A Georgetown regulation program is actioning in to aid lead exoneration initiatives for an 81-year-old Kansas City, Missouri, guy offering life behind bars for the 1990 deadly capturing of his better half.
In 1991, Ken Middleton was founded guilty of first-degree murder and armed criminal activity in the capturing fatality of his better half a year previously. He was punished to life without parole, plus 200 years.
Middleton’s child claimed his papa should have liberty because of claimed prosecutorial transgression and a neighborhood court ruling 20 years ago that abandoned his sentence and bought a brand-new test based upon a collection of abnormalities that made his original trial unconstitutional Regardless of proof the court mentioned in her movement, her judgment was reversed.
Middleton has remained behind bars because of a formality in Missouri state regulation that provided territory in case to the Missouri Court of Appeals, and not with the Jackson Area circuit court, where his situation was attempted.
Nevertheless, Middleton has remained behind bars because of a formality in Missouri state regulation that provided territory in case to the Missouri Court of Appeals, and not with the Jackson Area circuit court, where his situation was attempted.
Middleton claimed he is innocent which his better half, Kathy, fired herself by mishap while he was resting.
This month, Middleton discovered his situation will certainly be used up by Georgetown College’s “Making an Exoneree” program.

Ken Middleton in a reserving image.
Missouri Division Of Adjustments
In January, a group including undergrads, regulation college trainees, professors and personnel will certainly concentrate on the Middletown situation by taking a trip to Missouri to carry out meetings with Middleton and witnesses, and putting over lawful papers covering the 34 years considering that his test. The group will certainly end its job by creating a brief docudrama to display its searchings for.
” We assume the situation is extremely encouraging and has all the trademarks of a wrongful sentence,” program founder Marc Howard informed ABC Information.
The Georgetown program stands for a consortium of 5 getting involved colleges and has actually caused 13 jail launches considering that its launch in 2018. Besides Georgetown, the various other companions are New york city College, Princeton College, the College of The Golden State, Santa Cruz, and Rice College in Houston.
The news has actually offered Middleton’s family members restored hope.
” We ultimately have hope that my papa’s virtue will certainly be acknowledged and justice will certainly dominate,” his child, High cliff Middleton, claimed in a declaration.
Ken Middleton has actually submitted numerous allures throughout the years, every one of which have actually been rejected.
In September, Jackson Area, Missouri, district attorney Melesa Johnson rejected his application for postconviction alleviation.
In a letter shown ABC Information, Johnson claimed that her workplace does not think that “there is clear and persuading proof of a constitutional infraction” concerning his initial test.
According to the National Windows Registry of Exonerations, a job collectively run by the College of The Golden State at Irvine, Michigan State College, and the College of Michigan, exonerations nationwide have actually been progressively increasing, from 24 in 1989 to 147 in 2024. Over the last 35 years, 55 individuals have actually been pardoned in Missouri.