48 Hours - Lamar Johnson: Standing in Truth

Episode Date: April 30, 2023

A man gets his life back after spending 28 years in prison for a crime he did not commit. "48 Hours" investigates and is there as Johnson is freed in time to walk his daughter down the aisle. Correspondent Erin Moriarty reports.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can listen to this podcast ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app today. Even if you love the thrill of true crime stories as much as I do, there are times when you want to mix it up. And that's where Audible comes in, with all the genres you love and new ones to discover. Explore thousands of audiobooks, podcasts, and originals, with more added all the time. thousands of audiobooks, podcasts, and originals, with more added all the time. Listening to Audible can lead to positive change in your mood, your habits,

and even your overall well-being. And you can enjoy Audible anytime, while doing household chores, exercising, commuting, you name it. There's more to imagine when you listen. Sign up for a free 30-day Audible trial and your first audiobook is free. Visit audible.ca. In 2014, Laura Heavlin was in her home in Tennessee when she received a call from California. Her daughter, Erin Corwin, was missing. The young wife of a Marine had moved to the California desert

to a remote base near Joshua Tree National Park. They have to alert the military. And when they do, the NCIS gets involved. From CBS Studios and CBS News, this is 48 Hours NCIS. Listen to 48 Hours NCIS ad-free starting October 29th on Amazon Music. You feel like you're in a hole or a sewer and you're looking up and you're calling out for help from people and people are walking by because they don't hear you. I don't think people know how blessed they ought to be able to just hug somebody that they love or to wake up in a house with people that love you.

I haven't had the chance to do that in 28 years. I'm just going to ask you, did you kill Marcus Boyd? I did not kill Marcus. He was like a friend to me. He was one of my best friends and I loved him. In 1994, Marcus Boyd was shot and killed. Marcus Boyd was shot and killed. When two masked men ran up and shot and killed Boyd.

When he pulled the trigger, I seen the flash. I swear I could almost see like muscle and tendons because the flash was so big. It's like an x-ray. and tendons because the flash was so big. It's like an x-ray. Could you see their faces? Could you identify these men? No, I couldn't identify them. He had an alibi. I was about three miles away at a friend's house.

And his girlfriend at the time provided that alibi. I know for a fact he didn't do it. He wasn't there. He was not involved. You agreed to a lineup? I agreed to a lineup. I couldn't identify anybody in all of it. Greg viewed the lineup with Lamar Johnson in it at least three times. There's no identification, and that should have been the end of it right there. But it wasn't. I felt bullied by the detectives.

And only after pressure from the detective did he all of a sudden say, oh yeah, yeah, yeah, that guy did it. I just kept having pressure to go along with this. He saw his friend murdered. He was scared. He was easily manipulated by the police and the prosecutor in this case. I had what I believed to be a murderer, and I had an identification witness who I believed was truthful and honest. I presented the evidence I had, and a jury convicted him.

A trial of errors from start to finish. It was devastating. Since my conviction, I've been petitioning every judge to give me a hearing, and no judge has given me a chance to be heard. The problem is, I don't know what else to do. I lost so much. Just milestones. Everything that a little girl wishes that she could,

you know, experience with her dad. Our Conviction Integrity Unit found new evidence that will exonerate Mr. Lamar Johnson. There's something powerful, really powerful in our system of justice when the prosecutor says we're the ones who made the mistake. We're trying to free this man. Free Lamar Johnson! Free Lamar Johnson! It's devastating for me that this man has spent 28 years in prison for a crime he did not commit.

All right. This is really kind of Lamar Johnson's last chance, isn't it? Yes, that is absolutely true. Thank you. I'm going to go to bed. Convicted at 21, still locked up at 49, Lamar Johnson has spent most of his life in prison for a crime he insists he did not commit. How do you keep up hope? I have a choice. I know the truth.

I know that I didn't kill Marcus. Lamar Johnson was convicted of first-degree murder in 1995 for shooting 25-year-old Marcus Boyd on his front porch. Johnson was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole. What have you lost?

Time. And there was a closeness between, especially with a father and his daughters. And I missed being able to be a part of their life. You want your dad to come home. Yeah, I definitely do. Brittany Johnson was just one year old when her dad was sent away.

