The Midwest Innocence Project can prove Ricky Kidd is innocent of the murder that put him behind bars for life. Now if only the court will let them.
Ricky Kidd has served 16 years of a life sentence for a murder that he maintains he never committed. His attorney, Sean O’Brien and the Midwest Innocence Project found evidence that proves it including the confession of Kidd’s co-defendant who says that Kidd had no involvement in the crime and an eyewitness who was never interviewed by the police.
Unfortunately for Kidd, his case falls under the jurisdiction of the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeal which represents Arkansas, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota. Kidd’s innocence can be proven using a 1995 precedent that allows relief if the defendant can show substantial evidence that impeaches the state’s main witness, establishes an alibi and identifies the actual perpetrator of the crime. The Third, Sixth, Seventh, Ninth, and Tenth Circuits all allow a defendant to prove innocence using that standard. However, the Eighth Circuit does not. The Eighth Circuit limits claims to only those which include evidence that was “not available at trial and could not have been discovered earlier through the exercise of due diligence.”
So, even though Kidd’s trial attorney’s representation was ineffective, the Eighth Circuit refused to hear the evidence of innocence because it is possible his lawyer could have found and presented the “new facts.”
Now Kidd’s only hope is that the U.S. Supreme Court will hear his case and bring the Eighth Circuit standard into line with the other circuit courts. O’Brien and the Midwest Innocence Project filed a writ of certiorari in the U.S. Supreme Court last month.
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