When Joplin attorney Timothy Intessimone agreed to represent George Wells four years ago, he had just graduated from the University of Arkansas School of Law in Fayetteville.
Since then, Intessimone has learned a lot from his client about the criminal justice system in St. Louis County.
“We have this idea that everything's fair and, unfortunately, sometimes it's not,” Intessimone told the St. Louis Record. “For the common person, when things are unfair, it's very difficult to fight the system and even to make an effort.”
Intessimone
| Facebook
Wells has been incarcerated for a murder he says he did not commit for 18 years since 2003. Today, he’s nearing 40 years old and continues to maintain his innocence. He is in a maximum-security prison in St. Francis County where inmates are put to death after being placed on death row. Since being incarcerated, Wells has earned an associate's degree, certification to be a personal trainer and paralegal, and is working on completing his bachelor's degree, according to Intessimone.
“Our evidence shows that there were other witnesses available but not presented to the court who knew the whereabouts of Mr. Wells and were with him on that night,” Intessimone said in an interview. “These witnesses corroborated his story. Multiple witnesses claim that the shooter and the victim were the same height and Mr. Wells is much taller. The murder weapon was never found and no weapon was found on George Wells. The vehicle, the clothing, and the description…none of that matched with Mr. Wells who was not initially a suspect. He was falsely misidentified by one of the dispatchers in Maplewood.”
But thanks to Assembly Bill 53, which Gov. Parson signed into law this year, Wells’ conviction is being reviewed by the St. Louis County Conviction and Incident Review Unit and could be set aside as soon as August 28, 2021, when the new legislation becomes effective.
“It's very well-known that there are many people across the U.S. that are really only in prison due to technicalities,” Intessimone said. “It may not be based on whether or not they're innocent or guilty but they just don't have good remedies to get out and so I am surprised that we're here with a new avenue that is just opening up.”
The St. Louis County Conviction and Incident Review Unit is overseen by St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell, the first African American to be elected to the position in a landslide.
“It’s my understanding that the intention of this conviction integrity unit is to go back and ensure that years later, the things that were being done in the past that may have been wrong or indifferent are able to be corrected,” Intessimone added. “Based on the technology that we have now, there can be a number of reasons why the integrity of a conviction of an individual would be called to mind in Missouri.”
Bell did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
"After the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson and after the Department of Justice went in and after we started to see a large number of calls for criminal justice reform, a lot of major cities began to create conviction integrity units," Intessimone added. "It didn't start in Missouri. It really has been something that's been building up over time."