Latest / Wrongful Conviction / #248 Jason Flom with Ken Middleton

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#248 Jason Flom with Ken Middleton · Wrongful Conviction

0:02
Speaker 1: Canon.
0:03
Speaker 2: Kathy Middleton had properties in Blue Springs, Missouri, as well
0:05
Speaker 2: as Ken's family lay back in Arkansas, where they hoped
0:08
Speaker 2: to one day retire. On February twelfth, nineteen ninety, when
0:12
Speaker 2: he planned to clean a gun that he had brought
0:14
Speaker 2: back from Arkansas, Ken felt ill, laid the gun down
0:17
Speaker 2: and took the nap. Meanwhile, Kathy returned early from work
0:20
Speaker 2: to confront Ken about news of a regretful affair that
0:23
Speaker 2: had ended three years earlier. After grabbing the gun from
0:26
Speaker 2: where Ken had laid it down, Kathy made her way
0:29
Speaker 2: to the phone to call the alleged mistress. When tragedy struck.
0:32
Speaker 2: It is believed that it destroyed. Kathy mishandled the weapon
0:35
Speaker 2: in her left hand and shot herself in the head.
0:38
Speaker 2: Ken immediately called nine one one when first responders found
0:41
Speaker 2: him without a drop of blood or gunshot residue on him.
0:44
Speaker 2: A positive gunshot residue test of Kathy's left hand would
0:48
Speaker 2: have conclusively ruled her death as a tragic accident. However,
0:51
Speaker 2: her left hand test results went missing and the crime
0:54
Speaker 2: lab document was altered in what clearly appears to be
0:57
Speaker 2: evidence tampering, where a medical ex disaminur and blood spatter
1:01
Speaker 2: expert willing to testify to an impossible scenario in which
1:04
Speaker 2: Ken was magically able to shoot Kathy from less than
1:07
Speaker 2: a foot away while remaining free of blood and GSR.
1:11
Speaker 2: Ken was sentenced to life plus two hundred years. Despite
1:14
Speaker 2: the mishandling of the crime scene, ballistics testing was still
1:17
Speaker 2: able to prove Ken's innocence. His conviction was overturned in
1:21
Speaker 2: two thousand and four, but a jurisdictional technicality has held
1:24
Speaker 2: him in legal limbo ever since. Canada's son Cliff Middleton
1:28
Speaker 2: join us to ask, how is it that even though
1:31
Speaker 2: a new statute remedies that technicality, the current prosecutor, Jean
1:36
Speaker 2: Peters Baker, refuses to act. This is raeful conviction. Welcome
1:53
Speaker 2: back to Raful Conviction. I'm your host, Jason Faum. You know,
1:56
Speaker 2: each week I have a pretty good idea of how
1:58
Speaker 2: I'm going to start the show. You Know, usually there's
2:01
Speaker 2: one main focus, one main problem that we can talk
2:04
Speaker 2: about in any particular case. But this time I don't
2:09
Speaker 2: even know where to start. When our friend Larry Garrison,
2:12
Speaker 2: who's aptly known as the newsbreaker okay for his years
2:16
Speaker 2: of investigative reporting and his work through Silver Creek Entertainment.
2:19
Speaker 2: When he first told me and us here at Romful
2:23
Speaker 2: Conviction about the case of Ken Middleton, he had lived
2:25
Speaker 2: up to his nickname once again, I mean the Newsbreaker.
2:28
Speaker 2: So I'll start by saying that Ken Middleton has been
2:30
Speaker 2: in prison for over thirty years for being present during
2:34
Speaker 2: what they may well have known all along was just
2:36
Speaker 2: a tragic accident. And there are so many problems in
2:39
Speaker 2: this case that we could literally pick on any one
2:41
Speaker 2: of them and make an entire episode of the show
2:44
Speaker 2: just about that. I'm talking about ineffective assistance of counsel,
2:48
Speaker 2: false expert testimony, evidence, tampering, incompetent investigator's official corruption, conflicts
2:54
Speaker 2: of interest, Ken refusing freedom through at Alford play right,
2:58
Speaker 2: something that you never catch he's a guilty person doing,
3:01
Speaker 2: and that's something that happened seventeen years ago, almost eighteen now. Plus.
3:06
Speaker 2: There's this insane jurisdictional technicality that has kept this innocent
3:09
Speaker 2: man in prison long past the time that I believe
3:12
Speaker 2: everyone knows that he should have ever been in there. So,
3:16
Speaker 2: without further ado, at seventy seven years old, Ken is
3:20
Speaker 2: calling in from inside the prison walls in Missouri. Ken
3:24
Speaker 2: I'm so sorry you're here because of the reason why
3:27
Speaker 2: you're here, but I'm very honored to have you on
3:30
Speaker 2: the show.
3:31
Speaker 3: Thank you appreciate it.
3:33
Speaker 2: And with Ken is his son and probably most passionate advocate,
3:38
Speaker 2: Cliff Middleton. Thanks for joining us.
3:41
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for having me on. Jason, I
3:44
Speaker 1: really really appreciate it.
3:45
Speaker 2: And I know how hard this is going to be.
3:47
Speaker 2: I mean, like any other son, you love your dad
3:49
Speaker 2: and you just want this thing to end. Okay, let's
3:53
Speaker 2: go back in time and I'm gonna turn to you. Ken.
3:56
Speaker 2: This is early nineteen ninety in Blue Springs, missus, and
4:01
Speaker 2: you're there with your wife, Kathy. So tell us what
4:03
Speaker 2: was happening in your life? What were things like before
4:06
Speaker 2: all this happened.
4:08
Speaker 3: It was great. We had a great marriage for over
4:11
Speaker 3: sixteen years, had a farm in Arkansas, two different farms.
4:15
Speaker 3: I had three hundred and fifty two acres of the land.
4:18
Speaker 3: I had drove a truck for over twenty years and
4:21
Speaker 3: had injured my back and I wasn't working right then.
4:24
Speaker 3: So I was going to the farm and doing projects,
4:27
Speaker 3: working on the house and watching nice of the cattle
4:30
Speaker 3: and stuff like that. Kathy worked at at and t
4:33
Speaker 3: for twenty eight years and two years he'd have her
4:37
Speaker 3: time in horse she could retire regardless of age. And
4:40
Speaker 3: that's what was waiting on and was moving back to targets
4:44
Speaker 3: all for good.
4:45
Speaker 2: And let's get into how this came to pass. So
4:49
Speaker 2: let's go back to February twelfth, nineteen ninety and just
4:52
Speaker 2: to set the stage here, you had been at your
4:54
Speaker 2: place at Arkansas and you brought a handgun that you
4:59
Speaker 2: owned back to Missouri with you. But meanwhile you had
5:02
Speaker 2: been feeling sick, but no one knew at the time
5:06
Speaker 2: that you or anybody that you were really seriously ill
5:08
Speaker 2: at this point, is that right?
5:10
Speaker 3: Right? And I was sick for left Arkansas, and when
5:14
Speaker 3: I got back Sunday afternoon, I didn't sleep much all night.
