floyd were it not for the bravery and presence of mind of a young woman named darnella frazier? with our thanks for being with us. on behalf of my colleagues at >> happy friday. happy to have you here. in california's central coast, about halfway between los angeles and san francisco, this st. louis a bespoke which has nice beaches, lovely climate. it's got a historic 18th century mission. it is a lovely place if you visit you should know locals call st. louis a bespoke county slow growing to. they pronounce it slow some of

the people who have recently exerted themself in local politics marked themselves as outsiders. a couple weeks ago on the show, we reported on a situation in san luis obispo county, which erupted last month at the port of supervisors meeting. county supervisors holding their regular meeting, they open the phones to public comment. and what they got was hours and hours of public comments. hours an hours of colors. some of them didn't even really seem to know what county they were calling into. who nevertheless wanted to talk about the 2020 election in san luis obispo county. they specifically wanted to talk about the election results and their suspicions about the county's chief election official amending tommy gong.

>> from the evidence i've seen, i believe this machine was used to alter the vote counting in this county. and we need an independent forensic audit to verify its accuracy. tommy guang is using every excuse available to prevent an audit, giving his assurance that the count was 100 percent accurate. >> i have lost confidence in our election process, partly due to the voting machines. we want tommy gong to remove them and also have them audited. if not, we need to have tommy gong removed. >> tommy gong in any way in relationship to the communist party? >> we want the voting machines audited. we want a forensic audit, although we're not sure where that means. because maybe election results and the machines were messed with by china, because our county clear is a secret member of the chinese communist party. we need him gone too.

this went on for hours in this one county in california at their board of supervisors meeting last month. for the record, the top election effectual in san luis obispo county, taught county kirk connie gong, is a third generation american citizen. he has worked at the county clerk's office for more than 15 years. he's not from china, he's never been to china in his life. he's from majesu california. but here are trump supporters from san luis obispo county, and people clearly not from there, saying that they need the board of supervisors to remove him because they suspect he must be controlled by the chinese communist party. because you know, just look at him. the local paper in san luis obispo county, the tribune, has described the avalanche of calls at that meeting as quote, the culmination of a campaign to discredit mr. gong and his

county elections staff. that campaign included not just all the attacks on him at the board of supervisors meeting, but also even a radio ad that ran locally involving voting machine conspiracy theories. and add that called him out by mid name. mr. gong recalled drive into work one morning hearing himself denounced by name in this radio ad, and thinking quote, oh, boy you know they're really on a rampage for this. he said he worried for his family's safety. he said quote, it did give me a little twinge of that. he told the local paper, the tribune, that the mob mentality that seemed to form around this aged issue targeting him in particular, that caused him to become concern. he said quote, i will say that i live in fear or anything like that. but when i made it home i just told my two sons i want to be sure of your surroundings and everything, as they should be always. now after months of enduring this coordinated campaign

against him, over the counties election results, tommy guang is leaving his elected posts. a year and a half before his term is up. he was elected to the top job in the county in 2014. he was a little reelected to the job in 2018 with nearly 100 percent of the vote. but he is not sticking around for the rest of his term. not after all of this. after he announced his decision to leave, the tribune editorial board published this lament that i think is worth noting. you see the headline there. partisans and conspiracy theories ran tommy gong out of town. that is a disgrace. it says quote, it's disappointing that mr. gong will not serve out the year and a half years left in his term. it's frightening to think of who might wind up in his post following the 2022 election, giving the nationwide republican campaign to back candidates willing to support voter suppression tactics. for fair minded election officials like tommy gong, this

is a hellish situation. is it any wonder that he had elections officials in many parts of the country are living their high stress posts. mr. is gong truly the most nonpartisan of officials and all of our years of interacting with him. we never had a clue as to where he stood on any particular issue or any candidate. his only interest was in upholding democracy by ensuring san luis obispo county voters had access to the polls. and that ballots were properly counted. that is the exact opposite of what trump conservatives are after. it's not hyperbole to say american democracy is under attack, including here in san luis obispo county. it's an attack with all our energy. we lost a defender in tommy gong. you know what happened in the 2020 election in san luis obispo county under tommy gong 's leadership? joe biden won by a lock. he won by more than 25,000 votes in that county.

