[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----ILL., KY., MO., KAN., OKLA.

[Rick Halperin]

Nov. 12



ILLINOIS:

A hell-raiser against injustice----Noreen McNulty remembers a former death row 
prisoner in Illinois who spent his life speaking the truth about racism and the 
corruption of the injustice system.


Darby Tillis defies an easy tribute. A dear friend, confidant and mentor to 
many. An activist and hell-raiser against injustice. A minister and street 
preacher, a friend to strangers. A father, brother, uncle, cousin, husband. A 
musician and mean harmonica player. A wisecracker, storyteller and 
word-crafter.

I worked for the Campaign to End the Death Penalty's national office in the 
early 2000s. I had met Darby a few years earlier, running the streets of 
Philadelphia to protest the death sentence and imprisonment of Mumia Abu-Jamal. 
While working for the CEDP, Darby was a frequent visitor to our office in the 
Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago. As the office administrator, I worked side 
by side with Darby, and he became a mentor and friend.

Darby was a leader to the death penalty movement. He was not afraid to speak 
honestly about the racism and corruption of the system. He laid out the effect 
that the system had on the minds and souls of people who were incarcerated, and 
on the family and friends who loved those people.

He fought. He fought his own demons brought on by what the injustice did to 
him. He fought the demons of the racist criminal justice system. He walked. And 
he marched. He marched in Chicago, Texas, Washington, D.C., New York and 
California. He spoke to anti-death penalty forums, to churches, to high school 
and college students, to demonstrations and conferences--anywhere people would 
listen.

Darby traveled all over, whenever and wherever he was needed--from the 1990s 
and protesting for Mumia Abu-Jamal in Philadelphia, through the early 2000s and 
the fight for a moratorium on executions in Illinois, to Texas to challenge the 
machinery of death for Shaka Sankofa, to California for Stan "Tookie" Williams, 
to Georgia for Troy Davis, and many places in between. In Chicago, where Darby 
made his home for many years, he was a tireless activist for the men who 
remained on Illinois' death row and for the victims of police torture at the 
hand of Jon Burge.

Per Darby's wishes, the funeral will be at Noble Funeral Home at 8158 South 
Exchange Ave. in Chicago. Visitation will be on Monday, November 17th from 4-8 
p.m.. The funeral will be on Tuesday, November 18, at 10:30 a.m., with a wake 
beginning a half hour before.

There will be a procession following the funeral to the Abraham Lincoln 
National Cemetery, where Darby will be buried.

Joan Parkin, who was an organizer with the CEDP, paints a vivid picture of the 
effect that Darby had on a crowd:

My most memorable Darby moment was when he entered a packed theater in Hyde 
Park, fully shackled and wearing an orange jumpsuit. When he got to the 
microphone, he said, "So long as my wrongfully convicted brothers are still 
locked up, I will never be free." No one could wake up a crowd like Darby 
Tillis. He had that unique ability to channel all the hate and rage he had 
against Illinois' corrupt criminal injustice system, one that had railroaded 
him to death row, into a passionate, inspirational message that helped lead the 
movement to the abolition of Illinois death penalty."

Julien Ball also worked with the CEDP and remembered this about Darby:

Darby was one of the inspirations for my activism. If someone who had been 
through what he had could keep going day after day, then so could I. And in a 
strange way, I knew he felt the same way about me. "Here's a guy who'll 
probably never see the back of a squad car, and he's standing right there with 
me," he would say. That was one of the great things about Darby--he was in 
solidarity with people from all different kinds of backgrounds.

He showed such concern for the struggles and the pain of prisoners' family 
members who would come around the Campaign to End the Death Penalty. And he 
gave them hope. Many of them kept coming because they felt that if he was 
standing here, outside of prison walls, their loved ones might someday, too.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

When I first got to know Darby, I remember being struck by his dress--he was 
the other Man in Black. Cowboy boots, sometimes a cape, suit jacket, the 
occasional Dashiki. The only time I saw him not in black was when he was 
dressed in the orange jumpsuit, like prisoners wear, at demonstrations and when 
he performed.