5:18
Speaker 3: So the next morning, Kathy had went to work at
5:21
Speaker 3: at and T, and I unloaded the rest of my
5:25
Speaker 3: truck and brought the gun in the house. It had
5:28
Speaker 3: been in Arkansas since i'd went to Colorado Elcott in
5:31
Speaker 3: the fall before, and there's a big snow and rain
5:35
Speaker 3: and stuff in Colorado and it got wet, so I
5:38
Speaker 3: picked it up and brought it back to Missouri. I
5:41
Speaker 3: was aim to clean it and when I got it
5:43
Speaker 3: out of the truck, I went in the house and
5:45
Speaker 3: sat down. I called Kathy at work, and she asked
5:48
Speaker 3: me how I was feeling. I said about the same.
5:51
Speaker 3: I wasn't feeling good, and I sat in a recliner
5:54
Speaker 3: and I went to sleep. And I'd never cleaned the gun.
5:57
Speaker 3: So the next thing I knew, she was already home,
6:02
Speaker 3: and she had picked up the gun out of the
6:04
Speaker 3: towel and had the gun lean on and she was
6:07
Speaker 3: upset that somebody had told her that I was having
6:11
Speaker 3: an affair with a woman, which was true, but it
6:15
Speaker 3: had been over for three years. And she walked over
6:18
Speaker 3: to the phone in the dining room to call the woman.
6:22
Speaker 3: So I got up and Daisy, and next thing I know,
6:25
Speaker 3: the tragedy had happened.
6:28
Speaker 2: And the tragedy that had happened is the matter of
6:31
Speaker 2: this dispute between the Middletons and the state. Now, Ken
6:34
Speaker 2: maintained his innocence in the matter, that this was a
6:37
Speaker 2: tragic accident in which Kathy visibly upset about the news
6:40
Speaker 2: of this affair, and on her way to the phone
6:43
Speaker 2: to confront your alleged mistress, Kathy was holding the gun
6:47
Speaker 2: in her left hand. And accidentally shot herself on the
6:51
Speaker 2: left side of her forehead, splattering blood all over the wall.
6:55
Speaker 2: This version of events is supported by the ballistics and
6:59
Speaker 2: all the other physical evidence. And then there's what the
7:01
Speaker 2: state wants everyone to believe. Right, bear with me, because
7:04
Speaker 2: this is nuts. That Ken had somehow held Kathy up
7:07
Speaker 2: against the wall and shot her in the face, but
7:11
Speaker 2: somehow miraculously was able to be completely clear of blood
7:16
Speaker 2: spatter or gunshot residue, not a trace on him. And
7:20
Speaker 2: we'll get into all of that a bit later. So
7:22
Speaker 2: back to this terrible tragedy. A gunshot rang out and
7:27
Speaker 2: Kathy was on the floor in a pool of blood.
7:30
Speaker 2: What a nightmare? Ken? What happened next?
7:33
Speaker 3: I'd seen her on the floor and grabbed a gun
7:35
Speaker 3: and put it on the table and call nine one
7:38
Speaker 3: one immediately. I asked for the paramedics, and I'd called
7:42
Speaker 3: him three times within a short period of time, and
7:45
Speaker 3: wanting to know who the paramedics was. And the third time,
7:48
Speaker 3: the operator told me to go outside, that the paramedics
7:53
Speaker 3: were there. And I looked out, and I told her
7:56
Speaker 3: that I'd looked out and there wasn't nobody out there,
7:58
Speaker 3: and she convinced me to go outside that they were there.
8:02
Speaker 3: So I went out and the first thing I seen
8:04
Speaker 3: was a coppole behind the wall, screaming at me to
8:08
Speaker 3: get my hands in the air and turn around with
8:11
Speaker 3: my back to him at his gun pointed at me.
8:15
Speaker 3: And I'd done as he said, and he'd come up
8:17
Speaker 3: behind me and searched me. I wanted to know where
8:20
Speaker 3: the paramedics were, and he ordered me back in the house,
8:25
Speaker 3: and we went back in the house and he went
8:27
Speaker 3: in and checked on my wife, and I was just hysterical,
8:31
Speaker 3: and I guess I was down on my knees, and
8:34
Speaker 3: he jerked me up, and when he'd done that fast,
8:37
Speaker 3: I become dizzy, real dizzy, and I thought I was
8:40
Speaker 3: ain't a blackout, So I said it was AMD be six,
8:44
Speaker 3: and I went down the hall to the bathroom and
8:46
Speaker 3: I went in and splashed water on my face, and
8:49
Speaker 3: then he took me outside and I had a real
8:51
Speaker 3: bad hurting in my left arm and chest.
8:55
Speaker 2: Now, when the paramedics arrived, they determined, Kenny, you would
8:58
Speaker 2: have been hyperventilating, complaining of chess planes and blood pressure
9:02
Speaker 2: was going crazy, and they convinced you to go to
9:05
Speaker 2: the hospital for an examination.
9:07
Speaker 3: They taught me to go into the hospital, and they
9:10
Speaker 3: took me to three medical hospitals, and then on the
9:12
Speaker 3: third one, I was forced in a mental hospital till
9:15
Speaker 3: the next day.
9:16
Speaker 2: They later tried to say that you had checked into
9:19
Speaker 2: that mental hospital to try to get away with murder
9:21
Speaker 2: claim by claiming insanity defense. But we're getting ahead of
9:24
Speaker 2: ourselves here, and let's not leave out the fact that
9:27
Speaker 2: your dad was in and out of consciousness on his
9:29
Speaker 2: way to the hospital. And they took an EKG at
9:32
Speaker 2: the hospital and it showed that Ken, that you had
9:34
Speaker 2: recently suffered from a heart attack. Now here's another thing
9:38
Speaker 2: that I have trouble understanding or processing. The officers didn't
9:43
Speaker 2: write their statements until days later, and they did it
9:48
Speaker 2: by memory, right, And these statements that were taken from
9:50
Speaker 2: a hysterical man who had to be rushed to the
9:52
Speaker 2: hospital talking about you, of course, Ken, who was just
9:54
Speaker 2: trying to help figure out what happened, So the officers
9:58
Speaker 2: didn't bother to write it down.
10:00
Speaker 1: There were a couple police reports that were handwritten out
10:04
Speaker 1: that day, but the official reports that I have reviewed
10:10
Speaker 1: were written on I believe it was February twenty first,
10:15
Speaker 1: and Kathy died on the twelfth.
10:17
Speaker 2: Now, in researching this case, I saw in the police
10:22
Speaker 2: reports where they kept on documenting instances in which Ken
10:25
Speaker 2: allegedly had done something with his hands, Like he mentioned
10:28
Speaker 2: splashing water on its face, right, They wrote down another
10:32
Speaker 2: instance where they said he wiped his hands on a door,
10:35
Speaker 2: touched dirt in a potted plant, and the implication is
10:39
Speaker 2: that Ken was trying to somehow wash away the gunshot residue.
10:44
Speaker 1: There's a picture the Independence News Examiner paper took of
10:49
Speaker 1: my father out there on the front stoop, leaning over
10:53
Speaker 1: that potter plant, sobbing, and the two paramedics are consoling him.
11:00
Speaker 1: It's very obvious that he was in a state of
11:04
Speaker 1: shock and hysteria. First of all, you already claimed he
11:09
Speaker 1: was washing his hands when he splashed water on his face.
