108 DAYS OF FREEDOM

Kansas Man Dies Just Months After Exoneration of Murder

Pete Coons served 12 years in prison for the deaths of Kathleen and Carl Schroll, which his lawyers argued he was framed for.

A Kansas man who was wrongfully convicted in the murder-suicide of his father’s former housekeeper and her husband has died just 108 days after being released from prison. Pete Coones, 64, served 12 years in prison after being convicted for the 2008 deaths of Kathleen and Carl Schroll, despite no physical evidence connecting him to the crime, and his daughter and her boyfriend testifying that Coones was home in the hours leading up to the Schrolls’ deaths. Coones was convicted in part with the use of the testimony of a jailhouse informant, which The Innocence Project calls one of the “leading contributing factors of wrongful convictions nationally” due to its high prevalence in cases that were later overturned. As The Daily Beast reported last year, Coones’ defense lawyer argued that Kathleen Schroll framed Coones for the murder, given her history of alleged financial abuse as Coones’ father’s caretaker before his death. “What happened to me is wrong,” Coones told The Kansas City Star after being released in November. “It shouldn’t happen to anybody.”