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New investigation confirms guilt of St. Louis man executed in 1995

Griffin was executed by lethal injection in 1995.
(file)
Griffin was executed by lethal injection in 1995.

By Matt Sepic, KWMU

St. Louis – St. Louis Circuit Attorney Jennifer Joyce says a man executed for murder twelve years ago was, in fact guilty of the crime.

In 1981, Larry Griffin was convicted of killing Quentin Moss on a St. Louis street. Griffin was put to death in 1995 after his appeals ran out.

Prosecutors reopened his case two years ago, after attorneys with the NAACP Legal Defense Fund questioned Griffin's guilt.

But a report Joyce's office released Wednesday says that key witness Robert Fitzgerald positively identified Griffin at multiple stages of the trial and did not lie on the witness stand.

The investigation also found a new eyewitness to the shooting, who corroborated Fitzgerald's testimony.

Death penalty opponents have long cited Larry Griffin as a leading example of an innocent man wrongfully put to death.

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