11:12
Speaker 1: It's crazy to think that somebody's trying to wash their
11:15
Speaker 1: hands in the dirt. Unless you've been involved in something
11:18
Speaker 1: like this, How would you even know what a gunshot
11:21
Speaker 1: residue test is, especially in nineteen ninety Jayson, maybe today
11:25
Speaker 1: with crime shows and things, but he didn't know what
11:29
Speaker 1: they were testing him for.
11:31
Speaker 3: They took my shirt, undershirt and clothes and shoes and all,
11:35
Speaker 3: and they did test it and to come back negative.
11:37
Speaker 3: No blood or nothing on my lone sleeve shirt. And
11:40
Speaker 3: that picture in the front high of a house when
11:43
Speaker 3: I was over the stoop shows the long sleeve shirt
11:46
Speaker 3: down to my risk, there was no blood, no gunshots
11:49
Speaker 3: on it.
11:50
Speaker 2: Right, and as the evidence clearly shows, she was shot
11:53
Speaker 2: from very close range, less than a foot away, and
11:56
Speaker 2: there's no way you can do that without being covered
11:59
Speaker 2: in blood and gunshot residue. But you weren't because you
12:03
Speaker 2: didn't kill her. And Kathy's gunshot residue test would likely
12:08
Speaker 2: have corroborated Ken's version of events and shown that this
12:11
Speaker 2: was a tragic accident, not a homicide. Cliff, can you
12:14
Speaker 2: explain what I mean by that?
12:16
Speaker 1: They swabbed both of her hands that day four gunshot
12:21
Speaker 1: residue and the prime document that they fill out shows
12:26
Speaker 1: that they swabbed both hands, right and left hands, and
12:31
Speaker 1: it shows they used two different kits to do that,
12:34
Speaker 1: one for the right hand and one for the left hand. Well,
12:37
Speaker 1: the next day when the coroner did the autopsy, the
12:41
Speaker 1: corner ruled it a homicide based on what the police
12:45
Speaker 1: were telling him, unless other information come forward to prove otherwise.
12:52
Speaker 1: Now that gunshot residue was important information and took him
12:57
Speaker 1: nine days to turn the gunshot residue samples into the
13:02
Speaker 1: crime lab. And when they turned them into the crime lab,
13:06
Speaker 1: the document was altered to show only one kit and
13:12
Speaker 1: the left hand was wided out to show they only
13:15
Speaker 1: tested the right hand when she was shot from eight
13:19
Speaker 1: to twelve inches away on the left side of her head.
13:22
Speaker 2: You really have to see this to believe it. And
13:25
Speaker 2: we're going to link pictures of this in our episode
13:27
Speaker 2: filed because I'm looking at it right now and i
13:31
Speaker 2: still can't believe that I'm actually looking at what I'm
13:34
Speaker 2: looking at. Okay. So, the test of Kathy's left hand,
13:39
Speaker 2: the one in which she would have held the gun
13:41
Speaker 2: in order to shoot herself, the test of that hand
13:46
Speaker 2: disappeared or it wasn't tested on purpose. There's only two possibilities.
13:52
Speaker 2: The crime lab document that should have been for both
13:55
Speaker 2: of her hands was altered with whiteout. Okay, remember white out,
14:01
Speaker 2: it's unreal. This is like to show that only her
14:05
Speaker 2: right hand had been tested, and this is reinforced when
14:08
Speaker 2: you compare it with the GSR test document for Ken
14:11
Speaker 2: in the same handwriting okay, get ready for this, it
14:15
Speaker 2: states quote number of articles two GSR test kits for
14:20
Speaker 2: right and left hands end quote. But then on Kathy's
14:24
Speaker 2: GSR test document, in the same exact handwriting, it says,
14:28
Speaker 2: quote number of articles and whatever was there is white
14:33
Speaker 2: it out right, just white it out, and the number
14:37
Speaker 2: one is at its place, and then it reads quote
14:40
Speaker 2: gunshot residue for right end quote, followed by another gob
14:45
Speaker 2: of white out and the word hand. So in all
14:49
Speaker 2: likelihood the white out is simply covering the words and left,
14:53
Speaker 2: as it would have been in a request for testing
14:55
Speaker 2: of both right and left hands, where now only one
14:59
Speaker 2: test for her right hand exists and the one that
15:03
Speaker 2: really matters the left hand is missing.
15:07
Speaker 3: Later on, after us convicted years later, we took their
15:10
Speaker 3: deposition and Jeff Rodgers that wrote the report out, he
15:15
Speaker 3: swore that he didn't put the white out on that
15:18
Speaker 3: because it's on green paper, and he said that he
15:21
Speaker 3: wouldn't have whited it out, he'd have just filled out
15:23
Speaker 3: a new report. And we got Dave Link, the one
15:26
Speaker 3: that took it to the lab nine days later. He
15:29
Speaker 3: swore up and down that he didn't do it, and
15:32
Speaker 3: he was asked did he always take both hands of
15:36
Speaker 3: a close gunshot residue test. He said yes. My attorney
15:41
Speaker 3: asking years later in ninety seven, always, and he said absolutely.
15:46
Speaker 2: They whited out the left hand, and they whited out
15:50
Speaker 2: the number of articles. I mean, somebody literally just took
15:54
Speaker 2: white out.
15:55
Speaker 1: Yeah, the left hand. If it would have come back positive,
15:58
Speaker 1: it would have been powerful, full evidence that she accidentally
16:03
Speaker 1: fired the gun herself. Our attorney told us that if
16:07
Speaker 1: that left hand come back positive, the coroner would have
16:10
Speaker 1: changed his findings and they wouldn't have had a case
16:13
Speaker 1: against my father. It all would have ended right there.
16:28
Speaker 2: This episode is underwritten by AIG, a leading global insurance company.
16:33
Speaker 2: AIG is committed to corporate social responsibility and is making
16:36
Speaker 2: a positive difference in the lives of its employees and
16:39
Speaker 2: in the communities where we work and live. In light
16:42
Speaker 2: of the compelling need for pro bono legal assistance, and
16:45
Speaker 2: in recognition of AIG's commitment to criminal and social justice reform,
16:49
Speaker 2: the AIG pro Bono Program provides free legal services and
16:53
Speaker 2: other support to underrepresented communities and individuals. Now, this is
17:03
Speaker 2: a small town police department. My understanding is there hadn't
17:06
Speaker 2: been a homicide investigation in almost a decade. These people
17:10
Speaker 2: were not up to the task, and they started making
17:14
Speaker 2: mistakes more or less as soon as they walked into
17:16
Speaker 2: the house.
17:17
Speaker 1: Yes, yes, And like so many other cases, I believe
17:20
Speaker 1: the police immediately focused on my father and had tunnel
17:24
Speaker 1: vision as they began to investigate this case. I'll start
17:29
Speaker 1: with the fact that they took photos that day of
17:34
Speaker 1: the alleged crime scene, and the photos allegedly did not
17:40
Speaker 1: come out, and after Kathy's body was removed, they went
17:46
Speaker 1: back and restaged the crime scene and took new photos.