but regardless of who won the election in that county, under tommy gong's leadership, administering the election as an experienced totally nonpartisan expert in the field, you want to know what happened in san luis obispo county? yes, joe biden won. but the county also broke its all-time voter turnout record. literally, their turner turnout was over 80%. that is astonishing. it's great. and tommy gong is the as the local elections chief, he's part of. that he said when your an election administration. what are you going to be? touting the high number of to voter turnout. vote by mail voters. you're not gonna say oh, these are the people i disenfranchise from voting. these are the people i preventing you from voting. that does it go on record. that isn't shine on your record. it's all about getting more and more people engaged. and to participate in elections. clearly with an attitude like that, unofficial like tommy gong in san luis obispo county california has to go.

showered with abuse. threatened. run out of town on a proverbial real. and so it is going all over the country. reuters today has a long blood curdling report on violent threats and physical intimidation that have been unleashed in recent months. not just against elections officials. high-ranking people like secretaries of state. but even just a volunteer election workers, low level and mid level poll workers. the headline from reuters today, you can see their, trump inspired death threats are terrorizing election workers. the wife of georgia secretary of state brad raffensperger showed these text messages that she received after her husband, georgia secretary of state brad raffensperger, resisted trump's personal demands to him. that raffensperger find enough votes in georgia for trump to ruin that state. this one, somebody who filled in their name, as reform burger

at revenge the u.s., reads quote, you and your family will be killed very slowly. another message mr. raffensperger's wife received was purported to be from america at jesus that come. and it says quote, please plenary. we plan for the death of you and your family every day. i'm sorry. another one that purports to be from murder at raffensperger .com. it says quote, people keep opposing the audit. of fulton county's 2020 elections. somebody in your family's going to have a very unfortunate incident. those were all set to brad brat brad raffensperger's wife. mr. raffensperger and his family and his staff viewed these and other threatening messages to his wife as an effort to try to cross him into resigning from his job. he's not resigning. he's in fact running for reelection in georgia against a bat trump backed challenger who is running his his whole

campaign on the stop the steal camps conspiracy theory. but the harassment, even from high-ranking official like that has gone beyond threats in text messages. this is from reuters today. quote, a late november, the family went into hiding for nearly a week after intruders broke into the home of their daughter in law. an incident the family believed was intended to intimidate them. that evening, people who identify themselves to police as, oath keepers, the far-right militia group that supported trump's bid to overturn the election, they were found outside the raffensperger's home. reuters reporter lynda so reports trump's baseless voter fraud accusations have it had dark consequences for u.s. election leaders and workers. especially contested states such as georgia, arizona and michigan. some have faced protests at their homes are followed in the cars. many have received death threats. in georgia, people went into hiding in at least three cases. including the raffensperger's. arizona secretary of state

katie hobbs, a democrat, told reuters that she continues to receive death threats now. michigan secretary of state justin benson, a democrat who faced armed protesters outside her home in december, she says she is also still getting the threats. and in georgia, election workers from local volunteers all the way up to senior administrators, continue even now to endure regular harassing phone calls and emails from trump supporters, today. one email sent january 2nd to officials and nearly a dozen counties threatening to bomb pulling sites. quote, no one at these places will be spared unless and until trump is guaranteed to be potus again. the local official in charge of the mail-in ballot authorization in fulton county, georgia, received numerous racist death threats. seen hair doing his job in a facility in georgia. one night, strangers showed up at his house. they identified themselves as

their new neighbors. they wanted to meet him, knock on the door. he knew nobody had moved into his neighborhood. he did not have any new neighbors. he did not open the door. that guy's boss, the elections director in fulton county, was bombarded with threats after president trump had a rally in georgia, showed a video clip of him and accused him of tampering with ballots and committed a crime. quote, police were posted outside that officials house and office after he received a detailed threat in late december. in which the caller said he would be killed by a firing squad. that fulton county elections director has worked in elections for 22 years. he's also volunteered as elections observer overseas. he said of his experience dealing with trump supporters right now quote, it seems like we were sending in this third world mentality. i never expected this out of this country. r election supervisors telling reuters they fare high numbers

