KBIA Local
(2010-02-04)
COLUMBIA, MO
(KBIA) -
"There's really not a word to express how I feel right now. Look at us. We're standing in a room full of people that are all about fighting for innocence. I'm satisfied, I'm content."That's Joshua Kezer. A little less than a year ago he lived at the Jefferson City Correctional Center, a maximum-security prison. Now, he lives in Columbia and works as a painter.
"My story is about a young man who was 18 years old back in March 15, 1993, who was arrested."
Kezer was convicted of second-degree murder and sat in prison for 16 years.
Social worker and activist Jane Williams met Kezer while visiting the Jefferson City prison. She's the founder of the Columbia branch of Love, Inc., a Christian social service organization.
"I walked into the chapel and I saw this kid kneeling in the chapel and I said to my friend: Who's that kid? And she said that's Josh, and he's innocent. And that was in the late 90s and I said, well if he's innocent it seems like someone should be doing something about it."
Williams could tell Kezer was innocent and spent years as his advocate and friend. His case was eventually re-tried and on February 18, 2009 he was released. In a couple of weeks he will celebrate his birthday, and what he calls his own independence day.
The Midwest Innocence Project works to ensure that other wrongfully incarcerated inmates have their independence days, too.
Sean O'Brien is a law professor at UMKC and serves on the board of directors at the Innocence Project. He has worked as an attorney in many cases like Kezer's.
"The problem with people in prison who are innocent is that after a certain point, very early in the appeal process you lose the right to counsel and so most prisoners have to do their own habeas corpus petition and write their own appeals, and if you're locked up in a prison cell you can't go out and interview witnesses."
At last night's meeting, a man approached O'Brien and asked him to take a case. That happens to him two or three times a week. But he can't take every case. It's not physically possible. © Copyright 2012, KBIA