17:51
Speaker 1: By the time they'd done this, my stepmother had already
17:54
Speaker 1: been taken out of the house, and the fire department
17:58
Speaker 1: had actually been called in to cut sheet rock out
18:01
Speaker 1: of the wall with blood spatter and things, and so
18:05
Speaker 1: the new pictures they took the sheet rock was already
18:08
Speaker 1: cut out, and they had drawn a diagram of the
18:13
Speaker 1: dining room where this happened, and the diagram didn't match
18:18
Speaker 1: the pictures. They had moved the dining room table all
18:22
Speaker 1: the way up against the wall to make it appear
18:25
Speaker 1: that there was a bigger area there when she was shot.
18:30
Speaker 2: Right to make room for this alleged struggle that never
18:33
Speaker 2: even happened. When she went to use the phone.
18:36
Speaker 1: In every picture they took of this small dining room,
18:39
Speaker 1: they missed that phone, Jason by a quarter of an inch.
18:43
Speaker 1: Another mistake that was made that day at the crime scene.
18:47
Speaker 1: According to the police reports, they unclothed my stepmother naked
18:54
Speaker 1: right there on the dining room floor and folded her
18:58
Speaker 1: clothes up and put them in bags and transported her
19:02
Speaker 1: to the morgue naked for them to unclothe her and
19:06
Speaker 1: alter any evidence that could have been gathered from that. Now,
19:11
Speaker 1: that goes against every protocol of any police department anywhere.
19:16
Speaker 3: Best I remember, the medical examiner said she'd come in
19:19
Speaker 3: fully clothing, So what they actually done was recloser before
19:24
Speaker 3: the medical examiner.
19:25
Speaker 1: Examiner, that's exactly right. What the medical examiner reported didn't
19:31
Speaker 1: match the police reports. They unclothed her and at some
19:34
Speaker 1: point reclothed her.
19:37
Speaker 2: So they mishandled the scene, and the evidence altered or disappeared.
19:41
Speaker 2: The key gunshot resident detest to Kathy's left hand. And
19:44
Speaker 2: then they arrested you, and eventually you got out un bond,
19:47
Speaker 2: And even that was kind of odd, right.
19:50
Speaker 3: Prosecutor Peters agreed to ten thousand, and he put a
19:54
Speaker 3: restriction on my bond. It says not to dispose of
19:59
Speaker 3: any marital or jointly held property without the permission of
20:03
Speaker 3: the prosecute attorney in the probate court.
20:06
Speaker 1: You got the State of Missouri coming after you with
20:09
Speaker 1: unlimited resources, and your life and liberty is on the line.
20:15
Speaker 1: My dad should have had access to every dime he
20:19
Speaker 1: had to save his life.
20:21
Speaker 2: Right, And this also gets us to a crazy part
20:23
Speaker 2: of this whole story. So while you're facing Prosecutor Patrick
20:27
Speaker 2: Peters in this criminal trial against you, there's also a
20:30
Speaker 2: wrongful death civil suit filed against you by Kathy's sisters.
20:35
Speaker 2: And get this, Prosecutor Peters's father is part of the
20:42
Speaker 2: law firm behind that civil suit, so stands to benefit
20:48
Speaker 2: from the outcome. And of course you didn't even know
20:51
Speaker 2: that at the time.
20:53
Speaker 3: They had concealed it, and they had said that he
20:55
Speaker 3: had convinced them and he would convict me, and the
20:59
Speaker 3: law firm would help keep me in prison.
21:02
Speaker 1: I'd like to point out that the Blue Springs Police Department,
21:06
Speaker 1: city attorney for Blue Springs was also in the same
21:10
Speaker 1: law firm as the prosecutor's father, So you had a
21:14
Speaker 1: triangle of a conflict of interest here that was hidden
21:18
Speaker 1: from everyone.
21:20
Speaker 2: Every time we do an episode, I always think I've
21:22
Speaker 2: heard it all, I could say, even after doing two
21:24
Speaker 2: hundred and fifty episodes of this show, I've never heard
21:27
Speaker 2: of that the prosecutor refers the family of the woman
21:32
Speaker 2: who died to his own father's law firm. Now everybody's compromised, right,
21:38
Speaker 2: because now there's a whole nother motive for them to
21:41
Speaker 2: want to convict you of this crime so that everybody
21:44
Speaker 2: can make money.
21:45
Speaker 1: And they ultimately got a one point three five million
21:49
Speaker 1: dollar default wrongful debt judgment against my father.
21:53
Speaker 2: So now there's been this litany of errors, misconduct, malfeasans
21:58
Speaker 2: straight up insanity. I'm going to call it what it is,
22:00
Speaker 2: it's insanity. And now finally it's time for the trial.
22:05
Speaker 2: It's February nineteen ninety one, a year after the incident.
22:09
Speaker 1: Basically, the cross of the States case against my dad
22:13
Speaker 1: was that he held her up against the wall and
22:16
Speaker 1: shot her from a foot away from her face.
22:19
Speaker 3: The prosecutor put on his so called experts, saying that
22:23
Speaker 3: she was two inches away from the wall and that
22:26
Speaker 3: I had my arm across her chest and held her
22:30
Speaker 3: up against the wall and shot her and blood experts
22:33
Speaker 3: admitted that he had a week's training and he.
22:36
Speaker 1: Self taught he had taken a forty hour course on
22:40
Speaker 1: blood spatter evidence. That's all the training that their expert had.
22:45
Speaker 2: These quote unquote experts had a forty hour training course
22:48
Speaker 2: that doesn't actually teach you anything except how to act
22:50
Speaker 2: like you know what you're talking about in court pretty much, right.
22:53
Speaker 3: But he didn't tell that there was no gun shot
22:56
Speaker 3: residue on my hands or long sleeve shirt, or blood
22:59
Speaker 3: or not the nails on my lone sleeve shirt.
23:02
Speaker 1: And they said he put a bootprint on the wall,
23:05
Speaker 1: which was false. It had been there weeks prior, and
23:09
Speaker 1: in order for that bootprint to get there, his leg
23:13
Speaker 1: would have had to have bent backwards at the knee
23:15
Speaker 1: and hyper extended in order to put that bootprint there.
23:19
Speaker 2: Right, you have this bootprint that was physically impossible to
23:23
Speaker 2: have been made in this scenario. But you know what,
23:26
Speaker 2: none of it freaking matters. Why they could have produced
23:30
Speaker 2: any other made up nonsense to try to support their theory.
23:34
Speaker 2: But without Ken being covered in blood and GSR, it's
23:38
Speaker 2: all pure drivel. Blood in GSR has to be present
23:42
Speaker 2: for us to even entertain these bullshit footprints, not to
23:47
Speaker 2: mention the analysis from Bob Tressel, the renowned forensic crime investigator,
23:51
Speaker 2: that further clarifies just how bogus the state's theory was.
23:55
Speaker 2: We'll get into all of that a bit later, but
23:58
Speaker 2: unfortunately Ken didn't benefit from Bob Restol's testimony or any
24:01
Speaker 2: of this being pointed out at the original trial. Ken's attorney,
24:04
Speaker 2: Bob Duncan, couldn't be bothered to do an investigation, not
24:09
Speaker 2: even a thorough examination of the gun. Cliff what else
24:13
Speaker 2: did the state present?
