This story was originally posted on April 29, 2023.
In a case that spans almost three decades, Lamar Johnson, a man from St. Louis, Missouri, was finally released from prison in February 2023. Investigative journalist Erin Moriarty delves deep into the case, shedding light on the witness who played a crucial role in Johnson's conviction—a witness who now reveals he was coerced by law enforcement to falsely identify Johnson as one of the perpetrators.
Imprisoned at the age of 21 and incarcerated until the age of 49, Lamar Johnson has endured the majority of his life behind bars for a crime he did not commit.
Erin Moriarty (July 2021): How do you keep up hope?
Lamar Johnson: I don't have a choice. … I — I know the truth. I know that I didn't kill Markus.
Lamar Johnson was convicted of first-degree murder in 1995 for the shooting of 25-year-old Markus Boyd on his front porch. Johnson received a life sentence without the possibility of parole.
Erin Moriarty: What have you lost?
Lamar Johnson: Time… and uh … there's a closeness between — especially with a father and his daughters. And I … (emotional) I missed being able to — to be a part of their life.
Erin Moriarty: You want your dad to come home.
Brittany Johnson: Yeah, I definitely do.
Brittany Johnson was just one year old when her dad was sent away.
Brittany Johnson (wiping tears): It was definitely hard, but I learned to live without my dad.
Kiera Barrow was just an infant then.
Kiera Barrow (in tears): We're still waiting. There is still an innocent man in prison.
Kiera's mother, Erika Barrow.
Erin Moriarty: Did you think you'd marry him?
Erika Barrow: Yes, I did. I mean, he was my first love.
Lamar Johnson grew up in St. Louis – consistently ranked as one of the most dangerous cities in the country. His South Side neighborhood in 1994 was battered by high crime and homicide rates. Johnson had steered clear of serious trouble.
Erika Barrow: He wanted to better himself. … He wanted to be the man that he needed to be for his, his children.
So, Johnson, the 20-year-old father of two, worked at Jiffy Lube while attending community college. But he also had a dangerous side hustle – selling small amounts of crack cocaine for extra cash.
Lamar Johnson: Yes, I was makin' some poor choices then. And – I – I — I take responsibility for that. But that wasn't the sum of who I was.
Erika Barrow: Engaging in drug dealing was not a permanent fixture in his life. It was merely a temporary means to an end.
Johnson's close friend, Markus Boyd, who was five years his senior, had already started a family and secured a stable job at a printing company. Despite his clean-cut appearance, Boyd also dabbled in selling drugs on the side.
Erika Barrow: Markus had more of a preppy vibe. He wasn't really streetwise.
Greg Elking: He was genuinely a good person.
Greg Elking, who was 30 at the time, had previously worked alongside Boyd at the printing company. Elking also admitted to occasionally buying drugs from Boyd. On the night of October 30, 1994, he wanted to get high, but Boyd declined.
Greg Elking: He said, "We have work tomorrow." So, we ended up sitting on the front porch, on the steps.
The street where Markus Boyd lived, Louisiana Avenue, was deserted. His girlfriend and their child were inside the house.
Greg Elking: All he ever talked about was his baby and his girlfriend.
Greg Elking: We were joking around, making each other laugh. But suddenly, his expression changed. He said, "Oh, no."
Two men emerged from the narrow pathway beside Boyd's apartment, barely visible in the dim light.
Witness Recounts Terrifying Night of Gun Violence
Greg Elking: These individuals, dressed in all black with masks covering their faces, approached us with guns in hand.
Elking recalls the intense moment when one of the men attacked Markus Boyd while the other one grabbed Elking himself.
Greg Elking: And he's wrestling … with Markus.
With fear gripping their hearts, Elking vividly remembers the chilling moment when one of the assailants pointed a gun at Boyd's neck.
Greg Elking: And when he pulled the trigger, I saw the flash...
Greg Elking: Boom.
Greg Elking: The third shot, I kind of saw Markus' soul leave his body. I knew he was gone.
After the brutal attack, the perpetrators swiftly disappeared into the night, leaving Elking as the only witness to recount the harrowing incident.
Erin Moriarty: You mentioned looking into one of the shooter's eyes.
