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BELTON, Mo. — Josh Kezer walked into the Scott County Courthouse for the first time in 32 years. It’s the place where, as a handcuffed detainee, he was told by a judge that he had been charged with the murder of Angela Mischelle Lawless. The 19-year-old nursing student at Southeast Missouri State University was found dead in her car on an Interstate 55 ramp, just a couple of miles east of the courthouse.

“I’ve never walked into the courthouse from this entrance,” Kezer told me Monday, as we entered the front doors of the red-brick building to watch the next chapter of the Lawless case unfold.

Built in 1912, the courthouse is like many such buildings in small towns in Missouri. But this case is unlike any other.

Kezer didn’t kill Lawless. That determination was made by former Cole County Circuit Court Judge Richard Callahan 16 years ago. The judge found Kezer, who had spent 16 years in prison, innocent of the crime and issued a report that pointed to two other men as likely culprits.

That report was front-and-center in the hearing Monday. Leon Lamb, a former boyfriend of Lawless, now stands charged in the decades-old murder. He’s being represented by Russ Oliver, a former prosecutor in Stoddard County, and Charlie Weiss, a St. Louis attorney who helped prove Kezer’s innocence.

Lamb also is innocent of the crime, his attorneys say. But first things first: Their task Monday was to try to get him out of jail. Lamb has been held on no bond since he was arrested in Arkansas in December and charged with first-degree murder by a special prosecutor, Allen Moss.

Kezer sat in the back of the courtroom with members of Lawless’ family, including her mother, Esther; her father, Marvin; and her sister, Valerie. Kezer is more than a casual spectator. The botched investigation that led to his conviction, featuring the testimony of jailhouse snitches, will now be recycled by a new prosecutor intent on a new conviction.

But that old case must be considered when it comes to holding Lamb before trial, Oliver told Senior Judge Benjamin Lewis on Monday.

“The reason that Joshua Kezer was exonerated had nothing to do with Leon Lamb,” Oliver said in arguing for a bond to give Lamb a reasonable chance to leave jail for now. “It had to do with Mark Abbott and Kevin Williams.”

Those are the men who, according to Callahan’s report, are implicated in Lawless’ murder by their statements to law enforcement and by witnesses. One of the officers who conducted those later investigations, helping unlock Kezer’s prison cell, is former Scott County Sheriff Rick Walter. He was also at Monday’s hearing.

“There is significant reasonable doubt,” Oliver continued. “Mr. Lamb should not spend the next year or two in jail for a case that is highly suspect.”

Judge Lewis agreed with the defense attorneys. He ordered a surety bond of $100,000 for Lamb, meaning he could be released by posting 10 percent of that amount. The judge ordered Lamb to stay with his sister, Mindy Adams, who lives near Springfield. He also transferred the case to Greene County Circuit Court, where a new judge will be appointed.

“I know that he is innocent,” Adams told me after the hearing. She had a bail bondsmen ready to post Lamb’s bond.

She and her brother grew up in Sikeston. She says she was “astounded” when he was arrested in Lawless’ murder. “He loved her,” Adams said.

Monday was a good day for the defense. “I’m ecstatic,” Oliver said after the hearing. “I think Leon was a little stunned.”

Not only did they get Lamb out of jail, his attorneys successfully fought back Moss’ attempt to put the case under a gag order, which would limit the public’s understanding of the case and stop the attorneys from speaking to the media.

Moss specifically said he was worried about social media exposure on the case. The judge said that’s reality today.

“That’s the world we live in,” he said from the bench. “There’s no way around it.”

Almost on cue, Kezer, the man once sitting in the same seat as Lamb, used his First Amendment rights to share his thoughts on the social media site X.

“Prosecutors with strong cases don’t hide in obscurity and fear exposure,” he wrote. “Moss’ case is substandard, unjustified, weak, and incapable of withstanding scrutiny and opposition, and he knows it.”