Besides the attire, Darby always had a bible, a harmonica and a very thick, 
bust-at-the-seams phonebook, with tiny pages and bigger pages, all tied 
together. He'd use that to find you. If he couldn't find you or didn't hear 
back from you, he would hunt you down until he did, just to know you were 
alright.

Darby lived a healthy lifestyle, despite his keeping hours of staying up at 
night and sleeping through the day. He didn't drink or smoke, and he ate 
healthy. While I admired his habits, I had to ban his raw garlic from the CEDP 
office.

He would come to see me at the office, hang out and snooze in the chair, and 
then we would eventually go to get coffee. He always knew someone on the way. 
At times, traveling with him in Washington, D.C. or some other city, or some 
neighborhood in Chicago, you would hear "Darby!" That meant you would be late 
for wherever you were going, because he inevitably ran into someone he knew and 
would give them his undivided attention.

He knew and touched more people than most of us will ever know. If you ever met 
Darby, you would feel like you were special and never be forgotten. And you 
probably never were.

Here's one example: He was traveling across country--always on the road, he 
tried never to fly. He met a woman and her young son--their car had broken 
down, they weren't from the area, and they had no money. They had found a 
mechanic to fix the car, but he was going to charge them an arm and a leg. 
Darby went to the mechanic and negotiated a deal. He was like that: a friend to 
strangers--in fact that was the name of his ministry.

Darby was always cooking up ideas for the next bus or limo or van that he would 
fix up to tour the country--to speak about the death penalty and the racist 
criminal justice system, and to minister to all those he met on the way. And if 
it wasn't a mode of transportation he was scheming about, he was writing songs, 
plays and speeches to reach people. Darby was a craftsman with words. He could 
turn a phrase or write a lyric that expressed so much.

Darby Tillis was truly a giant. I'm proud and honored and so grateful to have 
worked side by side with him in the CEDP. And as a friend, I will never forget 
his belly laugh, his snicker, his grin, his side-eye--or his compassion and 
love for those around him and his unquenchable thirst for justice at every 
turn.

(source: Commentary; Socialist Worker)






KENTUCKY:

Death Row Exoneree to Speak at Murray State


Amnesty International at Murray State University hosts death row exoneree Kirk 
Bloodsworth Friday night at 6 in MSU's Freed Curd Auditorium. Bloodsworth is 
the first person in the United States exonerated from death row by DNA testing. 
The lecture is open to all. On Sounds Good, Kate Lochte speaks with Kirk 
Bloodsworth about the circumstances of his exoneration.

A honorably discharged former Marine, Kirk Bloodsworth is the 1st person in the 
United States exonerated from death row by DNA testing. In 1984 he was arrested 
for the rape and murder of 9-year-old girl. He was sentenced to death in 
Maryland in 1985.

In 1992, Kirk read about a new forensic breakthrough called DNA fingerprinting, 
and lobbied successfully for prosecutors approval for its use on evidence 
collected at the crime scene. The tests established Kirk's innocence, and he 
was released from prison in June 1993.

Bloodsworth spent a total of 8 years, 10 months, and 19 days in prison - 2 of 
those years in death row.

In 1989, he read The Blooding by Joseph Wambaugh, telling the story of the 1st 
murder solved with new DNA testing. He then realized that this may be his 
chance for freedom. The evidence in his case was thought to have been 
destroyed, but was later found in a judge's closet. Bloodsworth says the real 
culprit was identified and caught as a result from the DNA testing (and 
mentions that he had been in the same prison for 5 years).