Greg Elking: All I could see were the eyes.
Erin Moriarty: Could you distinguish the shooter's race?
Greg Elking: I could tell he was Black.
Escape from Gunmen
After the gunmen fled, Greg Elking sprinted in the opposite direction. Amid the chaos, Elking recalls hearing Markus Boyd's girlfriend's piercing screams.
Erin Moriarty: Reflecting on the ordeal, it must still be difficult to discuss, isn't it?
Greg Elking: (Overcome with emotion, remains silent.)
Erin Moriarty (July 2021): And where were you at the time of the incident?
Lamar Johnson: I was approximately three miles away.
Johnson explains that he was spending time with his girlfriend, Erika Barrow, and their 5-month-old daughter, Kiera, while visiting friends. Erika remembers that Lamar Johnson was out of her sight for just a brief moment that evening.
Erika Barrow: We were there because he needed to make a quick transaction. Someone was on their way. ... So, he said he would be back shortly.
Quick Deal
As Erika began changing Kiera's diaper, Johnson left the residence to meet with a contact he was doing business with.
Lamar Johnson (2019): I stepped out to meet someone I had an arrangement with.
His client picked him up at the intersection of 39th and Lafayette, according to Johnson. They swiftly conducted their business while driving around the block.
Erika Barrow: By the time I finished changing the diaper and tidying up ... he was already coming back up the stairs.
Erin Moriarty: How long did that take?
Erika Barrow: About three to five minutes. ... And he was just chatting, nothing seemed out of the ordinary. ... He seemed completely normal.
Minutes later, Johnson got a call that Markus Boyd had been shot. The next day, he learned that Boyd had died. Johnson's own life began to unravel. According to investigators, when they asked Boyd's girlfriend who she suspected, only one name came to mind: Lamar Johnson. She thought the longtime friends might have had a falling out.
Lamar Johnson (Oct. 24, 2022): Markus and I have never had an argument or a fight.
Lamar Johnson: I loved him. I had no reason to want to hurt him.
Erin Moriarty: You agreed to talk to the cops without a lawyer. That was risky, wasn't it?
Lamar Johnson: Well, now, I didn't have anything to hide.
THE EYEWITNESS
Four days after Markus Boyd was shot to death on his front porch, St. Louis police tracked down the only eyewitness to the murder, Greg Elking.
Erin Moriarty: How would you describe what you went through that night?
Greg Elking: It was the most horrifying thing I ever seen in my life.
Shaken and scared, Elking says he was initially reluctant to talk until he met lead investigator Joe Nickerson.
Greg Elking: I thought he was this amazing dude. … I thought he was like Nick Nolte from "48 Hours" — out of a movie — he was awesome. … I mean, it was, it was somebody that I just immediately admired.
Greg Elking recounts how he identified Lamar Johnson in a photo shown to him by Nickerson, despite only seeing the eyes of one of the shooters who attacked him. Elking was certain about the eyes in the photo, which turned out to be Lamar Johnson's.
Greg Elking: I said, "these eyes … there's something about these eyes." And that's all I said.
Upon recognizing Lamar Johnson, Elking refused to sign the back of the photo, wanting to stay clear of any involvement in the case.
Erin Moriarty: Why not?
Greg Elking: Because I didn't want nothing to do with this, because I couldn't pick out no murderer. And I don't even think he's the murderer, I didn't say he was a murderer.
Despite Nickerson's warning about Lamar Johnson being a dangerous individual allegedly involved in multiple murders, attorney Lindsay Runnels asserts that there is no evidence to support these claims.
Lindsay Runnels | Lamar Johnson's attorney: If they had any evidence, whatsoever, then or now, Lamar Johnson would be charged with a crime.
Runnels highlights that Johnson's criminal record consists of minor charges like possession of cocaine and tampering with a license plate, with no history of violence.
She says Johnson received probation for those offenses. Still, she says, cops, aware of his criminal record, kept him and young men like him on their radar.
Lindsay Runnels: It's just the usual suspects type of round them up and everybody is guilty by association.
But after the murder on Louisiana Avenue, police had a new reason to focus on Lamar Johnson. The victim's girlfriend had given them his name and now, they had what they said was a photo identification.
