Sandy Hemme’s finally almost free. Who else did her ineffective lawyer get locked up? | Opinion

The day after the Missouri Court of Appeals ordered the release of exonerated Missouri prisoner Sandra “Sandy” Hemme, I received an unexpected text message from private investigator Latahra Smith, formerly of Kansas City. She wanted to talk about the shoddy work done by one of Hemme’s original defense attorneys, Robert “Bob” Duncan, who died in 1997.

I was raised never to speak ill of the dead, so I will tread lightly here. But to the best of my knowledge, at least five cases Duncan was associated with were overturned by the courts. There possibly could be more.

In three of these cases, the defendants were on death row when they were either exonerated or had their death sentences vacated. In each, Duncan was found ineffective, according to legal records.

When it comes to wrongful convictions, Smith knows her stuff. Her tireless investigative work led to the release of Keith Carnes, a Kansas City man wrongfully convicted of murder in a 2003 fatal shooting here. Although Duncan had no ties to Carnes’ defense, Smith said she’s researched a number of his criminal defense cases.

“Every case Bob Duncan has ever touched needs to be reviewed by the justice system,” Smith told me.

Based on what I know about Duncan’s history, her assertion has merit.

Folks, this is an issue that must be addressed by local prosecutors and Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey’s office.

Speaking of Bailey, his needless pleas to keep Hemme, 64, behind bars are inhumane. In June, citing clear and convincing evidence, Livingston County Circuit Judge Ryan Horsman ruled that Hemme is innocent of a 1980 murder conviction in St. Joseph. Yet, as of Wednesday, Hemme was still locked up in a Missouri prison.

Minutes after Smith’s text, Cliff Middleton of Kansas City emailed me. Duncan’s legal work was the subject of Middleton’s correspondence as well.

“Sandra Hemme will be released,” Middleton wrote Tuesday evening. “Chalk number 5 up for Bob Duncan being found ineffective in a court of law.”

MIiddleton would know more than most about Duncan’s history. For more than three decades, he has fought his father, Ken Middleton, to be released from prison. The elder Middleton is a former over-the-road truck driver from Blue Springs. He is serving a life sentence for murder in the 1990 shooting death of his wife Kathy Middleton.

The Middletons have long maintained Ken did not kill his wife. In 2005, citing ineffective counsel — Duncan represented Ken at his original murder trial — former Jackson County Circuit Court Judge Edith Messina vacated Ken’s life sentence and ordered a new trial. Despite that ruling, Ken has remained behind bars since his arrest 34 years ago.

Later this month, Ken will finally get a chance to argue his innocence in open court for the first time since Messina set aside his guilty verdict.

I’ve written about the travesty of justice that both Carnes and Ken Middleton faced in the Missouri judicial system. Over the last few years, I’ve gotten to know both Smith and Cliff Middleton as they fought for their loved ones to come home.

So I understand why this week, both reached out to speak to me about Duncan, a former prominent attorney from Kansas City who ran afoul of federal law in the late 1980s and was later stripped of his law license for failing to pay federal income taxes, according to court records.

Not only did Duncan represent Hemme in her 1985 murder trial, as court records indicate, but he was also the defense attorney for former death row inmates Leamon White, Clarence Dexter and Ed “Butch” Ruescher.

Earlier this year, my colleague Melinda Henneberger wrote about Ruescher’s trials and tribulations with Duncan. In 1996, both Reuscher’s first-degree murder conviction and death sentence were overturned because of Duncan’s ineffective counsel.

Hemme’s release was long overdue. She’s wrongly spent 43 years in prison for the murder of Patricia Jeschke, a St. Joseph woman that the evidence shows Hemme did not kill, according to court records. No thanks to Duncan, Hemme was granted post-conviction relief last month.

If her case and those of the others I mentioned above aren’t enough to warrant a thorough review of Duncan’s ineffective practice over the years, how could any of us have faith in Missouri’s justice system?