Letter to Atorney General Chris Koster of Missouri

This morning I got good news and bad news from the Innocence Project.   

 George Allen Jr. was released from a Missouri courthouse earlier this month after serving more than 30 years for a rape and murder that previously undisclosed evidence shows he didn’t commit. Judge Daniel Green overturned Allen’s 1982 rape and murder conviction based on police failure to disclose evidence pointing to his innocence and ordered Allen’s release. St. Louis Circuit Attorney Jennifer Joyce announced that she will not retry Allen for the crime, Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster filed a meritless appeal to a state intermediate appeals court, which is only serving to further delay justice for Allen.

Having looked up Chris Koster's website I was pleased to find an  e-mail contact: attorney.general@ago.mo.gov.

My e-mail to him was returned however, unread. So I am hoping that he will now be able to read it here when one of his helpers Googles his name for news.

Letter to Chris Koster

Dear Chris

I read with horror the case of George Allen recently released after 30 years of unjust imprisonment in your State.

It beggars belief that officers used every trick of their trade to get false confessions from this man, false confessions that have now been discredited but which have kept him as a prisoner for all of those years.

What an outrage for any human being to be deprived of his liberty for a crime that he did not commit.

How terrible to think that this human being could have been murdered by the State through the connivance of its officers only for a juror's unexpected and enforced absence rendered the sentence of death impossible on the day.

DNA has been the ace that has has shown up all the false convictions that have taken place throughout the United States over many years on people who were often inadequate poor black or from poorer strata of society.

I am amazed and horrified to learn that, in spite of all the new evidence pointing to a gross miscarriage of justice against George Allen, you, Chris, have decided to appeal the decision to release him and so put him through further torment with the courts.

I appeal to you to reverse this decision.

With best personal wishes

Justin Morahan 
Human rights activist