Who is Lamar Johnson? Wrongfully convicted Missouri man

A MISSOURI man is finally free after spending almost 30 years behind bars for a crime he didn’t commit.

Lamar Johnson was freed in February 2023 after a St. Louis Circuit judge vacated his murder conviction.

Who is Lamar Johnson?

Lamar Johnson, 50, is a Missouri man who was wrongfully convicted in the 1994 killing of Marcus Boyd.

In 1995, he was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole but continued to maintain his innocence for decades.

Then, 28 years later, his conviction was overturned by Judge David Mason after two witnesses provided “clear and convincing evidence” that he was innocent, according to BBC.

“This is overwhelming,” Johnson said of the verdict.

In the 1990s, Johnson was a known gang member and drug dealer who had a criminal record, which is what he believes led to his conviction.

During a hearing in December 2022, Mason asked Johnson why someone would accuse him of murder, to which he responded, “Probably my reputation,” according to KSDK.

Later on, he revealed that he and Boyd were friends, adding: “We never had an argument or a fight or anything like that.

“To this day I don’t know why people suspect that I killed him.”

The case against Johnson was built on the testimony of two men, James Gregory Elking and William Mock, which was later proven to be false.

“All Elking witnessed was the assailant’s eye, giving a new meaning to the phrase ‘eye witness,’” Mason said in 2023, via the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, adding that it was “yet another serious weakness in the case against Johnson.”

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What happened to Marcus Boyd?

Boyd was shot to death on his front porch by two men wearing ski masks on October 30, 1994, according to PBS.

While Johnson might’ve been convicted of the crime, two men later confessed and said he had nothing to do with it.

During Johnson’s December 2022 hearing, James Howard, who is serving a life sentence for an unrelated murder and other crimes, took the stand and revealed that he and a man named Phil Campbell were the ones who killed Boyd.

“Me and Phillip Campbell killed him on his front porch,” Howard said in court, via KSDK.

Campbell previously pleaded guilty to a reduced charge in exchange for a seven-year sentence but he has since passed away.

At the time of the shooting, Johnson was reportedly miles away with his former girlfriend, Erika Barrow, who is the mother of their 28-year-old daughter, Kiera Barrow.