The Jackson County Prosecutor’s Workplace reported it will not retry Keith Carnes, a Kansas Town man whose murder conviction was set aside by the Missouri Supreme Court docket before this week.

Carnes has served much more than 18 a long time in jail for a murder he states he did not commit.

In a assertion Friday afternoon, the place of work mentioned it “fully acknowledged the Supreme Court’s locating.”

“The Court denied Carnes’ claim of actual innocence but directed the Jackson County Prosecutor’s Business to choose regardless of whether to retry Carnes for the 2003 murder of Larry White,” it explained. “Our assessment of the proof does not create that Carnes is truly harmless even so, for the reason that the evidence is also inadequate to show guilt beyond a acceptable doubt, we simply cannot retry Carnes.”

Carnes, who is now 52, was convicted of killing 24-12 months-aged Larry White in October 2003 and sentenced to existence in jail. White was fatally shot in a parking lot at 29th Road and Prospect Avenue, supposedly in excess of a drug deal long gone bad.

In a brief buy Tuesday, the Missouri Supreme Court docket claimed Carnes satisfied his burden of proving the point out failed to disclose product proof in the scenario. The court docket established aside his very first-diploma murder and armed legal motion convictions, and requested his release within just 30 days except if prosecutors determined to retry him.

The prosecutor’s business office claimed that, when testimony at Carnes’ demo set up that Carnes and White were being rival drug sellers, shifting witness accounts and the absence of bodily proof created a third trial not feasible. (Carnes’ first demo finished in a mistrial.)

The prosecutor’s statement noted that Carnes was romantically associated with his personal investigator, who it reported pressured witnesses to recant or alter their trial testimony.

“If law enforcement investigators engaged in these types of poor perform, it would need rapid disclosure and conflict techniques to guard the integrity of the investigation,” the prosecutor’s statement claimed. “This rule does not apply just to police and credible corporations, like the Midwest Innocence Job, which would not allow such bias as component of an investigation. In quick, the evidence nowadays in Carnes situation is tainted from all directions. We cannot commence and ought to dismiss the prices.”

The Jackson County Prosecutor’s Office did leave open the possibility of prices being introduced in the foreseeable future against Carnes, given that there is no statute of limits for murder. It questioned Carnes to talk to legislation enforcement about what he is aware of, including disclosing the identification of an alleged “second culprit” who was current when White was murdered.

“This situation continues to be underneath investigation,” the statement ongoing. “We will keep on to struggle for justice for Mr. White and this neighborhood.”

Christopher Iliff, authorized director of Miracle of Innocence — which advocated for Carnes’ launch from prison — referred to as the prosecutor’s statement “mean-spirited” and an “ad hoc” attack against the private investigator.

“It’s a victory, but a whole lot of the pleasure has been taken out of it by virtue of what I consider to be a assertion from the prosecutor’s office that focused on, fundamentally, the character of 1 of the investigators concerned in our exoneration initiatives,” Iliff said.

The prosecutor’s choice not to retry Carnes, on the other hand, suggests the Missouri Office of Corrections no longer has authority to hold him. He could be released as early as Saturday, and possible no later than sometime upcoming 7 days.

In its assertion, the prosecutor’s place of work explained it had satisfied Friday with the household of Larry White, the murder victim.

“His sister, Juanita White, thanked Jackson County for in search of justice on her family’s behalf,” it claimed. “For her wellbeing, she mentioned she will depart something even further to God, though her relatives believes that Carnes was a single of the gentlemen who killed her brother. Larry White’s relatives is scheduling a celebration of their deceased brother’s birthday up coming 7 days.”