It was definitely hard, but I learned to live without my dad. Kiero Barrow was just an infant then. We're still waiting. There is still an innocent man in prison. Kiera's mother, Erica Barrow. Did you think you'd marry him? Yes, I did. I mean, he was my first love.

Lamar Johnson grew up in St. Louis, consistently ranked as one of the most dangerous cities in the country. His Southside neighborhood in 1994 was battered by high crime and homicide rates. Johnson had steered clear of serious trouble. He wanted to better himself. He wanted to be the man that he needed to be for his children. So Johnson, the 20-year-old father of two, worked at Chiffy Lube while attending community college. But he also had a dangerous side hustle,

selling small amounts of crack cocaine for extra cash. Yes, I was making some poor choices then, and I take responsibility for that. But that wasn't the sum of who I was. Selling drugs wasn't his life. It was just something to help him manage until he could do better. Johnson's good friend Marcus Boyd, five years older, had also started a family and was holding down a solid job at a printing company. And he, too, sold drugs on the side.

Marcus was like the preppy type. You know, he wasn't very street. He was a really, really good guy. Greg Elking, then 30, had worked briefly with Boyd at the printing company. And Elking admits he was an occasional customer. On the evening of October 30th, 1994, he wanted to get high, but Boyd said no. He was like, we're going to go to work tomorrow. So we actually sat down on the front porch up on the stairs. Marcus Boyd's street, Louisiana Avenue, was empty. His girlfriend and their baby were upstairs. All he talked about all the time, you know, was about his baby and about his girlfriend. He's making me laugh. We're kind of laughing at each other. But all of a sudden, he went serious. He was like, oh, no. From the narrow pathway next to Boyd's apartment,

two men came out of nowhere, barely visible in the dim light. These guys, they had completely dark clothing, and they had masks on. Black masks like this one, and they had guns. The men flew up the porch steps, says Elking. One attacked Marcus Boyd. And he's wrestling with Marcus.

The second gunman grabbed Elking. And he says, get the f*** up. I remember looking at him right in the guy's eyes. The other guy, I seen him put the gun right up to Marcus's, like, neck area. And when he pulled the trigger, I seen the flash. Boom. The third shot, I kind of seen Marcus's soul just go. And I knew, I knew he was dead.

I'll just go. And I knew, I knew he was dead. To Elking's horror, both men continued to shoot Boyd, then vanished the same way they had appeared, sprinting down the dark pathway. Surprisingly, the shooters spared the only eyewitness. You say you looked into one shooter's eyes. All I seen was the eyes. Could you tell whether he was white or black? I knew he was black. When the gunmen were gone, Greg Elking took off in the opposite direction.

As he ran away, Elking says he could hear Marcus Boyd's girlfriend screaming. It's still hard to talk about it, isn't it? And where were you when this happened? I was about three miles away. Johnson says he was with his girlfriend, Erica Barrow, and their five-month-old daughter, Kiera, visiting friends. Erica says that entire evening, Lamar Johnson was out of her sight just once. So we were there because he was making a transaction. Someone was coming. And so he was just like, I'll be right back.

Johnson left the house, Erica says, just as she began changing Kiara's diaper. And I went out to meet somebody that I was dealing with. His customer picked him up at the corner of 39th and Lafayette, Johnson says. They completed a quick transaction while driving around the block. By the time I finished changing her diaper and cleaned everything up, he's coming back up the steps. And how long does that take?

Three to five minutes. And he's talking, you know, nothing out of the ordinary. He was just normal. Minutes later, Johnson got a call that Marcus Boyd had been shot. The next day, he learned that Boyd had died. Johnson's own life began to unravel. According to investigators, when they asked Boyd's girlfriend, whom she suspected, only one name came to mind. Lamar Johnson. She thought the longtime friends might have had a falling out. Marcus and I have never had an argument or a fight.

