The governor of Missouri said he’s not presently considering pardoning the first Kansas City police officer to ever be found guilty of killing a Black man after rumors circulated that he was considering clemency.
This comes on the heels of a letter his office received urging him not to issue a pardon for Eric DeValkenaere, who was convicted of second-degree manslaughter and armed criminal action after he shot and killed 26-year-old Cameron Lamb at his home in 2019.
A four-day bench trial found DeValkenaere guilty of those two felonies in 2021. He was sentenced to spend six years in prison but remained free on an appeal bond that a judge granted after his attorneys filed an appeal request.
The appeals process for DeValkenaere is still underway in the courts more than a year after his sentencing.
Just this month, Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker sent Parson a letter imploring Gov. Mike Parson not to pardon the former officer after hearing “numerous reports” that Parson was considering taking action. She included news of those rumors in her letter.
“I imagine you might view a pardon as a way to support police,” Peters Baker wrote Parson, who is a former sheriff. “But I expect this extreme action for the only KCPD officer convicted of fatally shooting a black man will ignite distrust, protests, and public safety concerns for citizens and for police.”
She mentioned that a pardon at this time would dismiss the appeals process entirely and, more consequently, sow a lack of faith among the state’s citizens in the workings of Missouri’s criminal justice system.
“The most significant threat to public safety will not come from community protests. Perhaps the greater long-term harm will be an erosion of our public safety system as fair and just. A pardon of this convicted former police officer will accelerate that distrust that we already see in our system,” Peters Baker wrote.
“Witnesses don’t want to…
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