Quote:Missouri’s governor pardoned the gun-toting lawyers who brandished firearms at Black Lives Matter protesters marching past their St. Louis home last year.


Gov. Mike Parson, a Republican, announced Tuesday that he pardoned Mark McCloskey, who pleaded guilty to misdemeanor fourth-degree assault, and Patricia McCloskey, who pleaded guilty to misdemeanor harassment. The couple had been initially indicted on felony charges.


The McCloskeys, both in their 60s, said they felt threatened during the June 2020 demonstrations, one of countless similar marches across the country in response to George Floyd’s death.


They also said the protesters were illegally marching in a Central West End gated community.


Mark, who has capitalized on his ensuing notoriety and will run for US Senate as a Republican, came out of his home with an AR-15-style rifle, while Patricia waved a semiautomatic pistol, according to court records.


The couple did not fire their weapons, and no one was hurt, but the widespread attention from the viral confrontation turned the lawyers into instant villains — and heroes to some.


A special investigator ruled that the protesters who the McCloskeys confronted were peaceful.


“There was no evidence that any of them had a weapon and no one I interviewed realized they had ventured onto a private enclave,” Richard Callahan said in a news release last year.


The couple has remained unapologetic.


“I’d do it again,” Mark previously said outside court. “Any time the mob approaches me, I’ll do what I can to put them in imminent threat of physical injury because that’s what kept them from destroying my house and my family.”

Quote:Kevin Strickland's name is not among the 36 people listed for pardon from Gov. Mike Parson on May 31.
Gov. Mike Parson could still choose to pardon Strickland, which would be exceedingly rare, but Strickland's legal team is pursuing other options for release and exoneration.

Missouri Gov. Mike Parson passed on an opportunity to release a Kansas City man who has spent 43 years behind bars for a crime prosecutors say he did not commit. Parson left Kevin Strickland off the latest list of pardons.

The move leaves Kevin Strickland and his attorneys disappointed, and with fewer options for his exoneration.

"It's hard to imagine how everyone can know someone's innocent and he's still there," said Tricia Rojo Bushnell, director of the Midwest Innocence Project. "At this point, no one with power has done the things to let him out."

Earlier this week the Missouri Supreme Court declined to consider Strickland's innocence conviction and, in the process, left unanswered questions about whether innocence is enough to exonerate a non-death penalty conviction in the state.

43 years of waiting

The Jackson County Prosecutor's office charged Strickland with capital murder in 1978 for his alleged involvement in the killing of Sherrie Black, John Walker and Larry Ingram at 6934 S. Benton Ave. in Kansas City.

Strickland, who will turn 62 on June 7, was convicted by an all-white jury and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for 50 years.

The conviction hinged on the testimony of Cynthia Douglas, who recanted in 2009. As reported by the Kansas City Star in September, two other men who pleaded guilty in the shooting named someone else as their accomplice.

Last month, after reviewing evidence that emerged since the murders, the prosecutor's office said Strickland is innocent and should be set free. Federal prosecutors in the Western District of Missouri, Jackson County’s presiding judge and Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas agreed.

Strickland's team, led by the Midwest Innocence Project and international law firm Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner, has now filed the same motion denied a hearing by the Missouri Supreme Court, in the Circuit Court in DeKalb County where Strickland is being held in the Western Missouri Correctional Center.

Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker said her office will file an amicus brief, also known as a friend of the court brief, in DeKalb County.

“Like we did with the Supreme Court, so we'll start off on the same footing, we hope,” Baker said.

Whether the prosecutor’s brief is considered is at the discretion of the circuit court judge.

"So the same court we're going to is the court that granted relief for Ricky Kidd," said Bushnell, referring to another Midwest Innocence Project client freed in 2019. "And it's one of the few courts that has said innocence is a claim (for release)."

There is no timetable for when that court may consider Strickland's case.

Parson has options remaining

Despite being left off the most recent list of pardons, Gov. Parson could still sign into law the General Assembly’s omnibus public safety bill, which includes a provision that would allow prosecuting attorneys to file such innocence motions with the circuit court that handed down the conviction.

"If the governor signs it though, it does not go into effect until August 28th," Bushnell said, "so the prosecutor could not file until that date. And so there's still, you know, months that Mr. Strickland would be waiting."

Jackson County’s prosecutor is confident the bill will pass.

“I know, being part of the drafting of that bill, that it was a bipartisan bill,” Baker said. “I do believe, August the 28th at 9:00 a.m., I will be filing a motion myself in my courthouse.”

A pardon from the governor is still a possibility, but it would be a rare show of clemency, according to Sean O'Brien, a professor at the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law and past president of the Missouri Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.

