LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) – A federal appeals court Wednesday ruled a wrongful conviction lawsuit filed on behalf of a Louisville man, Keith West, who was pardoned by ex-Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin, can move forward despite the pardon not mentioning whether West was innocent.
This is now the second time a lawsuit previously dismissed based on the lack of details in Bevin’s pardons has been overturned by the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and allowed to proceed.
Both West and Johnetta Carr had their wrongful conviction lawsuits against Louisville police thrown out by federal court judges who ruled that Bevin’s pardons did not make clear they were innocent.
In West and Carr’s pardons, like many of the former governor’s hundreds of pardons, Bevin did not discuss details of the cases much at all.
In the West case, Bevin wrote only that he was granting a “full and unconditional pardon” and restoring his rights as a citizen.
U.S. District Court Judge Greg Stivers ruled in February 2022 that the pardon issued by Bevin did not invalidate West's conviction.
"West's pardon from Governor Bevin makes no reference to his guilt or innocence," Stivers ruled. "A general gubernatorial pardon in Kentucky does not necessarily indicate that the recipient is innocent."
On Wednesday, however, the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel overturned that order, citing a ruling in the Carr case that a pardon in Kentucky "regardless of its implications for the question of innocence" invalidates the conviction and "removes all legal consequences."
The court of appeals panel ruled on the Carr case in July 2021, finding that other courts around the country had upheld cases arguing a pardon erased a criminal conviction.
"We join our sister circuits in holding that a pardoned individual has had her conviction expunged by executive order," according to that ruling.
On Wednesday, the panel wrote that while “the facts or procedural history of Carr’s case may differ from those in West’s, it does not alter the conclusion” on the validity of Bevin’s pardons.
Elliot Slosar, a Chicago-based attorney who represents Carr, and West, said in a statement that Metro Government has "expended significant taxpayer resources to avoid the merits of two wrongful conviction lawsuits. ... The City's efforts to avoid justice for two wrongfully convicted individuals is telling and troubling. ... The Sixth Circuit rulings have resoundingly rejected the City's efforts and appropriately given Johnetta and Keith the opportunity to prove their cases on the merits."
The city does not comment on pending lawsuits.
West had filed suit against former Louisville Police Detective Mark Handy, who pleaded guilty in 2021 to tampering with physical evidence in West's two 1997 manslaughter convictions.
West served about seven years in prison and “lost decades of his life due to the egregious misconduct of (former Det. Mark Handy) and others in the Louisville Police Department," according to his suit.
The lawsuit argues that Handy taped over recordings of two eyewitness statements and coerced them into specific testimony prior to trial.
In her lawsuit, Carr claims she was 16 when Louisville police accused her of murdering her boyfriend and that during the course of the investigation, detectives fabricated and coerced witnesses into saying that she was involved with his murder.
Planes Adolphe, Carr's boyfriend at the time, was found strangled to death on Oct. 23, 2005, outside of his Louisville apartment on Kingston Avenue. His wallet and cab that he drove for work was stolen. He was 36.
In May 2008, Carr entered an Alford plea to second-degree manslaughter in the case, meaning she maintained her innocence but acknowledged that prosecutors had enough evidence for a conviction.
She was sentenced to 20 years in prison but was released on parole in December 2009.
Copyright 2023 WDRB Media. All Rights Reserved.
