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Kezer wins day in courtTuesday, August 5, 2008
On Monday, Cole County Circuit Judge Richard G. Callahan granted Kezer an evidentiary hearing, to function as a bench trial, set for Dec. 2 and Dec. 3 in Jefferson City, said Charles Weiss, Kezer's attorney. "It'll be like a trial. We will present witnesses and evidence," Weiss said. Callahan granted the hearing after both Weiss and lawyers from the Missouri State Attorney General's Office described their sides of the case during a review Monday afternoon. "I'm happy. It's one step closer to the truth," Kezer said in a prepared statement. So far, Kezer, now 33, has not been present at any of three case reviews held in Cole County Circuit Court since Weiss filed a habeus motion in April alleging his client was wrongly convicted. Under the rules governing habeus motions, Kezer, currently incarcerated at Jefferson City Correctional Center, has a right to attend the evidentiary hearing, Weiss said. Lawless was killed in November 1992 in Benton, Mo. Scott County Sheriff Rick Walter reopened the murder investigation in 2006, believing other people may have been involved. Since then, the case against Kezer has fallen apart, Walter said Monday. Physical evidence found at the crime scene — including fingerprints, blood typing and DNA — never matched Kezer, and recently Callahan granted a motion ordering the Missouri State Highway Patrol to enter the DNA profiles into CODIS, the database for convicted felons. Mark T. Abbott, whose testimony placed Kezer near the crime scene, and whose description of the person he saw changed several times, said in a letter to the Southeast Missourian he might have identified the wrong man when he picked Kezer out of a photo lineup. A handwriting analysis recently performed on a police report verified a statement Abbott gave to a Scott City officer 10 days after the murder, naming the man he saw near the crime scene as someone other than Kezer. Kezer's trial attorneys never saw that report. Several witnesses have since given written statements to Kezer's attorneys saying others have confessed to the murder. "There are people on both sides of the fence that don't want this case reopened," Walter said. Though forensic evidence indicated Lawless may have been killed by more than one person, recent information has led Walter to believe that even more people could have been involved than he originally thought, he said. It's no longer just a murder investigation, he said, but declined to elaborate. The attorney general's office opposed the evidentiary hearing, arguing in a motion that it was not necessary because much of the evidence exculpating Kezer consisted of hearsay. The attorney general's office declined to comment on Callahan's decision to grant the hearing or their reasons for opposing it. 335-6611, extension 245 Have a comment? Log on to semissourian.com/today Comments  Note: The nature of the Internet makes it impractical for our staff to review every comment. If you feel that a comment is offensive, please Login or Create an account first, and then you will be able to flag a comment as objectionable. Please also note that those who post comments on semissourian.com may do so using a screen name, which may or may not reflect a website user's actual name. Readers should be careful not to assign comments to real people who may have names similar to screen names. Refrain from obscenity in your comments, and to keep discussions civil, don't say anything in a way your grandmother would be ashamed to read.
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Bridget.....you're my hero. Great piece. There are some very happy people to hear this news. Watch out Kenny. The cards fall a certain way and your first order of business as Governor Elect could be an embarrassing one. Thank you Judge Callahan. This is what is called a momentum change. Josh's story now has energy. It resonates because now people want the truth. Not even politics could save it now from....at the very least....having the story told and told matter of factly. Very Happy.
How convenient............
The hearing comes AFTER the election.....
Will Mr Hulshof be the candidate after today ??
The neocons win again !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Josiah, pertaining to Ricky Clay -- I would be interested as to why, if he's truly innocent, he ran from MSHP Officers and ultimately had to be located by a Patrol aircraft sloshing around in the muddy fields outside of New Mardrid. He tried to evade arrest to the point of having to be hauled out in handcuffs in the back of a 4X4 pickup. Simply doesn't sound like actions of an innocent man.
I've read some of the reports on the Martindale murder and I don't really think you can compare these two cases.
Would like to see the hearing on Kezer done a lot sooner though.
THANK YOU LORD! As someone who has been saying special prayers for this man on a daily basis, I am so thrilled to know he is finally getting his day in court. It's a shame that it can't be sooner than December, but I guess a few more months is better than many more years. I'll be keeping Joshua and his family in my prayers. As for Mr. Hulshof - everyone answers for their wrongs one day!
Way to spend our tax dollars, if they knew what they were doing in the beginning we wouldnt be having to re try a man whose evidence didnt match any from the crime scene. Good police work, SOUTHEAST MISSOURI!
I agree kiki. I also think it's a shame he has to wait until after election too. I just hope the informed voters take care of the politics that put him in there without sufficient evidence. At least he's finally maybe going to get some justice for himself.
With DNA involved in the Michelle Lawless case and it shows that Josh did not do it, Kenny Hulshof needs to publicly apologize to Josh and his family for having him locked up all these years. I also feel that Rick Clay needs to have a new trial as well since Kenny Hulshof and Riley Bock had Chuck Sanders to give the jury the inclination that he was getting jail time. Isn't that lying in court um isn't that perjury. Or is that not what it is called when prosecution lies. Fair is Fair here isn't it. Right is Right come on Kenny do what is legal and proper give the one man you know in your heart (if you even have a heart) is innocent. Stop lying to yourself and everyone else you know this man did not shoot Randy Martindale you have proof isn't it about time you stood up and showed it. You can not bring an innocent dead man back to life but you can free an innocent man. Let Josh go and let Rick go as well.
I don't understand how we can have two people running for govenor who are riding on their records as honest and fair and fighting for the little guy; and neither one of them wants to see justice done in this case.
They should both be helping to get this matter settled, forget there egos and show us how good our justice system is!
It's getting very hard to believe in any of our politicians!
Thank God that Rick Walter won his primary or this case would've been swept under the carpet!
kenny isn't elected but continues to lie to his old friend, Marvin Lawless. Prayers are with the family as this isn't over.
I think the reason Walters chose to reopen the case if because he feels guilty about alot he's not saying. Cops are too antsy to just pin the charge on a warm body instead of trying to work the case slow, think slow and do things right the first time. I'm not sure anyone will ever know the whole truth here. But I pray for sake of the guilty, the innocent and most of all the Lawless family to finally be able to put this behind them and remember their loved one with fond memories, not muddy ones.