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By Andrew Johnson Special to The Star

Like a lot of people, I spent some recent days binge-watching the Netflix original series “Making a Murderer,” a 10-part documentary about Steven Avery. Avery was wrongfully convicted of a rape, released 18 years later after DNA evidence proved his innocence, and then ended up accused of a heinous murder.

In spite of how one feels about the documentary’s neutrality, the show raises serious questions over how our justice system works, and how our media risk their objectivity in the service of a prosecutor’s agenda.

As I watched the show, I couldn’t help but think of how much Steve Avery reminds me of Bryan Sheppard.

Bryan is currently serving a life sentence for a 1988 arson that caused the deaths of six Kansas City firefighters. The tragic deaths shocked our Kansas City community, and law enforcement promised to catch the killers. Justice would be served.

But the case went unsolved for nearly a decade. Then suddenly in 1995, a sensationalized episode of “Unsolved Mysteries” aired, telling the story of the “cold-blooded murder” of Kansas City’s finest and ended with a call for any tips and a reminder of the $50,000 reward for information leading to arrests of the killers.

StoryWorks KC is a community engagement project from KCPT, The Living Room Theatre, and the Center for Investigative Reporting, that explores the meaning of justice in the context of one of Kansas City’s most tragic crimes, and puts that story on the stage.

Through a theatrical interpretation, StoryWorks KC will explore the 1988 explosion in south Kansas City that caused the tragic deaths of six Kansas City firefighters. The production and post-play discussions will seek to both honor those firefighters and examine questions about the case, raised by new evidence that has surfaced since the 1997 conviction and life imprisonment of five Kansas Citians. One of those convicted, a Native American who was 17 at the time of the crime, is awaiting a possible re-sentencing hearing in the case.

The StoryWorks KC production is inspired by the Kansas City Star reporting of Pulitzer-prize winning journalist Mike McGraw, who has been writing about the case since 2007. The Star's reporting prompted an independent U.S. Department of Justice examination of the case that suggests the crime has not been fully solved. McGraw now works for KCPT's Hale Center for Journalism.
Have questions about StoryWorks KC? Contact KCPT & The Living Room Theatre

EDITOR’S NOTE: This first-person account of one journalist’s attempts to shed light on potential problems in the U.S. justice system is part of a larger effort by KCPT and The Center for Investigative Reporting (CIR) to explore the meaning of justice in the context of the 1988 explosion in south Kansas City that killed six Kansas City firefighters. The effort, called StoryWorks KC, includes a stage production about the case, based in part on reporting in The Kansas City Star. Find more information on the production and on how to share your memories of the explosion and subsequent court cases at the bottom of this page. 

This commentary is in two parts. Find Part II tomorrow on Flatland.

(Illustration: Kelsey Borcherding)

EDITOR’S NOTE: This first-person account of one journalist’s attempts to shed light on potential problems in the U.S. justice system is part of a larger effort by KCPT and The Center for Investigative Reporting (CIR) to explore the meaning of justice in the context of the 1988 explosion in south Kansas City that killed six Kansas City firefighters. The effort, called StoryWorks KC, includes a stage production about the case, based in part on reporting in The Kansas City Star. Find more information on the production and on how to share your memories of the explosion and subsequent court cases at the bottom of this page. 

This commentary is in two parts. Find Part I on Flatland.

A man serving a life sentence for his role in the 1988 explosion deaths of six Kansas City firefighters will get a new sentencing hearing, a federal judge has ruled.

U.S. District Judge Fernando Gaitan signed orders Monday setting aside the life sentence given to Bryan E. Sheppard in 1997. Gaitan ordered probation officers to prepare a new sentencing report on Sheppard and told prosecutors and Sheppard’s lawyers to write sentencing memos to be submitted to him by Sept. 26.