of temporary workers who regularly staff polling sites will return for any future votes. because they want to avoid harassment and threats. and potentially violence. one pulling manager telling a hear racing story from the night of the january senate runoff in georgia. this is amazing. after the polls close, she was quote driving to deliver ballots to an election's office in barr del county. a prominently white republican district in northwestern georgia. the polling manager, who was black, was traveling with her daughter, also a poll worker higher temporarily for the election. on a dark rural two lane road, they notice they were being followed by an suv. the manager called 9-1-1, as her daughter sped toward town. when the suv nearly running them off the road. they were followed by the suv for about 25 minutes. the dispatcher, the police dispatcher on the line with them, helps guide them to a parking lot were officers met them and escorted them to the election office. months later, the polling

manager says she still suffers from panic attacks from the incident and she may stop working elections altogether. again, that reporting today from linda so at reuters. i mean, this is the stuff of nightmares. right? i mean, i like mayor for election officials and poor workers. a nightmare for democracy. these are the people who make democracy function. right? these are the people who check you in when you show up to vote and make sure that if you have any problem, you have somebody to ask for help. and make sure you get to the right precinct. right? anytime you've ever showed up to vote in person, is usually elderly folks, a church lady and staff who do this sort of thing. those are the people who are now being -- the now the subject of death threats and conspiracy theories. by trump supporters trying to intimidate them out of doing their jobs. trying to blame times on them that they have absolutely nothing to do with. you cannot have a functioning democracy if running elections or staffing the polling sites means taking your life into your own hands. and it was interesting to see

today, in his big speech of the great hall of the justice department today, the new attorney general merrick garland spoke directly to this issue. to his credit. >> we have not been blind to the dramatic increase in a menacing and violent threats against all manner of state and local election worker. ranging from the highest administrators and volunteer poll workers. such threats undermine our electoral process and violate a myriad of federal laws. the criminal section of the civil rights division, together with the departments national security and criminal divisions, the 93 united states attorneys and the fbi, will investigate and promptly prosecute any violations of federal law. violations o >> attorney general merrick garland speaking today, delivering what was billed as a major speech on voting rights.

of course, everybody was waiting fruitlessly as it turned out to see what he was going to say about the new scandal that has been engulfing the justice department over the latest revelation of their behavior under president trump including this disturbing report about them ceasing the communications record of members of congress who were investigating president trump at the time, we're gonna have more on that coming up. but when it comes to elections, when it comes to protecting our elections themselves, you can talk about it in abstract terms. it is a policy thing. apparently according to garland it is going to be more of a legal thing than it has otherwise been. he talked about of being enforcement plans. increasing the number of lawyers working on voting rights enforcement. going after the states that either passed a new law or enacted new practices that are discriminatory or otherwise illegal in terms of the way the impede peoples right to vote. but as much as this is a

philosophical issue as a democracy, as much as it is a theoretical issue, as much as it may become a source of litigation, legal fights if the justice department takes this up the way that attorney general garland promised today. it is real life, right now. for people whose life work is ending. for people who spent their lives working on the nonpartisan, technocratic of good elections in this country. people who are being run out of this type of work on a one by one basis. even people working at a low level, or at the county level being picked off one by one by a violent mob, attacking them, threatening them, and in the case of tommy gong showering them with racist abuse. this is not a hypothetical thing, this is not a potential danger to our elections in the future, this is happening right now. person by person. all across the country.

joining us now is reporter lindsey hold and she's been covering the story of elections official tommy gong in california, miss holding it is a real pleasure to have you here tonight, thank you for taking the time. >> thank you for having me, rachel. >> so i've been following this story largely through your reporting and through the work of your paper and some of their news outlets, as far as i can tell this in that tommy gong is accused of, a from the racist stuff which is a separate matter is that we, the trump folks were demanding that he approve an audit, essentially a recount of results in the county but they demanded that he do it well after the window, the legal window, after which he could've even ordered that himself, legally, if he'd wanted to. am i right that they were demanding something of him that he wasn't even legally capable of granting them? >> yes. absolutely.