On the evening of Nov. 3, 1994, four days after the murder, they arrested Johnson along with his friend Phillip Campbell.
Erika Barrow: I couldn't even understand why. Why would they arrest you?
Johnson's girlfriend at the time and his alibi for the night of the murder: Erika Barrow.
Erika Barrow: I begged him to get a lawyer … and all he kept saying is, "I don't want my mom and stepfather paying all the money, all this money for a lawyer. I didn't do it."
Lamar Johnson (Oct. 24, 2022): I didn't have anything to hide. So uh, you know, I believed in the system. I believed that if I explained to them what I knew and, and where I was that that would sort itself out.
At the police station, Johnson agreed to a live lineup.
Lamar Johnson (Oct. 24, 2022): I wanted to try to be as cooperative as I could. I wanted them to — to, to investigate and talk to … the people whose house I was at that night. … You know I would expect that they would reach the conclusion that I didn't have anything to do with it.
But investigators never spoke to anyone who had been with Johnson on the night of the shooting, not even Erika Barrow. They put him in that lineup — he's the third man in the photo above — and brought in Elking to view it.
Erin Moriarty: Could you identify anybody?
Greg Elking: No.
Altogether Elking viewed that lineup three times and never picked Johnson.
Elking was then asked to view a different live lineup. Lamar Johnson wasn't there, but the man arrested with him, Philip Campbell, is number 4 in the photo above. Elking still couldn't identify anyone and says he feared he'd let down the detective he admired and trusted.
Greg Elking: I felt so bad. I could see it in his eyes like I — I hurt this guy, like this whole time, you know, I just wasted his time.
Then, according to Elking, he asked Detective Joe Nickerson how he could help.
Greg Elking: All that came out of my mouth was like, all right, Joe, it — you tell me what the numbers were, and I'll tell you if they were correct.
Erin Moriarty: What does he say to you?
Greg Elking: He says three and four. And I was like, you're right, three and four.
Lamar Johnson was number three in that first lineup. Philip Campbell was the fourth man in the other lineup.
Greg Elking: If Joe Nickerson is telling me that three and four is it, it's got to be Lamar and whoever, Phillip. … because he wouldn't lie to me. Joe wouldn't lie to me.
Erin Moriarty: So, you pick three and four because Nickerson told you?
Greg Elking: Yeah.
"48 Hours" asked Joe Nickerson for an interview. He declined our request but sent us a text saying in part, "I went where the facts, evidence and circumstances took me."
Elking claims he told no one that Nickerson had allegedly given him the suspects' numbers in the lineups. Instead, he told the other detectives that he was able to identify Lamar Johnson because of his distinctive eye.
Greg Elking: They had asked me, what do you mean about the eye when you say that you could pick, you know, these eyes?
Greg Elking: And I — and I said, I don't know, like — like a lazy eye or something, like it's different from the other.
Dwight Warren, the prosecutor, says he pressed Elking on his identification of Johnson.
Dwight Warren: I believed Mr. Elking, because I looked him straight in the eye and said, you know … I want to know if he did it … Tell me you're sure of your identification. … Please tell me the truth because I don't want to go and charge somebody who's not guilty.
Erin Moriarty: What did Greg Elking say to you when you said that to him?
Dwight Warren: Well quote end quote I couldn't tell you, but he told me he was telling the truth that he, he knew who did the shooting … and it was Lamar Johnson and Philip Campbell, so I charged them both.
In July 1995, Lamar Johnson went on trial with Elking as the star witness.
Dwight Warren: If he had backed off of that, I would have never issued the case. … That, he was absolutely essential.
To bolster the case, one of the witnesses the prosecution called was William Mock, a jail house informant with a lengthy criminal history, who claimed that he overheard Johnson and Campbell in a holding cell talking about the murder. But attorney Lindsay Runnels says Mock wasn't credible and that his cell wasn't close enough to hear anything.
Lindsay Runnels: Lamar wasn't ever celled with Campbell, and Campbell nor Lamar were ever in the same cell as William Mock, so how could you hear this, if it happened at all, which it didn't.