I loved him. I had no reason to want to hurt him. You agreed to talk to the cops without a lawyer. That was risky, wasn't it? Well, no, I didn't have anything to hide. Hot shot Australian attorney Nicola Gaba was born into legal royalty. Her specialty? Representing some of the city's most infamous gangland criminals. However, while Nicola held the underworld's darkest secrets, the most dangerous secret was her own. She's going to all the major groups within Melbourne's underworld, and she's informing on them all. I'm Marsha Clark, host of the new podcast

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Listen to the Pitcairn Trials exclusively on Wondery+. Join Wondery in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Four days after Marcus Boyd was shot to death on his front porch, St. Louis police tracked down the only eyewitness to the murder, Greg Elking. How would you describe what you went through that night? It was the most horrifying thing I've ever seen in my life. Shaken and scared, Elking says he was initially reluctant to talk until he met lead investigator Joe Nickerson.

I thought he was this amazing dude. I thought he was like Nick Nolte from 48 Hours out of a movie. He was awesome. I mean, it was somebody that I just immediately admired. Elking says even though the shooters were wearing masks, he could tell they were dark-skinned black men, but he only saw the eyes of one of them. Still, Nickerson, he says, insisted on showing him several photos.

One says Elking stood out. I said, these eyes, there's something about these eyes. And that's all I said. It was a photo of Lamar Johnson. And immediately he said, would you sign the back of it? And I said, no, I don't want to sign the back of it. Why not? Because I didn't want nothing to do with this because I couldn't pick out no murderer. And I don't even think he's the murderer. I didn't want nothing to do with this because I couldn't pick out no murderer and I don't even think he's a murderer. I didn't say he was a murderer. Nickerson Elking says warned him his life could be at risk, telling him that Lamar Johnson was a dangerous man who may have been involved in as many as six murders. Attorney Lindsey Runnels says none of that was true. If they had any evidence whatsoever, then or now, Lamar Johnson would be charged with a crime.

Runnels began working on Johnson's case when she was in law school. Does he have a record at all for violence? No. His record is and was minor. It's a possession, charge, possession of cocaine, and then a tampering with a license plate. She says Johnson received probation for those offenses. Still, she says, cops aware of his criminal record kept him and young men like him on their radar.

It's just the usual suspects type of round them up and everybody's guilty by association. But after the murder on Louisiana Avenue, police had a new reason to focus on Lamar Johnson. The victim's girlfriend had given them his name and now they have what they said was a photo identification. On the evening of November 3rd, 1994, four days after the murder, they arrested Johnson along with his friend, Philip Campbell. I couldn't even understand why. Why would they arrest you? Johnson's girlfriend at the time and his alibi for the night of the murder, Erica Barrow. I begged him to get a lawyer. And all he kept saying is,

I don't want my mom and stepfather paying all this money for a lawyer. I didn't do it. I didn't have anything to hide. So, you know, I believed in the system. I believed that if I explained to them what I knew and where I was, that that would sort itself out. At the police station, Johnson agreed to a live lineup. I wanted to try to be as cooperative as I could.

I wanted them to investigate and talk to the people whose house I was that night. You know, I would expect that they would reach the conclusion that I didn't have anything to do with. But investigators never spoke to anyone who had been with Johnson on the night of the shooting, not even Erica Barrow. They put him in that lineup. He's the third man in this photo and brought in Elking to view it. Could you identify anyone? No. Altogether, Elking viewed that lineup three times and never picked Johnson. Elking was then asked to view a different live lineup. Lamar Johnson wasn't there, but the man arrested with him, Philip Campbell, is number four in this photo. Elking still couldn't identify anyone and says he feared he'd let down the detective he admired and trusted. I felt so bad. I could see it in his eyes. Like, I hurt this guy. Like,

this whole time, you know, I've just wasted his time. Then, according to Elking, he asked Detective Joe Nickerson how he could help. All that came out of my mouth was like, all right, Joe, you tell me what the numbers were and I'll tell you if they were correct. What does he say to you? He says three and four. And I was like, you're right. Three and four. Lamar Johnson was number three in that first lineup. Philip Campbell was the fourth man in the other lineup. If Joe Nickerson is telling me that three and four is it, it's got to be Lamar and whoever at Philip because he wouldn't lie to me. Joe wouldn't lie to me.