the people can request a recount like five days after the election is certified, and that would've been in november. when i interviewed him he told me that he hadn't heard anything from republican officials about that, at that time. months later, they started asking for an audit, which he actually told me he wasn't entirely opposed to a recount. he had done them in the past, and he'd seen his predecessors do them. he said they could actually be vindicated and showing that he's doing his job. but legally he is not allowed to perform one after the time runs out. >> my sense, again looking from some distance, is that his resignation, the circumstances under which he was kind of, felt forced out, after and during all of this abuse and having to sit all through the -- my sense is that if there is

some regret in the county about losing him, that he is viewed, particularly you see this in the editorial from your paper but also a letter to the paper from the league of women voters, other people commenting, about the regret that he is an outlet to the county and he has been great at his job. this is something that there needs to be some soul searching about how you lost them. is that a fair way to understand what's happening in the county? >> yes, absolutely. it is really upsetting. i've worked with him for five years, while i've been here with katie benner, and you super passionate about elections, he cares about his job. yes, people were definitely speaking out after he left, or made the decision to leave, he doesn't leave until july. but saying that it is a real loss for our county. i really agree with that, i think that it is heartbreaking to see he is going to continue election work on the bay area, but to see him leave our area,

when you see him committed to really care about his job leave the area because -- he said it wasn't entirely because of the racist attacks but he you have to infer that it definitely was a part of it. that is really sad. >> on the other side of that coin to people who have been pressuring him and attacking him, they see it as a victory that they ran him out of town? obviously there has to be an election to choose his successor, there's worry that people who have been demanding that he essentially mishandled the election to answer their demands that those people might see this as a win that they got him out and they might try to get someone who would say to those demands in that very important job? >> yeah, that's definitely a concern -- i talk to local democratic party after tommy announced he was leaving and they definitely said that that was something that was a concern for them. the local republican party,

kind of, downplayed their role in his departure. kind of saying that he may have left for other reasons, which he did say he wanted to live closer to family. it is hard to ignore the attacks that happened exactly one month before he said he was leaving. i think there is a lot of concern about what is going to happen now that he has left the area. >> lindsey holden who has been covering the story, miss holden thank you very much for your time. i know it can be awkward when the national media wants to put their spotlight on what you've been covering at the local level, but it really has been in valuable reporting, and i thank you for helping us understand it. >> yeah, thank you so much. support local news, it is so important. >> all right. indeed, subscribe to your local paper, we need more of lindsey holden. those papers don't exist unless you subscribe to them. all right, much more ahead, stay with us. stay with us wondering what actually goes into your multivitamin? at new chapter,

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this time last night the new york times had just broken the news that under president donald trump the justice department has secretly obtained a communications of members of congress, their staff even their family members. it is a sign of just how shocking and how bad that is that both of trump's attorneys generals both jeff sessions the first one and bill barr's, both sessions and barr came out today and said, not it. that wasn't me. i can't recall doing anything like that. the subpoenas for members of congress, we now know, were first issued in 2017, the first year trump was in office. we know the justice department kept renewing the gag orders to keep them secret, year after year. 2018, 2019, 2020, they did it. this is what the trump justice department did. but both trump attorneys general who were there at the time are like, i know nothing. i saw nothing. i don't remember anything. i can't recall, don't recall.