DNA testing is now used in nearly every jurisdiction, though post-conviction 
DNA testing is not as available or affordable. Bloodsworth says that roughly 
120,000 incarcerated people are innocent in the United States. 147 people on 
death row have been found innocent, but only 18 of those were DNA exonerations. 
Bloodsworth hopes that more people become aware of and enforce the Innocence 
Protection Act, which seeks to ensure the fair administration of the death 
penalty and minimizing the risk of executing innocent people. He says there is 
much work to be done in order to free men and women who have been wrongfully 
convicted.

(source: WKMS news)






MISSOURI----impending execution

Clemency requested for condemned Missouri inmate----Attorneys ask Missouri 
governor to grant clemency for inmate scheduled to die next week


Attorneys for a Missouri man scheduled to be executed next week have asked Gov. 
Jay Nixon to grant clemency, citing concerns about the role race played in Leon 
Taylor's death sentence.

The state plans to execute Taylor at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday for killing an 
Independence, Missouri, gas station attendant in 1994. He would be the 9th man 
put to death in Missouri this year and the 11th since November 2013.

Attorneys for Taylor say his sentence should be commuted to life in prison 
without parole, saying Taylor, who is black, was sentenced by an all-white 
jury. They also raise concern about prosecutor misconduct during his trial.

(source: Associated Press)






KANSAS:

Preliminary Hearing Set in Jewish Site Shootings


An avowed white supremacist from Missouri who is accused in the fatal shooting 
of 3 people at 2 Kansas Jewish sites is expected in court Wednesday for a 
preliminary hearing to determine if there is enough evidence to take his case 
to trial.

Frazier Glenn Miller, 74, of Aurora, Missouri, is charged with capital murder 
in the April 13 attacks outside the Jewish Community Center of Greater Kansas 
City and a Jewish retirement home in nearby Overland Park, Kansas.

None of the victims was Jewish.

Dr. William Lewis Corporon, 69, and his grandson Reat Griffin Underwood, 14, 
were at the community center for a singing contest audition, while 53-year-old 
Terri LaManno was visiting her mother at the retirement complex.

Miller shouted "heil Hitler" at television cameras as he was arrested after the 
killings that shocked the city on the eve of Passover.

Prosecutors initially charged him with 1 count of capital murder in the deaths 
of Corporon and Underwood, and 1 count of 1st-degree murder in LaManno's 
slaying. Last month they dismissed the 1st-degree murder count and combined all 
3 killings into 1 capital murder charge.

Miller's attorney, Ron Evans, said Johnson County District Attorney Steve Howe 
had indicated he plans to seek the death penalty - something Howe has not 
publicly acknowledged.

Evans is with the Kansas Death Penalty Defense Unit and had sought to push back 
the preliminary hearing, but Miller told Johnson County District Judge Kelly 
Ryan on Oct. 31 that he didn't want to wait.

Miller, also known as Frazier Glenn Cross, is a Vietnam War veteran from 
southwest Missouri who founded the Carolina Knights of the Ku Klux Klan in his 
native North Carolina and later the White Patriot Party.

He was the target of a nationwide manhunt in 1987, when federal agents tracked 
him and three other men to a rural Missouri home stocked with hand grenades and 
automatic weapons. He was indicted on weapons charges and accused of plotting 
robberies and the assassination of the Southern Poverty Law Center's founder. 
He served 3 years in federal prison.

Miller also ran for the U.S. House in 2006 and the U.S. Senate in 2010 in 
Missouri, each time espousing a white-power platform.

3 days have been set aside for his preliminary hearing.

(source: ABC news)



OKLAHOMA:

Prosecutors asking for death penalty for Frederick


Oklahoma County jurors are being asked to give a convicted killer the death 
penalty for fatally beating his elderly mother with a brick.

Jurors returned a guilty verdict against Darrell Frederick, 59, late Monday, 
and the sentencing phase of his trial started Tuesday.

Connie Bernice Frederick, 87, died at a hospital in March 2011.

The victim's granddaughter testified her grandmother was deaf and said that 
when she found her grandmother on the floor of her home, she signed to her 
granddaughter that Darrell Frederick was the person who had beaten her.

(source: KTOK news)