Erin Moriarty: Don't you want to make sure that jailhouse snitch is telling the truth?
Dwight Warren: How am I going to do that?
Erin Moriarty: Well, you wouldn't put somebody on the stand unless you could check out their story, right?
Dwight Warren: Unless I — I did check it out. He was in two jail cells away. He was in a position that, to be able to hear that.
Johnson didn't take the stand at his trial. The defense relied on his girlfriend Erika Barrow who told the jury he was with her at the time of the murder. It took less than two hours for the jurors to reach a verdict. Guilty.
Johnson's life had been changed forever by Greg Elking, who says that as he was pointing at Johnson at trial, he knew he had identified the wrong man.
Greg Elking: This isn't the dude I seen at all. … Because to me, Lamar is not dark and not what I seen.
Erin Moriarty: You had doubts right afterwards. Why didn't you tell somebody? Why didn't you say I think —
Greg Elking: Because nobody talks to me, nobody. … who am I going to tell? I don't know who I could have told.
Erin Moriarty: Did it occur to you at that moment that you might have put an innocent man —
Dialogue between Greg Elking and Erin Moriarty:
- Greg Elking: Yes.
- Erin Moriarty: — behind bars?
- Greg Elking: Without a doubt … Because I lied on the testimony. I lied because I thought I was doing the right thing.
A DEEP DIVE INTO THE CASE
Lamar Johnson was only 21 years old when he was found guilty of murder.
Lamar Johnson (July 2021): At my trial they did not even present a motive. They never explained why I supposedly did this.
Shortly before his sentencing, Johnson received game-changing information that he believed would exonerate him: handwritten letters from his friend and the other suspected killer, Phillip Campbell. One letter explicitly stated "… you didn't do a thing ..."
Lamar Johnson: He said, "I'm sorry you got convicted for somethin' you didn't do" … He said he wanted to come forth, but his attorney wouldn't let him because he thought he could beat his case.
Erin Moriarty: And Phillip Campbell was actually one of the shooters.
Lamar Johnson: He was.
Campbell even provided the name of the other shooter who accompanied him on the night of the murder – a man named James B.A. Howard.
Johnson now had the names of both shooters. He wrote the judge and asked for a hearing, but his request was denied. In September 1995, Lamar Johnson was sentenced to life in prison without parole. Girlfriend Erika Barrow blames law enforcement.
Erika Barrow: You didn't care to check his alibi. You wanted to blame someone, and you did exactly that. … You just flat out didn't care. You didn't care.
Ricky Kidd: We were both assigned to Potosi Correctional Center in Missouri … Our friendship was almost instant.
Ricky Kidd, who was also serving a life sentence for murder, remembers when he first learned about Johnson's case.
Ricky Kidd: He said … "I have to go to the … law library." I said, "What are you working on?" And he turned to me. He said, "Well, I know everybody says this, but I'm innocent." … and a big old smile appeared across my face, kind of like you're seeing right now. And I said, "Well, I know everybody say this, but I'm innocent, too."
The two men made a pact in prison.
Ricky Kidd: He said, let's make a promise that whoever makes it out will come back for the other. And we shook on it.
The Midwest Innocence Project had already been working on Kidd's case before he himself was exonerated. Kidd says he convinced lawyers there to take a closer look at Johnson's case.
Erin Moriarty: What did you think would happen?
Lamar Johnson: Again, I thought that I would be heard … So, it made me even more hopeful … that I would, that the court would at least listen.
Elking's letter would reveal another reason why he agreed to testify against Johnson. At the time of the murder, Elking had been in serious financial straits. Detective Nickerson and the prosecutor's office put him in a witness protection program. Elkings' debts were paid, and his outstanding traffic warrants cleared — and that's not all.
Erin Moriarty: Whose idea was to give you money? To move you? To give you cash?
Greg Elking: Oh, that was Joe Nickerson … They paid my first month and last month's rent for — for a house.
Altogether, Elking had received more than $4,000. None of that was disclosed to Johnson and his lawyer at trial. Johnson repeatedly asked for a hearing, he was denied, and his case stalled.
