Koster should back off and help find the real killer
Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster says he is committed to finding justice for the family of murder victim Cathy Robertson.
That is a worthy intention. Robertson’s shooting death in 1990 has troubled neighbors around Chillicothe, Mo., and Missouri’s criminal justice system ever since.
But Koster’s search for justice apparently will involve trying Mark Woodworth a third time, even though a judge who reviewed the case concluded Woodworth was the victim of a “manifest injustice,” and the Missouri Supreme Court agreed in a 6-0 ruling.
Koster’s quest would be better served by lending his resources to law enforcement authorities in Livingston County to finally investigate the case properly.
Woodworth was 16 when his neighbor Robertson was killed and her husband, Lyndel Robertson, seriously wounded while they slept. The case against Woodworth hinged on a single thumbprint on a box of bullets and a common manufacturing defect in a gun owned by Woodworth’s father. No plausible motive was ever put forth.
A jury convicted Woodworth in 1995, however. An appeals court overturned the verdict, finding that the defense had been denied an opportunity to present evidence about another possible suspect. But a second jury convicted Woodworth in 1999.
The mid-Missouri judge appointed to review the case, Gary Oxenhandler, recently found that crucial evidence had been withheld from the defense in both trials.
This case raises more disturbing questions about the work of Kenny Hulshof, who prosecuted Woodworth as an assistant attorney general and later was elected to Congress. Courts have declared two other defendants whom he prosecuted to be innocent.
Koster may not want to acknowledge it, but justice in Missouri has been flawed in some cases, and innocent people have been wrongly sent to prison. Mark Woodworth appears to be one, and yet another trial will only perpetuate the injustice in this case.
Robert Copher
4 months, 2 weeks agoWow, very much agree. Disturbing questions about Hulshof in the least.
Janette Mochnacz
4 months, 2 weeks agoThe state of Missouri also needs to find the real killer of Anastasia Witbolsfeugen, because Byron Case is innocent and he is paying with his life for a crime he did not commit. www.freebyroncase.com
Robert Copher
4 months, 2 weeks agoThank you for your attention to that Janette
Phil Cardarella
4 months, 2 weeks agoThe dirty little secret about too mny prosecutors and quite a few judges is that they could care less about the actual innicence of a defendnat.
Look at this case: The JUDGE got the prosecutor removed because he would not prosecute a boy he thought to be innocent. Then Hushof (No surprise there. Kenny parlayed his “winning score” in prosecutions to a seat in Congress!)) hid crucial evidence from the defense.
Koster wants to be governor, so he is not going to have the …uh,courage to do the right thing. If the kid isfinally acquitted in a fair trial, he can blame the jury — and those darned liberal judges! Of course, a fiar trial is pretty hard when a guy has already been “convicted” at unfair ones.
Or, take this poor Ryan Ferguson kid in the Columbia case. Had no more to do with the murder than Koster did. But, his conviction gets upheld because the judge reviewing the evidence would have to find that the popular former prosecutor (who is now a judge 20 feet away) got a witness to lie at the trial!
Fat chance. May as well ask him to commit professional suicide. This Woodworth kid was lucky in that his case was reviewed by a RETIRED judge sent in to do just that, so no politics were involved.
Fact is, guys like Albert Riederer are few an far between.
Phil Cardarella
4 months, 2 weeks agoOf course, the truth is that whenever an innocent guy is convicted, the actual murderer goes free.
Janette Mochnacz
4 months, 1 week agoThank you, Robert! Are you familiar with Byron’s case?