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Trial testimony false, Kennard witness vows

Center on Wrongful Convictions asks governor for pardon

By Jerry Mitchell
jmitchell@clarionledger.com

The man whose testimony led to the conviction and imprisonment of Clyde Kennard now swears under oath the decorated Korean War veteran was innocent.

“Kennard did not ask me to steal,” Johnny Roberts said in an affidavit made public Friday. “Kennard did not ask me to break in to the co-op. Kennard did not ask me to do anything illegal.”

In 1960, Kennard was sent to prison for the maximum seven years after he attempted to become the first black man to attend the University of Southern Mississippi. On Dec. 31, The Clarion-Ledger reported that a three-month investigation showed Kennard was falsely convicted of burglary.

On Friday, the Center on Wrongful Convictions of Northwestern University School of Law and three Illinois students included Roberts’ affidavit in a renewed request to Gov. Haley Barbour to issue a posthumous pardon for Kennard,

[Text-box separate from the main article is above the second column, reads:

WHAT’S NEXT
Gov. Haley Barbour has been asked to issue a posthumous pardon for Clyde Kennard, who died in 1963 shortly after being freed.

Next to the text is a headshot of Kennard in military uniform with a caption that reads: Kennard]

who died of cancer in 1963 shortly after being released from prison.

“This new evidence should put to rest any doubts that you or any other public official have about Mr. Kennard’s innocence,” the request says. “We hope that it inspires you to move expeditiously to formally clear Mr. Kennard’s name by granting him a full pardon of actual innocence.”

Last year, Georgia granted a posthumous pardon for Lena Baker, a black maid executed in 1945 for killing a white man she said held her in slavery and threatened her life.

Asked about that possibility for Kennard, spokesman Pete Smith replied, “The governor hasn’t par-

See KENNARD, 4A

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Kennard: Witness recants

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doned anyone.”

The request submitted Friday urged Barbour to change that history: “With one swipe of your pen, Gov. Barbour, you can close this tragic chapter of Mississippi’s history, bring some closure to the remaining members of the Kennard family, and restore Clyde Kennard to his rightful place as a hero of the Mississippi civil rights movement.”

The three students seeking to clear Kennard’s name attend Adlai Stevenson High School in Lincolnshire, Ill.

The U.S. has been more honest about its history than other nations, said their teacher, Barry Bradford, who is overseeing their National History Day Project on Kennard.

Restoring Kennard’s name would “not only bring comfort to his family, it will bring comfort to the nation because we have finally told the truth,” he said.

Roberts testified Kennard put him up to the crime. Roberts has since remarked that isn’t true.

In his Jan. 27 affidavit, Roberts said, “Clyde had nothing to do with stealing the chicken feed. I believe that he was arrested and sent to prison not because of the feed but because he was trying to go to Southern.”

[On the left side of the above paragraph is a headshot of a white man with dark hair and glasses, the caption below the photo reads: Dillard]

Last month, the Mississippi Senate unanimously passed a resolution praising Kennard’s contributions to the civil rights movement, but stopping short of saying he was innocent.

After the newspaper’s stories on Kennard appeared, former Hinds County Chancery Judge Chet Dillard filed a friend-of-the-court brief asking the Mississippi Supreme Court to throw out the veteran’s conviction.

Dillard said Friday he plans to file the affidavit Monday with the high court, saying the sworn statement should lay to rest any question regarding Kennard’s innocence.

Now, 45 years later, he said, Kennard has been “found innocent beyond a reasonable doubt.”