This is important because wrongful convictions are simply that wrong. We are deeply troubled by Missouri's continued imprisonment of Byron Case, who was tried for first degree murder and armed criminal action in 2002, and sentenced at age 23 to two concurrent life sentences without parole.

Anastasia WitbolsFeugen was 18 when her lifeless body was found by a Jackson County, Missouri sheriff's deputy. She had been shot pointblank in the face. Among the last to see her alive were two of Anastasia's teenage friends — Byron Case and his girlfriend, Kelly Moffett — who offered statements to authorities the following morning. Meanwhile, Kansas law enforcement found the body of Anastasia's boyfriend, Justin Bruton, reclining against an abandoned building. He had shot himself in the head with a shotgun. Investigators suspected the two deaths a related instance of murder-suicide, but lacked evidence. For Anastasia, they had no time of death, no bullet, no weapon, no biological traces from which to obtain DNA, no fingerprints, no fibers, no telltale signs of any kind to construct a working theory.

That was 1997. The case remained open for years. Repeated statements from Anastasia's friends and family were of no help. Sensational rumors and even fake evidence plagued the investigation. Then, in autumn of 2000, Kelly Moffett was discharged prematurely from the rehabilitation center where she had been undergoing treatment for crack cocaine addiction. Her early release was granted because of a story she told her counselor: that she had witnessed a friend's murder. For the better part of the year that followed, Kelly told everyone that Justin had killed Anastasia. But when a return to rehab was imminent, she suddenly turned an accusing finger at her ex, Byron.

Eager to close the three-and-a-half-year-old case, the Jackson County Prosecutor accepted Kelly's testimony. Charges against Byron were pursued in spite of the lack of evidence and a dubious Sheriff's Department, from whom the case was yanked away. At trial, prosecutors glossed over the factual inconsistencies and continuity problems of Kelly's story. They blamed her sketchy character and substance abuse problems on trauma from witnessing such a horrendous crime, even though Kelly herself confessed to frequent drug abuse before so much as meeting Byron.

The evidence presented to that jury by the prosecution was comprised almost completely of testimony by Byron's embittered, drug-addicted, mentally ill ex-girlfriend's --testimony that even a cursory overview exposes as self-contradictory and at odds with the undisputed physical facts of the crime. Documentation at freebyroncase.com and skepticaljuror.com, as well as the exhaustive analysis of the case presented in the book "The Skeptical Juror and the Trial of Byron Case" by J. Bennett Allen, leaves little doubt that Missouri has condemned an innocence man to a slow, lingering death.

Byron, his family, his friends have suffered for many years because of this tragic error by the system and the lies of one manipulative woman. Byron's supporters have long awaited the wise court decision that would right the wrong and set him free, but all of his procedural remedies are all exhausted.

His fate is now in your hands. In the name of truth and justice, as you are empowered to do by Article IV, Section 7 of the Missouri constitution, we implore you to grant Byron Case a full pardon and allow him the life of liberty he deserves.