Hundreds show support before execution
By Meliqueica Meadows
Of the St. Louis American
“Tears cleanse the soul, and tears help us remember.”
Those were a few of the last words Marlin Gray spoke via cell phone to a crowd of friends and supporters outside St. Francis Xavier Church Tuesday night just three hours before his scheduled execution.
As friends cried quietly, there was an almost eerie quality to listening to Gray’s crisp, articulate voice ringing out into the cold night air. They were the words of a dead man.
Those listening were struck by his composure, given the circumstances. While his many supporters raged against the system in fiery speeches and protests, Gray remained calm, prepared to accept his fate.
“I wish you could see my face. I am happy, and I am honored to be sharing this moment with you,” Gray told supporters at Tuesday’s vigil.
“I’m standing right now. My back is straight, my shoulders are back, my eyes are open and there are no tears.”
At 12:01 a.m. Wednesday morning, Gray was given a lethal injection at the Eastern Reception, Diagnostic and Correctional Center in Bonne Terre and pronounced dead six minutes later at 12:07 a.m. He refused a last meal and a sedative.
Following the execution, Gray’s attorney Joanne Descher issued a statement reiterating her continued support of her client.
“It has been my privilege to represent Marlin Gray for the past 10 years. I continue to believe that he is innocent and that the imposition of the death penalty in his case is completely unjust and inappropriate.”
Gray’s case garnered attention from around the world. Tuesday’s vigil brought a variety of supporters together in witness to all life, Gray’s and the lives of Julie and Robin Kerry, whose deaths on April 4, 1991 initiated the investigations that ultimately landed Gray and two other black men on death row.
Gray was convicted of “aiding and encouraging” in the rapes and deaths of the Kerry sisters. Despite repeated portrayals in the local media as a convicted rapist and murderer, the prosecution admitted Gray was not even present on the bridge at the time of the incident.
Gray maintained his innocence until his death.
“I didn’t really expect a stay of execution in this country or city or state anyway, because of the governor that we have and the regime that is in office today,” Sauda Shujaa Imiri said. The retiree said he attended Tuesday’s vigil to show his support for Gray and to protest the death penalty.
“When you have corruption at the highest level, you expect it to trickle on down to the lowest levels. That’s the reason why we need an oversight board here,” Imiri said.
Several supporters who have been following the case became friends of Gray and his family over the lengthy appeals process. Gray spent the majority of his telephone time thanking those individuals, especially students from Saint Louis University Community United to Abolish the Death Penalty.
SLU students Megan Wallace, Megan Heeney, Anna Seltzer and Kate McClure remembered the man they have come to know over the past year. They gushed with pride about Gray’s character even as they cried for his death. The students said Marlin was the “exact opposite” from the way he has been portrayed by some members of the local media.
“He’s a human being,” Seltzer said. “He’s very, very intelligent. He calls himself a nerd. He talks on and on about Greek Mythology.”
“He’s taught inmates how to read and he was the librarian at Petosi (Correctional Center),” Heeney said. “He played basketball. He’s a great runner. He loves the Beatles and honey buns with Hershey’s chocolate on top and peanut butter and jelly.”
“I hope that one day Governor Blunt can come to terms with the fact that he did execute an innocent man,” Seltzer said.
Gray said the fight to abolish the death penalty should continue even after his death. Supporters have now turned their attention to halting the execution of Reggie Clemons, Gray’s co-defendant in the case.
The Justice for Reggie Clemons Campaign issued a statement on Gray’s execution.
“The execution of Marlin Gray was a miscarriage of justice. It will forever symbolize a life stolen because of the systematic failures of the justice system and the calculated misconduct of those involved in his prosecution,” the campaign said.
“We sympathize with the terrible grief that the family members of Julie and Robin Kerry face. We can appreciate how hard it must be to put the past to rest until the truth has come out and those that are responsible are brought to justice. But we believe there can be no justice until the full truth is revealed. It is unthinkable that a man could be executed in a case riddled with as much error and misconduct as this one.”
“They’re lynching me – make no mistake, this is not an execution anymore – because I am innocent and they know it. But we will be strong. We will put an end to this,” Gray said.
“You can say by your actions, by your power, by your voice the direction our futures will take. If my life is worth anything, it will be that the death penalty ends.”