24:14
Speaker 1: They also put on evidence that the gun would take
24:19
Speaker 1: ten pounds of pressure I believe it was without the
24:21
Speaker 1: hammer pulled three and a half pounds with the hammer pulled. Well,
24:25
Speaker 1: the gun needed to be examined in the exact state
24:29
Speaker 1: it was found in, and it wasn't. They had dismantled
24:32
Speaker 1: it and put it back together before testing it, so
24:35
Speaker 1: if there was any problems with the gun, they fixed
24:37
Speaker 1: it when they put it back together. Bob Duncan was
24:41
Speaker 1: asleep at the wheel, if you will, and had none
24:44
Speaker 1: of the physical evidence examined by an expert, and hadn't
24:47
Speaker 1: interviewed any witnesses. He was totally unprepared for the case
24:52
Speaker 1: to even go to trial.
24:53
Speaker 2: Did I hear this correctly? That he didn't even make
24:55
Speaker 2: an opening statement.
24:57
Speaker 1: He reserved one and he forgot to give it.
25:00
Speaker 3: I couldn't get him to do nothing. They didn't see
25:02
Speaker 3: nothing about the gunshot was do not one word of
25:06
Speaker 3: them with lighting that document out. They never seen it.
25:09
Speaker 1: Without a proper defense, you're out there, mercy.
25:12
Speaker 3: Years later, in ninety five and ninety six, he gave
25:16
Speaker 3: me three affi davids of what he had failed to do.
25:20
Speaker 3: This is my trial attorney, Robert Duncan. I did not
25:23
Speaker 3: have any physical evidence in the case examined by a
25:27
Speaker 3: forensic expert, other than to speak to a gun expert
25:30
Speaker 3: about the gun. But I did not have him examine
25:33
Speaker 3: the gun. And then he gave another affidavit and he said, father,
25:39
Speaker 3: I believe my ability to defend mister Middleton was impaired
25:42
Speaker 3: because I wasn't given information of the connection between the
25:47
Speaker 3: police department, the prosecutor, and the civil claims against mister
25:52
Speaker 3: Middleton seeking a substantial monetary recovery. This information, if for
25:57
Speaker 3: no other purpose, would have been admits as impeachment evidence
26:02
Speaker 3: showing the bias of the police and some of the witnesses.
26:06
Speaker 2: So Kathy's sister, Mildred Anderson, gave false testimony for the
26:09
Speaker 2: prosecution to show motive that Ken had secret assets in
26:13
Speaker 2: Arkansas that no one in the family was aware of.
26:15
Speaker 2: And we know this is just another lie because Mildred
26:18
Speaker 2: Anderson later said she admitted that she and the rest
26:21
Speaker 2: of the family actually did know about all of the
26:23
Speaker 2: assets before Kathy's death, which is a clear cut example
26:28
Speaker 2: of perjury.
26:29
Speaker 3: Which in Missouri in a murder case, that's a class
26:32
Speaker 3: A felony. Intact Peters colluded with her because Peter's put
26:36
Speaker 3: it in the question would be simple for her says, quote,
26:40
Speaker 3: quite a bit of holdings down in Arkansas that you
26:44
Speaker 3: and your family, including your sister, were unaware of. She says, yes.
26:50
Speaker 1: It should also be mentioned Jason that after the sisters
26:55
Speaker 1: testified to that, the prosecutor instructed the police depart meant
27:00
Speaker 1: to release eighteen thousand, seven hundred dollars worth of jewelry
27:04
Speaker 1: that was confiscated out of the house to the witness.
27:08
Speaker 1: So not only was it perjury, she was rewarded with
27:11
Speaker 1: eighteen thousand, seven hundred dollars worth of jewelry, and then.
27:15
Speaker 3: Eight years later on March at twenty fifth to ninety nine,
27:19
Speaker 3: Mildred Anderson gave foreign testimony entered Arkansas lawsuit against Kenneth
27:24
Speaker 3: Middleton which show she clearly perjured herself in nineteen ninety
27:27
Speaker 3: one and her sister coaborated it.
27:31
Speaker 2: Wow, okay, So I got to ask about what must
27:35
Speaker 2: have been the worst day all of your life, which
27:38
Speaker 2: of course is the day that the jury went out
27:40
Speaker 2: for a freaking hour and came back in and sentenced
27:44
Speaker 2: you to life without parole plus two hundred years.
27:48
Speaker 3: Well, I don't know how to describe it, but I
27:51
Speaker 3: was in chock, and until this happened, I never spent
27:54
Speaker 3: a day in jail in my life. And take you
27:57
Speaker 3: from being free in the country and working all my
28:01
Speaker 3: life to tow you in a cage is unbelievable. I
28:05
Speaker 3: can't explain.
28:07
Speaker 1: Growing up as a kid, I would have never in
28:10
Speaker 1: a million years dreamed that what happened to my dad
28:13
Speaker 1: would have happened to him. He just was, you know,
28:18
Speaker 1: a great father. He's been more of a father to
28:22
Speaker 1: me behind bars than most kids could ask for from
28:26
Speaker 1: a father on the street. And it was devastating to
28:31
Speaker 1: our whole family.
28:49
Speaker 2: So now we moved to the post conviction and there's
28:51
Speaker 2: still more insanity to come. So it's nineteen ninety two
28:55
Speaker 2: and your repellent attorney is a man named Gerald Handley
28:58
Speaker 2: who was recommended by Bob. Well, that's not a good sign.
29:02
Speaker 2: And one of the first things we come to is
29:04
Speaker 2: that what's called the twenty nine to fifteen appeal, Cliff,
29:07
Speaker 2: can you explain that to us and get us started here?
29:10
Speaker 1: After trial, the first appeal that you have in the
29:14
Speaker 1: state of Missouri is your post conviction twenty nine to fifteen.
29:17
Speaker 1: Twenty nine to fifteen is an appeal that's filed back
29:20
Speaker 1: in front of the trial judge to evaluate your trial
29:24
Speaker 1: to make sure that you had a fair trial. That's
29:27
Speaker 1: where you bring your ineffective assistance of council issues if
29:30
Speaker 1: you have any. So you have ninety days to do
29:34
Speaker 1: that in Missouri or you don't get that hearing on
29:37
Speaker 1: ineffective assistance a council. And that's right back in front
29:40
Speaker 1: of the very trial judge that just set on your
29:43
Speaker 1: trial and convicted you. So you got a high burden
29:47
Speaker 1: to meet there, right, you got to prove that you
29:49
Speaker 1: had an unfair trial and your attorney didn't do his job.