Lamar Johnson: I mean, what else is needed? The only thing that, that I haven't been able to present is DNA, and God, I wish there was some DNA (gets emotional)
Kimberly Gardner: And I started seeing some red flags. And I consulted my team, and I said, I think we have a problem here.
One of the many flags for Gardner was the timeline for the murder. Could Johnson have had time to kill his friend Markus Boyd? Erika Barrow said Johnson had only left their friend's apartment for around five minutes.
Lamar Johnson: And you cannot drive that distance. You'd have to be speeding through St. Louis to even get there … and then you'd have to speed all the way back. There's no way you could do that.
But Prosecutor Dwight Warren says Erika could have lost track of time — that Johnson could have been gone as long as 15 minutes.
Reenactment of Events: She didn't have a stopwatch. … Lamar got into a car … and took off.
During Johnson's trial, Detective Joe Nickerson testified that it only took him 5 minutes to go from the alibi location to the crime scene. To verify this claim, Chief Investigator Robert Ogilvie from the Circuit Attorney's Office retraced the drive. We timed the drive using a cellphone.
Investigator Ogilvie: Here we are.
Reenactment of Events: Yep. 12:55. Thirteen minutes.
Reenactment of Events: As a prosecutor, you put people in prison, you don't try to get them out.
Reenactment of Events: As a prosecutor, no prosecutor, I believe, wants to secure a conviction wrongfully using wrong tactics …That's just not what we want to do. We want to get it right.
Jurors never learned that jailhouse informant William Mock was a racist who had a hatred for black people, nor did they hear the majority of his criminal record. And they were never told Greg Elking had been paid thousands of dollars. Gardner was convinced Johnson was innocent, but when she tried to get his conviction overturned, court after court, including the Missouri Supreme Court, said she didn't have the power.
Kimberly Gardner: And when you try to abide by your oath and you're stopped every way, it weighs on you.
In 2021, the Missouri Legislature passed a law that gave Gardner and other prosecutors the power to bring cases of innocence to court. A year later, Johnson got the news he had been praying for. After nearly three decades in prison, he would finally get a hearing to present new evidence in his case.
LAST CHANCE AT FREEDOM
On Dec. 12, 2022, Lamar Johnson and his legal team gathered in a St. Louis courtroom for a week-long hearing. His daughters Brittany and Kiera were in the courtroom nearly every day.
Kiera Barrow: I think we're all trying to be … hopeful … that my dad gets justice.
One man, Judge David Mason, will decide Johnson's future. He has three options: Overturn the conviction and grant a new trial, overturn the conviction and declare Johnson innocent, or he could uphold the jury's verdict.
Erin Moriarty: What is at stake here with this judge's decision?
Kimberly Gardner: Justice and the integrity of the whole criminal justice system.
Circuit Attorney Kimberly Gardner sat by Johnson, instead of her usual seat at the prosecution table. Gardner appointed two lawyers to handle Johnson's case, Charlie Weiss and Jonathan Potts.
Jonathan Potts: I took this case because I believe that Lamar Johnson's innocent. I didn't take it because I think he might be innocent.
Charlie Weiss: There was no physical evidence at all connecting Lamar Johnson with the murder of Marcus Boyd, period.
CHARLIE WEISS (in court): Thank you, Your Honor, may it please the court. This is a rather historic moment in this court. This is the first time … where the court is hearing an actual innocence claim filed by a prosecuting attorney.
The Missouri Attorney General's office sent a team of their own to argue that Johnson's conviction should stand. In response to "48 Hours"' request for an interview, they provided us with this written statement, that read in part, "the Attorney General's Office has fought to keep a convicted murderer in prison."
Attorney Miranda Loesch told the judge not to trust the witnesses who were about to vouch for Johnson's innocence.
MIRANDA LOESCH (in court): They're going to ask you to believe convicted murderers and gang members. … Their evidence is … not credible.
Johnson's team calls their first witness. James Howard takes the stand and admits that he's one of the men who murdered Markus Boyd.
JONATHAN POTTS (in court): How did Markus die?
JAMES HOWARD: Me and Phillip Campbell killed him at — on his front porch.
