Defense attorneys say they were never given key
evidence that could have helped five defendants convicted in the
1988 explosion that killed six Kansas City firefighters.
The attorneys say the evidence — a one-page police
report — could have been used to implicate other suspects in the
case and help prevent a guilty verdict in the 1997 trial that sent
five defendants to prison for life. Read More
Midwest Innocence Project launches
investigation of ’88 explosion
By MIKE McGRAW The Kansas City Star
The Kansas City-based Midwest Innocence Project announced Friday
that it was launching an investigation into the case of five people
convicted in the 1988 explosion that killed six Kansas City
firefighters.
“Our organization was set up to look for injustices in the
criminal justice system, and when we see potential injustices as
glaring as those in this case, how can we refuse to take it?” said
Jay Swearingen, executive director of the project.
Swearingen said recent articles in The Kansas City Star
helped prompt the project to begin a review of records in an effort
to determine whether the defendants were wrongly convicted and
whether the project should petition for their release from prison.
Read
More
KC Firefighters Case Defendants
Families Protest
Prosecutor Seeks Review of
Testimony in Firefighter Deaths
A federal prosecutor in Missouri said
Tuesday that he had asked the Justice Department to review claims
that several witnesses, under pressure from at least one federal
investigator, lied in the case surrounding a 1988 explosion in
Kansas City that killed six firefighters.
The announcement, by the United States attorney
for Western Missouri, John F. Wood, followed an article Sunday in
The Kansas City Star that raised questions about an investigator’s
tactics and whether the five people who were convicted of the
crime were in fact guilty.
Read More
U.S. attorney to reopen inquiry into '88
blast that killed 6 firefighters
In a highly unusual move, the U.S. attorney in Kansas City is
asking the Justice Department to review “new assertions” in the
firefighters’ explosion case.
Today’s announcement followed a story Sunday in The Kansas City
Star in which numerous witnesses said that a federal investigator
in the case pressured them to lie.Read More
KANSAS CITY, Mo., June 30 (UPI)
-- Prosecutors say new allegations have surfaced in the case of five
people convicted of murder in a 1988 explosion that killed six Kansas
City firefighters.
The allegations have come from an ex-convict who
said he saw a security guard, and not any of the five defendants,
fleeing the scene of the fire and explosions at a highway construction
site, The Kansas City Star reported Monday.
Read More
Witnesses say federal investigator pressured
them to lie
Carie Neighbors said they threatened to take away her son. Jerry
Rooks said they warned him he’d get a stiffer jail sentence. Alan
Bethard said they charged him with a more serious crime.
Now, those witnesses and up to 12 others — many speaking publicly
for the first time — have told The Kansas City Star that a
federal investigator in the firefighters’ explosion case pressured
them to lie. Read More
By
MIKE McGRAW
The
Kansas City Star
February
19, 2007
It
was clear and cool that terrible Tuesday morning when the call came:
A fire at a southeast Kansas City highway construction site.
Firefighters found a 40-foot trailer ablaze. The trailer held 25,000
pounds of ammonium nitrate and fuel oil simmering toward a disaster
that would shake the city. The trailer blew, six firefighters died,
and police called it arson. That was Nov. 29, 1988. It took nearly
nine years to find and convict suspects in the killings - five
small-time criminals. The courts rejected their appeals. End of
story. Until now.....Read
Full Story >>
Articles
OnPage: Did
Firms Violate Reporting Law? State
is Checking Ammonium
Nitrate at a Glance Disaster May
Boost Drive to CentralizeNew
Response Unit Breaking
the News, An Overwhelming Task Memory of
1959 Tragedy
Still Vivid
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accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material is
distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed a
prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit research
and educational purposes only.
Rep. Cleaver responds to today's news
By
MIKE McGRAW