29:53
Speaker 1: Our appellent attorney at that time had a ninety day
29:57
Speaker 1: window to file an amended petition for DA and get
30:00
Speaker 1: all of his issues in the appeal. He never met
30:04
Speaker 1: with my dad, never went over any of the issues,
30:07
Speaker 1: which the law requires him to do. And at the
30:10
Speaker 1: last minute, before the ninety days was up and you
30:13
Speaker 1: could get no extensions, my dad gets a letter from
30:18
Speaker 1: his attorney telling him to sign this affidavit that all
30:22
Speaker 1: of his issues are in the amended petition, even though
30:25
Speaker 1: my dad had never seen the petition. And if you
30:28
Speaker 1: didn't sign that affidavit and have it with your amended
30:31
Speaker 1: petition when you filed it, you were out. You couldn't
30:34
Speaker 1: even get a twenty nine to fifteen hearing. So my
30:37
Speaker 1: dad had to sign it and at least hope that
30:40
Speaker 1: his attorney was going to put all of his issues
30:43
Speaker 1: in it. Well, we had to do a lot of
30:45
Speaker 1: fanagulon to get that affidavit to him before Monday, and
30:49
Speaker 1: when we got it to him on Monday, Gerald Hanley
30:52
Speaker 1: filed a three page motion on my dad's life, procedurally
30:58
Speaker 1: defaulting all of his issues on a pial. So because
31:02
Speaker 1: that attorney procedurally defaulted all of his issues, the facts
31:06
Speaker 1: and the merits of his case were never.
31:08
Speaker 3: Heard, and when we went to the evidentiary hearing, I
31:11
Speaker 3: had nine witnesses out in the hallway. When I got
31:15
Speaker 3: to the courthouse, the witnesses that knew Pat Peters through
31:19
Speaker 3: trial seen Pat Peters talking to the uniform guard, and
31:24
Speaker 3: the guard took a post at the door and wouldn't
31:27
Speaker 3: let none of my witnesses in the courtroom. I didn't
31:31
Speaker 3: know what happened to himuntil I got back to the
31:33
Speaker 3: jail and made some calls. Peters called Duncan to the
31:37
Speaker 3: stand and Duncan testified this basically, answering Peter's questions, said
31:42
Speaker 3: I checked himself into the hospital. Well, I shake him
31:45
Speaker 3: the head. It was a lie because I was forced
31:47
Speaker 3: in that mental hospital.
31:48
Speaker 1: One of the records that Bob Duncan didn't get was
31:51
Speaker 1: the medical records from the mental ward. The prosecution's theory
31:55
Speaker 1: was that it was trial strategy for Duncan to not
31:59
Speaker 1: get the medical records, because the prosecution had a witness
32:03
Speaker 1: that would have said Dad told him, if you want
32:07
Speaker 1: to get away with murder, you check yourself into a
32:09
Speaker 1: mental ward after you do it. So Judge Messina agreed
32:13
Speaker 1: and said, yeah, that's not ineffective assistance and counsel. He
32:17
Speaker 1: didn't get them records because he voluntarily checked hisself into
32:20
Speaker 1: a mental ward. Well that wasn't true, but Gerald Hanley
32:24
Speaker 1: never got the records either, so the judge never knew.
32:28
Speaker 2: This, and so the hearing ended and no witness is recalled,
32:31
Speaker 2: no expert testimony was given, and no evidence was presented
32:35
Speaker 2: to refute the state. Gerald Hanley ended up being, and
32:39
Speaker 2: this is hard to believe, but he ended up being
32:42
Speaker 2: just as disinterested as Bob Duncan was before. And so predictably,
32:46
Speaker 2: Judge Messina rejected your twenty nine to fifteen appeal. It's insane.
32:51
Speaker 2: It's not because the appeal wasn'tvalid. It's because the lawyers
32:54
Speaker 2: didn't do their freaking jobs. And according to the law
32:56
Speaker 2: at that time, the trial courts jurisdiction over your case ended.
33:01
Speaker 2: So Cliff, eventually you all get a new attorney, Jonathan Lawrence,
33:05
Speaker 2: and there's a new law that gave you and your
33:07
Speaker 2: dad some hope, or maybe false hopes, but some positive
33:12
Speaker 2: things came about, nonetheless, So can you tell us what
33:15
Speaker 2: happened next?
33:16
Speaker 1: In two thousand and one, a law come down that
33:19
Speaker 1: give courts the opportunity to reevaluate cases. If you could
33:24
Speaker 1: prove your twenty nine to fifteen attorney Gerald Hanley abandoned
33:29
Speaker 1: you on your twenty nine to fifteen the trial courts
33:32
Speaker 1: could look at your case again. So my dad had
33:35
Speaker 1: done all this research on this and had done everything,
33:39
Speaker 1: and we took it to Jonathan Lawrence, and Jonathan Lawrence
33:44
Speaker 1: at first didn't think we could do it, but once
33:46
Speaker 1: he read the case law, he said, yeah, I believe
33:48
Speaker 1: we can. So Jonathan Lawrence got involved and filed an
33:53
Speaker 1: eighty one page motion and convinced Judge Messina, who denied
33:58
Speaker 1: us back in ninety two, reopened my father's case, and
34:02
Speaker 1: she held a two day evidentiary hearing in two thousand
34:06
Speaker 1: and four.
34:07
Speaker 2: And you finally have an attorney here who can do
34:10
Speaker 2: justice in your father's case, who gathered and presented some
34:13
Speaker 2: powerful expert testimony, including from investigator Chuck Gay, who had
34:17
Speaker 2: been at the courthouse for the nineteen ninety two hearing
34:21
Speaker 2: but had been prevented from entering the courtroom. Now he
34:25
Speaker 2: finally had a chance to speak.
34:27
Speaker 1: Chuck Gay was a twenty five year police officer in
34:30
Speaker 1: Long Beach, California. He had actually talked to the FBI
34:34
Speaker 1: in different courses on crime scene investigation, and he testified
34:39
Speaker 1: to the crime scene photos not coming out. You can't
34:44
Speaker 1: restage a crime scene. That's absurd, unclothing her at the scene,
34:50
Speaker 1: all of these things. Crime scene preservation is what Chuck
34:54
Speaker 1: Gay testified to and how improper it was. The gunshot
34:59
Speaker 1: residue was a real big one with him. We found
35:02
Speaker 1: out a little more about the green document. See, you
35:05
Speaker 1: have to realize before trial, when they give us that
35:08
Speaker 1: green document, it was just a copy, so it was
35:12
Speaker 1: on white paper. We really didn't know what it said underneath,
35:16
Speaker 1: but we knew something was wrong because the left hand
35:19
Speaker 1: was missing. And when our investigator after the trial went
35:24
Speaker 1: to go investigate that, the crime lab said, we didn't
35:28
Speaker 1: do that. They said, these are our documents. We use greenout.
35:34
Speaker 1: So they were pointing the finger at the police. They
35:36
Speaker 1: knew that that wasn't right. There was no initials or
35:41
Speaker 1: anything that would indicate who did it or why they
35:45
Speaker 1: did it. Myself and our attorney in twenty sixteen went
35:49
Speaker 1: to the crime lab and got this document and him
35:53
Speaker 1: and I both held it up to the light and
35:56
Speaker 1: you could see underneath the white out on the number
36:00
Speaker 1: of articles, and then underneath the other wide out off
36:03
Speaker 1: to the side, you could see the word left. And
36:07
Speaker 1: he give us an affidavit that that was the worst
36:10
Speaker 1: alteration of official documents he had ever seen in thirty
36:14
Speaker 1: two years I believe of practicing law.
36:16
Speaker 2: And you also had testimony from a ballistics expert proving
36:21
Speaker 2: that the scenario presented by the state was physically impossible.
