In his ruling, Cole County Circuit Judge Richard Callahan criticized the special prosecutor who helped persuade a jury to convict Kezer of second-degree murder and armed criminal action in the death of Angela Mischelle Lawless, a 19-year-old nursing student at Southeast Missouri State University. Callahan ruled that special state prosecutor Kenny Hulshof improperly withheld several key pieces of evidence from Kezer's defense attorneys.

Callahan also said Kezer met the legal burden of "demonstrating actual innocence by clear and convincing evidence. ... Confidence in his conviction and sentence are so undermined that they cannot stand and must be set aside."

As TChris wrote in his post:

Given the slim and shady evidence against Kezer, it's reasonable to believe he would have been acquitted had the jury known that Abbott changed his story -- and continued to change it, eventually giving five different versions of what he allegedly witnessed. Prosecutor-turned-politician Kenny Hulshof apparently didn't want to risk losing a high profile case by divulging the full story.

Hulshof's reaction:

Hulshof, a former member of Congress who now works for a Kansas City-based law firm, said in a statement Tuesday that he remained "convinced that Joshua Kezer, a member of the violent Latin Kings gang, is guilty of this crime."

My comment on Hulsof is here. As an aside, that's what he told me when I interviewed him about Dale Helmig. He needs to retire that talking point.