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The Kansas City Star July 14, 2011

Editor's note: A statement by U.S. attorney Beth Phillips on the federal review of the firefighter case:

In July 2008, this office requested that the Department of Justice conduct an independent review of allegations raised by The Kansas City Star concerning the prosecution of United States v. Sheppard, et al. A team of experienced attorneys from the department's Criminal Division conducted an exhaustive review of the records and evidence in the case. The team traveled to Kansas City on multiple occasions to interview trial witnesses, law enforcement officers, and other individuals involved in the case. Their findings are compiled in a 20-page report that has been presented both to myself and to the Office of the Deputy Attorney General. Due to privacy requirements and the amount of confidential investigative material contained in the full report, a summary of the report has been released to the public.

The summary of the department's findings, which was released today, states that the review team "did not find any credible support for the Star's allegations."

The Kansas City Star July 14, 2011

It has been three years since the U.S. Department of Justice opened an investigation into a controversial prosecution that resulted in life prison sentences for five Kansas Citians after an explosion that killed six firefighters.

That's an unreasonably long time to complete a report. The defendants, one of whom has died in prison, were convicted in 1997 of causing the tragedy in 1988. Questions about evidence and an investigator's tactics have left lingering suspicions that the defendants were wrongfully found guilty.

Those questions must be put to rest. Former U.S. attorney John F. Wood did the right thing in 2008 by seeking a Justice Department review after reports in The Kansas City Star raised disturbing questions about the integrity of the government's witnesses. But the lengthy process since then has led to worries that the investigation hasn't been a high priority for the agency.

Kansas City Star Mon, Aug. 23, 2010

It took only moments for two massive explosions to claim the lives of six firefighters and gouge a giant crater into Kansas City’s earth and psyche in November 1988.

But it took nearly a decade to bring five defendants to trial. And it’s taking the U.S. Department of Justice much too long to review the controversial evidence that resulted in convictions and lifelong prison sentences for all five.

Former U.S. attorney John F. Wood asked for the review two years ago, after reports in The Kansas City Star raised disturbing questions about the integrity of the government’s witnesses. At least 15 witnesses told Star reporter Mike McGraw that a federal investigator pressured them to lie.

By MIKE McGRAW The Kansas City Star

Aug. 28, 2010

Two years ago, the U.S. Department of Justice opened an investigation into possible flaws in the prosecution of five people convicted in the 1988 deaths of six Kansas City firefighters.

But the department has yet to release a report, and advocates for the defendants in the case are starting to question the extent of the effort so far.

Justice Department officials in Washington continue to decline to comment on where the investigation stands, when it might be completed, or to even confirm that it is — or was — under way.

“They should have done something by now,” said Senior U.S. District Judge Scott Wright, one of many legal experts with longstanding concerns about how the government handled the case.

The inquiry involves the federal investigation of five people who were convicted in the 1988 explosion-related deaths of the firefighters. The trial occurred in 1997, nine years after the crime. All five, one of whom died recently in prison, were sentenced to life with no possibility of parole.

By MIKE McGRAW The Kansas City Star

April 25, 2009

Defense attorneys say they were never given key evidence that could have helped five defendants convicted in the 1988 explosion that killed six Kansas City firefighters.

The attorneys say the evidence — a one-page police report — could have been used to implicate other suspects in the case and help prevent a guilty verdict in the 1997 trial that sent five defendants to prison for life.

The police report, obtained as part of an ongoing investigation by The Kansas City Star, raises additional questions about the whereabouts of two security guards on duty at the construction site where six firefighters died. The guards later testified for the prosecution at the federal trial.

“We did not receive that document, and it obviously would have been something we would have used to impeach the testimony of the security guards,” said Pat Peters, one of the defense attorneys.

By MIKE McGRAW The Kansas City Star
Aug. 29, 2008

The Kansas City-based Midwest Innocence Project announced Friday that it was launching an investigation into the case of five people convicted in the 1988 explosion that killed six Kansas City firefighters.

“Our organization was set up to look for injustices in the criminal justice system, and when we see potential injustices as glaring as those in this case, how can we refuse to take it?” said Jay Swearingen, executive director of the project.

Swearingen said recent articles in The Kansas City Star helped prompt the project to begin a review of records in an effort to determine whether the defendants were wrongly convicted and whether the project should petition for their release from prison.

While the firefighters’ investigation will be one of the project’s 300 cases, he said, “it is by far the largest and most prominent of those cases.”