Why did prosecutors drop the murder charge against Birmingham White?

Birmingham White, 24, was released from the Jackson County Detention Center July 7, one day after Jackson County Prosecutor Jim Kanatzar dropped the second-degree murder and armed-criminal-action charges against him. White had been accused of killing a man he called his best friend, 31-year-old Dwight Gill. Gill was found dead on a picnic table in Noble Park near 73rd and Indiana on July 28, 2008, surrounded by 9 mm bullet casings, cigarette butts and two empty containers of Colt 45.

Kanatzer’s explanation is simple: “The case was dismissed because the evidence changed.”

Conversations with several sources with knowledge of the case (all of whose accounts match) reveal that the behind-the-scenes story of the dismissal is more complex.

White was arraigned on August 18, 2008, and his trial date was set for August 24, 2009. On June 17, his public defender, Arimeta DuPree, filed a request for discovery, asking that the prosecution share “any conversations, interviews or correspondence with any witnesses, including Latasha Lewis and Antwain Gray, made to law enforcement, the Prosecuting Attorney’s Office or any of its employees.” Lewis was supposedly White’s girlfriend, and Gray was a witness who had been interviewed by police the night of the murder.