Listen to this articleThe Attorney General’s Office has once again opposed the release of an individual whose criminal conviction was overturned. This time, a district judge issued a contempt order against the Missouri Department of Corrections (DOC) for refusing to release an 81-year-old defendant.
Judge David Jones of Greene County District Court issued an order on Aug. 7 holding the DOC in contempt of court after it failed to release Howard Roberts. Roberts was sentenced to prison after being found guilty of defrauding an elderly woman in 2018, according to his attorney, Jonathan Sternberg of Sternberg Law.
Jones sentenced Roberts to 20 years in prison. Sternberg said that although Jones has since retired, the Missouri Supreme Court allowed him to continue prosecuting the case because he was the original judge in Roberts’ trial.
Earlier this year, Jones upheld Roberts’s subsequent claim that he had received inadequate legal representation and ordered a retrial. In the meantime, he ordered Roberts’ immediate release, Sternberg said.
That still hasn’t happened. As always, the Attorney General’s Office refuses to release people whose convictions have been overturned in the state and has opposed Roberts’ release for months.
In addition to Roberts, Attorney General Andrew Bailey has also spoken out against hearing new evidence in the case of Marcellus Williams and the release of the exonerated Christopher Dunn and Sandra Hemme.
Neither the Attorney General’s Office nor the Missouri Department of Corrections immediately responded to requests for comment on the case.
On August 7, in a hearing before Judge Jones that lasted about 45 minutes, Sternberg and the Attorney General’s office presented their arguments to the court on whether Roberts should be released immediately or whether he should remain in jail while the Attorney General’s office appeals the order.
The state argued that Rule 30.17 provides an automatic stay of the district court’s decision to release Roberts, as per Jones’ order. However, Sternberg argued that the rule does not, and Jones agreed.
Jones added that the rule “directly contradicts Article I, Section 20 of the Missouri Constitution, which guarantees a person the right to bail.”
The DOC now has eight days to release Roberts, otherwise he faces a fine of $1,000 per day.
“I think this is largely political,” Sternberg said. “The current Attorney General Bailey has some strange ideas about what the law should be and how politics and government should work.”
So far, all of Bailey’s attempts to prevent the release of those whose convictions have been overturned have failed.
“He was appointed and is now running for re-election. He has to be tough on crime, as they say,” Sternberg said. “So he’s trying to keep innocent people or people whose rights have been violated in prison.”
It is highly unusual for a Missouri attorney general to fight so actively against post-conviction release, Sternberg said. It is also the first time in his 16-year career that the Department of Corrections has been charged with contempt of court for failing to release someone.
“I have seen a judge order my client’s release from prison a few times in my career, and I have never seen such resistance before,” he said.
Another unusual development is that Roberts was initially placed on parole effective Aug. 11 of this year, but this was later pushed back to Aug. 11, 2026, Sternberg said. This, combined with his advanced age and the years he has already spent in prison, has put a great deal of strain on Roberts, he said.
The attorney general’s office could appeal or seek an injunction from the Missouri Court of Appeals or the state Supreme Court, Sternberg said.
The case is Howard Roberts v. State of Missouri Case No. 2031-CC00165