36:26
Speaker 2: And this guy was no slouching. He had overseen over
36:29
Speaker 2: eight hundred investigations, and importantly he had been an expert
36:34
Speaker 2: for both prosecution and defense. And of course the guy
36:37
Speaker 2: I'm referring to is Bob Trestle.
36:40
Speaker 4: I'm Bob Trestle. I'm a forensic crime scene investigator. When
36:45
Speaker 4: I first looked at the case, the bullet was found
36:48
Speaker 4: across the room after it had struck the doorframe, ricocheted
36:52
Speaker 4: up to the ceiling and over to on the other
36:54
Speaker 4: side of the dining room. So we began looking at
36:58
Speaker 4: the angles that the bullet hook in striking the doorframe
37:02
Speaker 4: exiting the doorframe. Their lab came up with what we
37:06
Speaker 4: call a muzzle to target, or the barrel of the whip,
37:09
Speaker 4: it having to be approximately eight inches from her face,
37:12
Speaker 4: where the bullet entered, So then we started looking at
37:15
Speaker 4: the gun. The gun's the three fifty seven magnum. You
37:18
Speaker 4: get the length of the barrel, chamber and the grip area,
37:22
Speaker 4: so although the barrel's eight inches from her face, the
37:26
Speaker 4: gun is almost fourteen inches and total length away from
37:30
Speaker 4: her face. And then we started looking at the wounds themselves.
37:34
Speaker 4: Pretty well, a straight shot gunshot when with little deviation
37:39
Speaker 4: on the upward or downward plane, and with the bullet
37:42
Speaker 4: not deviating very much right or left, the shot had
37:45
Speaker 4: come from directly in front of her the upper trajectory.
37:49
Speaker 4: Because we know where it strikes on the wall and
37:51
Speaker 4: then Rick shaves off, we know it's going upward, so
37:54
Speaker 4: she has to have her upper body bent over or
37:57
Speaker 4: her head bent over towards the table order to receive
38:00
Speaker 4: that gunshot one and there's only about two feet distance
38:05
Speaker 4: between the table and the walls, and so you've got
38:08
Speaker 4: to get two people almost directly in front of each other.
38:11
Speaker 4: But the gun's got to be held way down low,
38:14
Speaker 4: and in order to get the distances that we saw,
38:18
Speaker 4: the gun has got to be almost on top of
38:20
Speaker 4: the table. So where can the shooter be at that
38:23
Speaker 4: point when we finally did all the calculations in order
38:27
Speaker 4: for someone to be directly in front of her, if
38:29
Speaker 4: a shooter was the one that fired this weapon, he
38:32
Speaker 4: would have to be under the table. That makes no
38:36
Speaker 4: sense whatsoever. There's no direct forensic evidence, either by blood tissue,
38:44
Speaker 4: gunshot residue, things of that nature that indicate that Middleton
38:48
Speaker 4: fired this gun killing his wife.
38:51
Speaker 2: And so all of this powerful expert testimony has been heard.
38:54
Speaker 2: And to top it all off, there was one more
38:56
Speaker 2: witness that testified on your father's behalf former governor of Missouri. Yes,
39:02
Speaker 2: you heard that correctly. The former governor of Missouri, Joseph P. Teesdale,
39:08
Speaker 2: testified on Kensby had and he had extensive trial experience
39:11
Speaker 2: as an assistant US attorney, prosecuting attorney, and as a
39:15
Speaker 2: trial lawyer. And he testified to the quote suspect conduct
39:20
Speaker 2: of the prosecutors and the quote ineffective performance of the
39:23
Speaker 2: defense council. And at the end of the testimony, former
39:27
Speaker 2: Governor Teesdale was asked what he would have done if
39:30
Speaker 2: this case had been presented to him in his capacity
39:33
Speaker 2: as governor, and he replied that this was the worst
39:36
Speaker 2: case of constitutional violations that he had ever witnessed in
39:40
Speaker 2: forty one years of practicing law, and that he and
39:45
Speaker 2: this is a direct quote, would clearly have pardoned mister
39:48
Speaker 2: Middleton of all wrongdoing end quote.
39:52
Speaker 3: That's a strong statement.
39:55
Speaker 1: He had gotten familiar with Dad's case a few years before,
40:00
Speaker 1: and I reached out to him when we got this
40:03
Speaker 1: evidentiary hearing and asked him what his costs would be
40:07
Speaker 1: for him to come testify, and he said, I don't
40:11
Speaker 1: want any money. I want a steak dinner when your
40:13
Speaker 1: dad gets out of there. And it meant a lot
40:16
Speaker 1: to me.
40:17
Speaker 2: So, finally, this information that you've been trying to get
40:20
Speaker 2: heard for so many years, the ineffective counsel, the prosecutorial
40:24
Speaker 2: misconduct and complex of interest of botched investigation and altered reports,
40:28
Speaker 2: you're finally able to get that before the judge, and
40:31
Speaker 2: even a more conservative judge, Judge Messina, could not deny
40:35
Speaker 2: the merits of Kin's case.
40:37
Speaker 1: So this was all powerful evidence that the jury never heard.
40:41
Speaker 1: After all this evidence was put forward, Judge Messina took
40:44
Speaker 1: it under advisement and would not rule on the case
40:48
Speaker 1: for eleven more months. Two weeks after the hearing was over,
40:53
Speaker 1: the prosecutors come to my dad with an Alford plea.
40:56
Speaker 1: If he would plead to an Alford plea and plead
40:59
Speaker 1: guilty to second degree, he could walk out of prison
41:02
Speaker 1: a free man. But even though all of his appeals
41:07
Speaker 1: were exhausted and we were setting in front of very
41:10
Speaker 1: conservative judge, my father refused the offered plea. For him
41:15
Speaker 1: to turn that down with all appeals exhausted, that speaks
41:19
Speaker 1: volumes to his innocence.
41:21
Speaker 2: And on May twenty fifth, two thousand and five, Judge
41:24
Speaker 2: Messina came back and vacated Ken's nineteen ninety one conviction
41:27
Speaker 2: and granted him a new trial. So the same judge
41:30
Speaker 2: who denied him in nineteen ninety two overturned his conviction.
41:34
Speaker 1: Judge Messina found eight different points of ineffective assistance and
41:38
Speaker 1: counsel on Bob Duncan. The man had three other capital
41:42
Speaker 1: murder cases overturned at the same time he was handling
41:46
Speaker 1: my dad's case.
41:47
Speaker 2: But just six days after this incredible news, you get
41:51
Speaker 2: a huge punch to the gun.
41:52
Speaker 1: What does the Jackson County Prosecutor's office do? They appeal
41:57
Speaker 1: the decision. So if he would plead guilty after that hearing,
42:01
Speaker 1: they were willing to let him go, but when he
42:03
Speaker 1: stood by his innocence and the trial judge agreed and
42:06
Speaker 1: overturned his conviction, they appealed it. They ruled that Judge
42:10
Speaker 1: Messina didn't have jurisdiction to issue that new trial. They
42:14
Speaker 1: never got to the merits or the facts that she
42:17
Speaker 1: ruled he was wrongfully convicted in violation of his sixth
42:21
Speaker 1: Amendment right to constitutional effective representation. They never got to
42:25
Speaker 1: any of that. They just said she didn't have jurisdiction.
