Post by SoulTrainOz on Jul 4, 2006 23:32:23 GMT -5
Darby Tillis is crazy. Ask him and he'll tell you as surely as he told a room full of Hunter students during the spring semester. "Yes man, I am nuts. There is a monster inside my head," he said in his deep growling voice.
Sitting in Room 217 of the West Building March 9, approximately 30 students heard Tillis, unfairly convicted of a murder and sentenced to death, say that 15 years in prison left him suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. "Death row is a place of horror," Tillis said. "The mental suffering [it] causes cannot be measured.
In 1977 Tillis and another black man were sentenced to death for the robbery and murder of two men at a hot dog stand on Chicago's North Side. His story is detailed on the website of the Center on Wrongful Convictions and shows that the evidence against them was meager. The prosecution's star witness was a woman who claimed to have been the getaway driver for the robbery. She was paid $1200 for her testimony. A bartender across the street from the murder scene testified that he'd seen two black men standing in a doorway around the time of the murders. Finally, when Tillis' codefendant was arrested, he was wearing a watch owned by one of the murder victims, but he claimed that he bought it from the boyfriend of the prosecution's star witness.
There were 3 trials to convict Tillis and his co-defendant and two
retrials. In 1991, Governor George Ryan set him free with a pardon. The Harlem chapter of the Campaign to End the Death Penalty, the Hunter chapter of the International Socialist Organization and the Hunter student newspaper The Shield brought Tillis to Hunter. Tillis told the audience that after regaining his freedom, he became a preacher, started an outreach ministry in Arkansas called Friends to Strangers and formed Working With Ex-offenders, Offenders, and Family Members in Chicago to help ex-offenders stay out of prison. He also works with of the Campaign to End the Death Penalty, a nationwide organization.
The Campaign has ties to the International Socialist Organization. When the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina ignited discussions of racism in America and the California execution of Stan "Tookie" Williams, the founder of the Crypts gang who later wrote children's books while in prison, drew attention to the death penalty, 2 Hunter students in the ISO decided it was time to start a chapter of the Campaign at Hunter. Said Alex Clermont, a 26-year-old creative writing major who writes for The Shield and is a member of the Hunter ISO, "We have an opening to build an anti-racist movement at Hunter. One of the differences with the Campaign [compared to other anti-death penalty organizations] is that it focuses on political arguments, not morals. The death penalty is racist and it's the Achilles Heel of the criminal justice system, showing its inherent racism."
With the goal of fostering an anti-racist dialogue at Hunter, Clermont, and fellow ISO member Ben Davis reached out to the Harlem chapter of the Campaign to discuss what could be done at Hunter. They decided to have Tillis speak and The Shield publicized the via listservs.
"Crime within the ghetto is okay; black on white crime is not okay"
Veronica Hernandez, a 32-year-old anthropology student, said she has been interested in the faults of the prison system for years. She came to see if Tillis's testimony would support her beliefs about that system. "I don't believe in how [it] tries to fix people. I think it tries to destroy their dignity," Hernandez said. She said Tillis's account of his time in prison confirmed the worst of her assumptions. Tillis had told the crowd, "I was kidnapped, used and abused to send a message to the black community that black on white crime would not be tolerated. Crime within the ghetto is okay; black on white crime is not okay."
After his first two trials ended in hung juries, Tillis was finally
convicted by an all-white jury. The bartender who claimed to have seen 2 black men in a doorway did not positively identify Tillis and his codefendant until the third trial, and under cross examination, he admitted that he hadn't seen the faces of the men in the doorway very well, and that he believed all black men look the same in photographs, Tillis told the audience.
As Tillis's experience shows, minorities deal with racism at every stage of the judicial system. According to the Campaign to End the Death Penalty's website, in a 1986 ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court stated that in death penalty cases, racial discrimination is "an inevitable part of our criminal justice system." Standing in his black alligator skin boots, black suit, and wearing a large gold cross around his neck, Tillis spoke with the intensity of revivalist preacher. He bellowed and whispered, his voice swelling and crashing like a roiling, violent sea as he described the agony of life awaiting death. "Every time you hear of a man being executed somewhere across the country a little part of you dies," he said. "You are not a part of life, you are an observer. You hate isolation."
Tillis described how events that seem insignificant to a free person gain monumental significance when one is awaiting death. He said every waking moment brings the death row inmates closer to their demise, and they never know how much time they have left. "You hate to hear the 10 o'clock news go off. You're glad to hear the jangle of keys because it means another day," he told the audience.
His suffering, however, brought him closer to humanity. It made him appreciate every day he lives and every person he meets, he said. It also made him detest violence. "Why you want to kill someone? Killin' don't solve killin'," he told the audience. Years after Tillis was released from prison his former girlfriend, the mother of his daughter, was murdered in Chicago. As he described the murder his eyes became shrink-wrapped in tears, and his voice swelled and quaked with emotion. Flashes from a digital camera were lightening to the thunder of Tillis's voice and affirming "Um-hmms" and "That's right" rose from the audience as Tillis refuted the belief that state violence could bring justice, and explained how a family suffers when a relative goes to prison.
