Missouri Commutes Death Sentence of Kimber Edwards

On October 2, Missouri Governor Jay Nixon com­mut­ed the death sen­tence of Kimber Edwards to life with­out parole. Edwards had faced exe­cu­tion on October 6 for the alleged mur­der-for-hire killing of his ex-wife. 

Prosecutors said Edwards had hired Orthell Wilson to kill his ex-wife to pre­vent her from tes­ti­fy­ing in a child-sup­port hear­ing. Wilson pled guilty and was sen­tenced to life with­out parole. He sub­se­quent­ly recant­ed his sto­ry, say­ing that he had act­ed alone and had lied about being hired by Edwards. 

Edwards has pro­fessed his inno­cence, despite con­fess­ing to police. His lawyers argue that he has a form of autism that makes him vul­ner­a­ble to false­ly con­fess­ing in the face of coer­cive interrogation tactics. 

Edwards’ case also sparked charges of racial bias. He is one of 7 black men on death row from St. Louis County — the home of Ferguson — and was sen­tenced to death by an all-white jury after pros­e­cu­tors used their dis­cre­tionary strikes to remove three black prospec­tive jurors. Missouri courts have found that St. Louis County pros­e­cu­tors have unlaw­ful­ly exclud­ed black jurors because of race at least five times since 2002, and sev­er­al oth­er black death row pris­on­ers in Missouri — includ­ing Andre Cole, Herbert Smulls, and Leon Taylor — were exe­cut­ed after hav­ing been sen­tenced to death by all-white juries. In addi­tion, a recent study report­ed stark racial and geo­graph­ic dis­par­i­ties in Missouri’s appli­ca­tion of the death penal­ty, and St. Louis County has exe­cut­ed more defen­dants than any oth­er coun­ty in the state. 

In a state­ment accom­pa­ny­ing the com­mu­ta­tion, Governor Nixon said: ​“After a thor­ough review of the facts sur­round­ing the mur­der of Kimberly Cantrell, I am con­vinced the evi­dence sup­ports the jury’s deci­sion to con­vict Kimber Edwards of first-degree mur­der. At the same time, how­ev­er, I am using my author­i­ty under the Missouri Constitution to com­mute Edwards’ sen­tence to life with­out the pos­si­bil­i­ty of parole. This is a step not tak­en light­ly, and only after sig­nif­i­cant con­sid­er­a­tion of the total­i­ty of the cir­cum­stances. With this deci­sion, Kimber Edwards will remain in prison for the remain­der of his life for this murder.”