So you picked three and four because Nickerson told you? Yeah. We asked Joe Nickerson for an interview. He declined our request but sent us a text saying in part, I went where the facts, evidence and circumstances took me. Elkin claims he told no one that Nickerson had allegedly given him the suspect's numbers in the lineups. Instead, he told the other detectives that he was able to identify Lamar Johnson because of his distinctive eye. They had asked me, what do you mean about the eye when you say that you could pick, you know, these eyes? And I said, I don't know, like like a lazy eye or something like it's different from the other. Dwight Warren, the prosecutor, says he pressed Elking on his identification of Johnson. He pressed Elking on his identification of Johnson. I believed Mr. Elking because I looked him straight in the eye and said,

you know, I want to know if he did it, tell me you're sure of your identification. Please tell me the truth because I don't want to go and charge somebody who's not guilty. What did Greg Elking say to you when you said that to him? Well, quote, end quote, I couldn't tell you, but he told me he was telling the truth, that he knew who did the shooting, and it was Lamar Johnson and Philip Campbell. So I charged them both. In July 1995, Lamar Johnson went on trial with Elking as the star witness. If he had backed off of that, I would never have issued the case. He was absolutely essential. To bolster the case, one of the witnesses the prosecution called

was William Mock, a jailhouse informant with a lengthy criminal history who claimed that he overheard Johnson and Campbell in a holding cell talking about the murder. But attorney Lindsey Runnell says Mock wasn't credible and that his cell wasn't close enough to hear anything. Lamar wasn't ever celled with Campbell, and Campbell nor Lamar were ever in the same cell as William Mock.

So how could you hear this if it happened at all, which it didn't? Don't you want to make sure that jailhouse snitch is telling the truth? How am I going to do that? Well, you wouldn't put someone on the stand unless you could check out their story, right? I did check it out. He was in two jail cells away. He was in a position to be able to hear that. Johnson didn't take the stand at his trial. The defense relied on his girlfriend, Erica Barrow,

who told the jury he was with her at the time of the murder. It took less than two hours for the jurors to reach a verdict. Guilty. Johnson's life had been changed forever by Greg Elking, who says that as he was pointing at Johnson at trial, he knew he had identified the wrong man. This isn't the dude I've seen at all. Because to me, Lamar is not dark and not what I've seen. You had doubts right afterwards. Why didn't you tell somebody? Why didn't you say, I think... Because nobody talks to me. Nobody.

Who am I going to tell? I don't know who I could have told. Did it occur to you at that moment that you might have put an innocent man behind bars? Without a doubt. Because I lied on the testimony. I lied because I thought I was doing the right thing. As a kid growing up in Chicago, there was one horror movie I was too scared to watch. It was called Candyman.

But did you know that the movie Candyman was partly inspired by an actual murder? Listen to Candyman, the true story behind the bathroom mirror murder, wherever you get your podcasts. Have you ever wondered who created that bottle of sriracha that's living in your fridge? Or why nearly every house in America has at least one game of Monopoly? Introducing the best idea yet. A brand new podcast from Wondery and T-Boy about the surprising origin stories of the products you're obsessed with and the bolder risk takers who brought them to life. Like, did you know that Super Mario, the best-selling video game character of all time, only exists because Nintendo couldn't get the rights to Popeye? Or Jack, that the idea for the McDonald's Happy Meal first came from a mom in Guatemala? Or Jack, that the idea for the McDonald's Happy Meal first came from a mom in Guatemala?

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And then, before his sentencing, Johnson received surprising new information that he believed would prove his innocence. Handwritten letters from his friend, the other suspected killer, Philip Campbell. One said, you didn't do a thing. He said, I'm sorry you got convicted for something you didn't do. He said he wanted to come forth, but his attorney wouldn't let him because he thought he could beat his case. And Philip Campbell was actually one of the shooters.

He was. Campbell even named the other shooter who was with him on the night of the murder, a man named James B.A. Howard. Campbell even named the other shooter who was with him on the night of the murder, a man named James B.A. Howard. Johnson now had the names of both shooters. He wrote the judge and asked for a hearing, but his request was denied. In September 1995, Lamar Johnson was sentenced to life in prison without parole. Girlfriend Erica Barrow blames law enforcement. You didn't care to check his alibi. You wanted to blame someone, and you did exactly that.

