Three wrongful conviction survivors shared their stories at the third annual Greater Kansas City Freedom Walk in Overland Park on Sept. 20.

The event, first reported by KCTV5, drew dozens of participants and was organized by Miracle of Innocence, an Overland Park-based nonprofit co-founded in 2017 by exonerees Darryl Burton and LaMonte McIntyre. The organization has helped free five people and is working on five more cases nationwide, Burton said.

Burton, who also serves as a pastor associate at the United Methodist Church of the Resurrection in Leawood, spent 24 years in Missouri prisons after being convicted of capital murder in St. Louis in 1985. A judge freed him on Aug. 29, 2008, ruling that the state's failure to disclose exculpatory evidence violated his right to due process, according to Centurion, the organization that worked on his case.

Burton told the crowd that prosecutors had no motive, no ballistics, no weapon and no physical evidence linking him to the crime. His conviction rested on the testimony of two witnesses who lied under oath, he said.

"They didn't have ballistics. They didn't have a weapon. Fingerprints. DNA. Nothing connected me to the crime," Burton said.

Ed Slaughter was a juvenile when he was convicted of two homicides he said he did not commit. He spent 33 years in prison before a U.S. Supreme Court ruling led to his release in December 2020. The ruling required that juveniles sentenced to life without parole qualify for resentencing, parole hearings or immediate release. About 2,000 imprisoned people nationwide qualified, according to KCTV5.

At the walk, Slaughter stood inside a replica jail cell. He described what those decades looked like.

"Inside that cell you see a bunk and a toilet. That's it," Slaughter said.

He said the absence of outside advocates left him powerless for decades, and that Miracle of Innocence supported his reentry after release. Slaughter now advocates for others in similar situations.

Patty Prewitt's case dates to February 1984, when her husband was murdered and she was sexually assaulted. She was convicted of the killing in 1986 and sentenced to life without parole for 50 years. Prewitt, who was Missouri's longest-serving female prisoner, served 38 and a half years before then-Gov. Mike Parson commuted her sentence to life with parole. She was released Dec. 20, 2024, at age 75, according to KCTV5.

Prewitt told the crowd that when she was a free person, nobody used the words "wrongful conviction" together. She said getting the word out so people know it happens is the most important part.

Burton estimated that about 5% of people in U.S. prisons are innocent, a figure he said amounts to more than 100,000 people. The survivors at the walk collectively spent more than 96 years behind bars for crimes they say they did not commit.

First-time walker Debbie Hull called the event a call to action for public awareness about wrongful convictions.

Miracle of Innocence will host its annual gala on Saturday, Sept. 26. This year's theme is "Wrongful Conviction Creates Many Prisons." An online silent auction opened Sept. 19, though live auction items require in-person bidding. Details are available on Miracle of Innocence's website.