can't remember anything like that. i remember a lot, but not that. trump administration officials involved in the worst abuses of that administration are not known for their shyness about what they did, but when it's this bad, even jeff sessions and bill barr are like, wow, i'm sure that wasn't me. except maybe i'm not sure of anything. did i mention that i fell and hit my head. [laughs] if neither trump attorney general knew that the trump justice department was collecting the communications of serving members of congress who are investigating the president, who did know? really, neither of you guys, are you sure? can't recall. senate democrats including the chairman of the senate judiciary committee tommy durbin are calling on sessions and barr to both testify about what happened. democratic leader chuck schumer and dick durbin let out a --

vigorously investigate this abuse of power. but they say if barr and sessions on agreed to testify voluntarily they will subpoena them. but, with a senate that is divided between democrats and republicans 50/50, at least one republican senator would have to side with the democrats on that committee in order to issue such a subpoena. good luck with that. on the house side though the democrats are just plainly in charge there, there would be no need for republican votes if a house committee wanted to issue that kind of a subpoena for their testimony. but are the house democrats going to open their own investigation and demand that kind of testimony? turns out to be very interesting question. in the house, the chairman of their judiciary committee is -- and he did not just plainly announced today the day they did in the senate that they would open an investigation into what happened here. they are issuing a threat, a

threat that they nailed merrick garland needs to clean this up himself and quickly or else. i'm not sure i really saw a statement like this before but it is pretty remarkable, this is what he says he says it is outrageous of the department of justice may have used a criminal investigation as pretext to spy on journalist, members of congress their families and congressional staff. sadly after four years of trump's corrupting influence of the department of justice we have every reason to believe that these reports are true. indeed, my concern, meaning his concern at this hour is he thought that the corruption ran deeper than it has been reported. we know that the justice department under attorney general sessions and barr tried to secretly sees data after and my colleague on the intelligence committee of the house, but we do not yet know how these two efforts were connected or whether they were additional targets of this gross abuse of power.

his work here will be invaluable on investigation by his office. however, it's no substitute for if swift action by the department of justice itself. it says the committee has been in communication with the justice department. and we've made our position clear. the department has a very short window to make a clean break from the trump era on this matter. we expect the department to provide a full accounting of these cases. and we expect attorney general merrick garland to hold the relevant personnel up for their conduct. if the department doesn't make progress toward their two goals. we on the judiciary committee will have no choice but to step in and do the work ourselves. so, he's not announcing that he's opening an investigation. the committee has a short window to make a clean break from the trump era. we expect a full accounting. we expect attorney general garland to hold the rally vote personal accountable. or else will do it for him.

i don't know what the justice department under attorney general garland plans to do here. this is a very big scandal. we did get word earlier in the day today that the deputy attorney general had asked the inspector general, michael horowitz, to open an investigation. later in the day, we did get statement from the inspector general affirming that he is opening that investigation. that means some number of years down the road, will get the result of that inspector general investigation, presumably. for those of us who are sadly not shocked to learn what the previous administration was capable of. for those of us who are and you are now to the idea that justice department officials would fall in line i do unethical, potentially illegal stuff that trump wanted. even if we're now incapable of being shocked by revelations of how bad, not only trump's behavior was, that his

underlings behavior was during the trump era. even still, it's been kind of shocking to realize that there are people who were involved in this. in this particularly agree just, totally unprecedented case of the justice department secretly obtaining and rifling through communication records from democratic members of congress, or at that moment were investigating the president. it is upsetting to realize, as jaded as we all are now, it is upsetting still to realize that officials involved in that are still at the justice department today. people who were briefed on this while it was happening. people who are in the chain of command while decisions were being made to do this. people who took part in it are still there under merrick garland. so number one, what is going to happen to them? if they in fact were involved in this? and a number two, given the fact that those officials who know about this are still in the department right now, why did it take a new york times article about this abominable

of behavior to spark an inspector general investigation today? the scandal wasn't known to any of us, the public, but it was known to multiple officials inside the justice department? none of whom thought to people about it until their new superiors, now that merrick garland and lisa monaco are in charge of the justice department? no apparently garland and monaco had to learn about in the new york times. because even the officials involved inside the justice department, people involved in this scandal inside the justice department, didn't see anything. is that because nobody asked them? apple and microsoft have both received release statements explaining how those companies were roped into this. and why these legally binding gag orders they were served with prohibited them from telling anybody from what was going on there from now. since last night show, when we reported unless, we've learned that in addition to congressman and adam schiff, california congressman eric swalwell had his records secretly cease.