"We've got two pardons for murder in Missouri in two centuries, if you want to know if that's a viable alternative," he said in an interview earlier this week.

If the governor were inclined to release Strickland, Bushnell insisted he is only interested in a pardon — not a sentence commutation.

"He's been fighting for 43 years to clear his name, and nothing less than that is acceptable," she said.

Despite the setbacks, Bushnell said she has spoken with Strickland as recently as yesterday, and he is unfazed.

"I think of all of us, he's taking it in stride because he's been going through this for decades," she said. "This isn't his first loss."

Bushnell said the Midwest Innocence Project will soon set up a GoFundMe account for people looking to help support Strickland when he is released.

"When he comes home — because he will come home — he won't be entitled to any compensation, and there'll be nothing for him," she said.
"He has medical needs, he's in a wheelchair ... and the reality is it's going to be the kindness of strangers that are going to be what allows him to (meet) any of them."

(08-03-2021, 09:28 PM)GMDino Wrote: https://nypost.com/2021/08/03/missouri-gov-pardons-couple-who-aimed-guns-at-blm-protesters/?utm_source=NYPTwitter&utm_medium=SocialFlow&utm_campaign=SocialFlow

(08-04-2021, 01:15 PM)Sociopathicsteelerfan Wrote: The charges should have been dismissed due to gross prosecutorial misconduct by Kim Gardner.

https://www.kmov.com/news/kim-gardner-faces-professional-misconduct-probe-could-lose-law-license/article_f1182b32-ad21-11eb-98d6-67108d86a9bb.html

Those people are idiots, and while I don't blame them to the extent that others do, they were absolutely treated with massive unfairness by the DA.  The DA's office even reassembled the pistol the wife was holding because, as she was wielding it, it was non-functional.  So, in order to prosecute her for wielding a firearm the DA's office has the gun disassembled and put back in working order.

https://www.ksdk.com/article/news/local/gardner-staffer-ordered-crime-lab-to-reassemble-patricia-mccloskeys-gun/63-be112149-d06c-4f54-a225-6545e74b5c2d


Such gross misconduct by the DA's office should have resulted in instant dismissal of all charges.  So like or hate these people the governor did the right thing by them.

(08-05-2021, 08:28 AM)GMDino Wrote: And, predictably, you skipped over the first story to defend the two "idiots" (your word) vs the man actually in prison for something he didin't do at all.

Keep up the good fight.

(08-05-2021, 10:38 AM)Sociopathicsteelerfan Wrote: Because I'm not familiar with that story, at all.  But keep making bigoted assumptions about others, it's definitely in your wheelhouse.  I notice you didn't have a single response to the actual post I made, sadly typical. 

(08-05-2021, 08:28 AM)GMDino Wrote: And, predictably, you skipped over the first story to defend the two "idiots" (your word) vs the man actually in prison for something he didin't do at all.

Keep up the good fight.

(08-05-2021, 02:40 PM)TheLeonardLeap Wrote: Isn't the two idiots the first story? It was the first post and the thread is even named after them. If you wanted the innocent guy to be the main point of the thread and the one that people respond to, why didn't you post that first and name the thread "innocent man can't get pardon"? This seems like a really bizarre stance by you.

(08-05-2021, 02:54 PM)Dill Wrote: Why pardon the gun enthusiasts but not someone in prison 43 years on a wrongful conviction?

Possibly the contrast makes a point about about how justice worked for the unrepentant "two idiots." 
So the thread is still about them if the difference is the question and justice is the theme.

(08-05-2021, 02:58 PM)TheLeonardLeap Wrote: Why not pardon both? My point wasn't about who should or shouldn't get pardoned though. My point was someone made a thread with an initial post, titled the thread on that initial post, and then gave someone shit for replying to the initial post. That's insanity.

(08-05-2021, 02:40 PM)TheLeonardLeap Wrote: Isn't the two idiots the first story? It was the first post and the thread is even named after them. If you wanted the innocent guy to be the main point of the thread and the one that people respond to, why didn't you post that first and name the thread "innocent man can't get pardon"? This seems like a really bizarre stance by you.

(08-05-2021, 03:20 PM)Dill Wrote: That's the question Dino was raising, len. 

Also, I think Dino gave someone shit for replying to the second post, 

without making the connection to the first.

Notice how D kept harping on that connection.

(08-05-2021, 03:27 PM)GMDino Wrote: Man, you got me.  I said first story and not second.  

Biggest mistake I ever made on here. 

