Lindsay J. Runnels is an attorney at Morgan Pilate, LLC in Kansas City, Missouri. She specializes in trial and postconviction criminal defense, innocence cases, and civil rights litigation. She has investigated facts related to both phases of capital trials as well as mental health related claims. She has successfully defended clients in federal and state courts at trial and postconviction proceedings. She is a former clinical professor at the UMKC School of Law and University of Missouri-Columbia School of Law where she was the director of the Wrongful Convictions Clinic in partnership with the Midwest Innocence Project.
In 2022, the Missouri Association of Criminal Defense Lawyer’s awarded her the public service award for her work in Missouri to create a legal pathway for prosecutors to vacate wrongful convictions. She received the UMKC School of Law Decade Award in 2019. In 2014, the Missouri Bar Association recognized Lindsay for successfully representing the indigent accused. In 2022, Lindsay and retired Judge Charlie Atwell co-authored the feature article, The Kevin Strickland Exoneration, in NACDL’s The Champion. She co-authored two chapters of the Missouri Bar Criminal Law Deskbook with Professor Sean O’Brien. She frequently serves as faculty at national criminal defense trainings across the country.