as part of his response today he said this, quote i hope every prosecutor who is involved in this is thrown out of the department. it crosses the line of what we do as a country. excuse me, what we do in this country. swalwell's colleague congressman ted lieu, said quote, anyone involved in this who is still at the justice department needs to resign. in the senate, senator ron wyden, went at it even more directly. saying basically even that wouldn't be enough. center wyden says this. there must be a full investigation of abuse is under former attorney general sessions ambar. if anyone at the justice department who is complicit in these abuses of power cannot be trusted to continue serving in government. the current justice department needs to act with much greater urgency. both to reveal abuses and ensure full accountability for those responsible. we'll see. attorney general merrick garland did not comment on this

at all. when he gave his speech today on voting rights. the members of congress who were targeted by trump's doj say they have been able to get zero information out of the justice department, under merrick garland's leadership, since this came to light. garlands people won't even tell targeted members of congress what the legal predicate was for going after this, let alone what type of information exactly was collected from them. they won't even tell congress, the current justice department will even tell congress right now, if more members of congress were hit. were brought into this thing. expect this to get worse before it gets better. it is clear that the justice department, under president biden, does not want the job of investigating and rooting around what went rotten inside their own department under the previous president. but even if they don't want that job, that is the job they have now. the stakes of them getting that job done, get higher with each

new revelation about what else happened there under just sessions and under william barr, in particular. i think that president biden, just my personal opinion, i think that president biden but really high quality, good people at the justice department. his appointees there thus far have been excellent choices. really good people. with great experience and presumably great intentions. but wake up, you guys. you're going to work every day and an active crime scene! and there is no other cops to call here. you have to fix this. you are the only ones who can. the country needs you to do this. approved to treat and prevent migraines. don't take if allergic to nurtec. the most common side effects were nausea, stomach pain, and indigestion. ask your doctor about nurtec today.

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who supports missouri governor parsons cruel stance that releasing an innocent man is not a priority? >> this is an editorial in the kansas city star this week.

and the editorialist all the things that missouri's republican governor mike parsons has been up to this week. and it sounds like kind of a fun week. he went to barbecue. he also proclaimed that the month of june is dairy month in missouri, congratulation cows. he also went to a ribbon cutting ceremony for a frenzy new frozen foods facility. the frozen food express. he followed that up with a trip to what was billed as a youth cattle show. although they do not appear to be any cattle in evidence while he was there. sort of a cattle free cattle show. less stress that way maybe? the kansas city star detailing all this stuff at the missouri governor has been up to this week, to make a silly eight point about what he hasn't been doing. the governor this week made clear that one thing that is not a priority for him, because he is so otherwise busy. he does not have time to work on it is setting free an innocent man who has been stuck in a missouri prison for more than 40 years.

even though prosecutors are now pleading for his release, saying the man was prosecuted in error. the man did not commit a crime for which he has been in prison, again, for more than 40 years. we've reported on this story over the course of a week or so, now. it's on most unbelievable story. the man's name is kevin strickland. he was arrested as a teenager, convicted of three murders. in missouri when he was 18 years old. a problem for the state is that since his conviction, the case against him has not only fallen apart, it has reversed itself. there was one eyewitness to the crime whose testimony was basically the entire case against him. she has recanted her testimony and said, it was in him. and he should be released from prison. she says, the police pressured her into making a false identification of him. it was not him. there are two men who were convicted in conjunction with the case. they have confessed to their involvement in the case and also said, mr. strickland had nothing to do with it.

they've already served their time in conjunction with a case. they're already out of prison while he still in. the prosecutors in the case have told the court they made a mistake. that mister strickland was prosecuted in error. that he did not do it. all of them now believe that strickland was wrongfully convicted and he should be let go. for his part, mr. strickland has maintained his innocence since day one. there's nobody involved in the case now who says he is wrong about that. but governor mike parson has got a frozen food thing to christen. and a cattle free cattle show to go to. and he's apparently way too busy to get around to doing anything about this. his. >> today, 13 lawmakers wrote to you to pardon kevin strickland, joining the jackson process county prosecutor believes that he's innocent it innocent. >> sure, we looked at them but. i mean you know what we've got 3000 to go. we're going to look back and going towards more current cases. but you know, when something like that comes out, we look at those cases.