But I do thank you for the tip on how to post and in what order to make a point rather than the way I chose to do it, rather than commenting on the posts.  (I'll be sure to check in with others for help before doing it again.)

Although I *did* post them in that order to make the second story the point...as I noted that it was probably unrelated.  (That was sarcasm which doesn't come across in text very well and is sadly missed by quite a few around here who seem to take everything literally.)

The "bizarre" thing is SSF jumped to the defense of the two people and not the innocent guy in jail.  Or, you know, both. 

Quote:Reply to thread: Missouri governor pardons couple who aimed guns at BLM protesters

(08-05-2021, 01:34 PM)GMDino Wrote: I posted the story.  He was falsely convicted.  The witnesses recanted.  The prosecutor said he was innoncent.  The governor you praised for pardoning two people you said were "absolutely treated with massive unfairness" couldn't find the way to pardon an innocent man.

Quote:I wonder what the difference is between the two?  

(08-05-2021, 05:27 PM)TheLeonardLeap Wrote: If you want to be a shit to people who comment on your thread, that's your prerogative, I guess. Sure glad you returned just to make threads and then give people shit about replying to your thread.

Hell, when I click "reply" in this thread, what's put at the very top of my post by this message board?


You didn't make the thread "Missouri governor pardons couple who aimed guns but not innocent man". In which case, sure, why not address the second half as well? But you didn't.


Next time maybe rather than checking in with others for help before doing so again, you should instead put some rules at the start of your thread saying "yes, this is what I titled my post, but I don't want you to respond to it, I want you to respond to stuff later in the thread" if you're going to get on people's case (and do it wrongly) when they reply to both your thread title and OP.


Sure glad you came back. We were certainly missing this on TheBengalsBoard in your absence.

(08-04-2021, 01:15 PM)Sociopathicsteelerfan Wrote: The charges should have been dismissed due to gross prosecutorial misconduct by Kim Gardner.

https://www.kmov.com/news/kim-gardner-faces-professional-misconduct-probe-could-lose-law-license/article_f1182b32-ad21-11eb-98d6-67108d86a9bb.html

Those people are idiots, and while I don't blame them to the extent that others do, they were absolutely treated with massive unfairness by the DA.  The DA's office even reassembled the pistol the wife was holding because, as she was wielding it, it was non-functional.  So, in order to prosecute her for wielding a firearm the DA's office has the gun disassembled and put back in working order.

https://www.ksdk.com/article/news/local/gardner-staffer-ordered-crime-lab-to-reassemble-patricia-mccloskeys-gun/63-be112149-d06c-4f54-a225-6545e74b5c2d


Such gross misconduct by the DA's office should have resulted in instant dismissal of all charges.  So like or hate these people the governor did the right thing by them.

(08-06-2021, 12:11 AM)Benton Wrote: Eh, that doesn't go too far on their support. Just because she was apparently not smart enough to operate a firearm doesn't mean she didn't have intent. 

I mean, I can try to stab you with a salad tong. Is the intent of violence there? Yup. Is the ability? No, cause I'd be as dumb as this lady.

Not to      mention,that's only her dumb assedness, not including the husband's. I mean, if you are going to argue her innocence based off the ignorance, then presumably he's guilty as there was no lack of understanding how his rifle worked when he pointed it at unarmed people.

(08-05-2021, 06:13 PM)Sociopathicsteelerfan Wrote: You posted one article about it.  You'll please forgive me if I don't take anything reported by the news at face value without getting other input.  I'd have to think there's more to this then what's stated in your article for the governor to not consider a pardon.



No need to wonder, I literally already said it.  I'm familiar with the entire backstory of the McClosky case, from their initial arrest to the gross prosecutorial misconduct that you don't have the balls to address.  You've really become an ugly person in your absence.



Indeed.  Quite the auspicious return.

(08-06-2021, 09:15 AM)GMDino Wrote: Literally the story says everything you need to know.  You actively choose to ignore it when compared to your pet gun case of the week.

(08-06-2021, 09:15 AM)GMDino Wrote: Literally the story says everything you need to know.  You actively choose to ignore it when compared to your pet gun case of the week.

(08-06-2021, 12:03 PM)Dill Wrote: I still think the primary theme of the thread, once you posted the story of the failed pardon, is about the Missouri Governor's skewed sense of justice.

Even if a prosecutor tampered with the woman's weapon to make it functional, this injustice falls rather short of 43 years in prison 
for a crime one didn't commit. 

Important here is the distinction between "dismissal" and "pardon." 
The "two idiots" case could have easily been handled by the former. The Strickland case not. 

That's the issue, and not what you would do if a prosecutor tampered with evidence in the case of a BLM protestor.