Missouri lawyer common seeks reversal of former detective’s conviction in Black man’s loss of life

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — In an uncommon authorized transfer, Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey is asking a state appeals court docket to reverse the conviction of a white former Kansas City police detective who shot and killed a Black man three years in the past.

In a short filed Monday, Bailey stated the proof introduced at a trial in 2021 didn’t assist Eric DeValkenaere’s conviction for second-degree involuntary manslaughter and armed prison motion within the loss of life of 26-year-old Cameron Lamb on Dec. 3, 2019.

Bailey requested the court docket to reverse DeValkenaere’s conviction or order a brand new trial.

Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker, whose workplace secured DeValkenaere’s conviction, stated the movement by the lawyer common – the state’s high regulation enforcement officer – to problem a conviction was “unprecedented” and an affront to the folks of Kansas City.

In a information convention on Monday, she accused Bailey, a Republican who was appointed to the lawyer common’s workplace in January, of “attempting to expand his power to that of a judge.”

“I can’t say in my time, 25 plus years of being here, that I’ve seen anything like this before,” Baker stated.

Cameron Lamb’s father, Aqil Bey, stated on the information convention that Bailey’s actions had been a miscarriage of justice. He stated DeValkanaere had been given each authorized benefit, together with not having to serve a day in jail since his conviction.

“We don’t feel good about it. But we are going to continue to let the legal system run its course, and we’ll see what happens,” Bey stated.

Ben Trachtenberg, a University of Missouri School of Law professor and professional in prison regulation, agreed that Bailey’s choice was uncommon, noting the state’s lawyer common’s workplace has a historical past of vigorously defending convictions, even in circumstances the place the native prosecutor is making an attempt to overturn a conviction.

Bailey’s predecessor, Eric Schmidt, who’s now a Republican U.S. senator, strongly opposed efforts by Baker and former St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner to launch two males – Lamar Johnson and Kevin Strickland – who they believed had been jailed for murders they didn’t commit. Both males had been finally launched from jail.

Still, Trachtenberg stated Bailey was inside his authority in not defending DeValkenaere’s conviction.

“The attorney general’s office does have broad responsibility for dealing with criminal appeals,” he stated. “But lawyers don’t have to defend every single case. The attorney general’s office’s highest duty is to pursue justice. If they think somebody is innocent, they don’t have to defend the conviction.”

DeValkenaere was convicted in November 2021 of killing Lamb, who was shot as he backed his truck into his storage. Police stated DeValkenaere and his accomplice, Troy Schwalm, went to Lamb’s house after reviews that Lamb was concerned in a automobile chase along with his girlfriend on residential streets.

Jackson County Circuit Court Presiding Judge J. Dale Youngs, who convicted the previous detective after a bench trial, sentenced DeValkenaere to 3 years for involuntary manslaughter and 6 years for armed prison motion, with the sentences to run consecutively.

But Youngs later dominated that DeValkenaere might stay free whereas his conviction is appealed.

In his movement, Bailey stated Lamb’s loss of life was “tragic” and shouldn’t have occurred. But he argued that DeValkenaere used affordable pressure as a result of he believed Lamb was going to shoot Schwalm. The movement, which incorporates a number of pages reiterating the police division’s model of occasions, stated officers believed they noticed Lamb with a handgun contained in the truck, and a handgun was discovered close to the truck after Lamb was shot.

“DeValkenaere’s use of force was reasonable in light of Mr. Lamb’s use of deadly force against Schwalm, and the court erred as a matter of fact and law in determining that Schwalm and DeValkenaere were the initial aggressors,” Bailey wrote. “DeValkenaere also was not criminally negligent.”

Prosecutors and Lamb’s household had alleged the handgun was planted after the capturing. But Youngs didn’t tackle that concern when he convicted the detective.

Instead, the choose stated the officers had no possible trigger to imagine that any crime had been dedicated, had no warrant for Lamb’s arrest and had no search warrant or consent to be on the property. He stated police had been the preliminary aggressors they usually had an obligation to retreat, however DeValkenaere illegally used lethal pressure as an alternative.

Rumors had swirled within the final month that Republican Gov. Mike Parson was contemplating pardoning or granting clemency to DeValkenaere, prompting Baker to ship him a letter urging him not to take action. Civil rights advocates warned that releasing the previous detective might trigger unrest within the metropolis and injury an already tense relationship between police and Kansas City’s minority group.

Parson stated final week that he had not but determined what motion to take and criticized Baker for utilizing the case for political functions.

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