42:29
Speaker 2: And this is now seventeen long years ago. It's crazy.
42:34
Speaker 2: I mean, the court heard the merits of his innocence
42:39
Speaker 2: and decided he should get a new trial, but outside
42:43
Speaker 2: of the twenty nine to fifteen of pell proceedings, it
42:45
Speaker 2: was ruled that the trial court didn't have jurisdiction. So
42:47
Speaker 2: Ken has just been sitting there since two thousand and four,
42:51
Speaker 2: awaiting a miracle or a change in the law so
42:54
Speaker 2: that his case could be heard again, and that finally happened.
42:58
Speaker 2: In August of twenty one, a new law was passed
43:02
Speaker 2: in Missouri that allows a case to go before the
43:04
Speaker 2: trial judge outside of a twenty nine to fifteen hearing.
43:07
Speaker 2: So what that means is that if a prosecutor knows
43:10
Speaker 2: that a man is innocent, as the current prosecutor has
43:12
Speaker 2: implied in Ken's case, they're no longer jurisdictionally barred from
43:17
Speaker 2: doing something about it. Judge Massin has already ruled on this,
43:20
Speaker 2: and she's now an advisor to the current prosecutor Jean
43:23
Speaker 2: Peters Baker. And Baker already made use of this new
43:26
Speaker 2: law in Kevin Strickland's case in the fall of twenty
43:28
Speaker 2: twenty one. Yet strangely she has yet to act in
43:32
Speaker 2: Ken's case. It's mystifying and maddening at the same time. So, Cliff,
43:37
Speaker 2: what's going on with all of this?
43:38
Speaker 1: Now, this new law, Yes, it's about a prosecutor's right
43:43
Speaker 1: to file emotion, but it's also about a court's right
43:47
Speaker 1: to have jurisdiction to consider and hear the matter. Well,
43:50
Speaker 1: now they're given the most in court's jurisdiction, but the
43:54
Speaker 1: prosecutor has to file it. So in our case, we've
43:57
Speaker 1: already proved everything there is with this statute. This statute
44:02
Speaker 1: lays out that upon the filing of such a motion,
44:05
Speaker 1: the court shall have a hearing and issue of findings
44:10
Speaker 1: in facts and conclusions of law on all issues presented.
44:13
Speaker 1: That's exactly what Judge Messina did. So we've already been
44:18
Speaker 1: successful at securing a new trial from my father, but
44:22
Speaker 1: the only thing we didn't have was jurisdiction. Well, now
44:26
Speaker 1: this new law gives the court's jurisdiction, but the prosecutor
44:29
Speaker 1: has been reluctant to file it. So now that this
44:32
Speaker 1: new law has passed, I believe the next steps are
44:36
Speaker 1: for Jane to file emotion conceding jurisdiction. That's it. We
44:40
Speaker 1: don't need anything else from her but a one page
44:43
Speaker 1: motion conceding jurisdiction and allow a court there in Jackson
44:48
Speaker 1: County to get to the merits of the trial Judge
44:52
Speaker 1: Edith Messina's order overturning my dad's conviction.
44:56
Speaker 2: Cliff, we are our audience out there listening now. Is
44:59
Speaker 2: there some thing you'd like them to do? What can
45:01
Speaker 2: they do to help to write this horrible injustice?
45:05
Speaker 1: Yes, you'd go to our website at free Hyphenkenmiddleton dot com.
45:11
Speaker 1: There's a wealth of very compelling documents that support everything
45:16
Speaker 1: we spoke about today. If we said it today, rest assured.
45:20
Speaker 1: You can go to our website and find it, and
45:24
Speaker 1: on the homepage right up front, there's a petition asking
45:28
Speaker 1: Jean Peters Baker to abide by her oath and follow
45:32
Speaker 1: the plain language of this new Missouri statute. It's as
45:36
Speaker 1: simple as a one page motion conceding jurisdiction so that
45:40
Speaker 1: my dad can once again prove his innocence and come
45:44
Speaker 1: home to the family that waits him.
45:47
Speaker 2: Right, we'll have that linked in the bio as well
45:49
Speaker 2: as a link to Silver Creek Entertainment. I believe there's
45:53
Speaker 2: a film on the way about Ken's case, and it
45:56
Speaker 2: can't come soon enough as far as I'm concerned. You know,
45:59
Speaker 2: I'm reading and really looking forward to watching it. So
46:02
Speaker 2: check that out, click on the link in the bio.
46:05
Speaker 2: And now, guys, we have a tradition here and it's
46:07
Speaker 2: really my favorite part of the show. It's called closing arguments.
46:10
Speaker 2: And closing arguments is very simple. It works like this.
46:13
Speaker 2: I'm just gonna turn my microphone off, kick back in
46:16
Speaker 2: my chair with my headphones on. You'll try to volume
46:18
Speaker 2: up a little bit and just listen to anything else
46:21
Speaker 2: you'd like to say, anything at all you have to
46:23
Speaker 2: say to our audience. So Cliff, why don't you go first?
46:26
Speaker 2: And Ken, we'll let you close us out I'd like.
46:30
Speaker 1: To thank you for using your celebrity to bring awareness
46:34
Speaker 1: to wrong for convictions, given a voice to the voiceless.
46:38
Speaker 1: It's an amazing thing what you're doing. It's encouraging other
46:41
Speaker 1: celebrities like Kim Kardashian and John Grisham and Johnny Depp
46:46
Speaker 1: and you know a lot of others to take up
46:49
Speaker 1: the cause and stand up for justice. And so i'd
46:52
Speaker 1: like to thank you again, Jason, and now Ken over
46:55
Speaker 1: to you.
46:57
Speaker 3: Well, what I'd like to say here or that all
46:59
Speaker 3: of the people it's listening, I would appreciate it more
47:03
Speaker 3: than words can explain. Anything they can do, sign a petition,
47:08
Speaker 3: sign letters to Baker to get her to follow the statue,
47:13
Speaker 3: anything anybody can do to help it clearer and get
47:16
Speaker 3: the same justice as Kevin Strickland. God, I would appreciate
47:21
Speaker 3: it more than words can say.
47:29
Speaker 2: Thank you for listening to wrongful Conviction. I'd like to
47:32
Speaker 2: thank our production team Connor Hall, Justin Golden, Jeff Cliburn,
47:36
Speaker 2: and Kevin Wardis. With research by Lyla Robinson. The music
47:39
Speaker 2: in this production was supplied by three time OSCAR nominated
47:42
Speaker 2: composer Jay Ralph. Be sure to follow us on Instagram.
47:46
Speaker 2: At Wrongful Conviction, on Facebook at Wrongful Conviction podcast, and
47:50
Speaker 2: on Twitter at wrong Conviction, as well as at Lava
47:53
Speaker 2: for Good. On all three platforms, you can also follow
47:57
Speaker 2: me on both TikTok and Instagram at its Jason flam
48:01
Speaker 2: Ravel Conviction is the production of Lava for Good podcasts
48:03
Speaker 2: and association with Signal Company Number one