biden know that necessarily remains a priority jump in front of the line. he's been tried. you know, again, by a jury of his peers that found him guilty. you know, and i know there's a lot more information out there. but at the end of the, you have to think through all of those things. >> he's been tried, found guilty by a jury of his peers. yes, all people wrongfully convicted. were convicted. that's right but sometimes they're wrongfully convicted. and in this case, the prosecutor say he never should've been prosecuted because he didn't do it. as does the only eyewitness on whom this testimony the trial turned. i don't know that necessarily makes it a party jumped in front of the line or anything, says the governor. kansas city star editorial says quote, no one could accuse our governor of trying to hide the fact that writing the monumental wrong done by the state he runs is last on the list to do. .

>> it's because of incredible reporting from the from the newspaper side of the newspaper side of the kansas city kansas city star star, in particular the criminal and in particular the criminal justice reporter. justice reporter. joining us now is luke joining us now is luke. he has who has shined a light shined a light on the story on this story in a way that isn't that is almost incredible almost, almost unbelievable tale to this day, unbelievable tail. thank you for joining thank you for joining us tonight. and thank you for reporting this. four us and thank you for your reporting so far. >> thank you for having me. >> is there any reason why governor parson doesn't want to act here? >> i can't speak for governor parson like you said he indicated that his clumsy obligation is not a priority he said that 3000 other people are seeking clemency today, he applied for clemency earlier

this week and is acting for a full pardon. basically asking that his proclaimed innocence be recognized. he could also still be free to the course, but his attorneys are still waiting to see how that plays out. >> i understand that there are wrongful conviction cases all over the country, missouri, itself, has a high profile case in which it's widely believed that there are wrongful convictions and people who are serving time that, long sentences for things that they may not have done. in this case though it does seem like a remarkable confluence of events. to not have only the eyewitness recant, and have other people convicted, in conjunction with the crime, say that this was not the man. tough him having consistently said that it wasn't him, but also to half prosecutors agree. is it unusual that the governor

won't listen even to the prosecutors in this case? it would struck me -- part of the reason i've been so fascinated is that it would strike me that this is a golden spike, that once the prosecutor say you have to go, the governor would at least want to entertain that as an unusual assertion. >> yeah. i'm actually not sure about the history of governors involvement, but there is another man, on the other side of the state and st. louis, prosecutors they say that he is also innocent but prosecutors in missouri don't have any power to write wrongful convictions, or to free prisoners who are innocent. that could change come august 28th, when a bill on governor parsons desk is going to be signed into law. i think the attorneys are just waiting -- they're hopeful that he will be freed later this year. >> but the governor himself, mr. parsons, would have to sign that bill. it's been on his desk for some

time and he hasn't signed it. >> that is my understanding, yes. >> in terms of what the reaction has been in the state one of the things i thought was interesting was to see a bipartisan response, there has been not just democratic legislators but also republican state legislators, missouri's legislators have a lot on their plates, they have a lot going on, but to have a bipartisan group of legislators come together and right to the governor asking to effectively intervene in this case, is that as unusual as it seems from the outside? and i think a lot of places in the country, it's hard to imagine bipartisan action on a case like this, but that's what you've got in missouri. >> yeah, i think it is. so earlier this week 13 state lawmakers called on parsons to pardon mr. strickland. ten of them are democrats and three of them are republicans. and in a letter that they penned to the governor they said that --

evidence has come forth proving mr. strickland's innocence, and some lawmakers in the state have -- on this pardon. >> luke nozicka, he's not only looking in the substance on this case but chronicling the effort to try to spring kevin strickland -- mr. strickland from prison given what has come to light about this case. luke, congratulations on your reporting thus far. it's really consequential and important reporting, and the star is lucky to have you. thank you for being here. >> thank you for having me. i appreciate it. >> we will be right back. stay with us. stay with us allergies don't have to be scary. spraying flonase daily stops your body from overreacting to allergens all season long. psst! psst! all good the lexus es.

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