Prosecutor: No evidence hiding in wrongful conviction case

By JIM SALTER
Associated Press

ST. LOUIS (AP) — A St. Louis judge won’t sanction the city’s top prosecutor after Missouri’s attorney general accused her of concealing evidence in her effort to overturn the conviction of Lamar Johnson, who has spent nearly three decades in prison for a murder contends he didn’t commit. Judge David Mason ruled against the sanction request on Friday. A crime lab recently determined there was gunshot residue on a jacket found in Johnson’s trunk. Attorney General Eric Schmitt accused Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner of concealing that evidence. In a response motion Friday, Gardner blamed a simple oversight and said it was irrelevant since the jacket wasn’t used in the crime.