After his speech, Tillis took questions from the audience and then Amelia Neiumetulo, a film and video student at City College and a member of the Harlem chapter of the Campaign to End the Death Penalty, spoke. She asked the audience to hold hands and feel the warmth and life of another human. She explained that many prisoners on death row say that they miss human touch the most and that no one should take it for granted.
"... race continues to play a major role in who will live and who will die."---- U.S. Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmon
Standing in her blue coat and bright red skirt, Neiumetulo passionately described how communities of color are incubation berths for death row. "We can't tell the difference between being in a cell block and being from the block," she said. Tillis said that America breeds people to be incarcerated for profit. The prison system in America is vast and growing, with America incarcerating more people than any other country. According to a speech delivered by Rutgers University professor H. Bruce Franklin, between 1971 and 2000, America's prison population exploded from under 200,000 to 2 million. A U.S. Department of Justice press release of May 21, 2006 reported the current population is 2,186,230. Prisons are also becoming increasingly private ventures. According to its website, Corrections Corporation of America is now the fifth largest prison system in the country, behind only the federal system and four states. More than 62,000 inmates are controlled by CCA.
Neiumetulo, who lives in Harlem, recited statistics from the Campaign's site about bias in the judicial system and how the death penalty is disproportionately applied to poor black and Latino men. Among the facts cited were: black men make up 42 percent of prisoners on death row, but only 12 percent of the general population. Approximately 80 percent of death penalty cases involve white victims even though whites and blacks are murdered in almost equal numbers. Over 1000 people have been executed in the past 30 years, and only 12 whites have been executed for killing blacks. In 1994 Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmon stated, "Even under the most sophisticated death penalty statutes, race continues to play a major role in who will live and who will die."
Tillis came to Hunter to draw attention to the injustices of the death penalty and galvanize students to work for its abolition. 12 students remained after the event was over and spoke to members of the Campaign about what they could do to help. Tillis spoke to a small group of students who had more questions and wanted to work personally with him. Kathy Hypolite a 24-year-old senio and a psychology major, said she was particularly affected by Tillis' description of the psychological damage he suffered during his time in prison. "There's a couple guys on my block who've been to jail, and now they're kind of crazy," Hypolite said. "I knew them when we were teenagers, then we grew apart, and when I saw them again they'd changed." She said she'd never realized their problems could be linked to their time in prison, and hearing Tillis made her want to help.
She and Tillis discussed what could be done to reach out to Hypolite's former friends, and Tillis said he would come talk with them if Hypolite arranged the meeting. In the end, Hypolite, and others like her were so moved by Tillis's presentation that they decided to help form a chapter of the Campaign Hunter. The group is now organizing to be officially chartered.
(source: CUNY, The Word)
Sitting in Room 217 of the West Building March 9, approximately 30 students heard Tillis, unfairly convicted of a murder and sentenced to death, say that 15 years in prison left him suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. "Death row is a place of horror," Tillis said. "The mental suffering [it] causes cannot be measured.
In 1977 Tillis and another black man were sentenced to death for the robbery and murder of two men at a hot dog stand on Chicago's North Side. His story is detailed on the website of the Center on Wrongful Convictions and shows that the evidence against them was meager. The prosecution's star witness was a woman who claimed to have been the getaway driver for the robbery. She was paid $1200 for her testimony. A bartender across the street from the murder scene testified that he'd seen two black men standing in a doorway around the time of the murders. Finally, when Tillis' codefendant was arrested, he was wearing a watch owned by one of the murder victims, but he claimed that he bought it from the boyfriend of the prosecution's star witness.
There were 3 trials to convict Tillis and his co-defendant and two
retrials. In 1991, Governor George Ryan set him free with a pardon. The Harlem chapter of the Campaign to End the Death Penalty, the Hunter chapter of the International Socialist Organization and the Hunter student newspaper The Shield brought Tillis to Hunter. Tillis told the audience that after regaining his freedom, he became a preacher, started an outreach ministry in Arkansas called Friends to Strangers and formed Working With Ex-offenders, Offenders, and Family Members in Chicago to help ex-offenders stay out of prison. He also works with of the Campaign to End the Death Penalty, a nationwide organization.
The Campaign has ties to the International Socialist Organization. When the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina ignited discussions of racism in America and the California execution of Stan "Tookie" Williams, the founder of the Crypts gang who later wrote children's books while in prison, drew attention to the death penalty, 2 Hunter students in the ISO decided it was time to start a chapter of the Campaign at Hunter. Said Alex Clermont, a 26-year-old creative writing major who writes for The Shield and is a member of the Hunter ISO, "We have an opening to build an anti-racist movement at Hunter. One of the differences with the Campaign [compared to other anti-death penalty organizations] is that it focuses on political arguments, not morals. The death penalty is racist and it's the Achilles Heel of the criminal justice system, showing its inherent racism."
With the goal of fostering an anti-racist dialogue at Hunter, Clermont, and fellow ISO member Ben Davis reached out to the Harlem chapter of the Campaign to discuss what could be done at Hunter. They decided to have Tillis speak and The Shield publicized the via listservs.