Remember, Phillip Campbell had written Lamar Johnson saying he and Howard were the real shooters. Campbell, who was later convicted of the murder, took a deal and served only five years. He has since died. Howard was never charged with Boyd's death. He's currently in prison for life for unrelated crimes, including murdering another man.
JAMES HOWARD (in court): I killed him the exact same way. I fired two shots in the back his head.
But attorneys Jonathan Potts and Charlie Weiss can't rely on Howard's word alone. They must now tear apart the original case against Lamar Johnson. They call Greg Elking, the state's former star witness.
GREG ELKING (in court): Law enforcement was wanting me to help, and I trusted them. … I wanted to help.
GREG ELKING: He goes, I know you know who it is and you're just not saying.
Interview Excerpts:
GREG ELKING: And this is the part I hate the most. … I just remember saying to him, "you tell me the numbers and I'll tell you if you're right." And he did. … And I was like, that was it, that was the numbers.
GREG ELKINS: And I've been living with it … 25, 28 years and I'm telling you, I just wish, I just wish I could change time.
JUDGE DAVID MASON: He told you and the officers— that it was based upon him looking at the eyes, because that was all he could see. Isn't that correct?
DWIGHT WARREN: I believe so.
JUDGE DAVID MASON: And did he or did he not tell you that all of this happened … within seconds?
DWIGHT WARREN: Yes. Yes.
Further Testimony:
JUDGE DAVID MASON: And that's what you decided was sufficiently reliable to seek a murder conviction?
DWIGHT WARREN: To take it to a jury. Yes, sir.
Warren admitted to Johnson's lawyers that without an eyewitness, he would never have filed charges in the first place.
DWIGHT WARREN: Oh, absolutely not. … I didn't have any evidence.
On day four, Lamar Johnson finally got the chance to defend himself in his own words.
MIRANDA LOESCH: So, you talked to Detective Nickerson that night, correct?
LAMAR JOHNSON: Yes ma'am.
During the hearing, Attorney Miranda Loesch questioned Lamar Johnson about his conversation with Detective Nickerson shortly after the murder took place.
LAMAR JOHNSON: I told him, "that boy is my friend. I didn't shoot him." ... I agreed to participate voluntarily in the lineup.
MIRANDA LOESCH: You had a lot at stake at that moment, didn't you?
LAMAR JOHNSON: I didn't see it that way.
MIRANDA LOESCH: You didn't? You were arrested for a homicide.
LAMAR JOHNSON: I didn't commit the crime. So, why would I be worried about losing everything?
As the week progressed, Detective Nickerson took the stand, the person accused by Elking of pressuring him to falsely identify Johnson.
DET. JOSEPH NICKERSON: Mr. Elking said, "Hey, ... I know who it is, it's number three in the first lineup and it's number four in the second lineup."
MIRANDA LOESCH: Did you instruct him to say that?
DET. JOSEPH NICKERSON: I did not tell him what to say.
However, Judge Mason had his own inquiries for Nickerson.
JUDGE DAVID MASON: Do you acknowledge that all evidence points to the fact that your witness could only identify certain aspects of the eyes?
DET. JOSEPH NICKERSON: I am aware of that.
JUDGE DAVID MASON: Mr. Johnson, please stand up.
JUDGE DAVID MASON: I am just curious. … because I don't know, what in the world is distinctive about this man's eyes?
JOSEPH NICKERSON: Well, you can tell his eyes are different —
JUDGE DAVID MASON: I could — tell me, what do you see?
DET. JOSEPH NICKERSON: I can tell that his right eye is different from his left. … One is lower or higher than the other.
JUDGE DAVID MASON: OK.
Erin Moriarty: How would you describe the involvement of Judge Mason in this case?
Tony Messenger: Well, that was one of the most unique things I've seen in any trial I've ever covered.
Columnist Tony Messenger covered the case for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
Tony Messenger: He didn't just ask questions; he took over the questioning at times … and made it very clear … when he was believing something and when he wasn't.
After five days of witnesses, court adjourned. With his freedom on the line, Johnson was taken to a St. Louis jail to wait for Judge Mason's decision.
Lamar Johnson: I don't know how to not fight for my innocence … to fight for what's right — what was wrongfully taken from me.
