Mid-Missouri
Fellowship of
Reconciliation

P.O. Box 268
Columbia, Missouri
65205
573-449-4585
email: jstack@coin.org

Ask Holden to set Amrine free or at least issue an indefinite stay of execution, then convene a board of inquiry or a grant him a new trial. Holden acknowledged in June in a Columbia MO TV news report being aware both of Amrine’s case and the documentary "Unreasonable Doubt" focusing on him (see below for more details). Even if you have contacted Holden before about Amrine's case, it would be worthwhile to do so again. His continued inaction compounds the miscarriage of justice perpetrated against Joe Amrine.

By November last year, Attorney General Jay Nixon had asked the Missouri Supreme Court to set execution dates for six men, including Amrine. The court did set killing dates for five of those men. Four of them-Jim Johnson, Michael Owsley, Jeffrey Tokar and Paul Kreutzer-were executed. The court issued a stay of execution in the case of the fifth human being, Christopher Simmons. In the meantime, Nixon requested the state court set execution dates for yet four more individuals. One of them, Daniel Basile was executed in August, while state officials plan to kill Jones next month.. Joe Amrine could receive an execution date at any time, especially since he's been the man Missouri officials have held longest in this tortuous and lethal holding pattern.

Joe Amrine was sentenced to death for fatally stabbing fellow prisoner Gary Barber in 1985 at the Missouri State Penitentiary in Jefferson City. The state's case rested solely on the purported eyewitness accounts of three other prisoners, all of whom now say they lied at Amrine's trial and never did see Amrine commit the crime. Consequently, there is currently no evidence connecting him to this crime (See synopsis of the case in the piece listed below.

His case is powerfully presented in the acclaimed documentary, "Unreasonable Doubt: the Case of Joe Amrine," directed by John McHale, edited by Ryan Wylie and produced by McHale, Wylie, and Dan Huck. It is available for rental at 9th St. Video in Columbia and through the FOR at no charge for home or public viewings. Call Jeff at 449-4585 for details. You may also contact to recieve/borrow a copy of the documentary in Kansas City, the Western Missouri Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, in St. Louis, the Eastern Missouri Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty (314-241-8062).

For more information about his case check out the Amnesty International report, released in mid-June. Log on to Amnesty International (If you can't access through a pdf format, try typing in "rtf" instead at the end of the address.)

Some Missouri officials have publicly insisted our state has never come even close to executing an innocent man. Perhaps they’re not counting among others, the case of Joe Amrine.

Amrine, an African-American man who’s steadfastly maintained his innocence, was convicted in the 1985 murder of fellow prisoner Gary Barber in the Missouri State Penitentiary in Jefferson City. Prosecutors depended solely on the "eyewitness" accounts of three prisoners. In the years since then, all of them have admitted they lied. They cite coercion and promises by officials to relocate them from the prison or to avoid being charged with the murder themselves, as reason for their perjury.

Nonetheless, Amrine could receive an execution date at any time. Attorney General Jay Nixon asked the state Supreme Court in November 2001 to set execution date for five prisoners plus Amrine who had exhausted their appeals. Four of the other men have since been executed, the fifth had his execution date stayed by the state court.

Judge Tom Brown III with the Cole County Court, was the county’s prosecutor who "successfully" tried Amrine for the murder. Brown acknowledged in a 1998 hearing, "I don’t know that we would have had to have the testimony of three of them (the prison witnesses). But without any of them, then I think we would not have had a case." These days no individual contends to have seen Amrine stab Barber.

John Noble was the only corrections officer in the immediate vicinity of the crime. He testified at Amrine’s trial and in an investigative report, that he saw Barber (after being stabbed) run after not Amrine, but Terry Russell—one of the men who initially falsely identified Amrine as the killer. Prosecutors cast doubt upon Noble’s testimony by inferring he couldn’t ID Russell. In actuality, Noble only was unable to recall Russell’s name.

Amrine’s court-appointed trial attorney failed to call to the witness stand a few other prisoners who cold have supported Amrine’s version of events, while neglecting to call a single witness during the penalty phase of the trial. The attorney additionally arranged to have one other prisoner, Kevin Dean, who saw the murder and was prepared to testify that Russell was the stabber-- transported to the court for the trial. Dean waited in the hallway; the attorney failed to call him to the witness stand.

Officials understandably did initially consider Russell their top murder suspect. Just hours before the stabbing, after all, Russell and Barber had been released from "solitary" cells, where they had been confined for the past week for fighting. Russell failed to pass significant portions of a lie-detector test pertaining to his whereabouts the day of the murder. In the 1998 hearing, he admitted committing perjury to avoid being, as he contended, falsely charged with Barber’s murder, and thus jeopardizing his upcoming parole date (Not long after the trial he was freed but some years later he was convicted of armed robbery and murder. He’s currently incarcerated).

The other men who recanted their earlier accounts—Jerry Poe and Randall Ferguson—both agreed to be videotaped during questioning the past few years. During these depositions they recalled cooperating with officials in large part to be moved out of the prison to a county jail and avoid being continually assaulted sexually and physically.

Ferguson was especially emotional in his deposition, noting soon after Amrine’s conviction, he tried unsuccessfully through correspondence to convince public officials, including Missouri governors, Presidents Reagan and Bush, Sr., of his perjury. On the videotape, he shows physical proof of his remorse: scars on his arms and neck of suicide attempts. He also initiated contact with Amrine’s current team of appellate attorneys. No longer in prison, he has reaffirmed the veracity of his current claims.

An acclaimed documentary, "Unreasonable Doubt: The Joe Amrine Case" focuses on his plight. Produced in the spring of 2002 by John McHale, a communications instructor, now with the University of Illinois-Bloomington, University of Missouri student Ryan Wylie and local television station cameraman Dan Huck, "Unreasonable Doubt is available for public or home viewing. Call 573-449-4585 or e-mail jstack@coin.org for more information.