Kim Gardner has been trying to free Lamar Johnson. Johnson is in the Missouri Department of Corrections after being convicted of murder in 1995. He appealed his conviction and lost. Then he claimed ineffective assistance of defense counsel and lost. Then he appealed that and lost. He’s since filed numerous habeas corpus writs in state and federal courts where he claimed his innocence and blamed prosecutorial misconduct for his convictions. He’s had numerous hearings on these issues in both state and federal court. All of his claims have been consistently denied.
Yet Ms. Gardner believes he is innocent and has taken steps to try to free him:
I’m not going to discuss the Lamar Johnson case but wanted to provide background.
You see, I don’t mind the reexamination of old convictions. That can be a good thing. What I find troubling is Ms. Gardner’s allegations regarding prosecutorial misconduct by Dwight Warren, the prosecutor who convicted Lamar Johnson.
I have known Dwight Warren for at least 25 years, and have jury-tried well over a dozen murder cases against him. He is now retired. But in his heyday he was an outstanding prosecutor, one of the best I’ve ever known. I’d guess he has tried a hundred or so murder cases against all the top defense attorneys. At one point he was the head of the homicide prosecution unit in the Circuit Attorney’s Office. He was a cop before he went to law school. He was in the Army reserves and retired as a Colonel. He was a prosecutor’s prosecutor.
In all my dealings with Dwight I found him to be honest, often straight-forward to the point of bluntness. He was a minimalist in trial, putting on an often stark case that consisted solely of the evidence he needed to get a conviction with no additional fluff. Dwight didn’t put on shows or circuses, he didn’t throw on the kitchen sink in trial, there was no flamboyance. He was just rock-solid, competent prosecution all the way.
And, I’ve never met a prosecutor that didn’t look up to Dwight Warren. Except Kim Gardner.
She fired Dwight Warren, as she did so many other top-notch prosecutors that were in the Circuit Attorney’s Office not too long after she took over. She fired him on a Monday morning before he was to pick a jury in a robbery trial. Like the professional he was, he stayed until the week’s end to finish the trial — a guilty verdict — and then left the Circuit Attorney’s Office without fanfare.
That was a few years ago before the Lamar Johnson reexamination. Now Gardner’s trying to trash his reputation in an effort to free Johnson. This is Dwight’s most recent public response:
That’s typical Dwight. He simply says the evidence for Johnson’s claim of innocence just doesn’t add up. No personal attacks. He doesn’t take umbrage or act outraged. It is what it is.
And, of course, the state and federal courts have reviewed these same claims and found no prosecutorial misconduct.
Dwight Warren was a real prosecutor. If your loved-one was murdered, you were happy that Dwight was handling your case. He did the job right. The police, the judges, defense attorneys, and other prosecutors all respected him. In other words, he was nothing like Kim Gardner.
I miss Dwight Warren and what he brought to the 22nd Judicial Circuit.