Wrongfully convicted Missouri man gets $8 million settlement

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press


Updated 1:45 pm CDT, Friday, May 15, 2020

SIKESTON, Mo. (AP) — A southeastern Missouri city has agreed to an $8 million settlement in a lawsuit filed by a man who spent 17 years in prison for murder before the state Supreme Court overturned his conviction.

Jonathan Douglass, the city manager of Sikeston, announced the settlement Friday with David Robinson, who sued the city after he was released from prison in May 2018 when a judge ruled there was clear evidence that he didn't kill local bar owner Sheila Box in 2000, the Southeast Missourian reported.

Robinson alleged in his lawsuit that Sikeston police knew he was innocent in Box's death but helped stop his conviction from being overturned during two appeals.during two appeals.

Robinson was convicted of killing Box as she left a Sikeston bar, even though no physical evidence linked him to the crime and two witnesses who placed him at the scene recanted their testimony. Another man, Romanze Mosby, confessed to several people in 2004 that he killed Box, but he would not sign an affidavit making the confession official and then killed himself in his cell five years later. His confession was never introduced as evidence.

Read more: https://www.chron.com/news/article/Wrongfully-convicted-Missouri-man-gets-8-million-15272923.php

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Missouri man David Robinson free after years in prison for murder he didn't commit
MAY 15, 2018 / 1:40 AM / CBS NEWS

- video at link -

CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. -- A Missouri man walked free from prison on Monday after serving nearly 18 years behind bars for a murder he didn't commit. David Robinson of Sikeston was released Monday night from the Jefferson City Correctional Center, hours after Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley recommended that charges against him be dismissed.

Robinson had been behind bars since being convicted in 2001 of killing Sheila Box, who was shot to death after leaving a Sikeston bar she co-owned with $300 in cash and checks. He was sentenced to life in prison without parole.

"Been a living nightmare. It's been an up-and-down rollercoaster," Robinson told "48 Hours" correspondent Erin Moriarty in a recent interview in prison.

. . .

Filmmaker Steve Turner, who is working on a documentary about the case, said, "There were no three or four eyewitnesses who saw him shoot her; there was just one guy who had a crazy story, and bam, he's gone."

More:
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/david-robinson-released-missouri-wrongful-conviction-sheila-box-murder-sikeston/

[Marrah_Goodman]

1. I am glad he has something to start rebuilding his life.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

2. I hope he has help with that money.

8 million (or 5 million, after his lawyer takes a cut), is plenty to last the rest of his life, with sensible investment, moderate lifestyle.

A good CFP should be appointed to give him some help.

Otherwise, turn him loose with 5 mil in his pocket, he may be soon broke. I don't think they teach money management in prison. Or maybe they do. Dunno.

[LiberalFighter]

3. Sounds like Limbaugh did it.

[ailsagirl]

4. That always upsets me to read about someone being falsely imprisoned

I'm glad he's being compensated, although no amount of money can compensate for the time that's passed

Justice IS blind

[brush]

5. Somehow I knew it was a black guy.

[Judi Lynn]

6. Almost always, for sure.

[Stuart G]

7. K and R..nt