You just let out didn't care. You didn't care. Lamar Johnson didn't give up. He became his own jailhouse lawyer, sifting through police reports, trial transcripts, and gathering new evidence. Johnson, with legal help, filed a petition asking for a new trial in 1996. Again, he was denied. Then two years later, he would meet another inmate with a similar story. We were both assigned to Potosi Correctional Center in Missouri. Our friendship was almost instant. Ricky Kidd, who is also serving a life sentence for murder, remembers when he first learned about Johnson's case.

He said, I have to go to the law library. I said, what are you working on? And he turned to me, he said, well, I know everybody says this, but I'm innocent. And a big old smile appeared across my face, kind of like you're seeing right now. And I said, well, I know everybody say this, but I'm innocent too.

The two men made a pact in prison. He said, let's make a promise that whoever makes it out will come back for the other. And we shook on it. The Midwest Innocence Project had already been working on Kidd's case. Before he himself was exonerated, Kidd says he convinced lawyers there to take a closer look at Johnson's case. When that team of lawyers began their research, they discovered that the star witness, Greg Elking, in prison himself for bank robbery, had written a letter to a clergyman admitting he had lied at Johnson's trial. What did you think would happen? Again, I thought that I would be

heard. So it made me even more hopeful that I would, that the court would at least listen. Elkin's letter would reveal another reason why he agreed to testify against Johnson. At the time of the murder, Elkin had been in serious financial straits. Detective Nickerson and the prosecutor's office put him in a witness protection program. Elking's debts were paid and his outstanding traffic warrants cleared. And that's not all. Whose idea was to give you money, to move you, to give you cash? Joe Nickerson. They paid my first month and last month's rent for a house. Altogether, Elkin had received more than $4,000. None of that was disclosed to Johnson and his lawyer at trial. Johnson repeatedly asked for a hearing. He was denied and his case stalled.

I mean, what else is needed? The only thing that I haven't been able to present is DNA. And God, I wish there was some DNA. Then in 2018, St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kimberly Gardner agreed to look at his case. She had created a conviction integrity unit to look at cases of possible wrongful conviction. And I started seeing some red flags, and I consulted my team, and I said, I think we have a problem here. One of the many flags for Gardner was the timeline for the murder.

Could Johnson have had time to kill his friend Marcus Boyd? Erica Barrows said Johnson had only left their friend's apartment for around five minutes. You cannot drive that distance. You'd have to be speeding through St. Louis to even get there. And then you'd have to speed all the way back. There's no way you could do that. But prosecutor Dwight Warren says Erica could have lost track of time. The Johnson

could have been gone as long as 15 minutes. She didn't have a stopwatch. Lamar got into a car and took off. At Johnson's trial, Detective Joe Nickerson testified that it only took him five minutes to go from the alibi location to the crime scene. We asked Chief Investigator Robert Olgevy from the Circuit Attorney's Office to take us on that same drive. According to testimony, it just takes five minutes to get there. You're laughing.

Yeah, I don't think so. We timed the drive using a cell phone. Look at the view. Yep. 12.55, 13 minutes. 13 minutes one way. That's more than double the time Detective Nickerson said it took.

In 2019, Circuit Attorney Kimberly Gardner's team released a detailed report listing numerous errors that undermine Johnson's conviction. As a prosecutor, you put people in prison. You don't try to get them out. As a prosecutor, no prosecutor, I believe, wants to secure a conviction wrongfully, using wrong tactics. That's just not what we want to do. We want to get it right. Jurors never learned that jailhouse informant William Mock was a racist That's just not what we want to do. We want to get it right. JURORS NEVER LEARNED THAT JAILHOUSE INFORMANT WILLIAM MOCK WAS A RACIST WHO HAD A HATRED FOR BLACK PEOPLE. NOR DID THEY HEAR THE MAJORITY OF HIS CRIMINAL RECORD.

AND THEY WERE NEVER TOLD GREG ELKING HAD BEEN PAID THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS. GARDNER WAS CONVINCED JOHNSON WAS INNOCENT. Gardner was convinced Johnson was innocent, but when she tried to get his conviction overturned, court after court, including the Missouri Supreme Court, said she didn't have the power. And when you try to abide by your oath and you're stopped every way, it weighs on you. In 2021, the Missouri legislature passed a law that gave Gardner and other prosecutors the power to bring cases of innocence to court. A year later, Johnson got the news he had been praying for. After nearly three decades in prison, he would finally get a hearing to present new evidence in his case. On December 12, 2022,

Lamar Johnson and his legal team gathered in a St. Louis courtroom for a week-long hearing. His daughters, Brittany and Kiara, were in the courtroom nearly every day. I think we're all trying to be hopeful that my dad gets justice. All rise. One man, Judge David Mason, will decide Johnson's future. He has three options. Overturn the conviction and grant a new trial. Overturn the conviction and declare Johnson innocent.

