Kevin Strickland
“You can’t make up these 43 years”: Ex prisoner tries to start a new life
Kevin Strickland was innocent in a wheelchair for 43 years
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The African American Kevin Strickland was innocent in prison for 43 years. He was released more than two weeks ago. But his way back to freedom is difficult for him.
It has been more than two weeks since Kevin Strickland was released from the Western Missouri Correctional Facility. Since then, the 62-year-old has often woken up around 3:30 a.m. and just wants to get out. “I wake up and feel like going outside,” he says in an interview with The Guardian.
He has lived in his brother’s house since his release. There was no compensation. The state of Missouri only allows payments to people who have been exonerated based on DNA evidence. In his case, however, a judge ordered his immediate release because the man was sentenced solely on the basis of the testimony of an eyewitness who later retracted her testimony. The guilty verdict at the time was therefore not tenable, it was said.
Kevin Strickland is happy about donations
Since Strickland had no savings or hours to earn social security benefits, the Midwest Innocence Project launched a GoFundMe fundraiser for him. We have now raised more than $ 1.7 million. The ex-inmate plans to use the money raised “wisely and not wastefully”. “No parties. There won’t be anything like that.”
“I’m really grateful. And I’m not just saying that because it’s politically correct to say that. I need it and I didn’t know there were so many caring people out there.” But the attention he gets is unfamiliar. “I can’t say that I enjoy it. Large groups are too many and I don’t like it when people keep attacking me. But you have to take the bitter with the sweet.”
Kevin Strickland: “I’m a country girl at heart”
His plan is to find a quiet, safe place to live, away from most of the people, and try to cherish the days he has to “move forward”. “I’ll eat what I want to eat, go swimming and just try to enjoy the rest of my life. He would like to live in the country.” I’m a country bumpkin at heart, “he says.
By the time Strickland was released, he was the longest-serving inmate in Missouri. His conviction for a triple homicide in 1978 during a home break-in was based largely on eyewitness testimony from the crime’s only survivors.
But she retracted her testimony in 2009, saying she had been pressured by prosecutors to identify Strickland, an 18-year-old black man at the time. But until the Midwest Innocence Project took up his case and the Jackson District Attorney campaigned to have his conviction overturned, Strickland could do little.
“You just have to go through there.”
“You can’t even imagine it – and you don’t even want to,” says Strickland of his imprisonment. “It’s hard to be told every day when to do something. When to lie down. Eat. Sleep. Play. And to know that these things will repeat themselves day after day as long as you live – and that it will.” won’t change. “
“You just have to go through there. It’s dark. I haven’t signed off. You have to face him. Deal with it. I’ve seen several suicides, that would be an indication that her will and her strength were weakened.”
Strickland says he is not upset with four decades of imprisonment. Anger is a luxury that others can afford, he says, but he doesn’t feel like indulging in it. “I can’t waste my energy on anger, so I don’t get angry because anger sometimes makes you physical. Anger is a strong word and brings negativity with it. I’m just disgusted and disappointed with what I’m about happened. “
However, he lost his mother and many other family members while in custody. The way back to freedom is not easy. Just looking at a clock reminds him of the counting times in prison. “You can’t bring back those 43 years,” says Strickland. “You can’t get them back. They’re gone. You never can. So I have to fix that in my head and slow down.”
Sources: “The Guardian“, GoFundMe