kansas City, Missouri.
Strickland has maintained his innocence since the murders of Sherrie Black, 22, Larry Ingram, 21, and John Walker, 20.
Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker's office filed a motion Aug. 30 to set aside Strickland's conviction and set him free.
Strickland is the only person sentenced under a former Missouri law known as the "Hard 50."
The sentence meant Strickland must serve at least 50 years before he's eligible for parole.
