KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Keith Carnes, a Kansas City, Missouri, man serving a life sentence after being convicted of a 2003 murder, may be set free in 30 days after the Missouri Supreme Court handed down a habeas corpus appeal Tuesday.
Chief Justice Paul Wilson wrote in the order that Carnes had successfully demonstrated that state prosecutors "failed to disclose material evidence" in a 2003 murder case that led to Carnes' life sentence.
The order, which comes only six days after the Missouri Supreme Court took the case under consideration, allows state prosecutors to retry Carnes, but also calls for his release in 30 days — which would be May 5 — if prosecutors decline to retry the case. A retrial would take place in Jackson County, where the original conviction occurred.
"We are actively reviewing now, and we await any other information the Missouri Supreme Court sends to us," the Jackson County's Prosecuting Attorney's Office said in a statement.
The Missouri Supreme Court order is the latest in a legal journey that picked up steam during the last six months.
"Getting to this point has been an uphill battle and we are very pleased with the Missouri Supreme Court’s order," Carnes' legal team said. "Mr. Carnes has served over 18 years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit and we are so happy for him and excited for the possibility of his future outside of prison walls as a free man."
Carnes has been serving time at South Central Correctional Center in Licking, Missouri, about 250 miles from Kansas City.
Miracle of Innocence has been fighting for the release of Carnes, claiming there’s no physical evidence connecting him to the shooting.
Others have also given statements saying it couldn’t have been Carnes because they were with him at the time of the shooting at an apartment complex down the street.
“The Special Master’s lengthy findings conclude that testimony of three eyewitnesses to the murder who say Carnes was not the shooter are credible as well as the testimony of two alibi witnesses who said Carnes was not at the scene of the crime,” Miracle of Innocence Legal Director Christopher Iliff said in a statement. “Keith has been in prison for nearly two decades before it was shown that everything said about him was untrue and that the crime was actually committed by someone else.”
Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt’s office has been defending the state in the post-conviction hearings and appeals, preventing his release.
“In this case, our Office defended a conviction obtained by the Jackson County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office, and the decision to retry this case rests in the hands of the Jackson County Prosecuting Attorney,” Schmitt's office said in a statement.
The break in the case came in late 2020 when the Missouri Supreme Court appointed a special master to review Carnes' claim of innocence.
Judge and Special Master William Hickle, who presided over a September hearing in which two witnesses recanted as part of the special master's review, which was released in January 2022, determined that witnesses who eventually said that Carnes was not the killer were credible.
At the time of the Special Master’s review, the Missouri Supreme Court could have released Carnes, but instead promised it would quickly review the special master’s report.
That review was completed with Tuesday’s order.
If Jackson County Prosecuting Attorney Jean Peters Baker's office declines to refile charges against Carnes, he will be set free.
“We are hopeful for Keith’s immediate release, and we stand ready to celebrate with him and help him adjust to life outside the prison walls,” Executive Director of Miracle of Innocence Laura Guy said in a statement. “Our co-founders, Darryl Burton and Lamonte McIntyre, are exonerees themselves and they know what exonerees face when they come home. They are prepared to walk through that transition with Keith.”
Schmitt's office also opposed Kevin Strickland's release last year, but he eventually was set free under a new Missouri law that allows county prosecutors to move to free innocent people who have been wrongfully convicted.