THE JUDGE DECIDES
Lamar Johnson's daughter Kiera Barrow has finally heard what happened to her father so many years ago.
Kiera Barrow: The pain of reliving the misconduct and negligence in court has been incredibly difficult for us.
Brittany Johnson: The most challenging part was discovering that Greg had lied, especially considering that his false testimony led to his imprisonment.
Brittany Johnson feels that Greg Elking's deceitful actions deprived her of precious time with her father.
Brittany Johnson: I am filled with anger.
Erin Moriarty: This is an incredibly difficult situation.
Brittany Johnson: Yes, it is extremely challenging. I can't stand that I'm in tears right now... a father plays the most vital role.
However, the wait continues as two months go by without a decision from the judge. Keira is hopeful for a resolution soon.
Kiera Barrow: We have missed out on numerous opportunities and significant moments. I am getting married in April of this year. (Crying) It would mean the world to me, and I know to my father, to have him there with me and walk me down the aisle.
Finally, on a Tuesday afternoon in February, Johnson's family and friends gather back in the courtroom.
Lawyers from the Missouri Attorney General's office, opposing Johnson's release, sit at one table. On the other side, the team working to secure Johnson's freedom. Seated beside Johnson is his attorney Lindsay Runnels.
Erin Moriarty: What decision should Judge Mason make in this case?
Lindsay Runnels: Judge Mason should vacate these convictions and Lamar Johnson should walk out of that courtroom today.
After both legal teams were given copies of his final opinion, Judge David Mason announced his decision on Feb. 14, 2023.
JUDGE DAVID MASON: After reviewing both the underlying trial as well as the entirety of the hearing, for the reasons stated above, it is hereby ordered that the motion of the Circuit Attorney of the 22nd Judicial Circuit filed herein for the benefit of Lamar Johnson is granted.
JUDGE DAVID MASON: The conviction of Lamar Johnson in State v. Lamar Johnson, Cause 2294-3706A is hereby set aside and held for naught.
Johnson's murder conviction was overturned. The judge also found that there was clear and convincing evidence of Johnson's innocence. After more than 28 years behind bars, he was more than a free man — 49-year-old Lamar Johnson had finally been exonerated.
This time he would leave the courthouse not in a prison van, but in a black sedan.
Erin Moriarty: When I first met you, I asked you to identify yourself.
Lamar Johnson (2021): My name's Lamar Johnson. I've been in prison for 26 years now.
Erin Moriarty: And If I asked you to identify Lamar Johnson right now, what would you say?
Lamar Johnson(2023): I am a freed man, an exonerated man and a blessed man.
Erin Moriarty: How important was it to have Greg Elking take the stand and — and tell the judge what he had done at trial?
Lamar Johnson: That was very important. … He intentionally, you know, falsely identified me. But … not only did he acknowledge that he made a mistake, he took steps to try to correct it. And I am extremely grateful to him for that.
And during that time he spent in prison, he says he never forgot about his friend Markus Boyd who died that night.
Lamar Johnson: I didn't want Markus's family thinking that I did this to him, 'cause I genuinely cared about Markus. … Markus was a good guy.
In the meantime, Johnson is starting over. His friend Ricky Kidd knows it won't be easy.
Ricky Kidd: It's going to be tough. …but … Lamar has the ability to adapt and adjust and … see new opportunities.
Lamar Johnson: Worked 30 years for the Department of Corrections for pennies. I don't have anything. ... … I hope somebody is willing to … give me a shot. … I want to work.
Erin Moriarty: You have a date coming up, an important date.
Lamar Johnson: My youngest daughter is getting married. And, you know, it'd be nice if I could do something special and nice for them … but presence matters more than presents. And I'm going to make the best of what life I have.
Under current law, Johnson is not entitled to compensation from the state of Missouri.
Produced by Marcelena Spencer and Emily Wichick. Mead Stone is the producer-editor. Stephen A. McCain is the development producer. Chelsea Narvaez is the associate producer. Atticus Brady and Joan Adelman are the editors. Lourdes Aguiar is the senior producer. Nancy Kramer is the executive editor. Judy Tygard is the executive producer
