The Missouri Department of Corrections has been held in contempt for refusing to release an 82-year-old man whose conviction was vacated in June.
The Missouri Attorney General’s Office has stopped the release of Howard Roberts from South Central Correctional Center, about four hours southeast of Kansas City.
This is the third time this summer that Attorney General Andrew Bailey’s office has intervened to keep a wrongfully convicted person in prison.
“I think it’s politics,” said Roberts’ attorney, Jonathan Sternberg.
Sternberg went on to say that he believes Bailey wants to be seen as a crime fighter, and keeping the wrongfully convicted behind bars is one way he has tried to build that image.
But Bailey, a Republican, has lost those cases in recent weeks and was even threatened with being held in contempt himself last month.
Sandra “Sandy” Hemme was declared innocent in June after spending over 43 years in prison. Livingston County Circuit Judge Ryan Horsman ordered her release on July 9. Bailey’s office called the warden and instructed him to continue holding Hemme. Though there wasn’t a stay in place, she remained behind bars an additional 10 days while the AG’s took the case to the Western District Court of Appeals and the Missouri Supreme Court. Both courts struck down their efforts to keep her in prison.