Gary Tyler (born July 1958) has been a prisoner in Louisiana since 1975, when he was convicted at age 17 of the 1974 shooting death of a 13-year-old white boy. Tyler was originally sentenced to death because of the charge and was the youngest prisoner on death row. The Fifth Circuit US Court of Appeals ruled the trial was "fundamentally unfair". Tyler's cause has been taken up by human rights organizations, as well as many other supporters, including a range of sports figures and organizations in 2007.
Contents |
In 1974 formerly all-white Destrehan High School had been full of tensions as it reluctantly integrated, 20 years after the ruling of Brown v. Board of Education. Because of fights, officials closed the school early during the day of the events.
Black students were sent home on their regular bus. Tyler was 16 and on the bus. As they were leaving Destrehan High School, the bus was attacked by an angry mob of 100-200 whites, mostly students. The whites were angry about integration and tensions at the school.[1] Timothy Weber, a 13-year-old boy standing outside the bus near his mother, was shot and mortally wounded. He later died. Police searched the bus. No gun was ever found.
Tyler was arrested and charged with the murder of 13 year-old Timothy Weber. His mother Juanita Tyler said that he was beaten by the police in an attempt to make him confess. Other witnesses later told of being intimidated by the police.
The racially charged atmosphere was added to by the arrival in Destrehan of a young David Duke, who was emerging as a leader in the Ku Klux Klan and neo-Nazi politics in the United States. He brought what he called security teams to protect white residents.
Tyler was tried as an adult and convicted at trial in 1975 by a Louisiana court. The case was marked by several flaws and alleged lack of experience of his lawyer. The police produced a gun they claimed had been found on the bus, and it later disappeared from the evidence room in the decades following the conviction.
Since it was a capital case, Tyler was sentenced to death by electrocution. He became the youngest inmate on death row.
In 1977, Louisiana's death penalty was ruled unconstitutional and Tyler was resentenced to life in prison.
He is serving his sentence at the Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola, Louisiana.
Tyler's case was appealed. In 1980 and 1981 the US Appeals Court, Fifth Circuit, ruled the trial was "fundamentally unfair" and flawed by an improper charge to the jury. The second time, after an appeal by the state, it reversed its earlier ruling to call for a retrial, based on what it said was attorney error.
In 1989 when the Louisiana Board of Appeals first ruled in favor of a pardon, the governor was running against David Duke for election, and refused to consider it. He feared such a decisions would work against him with too many voters.[2]
Human-rights organisations have argued that the legal process and procedures were flawed by the racially charged atmosphere and police intimidation.[3] Because of the racial and political issues, in 1994 Amnesty International described Tyler as a "political prisoner". [1]
In 2007 Amnesty International and other groups made a renewed effort to gain a pardon by Gov. Blanco before she left office, but she failed to consider the case.
Tyler's supporters make claims in his defence that there was a miscarriage of justice. Some of the issues in the case include:
Bob Herbert, an op-ed columnist for the New York Times, reexamined the case in three columns in February 2007, in which he concluded there was fundamental injustice.