ST. LOUIS • Dani Radosevich was drawn by a combination of social activism and music to a rally Saturday on behalf of a man that last walked free when the now 22-year-old was a Colorado toddler.
“It's a small thing I could do,” said Radosevich, among a crowd of 150 that gathered under a gray mid-September sky to support Reginald Clemons, one of four men convicted in a grisly 1991 murder that continues to draw headlines two decades later.
The case will remain in the news into the foreseeable future, with a special master this week convening an evidentiary hearing that could determine if Clemons, 41, goes free or remains on death row at the state correctional center in Petosi.
The Missouri Supreme Court ordered the hearing for a third review of evidence that could exonerate Clemons or support the prosecution's contention that as a 19-year-old he participated in the deaths of Julie and Robin Kerry.
The sisters were raped and then forced by four assailants to leap into the Mississippi River from the old Chain of Rocks Bridge on April 5, 1991.
One of the suspects in the case has since been executed, another is serving an life term and a third received early parole in exchange for testimony against the other three defendants.
Clemons himself came within days of lethal injection three years ago before a federal appeals court halted the execution.
The special master was then appointed to re-examine the facts to determine if Clemons was wrongly convicted.
His family and advocates that now include Amnesty International contend that is indeed the case and called on others to join them at Saturday's rally to muster further support in advance of the hearing.
“For 21 years we have fought at a terrible disadvantage, not having the funds to fight this kind of injustice,” said Pastor Reynolds Thomas, Clemons' stepfather, told the gathering.
The rally drew a crowd to Kiener Plaza that spanned generations and race.
Supporters held yellow placards aloft that called on the state to free Clemons. They listened as speakers railed against injustice and musicians serenaded the audience with an eclectic mix of gospel, hip-hop, soul and rock.
Radosevich, who moved to St. Louis last year after graduating from college, said she felt compelled to do something beyond signing petitions and calling the governor's office to express her opposition to the death penalty.
Morrell Israel Roberts, 40, of St. Louis hoped to expose his 16-year-old son, Kyrell, and a pair of Kyrell's friends to the social justice movement.
“I thought it would be good for them to keep up with what's going on,” Roberts explained.
With the exception of Clemons' stepfather and mother, Vera Thomas, the issue at hand had the greatest emotional impact on a woman seated quietly in the front row of the Kiener amphitheater.
Ellen Reasonover was imprisoned for more than 16 years before a defense team that included O.J. Simpson trial attorneys Johnnie Cochran and Barry Scheck brought forth evidence that exonerated her in the 1983 murder of a Dellwood service station attendant.
Though the rally summoned painful memories, the tearful Reasonover felt her attendance was imperative.
“I had to come because (a wrongful conviction) can happen to you, it can happen to your brother, it can happen to your sister. It can happen to anyone,” she said.
Two decades and counting after her son went to prison, Vera Thomas vowed to never abandon her bid to clear her son of a crime for which he has spent all of his adult life in prison.
“This case has a lot of questions,” she said.
The answers, Thomas hopes, will begin to emerge Monday.
