Washington County Prosecuting Attorney Enters Motion To Set Aside Michael Politte Judgement

May 26, 2022

The Washington County Prosecuting Attorney has filed a Motion to Set Aside the Judgment in State of Missouri v. Michael Politte. This motion has been filed pursuant to Section 547.031, RSMo. Section 547.031 was part of a bill passed last year (2021) that allows local prosecutors to attempt to set aside convictions when they have information that a convicted person may be innocent or may have been erroneously convicted.

In 2002, Mr. Politte was convicted of murder in the second degree for the death of his mother and sentenced to life in prison. He was recently granted parole. The murder involved blunt force trauma to Rita Politte’s skull and her body was also burned. Mr. Politte was 14 years old at the time of the offense in 1998.

Since 2002, there have been many new developments in the field of arson investigation, resulting in new standards that would have likely made some of the testimony in this case inadmissible. Some of these standards were present in 2002 but were not widely known. The Missouri State Highway Patrol Crime Lab has admitted that the conclusion reached in this case, regarding Mr. Politte’s shoes testing positive for gasoline, was incorrect.

Also, evidence based on visual inspection was presented by the State that an accelerant was used in burning Rita Politte’s body, although no accelerant was detected by the crime lab. New standards dictate that the presence of an accelerant must be confirmed via laboratory testing and may not be based on visual inspection alone.

For these reasons and others, the Washington County Prosecuting Attorney is seeking to set aside Mr. Politte’s conviction.