Judge to announce decision in Lamar Johnson case Tuesday

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KCTV) - Judge David Mason will announce his decision in the Lamar Johnson case on Tuesday at 1:30 p.m.

This follows a week-long December hearing into Johnson’s current murder conviction of Marcus Boyd who was shot and killed on a Saint Louis porch in 1994.

Johnson has sworn he is innocent in the case and has spent 28 years in prison. Johnson previously expressed confidence that if the case ever returned to court, he’d be freed.

“I mean, I believe in God. I believe that he had a purpose for me other than to spend the rest of my life in prison,” said Johnson.

He quoted scripture Numbers 32:23: “Be sure your sins will find you out.”

“I think you can lie, you can deny, you can hide the truth, but eventually it’s going to find a way,” Johnson said. “I’m comforted in that.”

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Johnson said he believes any impartial judge will be able to see his innocence.

Johnson’s legal team pointed out that two others have confessed to the crime, clearing Johnson. One testified in the December hearing detailing how and why the murder took place.

The only eyewitness to the crime also testified he couldn’t really see anything that night and felt pressured to pick Johnson.

But it took years to even get the case before a judge even when the prosecutor admitted it was a wrongful conviction. Johnson’s current legal team, which includes Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner, described a hostile process in court records.

Attorneys for the Missouri Attorney General’s office submitted a final brief containing eight pictures with black or red lines drawn on Johnson’s face. They continue to argue there is something unique about his face where a person could credibly identify a masked gunman running in the dark even if that person could only see the eyes.

It’s a highly-anticipated legal decision that has drawn national attention.