Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner LLP issued the following announcement on Jan. 21.
BCLP Partner Robert Hoffman has been named a “Legal Champion” by Missouri Lawyers Media’s 2022 Missouri Lawyers Awards. This award is given annually to plaintiffs’ or defense lawyers, not based on the size of verdicts, but the importance of the principle or policy at stake.
Bob is part of a pro bono defense team being honored for their years-long effort to free Kevin Strickland after 43 years in prison for a triple murder he didn’t commit. Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker and Tricia Rojo Bushnell of the Midwest Innocence Project will receive this award alongside Bob for the joint effort. Associates Logan Rutherford, TJ Briggs and Ben Ford also worked on the Strickland defense team from BCLP.
Strickland always maintained his innocence and said he had nothing to do with the killings, which happened when he was 18 years old. He was convicted based solely on the eyewitness testimony of a single witness. The eyewitness knew Strickland before the crimes but failed to identify him at the scene and only identified him after substantial suggestion by police and others.
No physical evidence ever linked Strickland to the crimes and the eyewitness recanted her testimony to multiple friends and family members before her death. Two other defendants pleaded guilty to their involvement in the murders and both testified that Strickland was not a participant, instead naming two other participants who were never charged or convicted.
Bob is among 28 lawyers who will be honored at the Missouri Lawyers Awards in a ceremony at the Doubletree Chesterfield on Jan. 27. The winners also will be profiled in a special section of Missouri Lawyers Weekly.
Original source can be found here.