Or he could uphold the jury's verdict. What is at stake here with this judge's decision? Justice and the integrity of the whole criminal justice system. Circuit attorney Kimberly Gardner sat by Johnson instead of her usual seat at the prosecution table. Gardner appointed two lawyers to handle Johnson's case, Charlie Weiss and Jonathan Potts. I took this case because I believe that Lamar Johnson's innocent. I didn't take it because I think he might be innocent. There was no physical evidence at all connecting Lamar Johnson

with the murder of Marcus Boyd, period. Thank you, Your Honor. May it please the court. This is a rather historic moment in this court. This is the first time where the court is hearing an actual innocence claim filed by a prosecuting attorney. Good morning, Your Honor. The Missouri Attorney General's Office sent a team of their own to argue that Johnson's conviction should stand. In response to our request for an interview, they provided us with this written statement that read in part, the Attorney General's office has fought to keep a convicted murderer in prison.

Attorney Miranda Lesh told the judge not to trust the witnesses who were about to vouch for Johnson's innocence. They're going to ask you to believe convicted murderers and gang members. Their evidence is not credible. Johnson's team calls their first witness. James Howard takes the stand and admits that he's

one of the men who murdered Marcus Boyd. How did Marcus die? Me and Philip Campbell queued him on his front porch. Remember, Philip Campbell had written Lamar Johnson saying he and Howard were the real shooters. Campbell, who was later convicted of the murder, took a deal and served only five years. He has since died. Howard was never charged with Boyd's death. He's currently in prison for life for

unrelated crimes, including murdering another man. I killed him the exact same way. I fired two shots in the back of his head. But attorneys Jonathan Potts and Charlie Weiss can't rely on Howard's word alone. They must now tear apart the original case against Lamar Johnson. They call Greg Elking the state's former star witness. Law enforcement was wanting me to help and I trusted them. I wanted to help. Elking told the court that he felt pressured by Detective Joe Nickerson to identify Johnson in the lineup. He goes, I know you know who it is and you're just not saying. And this is the part I hate the most. I just remember saying to him, you tell me the numbers and I'll tell you if you're right.

And he did. And I was like, that was it. That was the numbers. And I've been living with it 25, 28 years. And I'm telling you, I just wish I could change time. On day three, Judge Mason questioned the original prosecutor in the case, Dwight Warren, about the reliability of Greg Elking's identification of Lamar Johnson. He told you and the officers that it was based upon him looking at the eyes because that was all he could see. Isn't that correct? I believe so.

And did he or did he not tell you that all of this happened within seconds? he not tell you that all of this happened within seconds? Yes. Yes. And that's what you decided was sufficiently liable to seek a murder conviction? To take it to a jury? Yes, sir. Two perpetrators came around. Warren admitted to Johnson's lawyers that without an eyewitness, he would never have filed charges in the first place. Oh, absolutely not. I didn't have any evidence. On day four, Lamar Johnson finally got the chance to defend himself in his own words. But you talked to Detective Nickerson that night, correct? Yes, ma'am.

Attorney Miranda Lesh asked him about his conversation with Detective Nickerson a few days after the murder. I said, man, that boy was my friend. I didn't shoot him. I said, OK, I will voluntarily participate in the line-up. You had everything to lose at that point, didn't you? I didn't think so. You didn't think so? You were arrested for a homicide. I didn't commit the homicide, so why would I be concerned that I had everything to lose? As the hearing week neared the end, Detective Nickerson takes the stand.

The man Elkin claims pressured him into falsely identifying Johnson. Mr. Elkin goes, hey, I know who it is. It's number three in the first lineup, and it's number four in the second lineup. And did you tell him to say that? I didn't tell him to say anything. But Judge Mason had some questions of his own for Nickerson. Are you aware that all the evidence suggested your witness could only recognize some aspects of the odds? I'm aware of that. Let's stand up, Mr. Johnson.