"Crime within the ghetto is okay; black on white crime is not okay"
Veronica Hernandez, a 32-year-old anthropology student, said she has been interested in the faults of the prison system for years. She came to see if Tillis's testimony would support her beliefs about that system. "I don't believe in how [it] tries to fix people. I think it tries to destroy their dignity," Hernandez said. She said Tillis's account of his time in prison confirmed the worst of her assumptions. Tillis had told the crowd, "I was kidnapped, used and abused to send a message to the black community that black on white crime would not be tolerated. Crime within the ghetto is okay; black on white crime is not okay."
After his first two trials ended in hung juries, Tillis was finally
convicted by an all-white jury. The bartender who claimed to have seen 2 black men in a doorway did not positively identify Tillis and his codefendant until the third trial, and under cross examination, he admitted that he hadn't seen the faces of the men in the doorway very well, and that he believed all black men look the same in photographs, Tillis told the audience.
As Tillis's experience shows, minorities deal with racism at every stage of the judicial system. According to the Campaign to End the Death Penalty's website, in a 1986 ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court stated that in death penalty cases, racial discrimination is "an inevitable part of our criminal justice system." Standing in his black alligator skin boots, black suit, and wearing a large gold cross around his neck, Tillis spoke with the intensity of revivalist preacher. He bellowed and whispered, his voice swelling and crashing like a roiling, violent sea as he described the agony of life awaiting death. "Every time you hear of a man being executed somewhere across the country a little part of you dies," he said. "You are not a part of life, you are an observer. You hate isolation."
Tillis described how events that seem insignificant to a free person gain monumental significance when one is awaiting death. He said every waking moment brings the death row inmates closer to their demise, and they never know how much time they have left. "You hate to hear the 10 o'clock news go off. You're glad to hear the jangle of keys because it means another day," he told the audience.
His suffering, however, brought him closer to humanity. It made him appreciate every day he lives and every person he meets, he said. It also made him detest violence. "Why you want to kill someone? Killin' don't solve killin'," he told the audience. Years after Tillis was released from prison his former girlfriend, the mother of his daughter, was murdered in Chicago. As he described the murder his eyes became shrink-wrapped in tears, and his voice swelled and quaked with emotion. Flashes from a digital camera were lightening to the thunder of Tillis's voice and affirming "Um-hmms" and "That's right" rose from the audience as Tillis refuted the belief that state violence could bring justice, and explained how a family suffers when a relative goes to prison.
After his speech, Tillis took questions from the audience and then Amelia Neiumetulo, a film and video student at City College and a member of the Harlem chapter of the Campaign to End the Death Penalty, spoke. She asked the audience to hold hands and feel the warmth and life of another human. She explained that many prisoners on death row say that they miss human touch the most and that no one should take it for granted.
"... race continues to play a major role in who will live and who will die."---- U.S. Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmon
Standing in her blue coat and bright red skirt, Neiumetulo passionately described how communities of color are incubation berths for death row. "We can't tell the difference between being in a cell block and being from the block," she said. Tillis said that America breeds people to be incarcerated for profit. The prison system in America is vast and growing, with America incarcerating more people than any other country. According to a speech delivered by Rutgers University professor H. Bruce Franklin, between 1971 and 2000, America's prison population exploded from under 200,000 to 2 million. A U.S. Department of Justice press release of May 21, 2006 reported the current population is 2,186,230. Prisons are also becoming increasingly private ventures. According to its website, Corrections Corporation of America is now the fifth largest prison system in the country, behind only the federal system and four states. More than 62,000 inmates are controlled by CCA.
Neiumetulo, who lives in Harlem, recited statistics from the Campaign's site about bias in the judicial system and how the death penalty is disproportionately applied to poor black and Latino men. Among the facts cited were: black men make up 42 percent of prisoners on death row, but only 12 percent of the general population. Approximately 80 percent of death penalty cases involve white victims even though whites and blacks are murdered in almost equal numbers. Over 1000 people have been executed in the past 30 years, and only 12 whites have been executed for killing blacks. In 1994 Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmon stated, "Even under the most sophisticated death penalty statutes, race continues to play a major role in who will live and who will die."
Tillis came to Hunter to draw attention to the injustices of the death penalty and galvanize students to work for its abolition. 12 students remained after the event was over and spoke to members of the Campaign about what they could do to help. Tillis spoke to a small group of students who had more questions and wanted to work personally with him. Kathy Hypolite a 24-year-old senio and a psychology major, said she was particularly affected by Tillis' description of the psychological damage he suffered during his time in prison. "There's a couple guys on my block who've been to jail, and now they're kind of crazy," Hypolite said. "I knew them when we were teenagers, then we grew apart, and when I saw them again they'd changed." She said she'd never realized their problems could be linked to their time in prison, and hearing Tillis made her want to help.
She and Tillis discussed what could be done to reach out to Hypolite's former friends, and Tillis said he would come talk with them if Hypolite arranged the meeting. In the end, Hypolite, and others like her were so moved by Tillis's presentation that they decided to help form a chapter of the Campaign Hunter. The group is now organizing to be officially chartered.
(source: CUNY, The Word)