Marvin Cotton Jr., Ken Nixon and Eric Anderson: Voices for Justice in Wrongful Convictions

The Reality of Government Fighting Government

Three guys who know what it’s like to be innocent in prison are sitting in a Missouri courtroom this week, watching history unfold. Marvin Cotton, Ken Nixon, and Eric Anderson have traveled from Detroit to support Lamar Johnson, a man who’s been fighting for his freedom for 28 years. The case has created something unprecedented: a local prosecutor and an innocence project working together against the state attorney general.

Marvin served 19 years, seven months, and 12 days for a murder he didn’t commit. Ken did 16 years. Eric spent nine years locked up. All three were released through Michigan’s conviction integrity unit, which has freed about 36 innocent people in the last three and a half years. They’ve made it their mission to travel the country supporting other wrongfully convicted people.

“I think what we’re seeing in Lamar Johnson’s case is historic,” Ken told me during our conversation. “The judge is no nonsense, you know, he’s not tolerating any rhetoric. The repetitive behavior that you typically see in these types of hearings, the judge is definitely not tolerating it.”

A Case Built on Almost Nothing

The evidence against Lamar Johnson boils down to one witness who admitted he couldn’t really see what happened. The witness said the two men he saw had ski masks on with eye holes cut out. Think about that for a second. He made an identification based on what he could see around someone’s eyes.

Marvin broke it down for me: “In his first two lineups, he didn’t pick anybody out. And he went and according to his own testimony and his affidavit, but according to his own testimony, when he told the officers that he didn’t, he can’t pick anybody out, he acts the office. He acts the detective. You want me to pick out, you tell me you want to pick out and I’ll say it. He actually said this.”

The detective told him to pick numbers three and four. So he did.

“Without the incentive to testify, there is no witness for Lamar Johnson. Lamar Johnson doesn’t go to prison,” Ken explained. The state has admitted on the record that without this witness, there’s no case. But they paid him to testify.

The Politics of Innocence

What makes this case especially wild is watching the Missouri Attorney General fight to keep someone in prison while the local prosecutor is trying to free him. Eric put it simply: “It’s the government fighting the government about somebody’s life.”

Missouri only passed a law in 2021 that allows these types of hearings. Before that, there was no legal avenue to prove innocence in the state. How many people died in prison before that law existed?

“A lot of innocent people that didn’t make it to see 2021,” Ken said. “A lot of innocent people that didn’t live that see the age of 21 in the free world.”

The guys aren’t bitter about the system that failed them. They’re focused on fixing it. “We should never put politics before innocence. We should never put the value of a dollar on innocence,” Marvin told me. “We don’t get paid to be here. We don’t have any personal interest with the exception of want to see justice and someone not go through something that we went through.”

The Accountability Problem

One thing that came up in our conversation was how the system incentivizes convictions over truth. Police departments face pressure to close cases. Prosecutors get promotions for win records. Defense attorneys sometimes just go through the motions.

“When there’s no accountability, it leaves them with the freedom to be as destructive and harmful as they wish. And in some situations, it even incentivizes them to do so,” Ken explained.

Marvin had a different angle on the “few bad cops” narrative: “We never hear is the good cops getting rid of the bad cops. If you know that person is bad, why is it on society? Why is it society’s responsibility to discover this when you knew it was happening for 20 years?”

They’ve all worked with law enforcement on speaking engagements and reform efforts. This isn’t about being anti-cop. But they won’t accept injustice from anyone.

“Any fear that any of us had got left a long time ago when it burnt away in the experiences that we undergone,” Eric said. “But we use our fearlessness and we really give our fearlessness like a charity to society.”

What People Can Actually Do

The conversation turned to what listeners can do about wrongful convictions. Ken laid out the path: awareness first, then engagement.

“People have to engage elected officials. They have to engage those that are sitting in seats that are, that have control over the masses of our lives,” he said. “We know that the government was set up on the premise of the people by the people.”

But politics isn’t the only avenue. Criminal justice reform organizations need volunteers for everything from making copies to web design. Innocence projects take interns. “I guarantee you, there’s a space for anybody and it doesn’t make a difference what you’re gifted at,” Ken told me.

The key is that innocent people can’t free themselves. Lamar Johnson has been fighting for 28 years and needs advocates to make his case heard.

“What about all the names we don’t hear? What about all the names that don’t bubble to the top?” Ken asked. “It takes advocates, it takes people to get off their couches and do something about it in order to change the system.”

Making the Trip Matter

These three guys drove from Detroit to St. Louis to sit in a courtroom for someone they don’t know personally. They’re funding their own travel to support other exonerees around the country. Marvin’s book “Bitter, Not Broken” hit number one in its category on Amazon, and he’s using that platform to raise awareness.

They could have stayed home and focused on rebuilding their own lives after losing decades to wrongful convictions. Instead, they’re making sure other innocent people don’t die in prison.

“We invested to try to change Missouri one step at a time,” Eric said about their multiple trips to support both Kevin Strickland and Lamar Johnson.

As we wrapped up the call, they were heading back to the courthouse for another day of hearings. Three men who survived the nightmare of being innocent in prison, now making sure others don’t have to face it alone.