I'm just curious, because I don't know. What in the world is distinctive about this man's eyes? Well, you can tell his eyes are different. I can tell me. What do you see? I can tell that his right eye is different from his left. One is lower or higher than the other. Okay. How would you describe the involvement of Judge Mason in this case?

Well, that was one of the most unique things I've seen in any trial I've ever covered. Columnist Tony Messinger covered the case for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. He didn't just ask questions. He took over the questioning at times and made it very clear when he was believing something and when he wasn't. After five days of witnesses, court adjourned. witnesses, court adjourned. With his freedom on the line, Johnson was taken to a St. Louis jail to wait for Judge Mason's decision. I don't know how to not fight for my innocence, to fight for what was wrongfully taken from me. What do you think the judge should do in this case? Take a look at the evidence at 48hours.com. It's been really hard.

We heard everything in court. Lamar Johnson's daughter, Kiara Barrow, has finally heard what happened to her father so many years ago. The misconduct and the negligence that occurred. The hardest thing was just that Greg lied, knowing that his testimony did put him in jail. Brittany Johnson believes that Greg Elking's lies robbed her of time with her dad. I'm very angry. This is hard. Yes, it's very hard. I hate that I'm crying right now.

Dad is the most important role. But their wait isn't over. Two months pass with no decision from the judge. Kiara is hoping it happens soon. We've been robbed of so many opportunities and milestones. I'm getting married in April of this year. It would just mean so much to me and I know to my father to have him there with me and for him to be able to give me away. Finally on a Tuesday afternoon in February, Johnson's family and friends return to the courtroom.

Lawyers with the Missouri Attorney General's Office fighting Johnson's release are at one table. At the other, the team trying to win Johnson's freedom. Seated next to Johnson, his attorney, Lindsey Reynolds. What should Judge Mason do in this case? Judge Mason should vacate these convictions, and Lamar Johnson should walk out of that courtroom today. All rise. After both legal teams were given copies of his final opinion, Judge David Mason announced his decision on February 14,

2023. After reviewing both the underlying trial as well as the entirety of the hearing, for the reasons stated above, it is hereby ordered that the motion of the Circuit Attorney

of the 22nd Judicial Circuit filed herein for the benefit of Lamar Johnson is granted. The conviction of Lamar Johnson, which stated that Lamar Johnson caused 22-941-37068 It's hereby set aside and held for not. Johnson's murder conviction was overturned. The judge also found that there was clear and convincing evidence of Johnson's innocence. After more than 28 years behind bars, he was more than a free man. 49-year-old Lamar Johnson had finally been exonerated. Bailey, this year he gets a job.

This time he would leave the courthouse not in a prison van, but in a black sedan. When I first met you, I asked you to identify yourself. My name's Lamar Johnson. I've been in prison for 26 years now. If I asked you to identify Lamar Johnson right now, what would you say? I am a free man, an exonerated man, and a blessed man. How important was it to have Greg Elking take the stand and tell the judge what he had done at trial? That was very important.

He intentionally, you know, falsely identified me. But not only did he acknowledge that he made a mistake, he took steps to try to correct it. And I'm extremely grateful to him for that. And during that time he's been in prison, he says he never forgot about his friend Marcus Boyd, who died that night. I didn't want Marcus' family thinking that I did this to him

because I genuinely cared about Marcus. Marcus was a good guy. In the meantime, Johnson is starting over. His friend Ricky Kidd knows it won't be easy. It's going to be tough, but Lamar has the ability to adapt and adjust and see new opportunities. I've worked 30 years for the Department of Corrections for pennies. I don't have anything.

I hope somebody's willing to give me a shot. I want to work. You have a date coming up, an important date. My youngest daughter is getting married. And, you know, it would be nice if I could do something special and nice for them. But presence matters more than presence. And I'm going to make the best of the life I have. I was startled, awake. I started screaming.

A 55-hour reign of terror. I did Tyra. And he was hurting mom. And I said, please, I'll do anything. Please don't kill me. Follow and listen to the 48 Hours Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, or wherever you get your podcasts.

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