COMPLIMENTARY

stlamerican.comVol. 84 No. 10CAC Audited

JUNE 7 – 13, 2012

Last chance to see JacksonOliver L. Jackson’s one-man show at Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis closes Sunday.

See Calendar

Greater Mt. Carmel turns 100

See BOND, A6

MSD bondissue passesby widemargin

By Rebecca S. RivasOf The St. Louis American

The meager nine percent of St. Louis City andCounty voters who cast ballots in Tuesday’s elec-tion said they are not ready to double their sewerbills right away.

About 85 percent voted in favor of the $945million bond issue that will allow the MetropolitanSewer District to fix the system’s environmentalhazards and raise sewer bills gradually.

All eight of MSD’s proposed amendments to itsoperating charter also passed with ease by about80 percent margins.

$945M in bonds will fund$4.7B in sewer repairs

Rev. Nance’s church celebrates a century – and the legacy of his fatherBy Kenya VaughnOf The St. Louis American

“One hundred years. Think aboutthat for a moment! Wrap your armsaround it and embrace it,” Rev. Earl E.Nance Jr. writes in his forward to thecommemorative book for the GreaterMount Carmel Missionary Baptist

Church Centennial.The church, located at 1617 North

Euclid Ave., will celebrate its 100-yearanniversary on Sunday, June 10 at 10a.m.

Nance, the church’s senior pastor,and his father, the Rev. Earl E. Nance

Rev. Earl Nance Jr.,pastor of Greater MountCarmel Missionary Baptist Church, has beendoing well in his recoveryfrom a heart attack he suffered late last year.The church, located at1617 N. Euclid Ave., willcelebrate its centenary on Sunday.

See NANCE, A7

See KIDD, A6

‘Ricky’slast bestchance’

By Rebecca S. RivasOf The St. Louis American

Darryl Burton served 24 years in prison for amurder in St. Louis he didn’t commit. Joe Amrineserved 17 years. Both innocent men found no reliefin the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals. Yet bothMissourians are free now.

Ricky Kidd has served 16years of a life sentence with-out parole for a murder inKansas City he didn’t com-mit, he says. Like Burton andAmrine, Kidd also lost hisbattle in the Eighth CircuitCourt, which representsArkansas, Iowa, Minnesota,Missouri, Nebraska, NorthDakota and South Dakota.

If Kidd were in Coloradoor other circuits, he would bea free man too, said Kidd’sattorney Sean O’Brien, for-mer chief public defender inKansas City and currentboard member for theMidwest Innocence Project.

However, inconsistenciesin the federal courts are pro-hibiting justice to be servedin wrongfully-convicted mur-der cases, and Kidd’s case isa prime example of that,O’Brien said.

On May 9, O’Brien filed a petition in the U.S.Supreme Court for a “writ of certiorari.”

“It’s Ricky’s last best chance,” O’Brien said.The purpose of the certiorari is to bring the

Eighth Circuit Court in line with other federal cir-cuits. Currently the Eighth Circuit’s standard forreviewing claims of innocence is “impossibly highand limited in scope,” O’Brien wrote in the May 9petition.

Midwest InnocenceProject can proveKidd’s innocence ifcourt will let them

Young dancers performed with Afriky Lolo during the African dance troupe’s9th annual African Dance celebration at COCA on Sunday.

Stepping to AfricaPhoto by Wiley Price

Ricky Kidd’sappeal to hismurder conviction hasbeen taken onby the MidwestInnocenceProject.

Photo by Wiley Price

By Isabelle StillmanBeacon intern

One hundred and fifty-five years after the infa-mous Dred Scott Decision, which denied citizen-ship to former slaves, a statue of the couple whosefight inspired the Emancipation Proclamation andthree amendments to the Bill of Rights will beunveiled where their battle began: the OldCourthouse in downtown St. Louis.

A life-sized bronze statute of Dred and HarrietScott will be dedicated Friday, June 8.

The statue, by Harry Weber, is the first-ever

A statue forDred andHarriet ScottUnveiling at Old Courthouse on Friday

See SCOTT, A7