Supreme Court throws out murder conviction for Keith Carnes

Less than a week after hearing arguments, Missouri Supreme Court on April 5 ordered a new trial for a man who claims he was wrongly convicted of a 2003 murder. But the larger question about the ability of prisoners to raise claims of innocence was left for another day.

In its brief order, the court did not opine on Keith L. Carnes’ claim that he is innocent of the crime. Instead, the court held that prosecutors had failed to disclose material evidence at his trial.

The court said Carnes is to be freed from prison unless the state opts within 30 days to retry him. The Jackson County Prosecutor’s Office didn’t immediately say what it intends to do.

“We are actively reviewing now, and we await any other information the Missouri Supreme Court sends to us,” the office said in a statement issued shortly after the order’s release.

Kent Gipson, an attorney for Carnes, said he doubts his client will be retried based on the findings in the Supreme Court case. And while he wished the court had said more, he was pleased with the outcome.

“We’ll take it,” he said.

The order said there was “there is no just reason to delay” a ruling in the case, which was argued on March 30.

Carnes is serving a sentence of life without parole after he was convicted in a 2006 bench trial for the murder of Larry White in Kansas City. No physical evidence connected Carnes to the murder, and key eyewitnesses who testified against him have since recanted.

He also argued that the state violated the Brady v. Maryland standard when it failed to turn over a police report to Carnes’ counsel that could have undercut the eyewitness testimony. The Supreme Court, agreeing with the findings of a special master appointed to review the case, said in its order that Carnes had established “gateway cause and prejudice” that would allow a court to consider claims that otherwise would be barred.

The order once again left unresolved whether an inmate like Carnes could raise a “freestanding claim of actual innocence.” Under such a claim, the court could act without a demonstration that he suffered constitutional violations at his trial. However, such claim has never has been permitted in a non-capital case.

In 2003, the Supreme Court ordered a new trial for death-row inmate Joseph Amrine after witnesses recanted the testimony that had implicated him in a prison murder. Amrine was released after prosecutors declined to retry him.

However, in 2016 the Court of Appeals Western District in In re: Lincoln v. Cassady refused to extend the precedent to an inmate serving a life sentence, saying the Supreme Court first needed to recognize such a claim. Carnes’ case is the latest of several cases that have raised the issue but which were decided on other grounds.

Gipson was pleased for his client but said he would have liked the court to resolve the larger issue about viability of freestanding innocence claims for inmates who are not on death row.

“I extensively briefed it just in case they wanted to do it, and they didn’t,” he said. “Maybe they’re hoping the legislature will do something.”

Coincidentally, the order came the day after a state Senate committee took testimony on a bill by Sen. John Rizzo, D-Kansas City, that would create a procedure for inmates to raise freestanding claims of actual innocence.

Under the bill, a judge could consider new evidence in the case and set aside the conviction if there is clear and convincing evidence that undermines confidence in the judgment.

The case is State ex rel. Carnes v. Buckner, SC98736. The bill is SB 1201.

This post has been updated with a statement from the Jackson County Prosecutor’s Office.

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