The following Article was published in The Columbia Daily Tribune.

Verification Link: http://www.showmenews.com/2005/Oct/20051025News006.asp

Gray prepares for execution
Condemned man maintains innocence.

ST. LOUIS (AP) - From a holding cell in the state prison at Bonne Terre, Marlin Gray took a phone call from a funeral home yesterday preparing for what he believes is his certain but wrongful execution by lethal injection just after midnight tonight.

Gray maintains that he and three similarly convicted co-defendants are innocent in the deaths of sisters Julie and Robin Kerry, whom the state maintained were pushed from the abandoned Mississippi River bridge at Old Chain of Rocks in north St. Louis in April 1991.

"It’s surreal to be planning your own funeral," said Gray, 38. "... I’m about to die for trial strategy with no basis in fact whatsoever."

Gray, convicted of two first-degree murders as an accomplice, has maintained his innocence all along. He and his supporters, including Rep. William Lacy Clay, D-Mo, cite serious constitutional violations at his police interrogation and trial that they say resulted in wrongful conviction.

Family of the girls, described as promising college students of good character, were not as willing to grant more time to reconsider the facts.

"I can’t" talk about it, said Sheila Oliveri of St. Louis, an aunt. "There have been too many years, too many hurts. I just want it over, the whole thing."

In an interview yesterday, Gray said he, friend Reginald Clemons and acquaintances Antonio Richardson and Daniel Winfrey went to the bridge, a popular youth hangout, that April night. There, they met and talked to Julie, 21, and Robin, 19, of north St. Louis County and their 19-year-old cousin, Thomas Cummins, who was visiting from Maryland.

Gray said after walking the full length of the bridge, the four returned to the Missouri side but that Richardson went back to get his flashlight. When he returned, Richardson reported he’d seen Cummins frantic on the bridge and the sisters in the river and spoke of an accident.

"He looked a little freaked out," Gray said. "He freaked us all out. We decided to leave."

Cummins had been the main suspect, and internal police reports indicate he changed his story several times and failed a lie-detector test. He said he and his cousins had been accosted by the group of four, then later tearfully admitted that he had made an advance toward Julie as she sat on the bridge railing and that she became startled, lost her balance and fell into the river. He became hysterical, and Robin jumped into the river to save her sister, according to the report.

Police presented the Cummins case to Assistant St. Louis Circuit Attorney Nels Moss, but in the absence of physical evidence, charges were not brought. Instead, Cummins became a chief witness in the others’ murder trials. He later won a $150,000 settlement from the St. Louis Police Department over allegations of police abuse during interrogation.

Gray also maintained that St. Louis police had coerced his confession with beatings and threats and refused requests for a lawyer. Gray said under duress, he confessed to rape, then later recanted. He never confessed to murder.

The prosecution struck a deal with Daniel Winfrey, the only white defendant, who testified the other three had attacked Cummins and the Kerry sisters. Winfrey later remarked to a fellow inmate that no one would believe a bunch of black men.

"The irony is, he was right," said Gray, who served four years in the Army Reserve and was pursuing a music career. "We’re talking about Missouri. It’s white people who died. Black guys are accused. It’s our history, our legacy here."

On Friday, Moss said it was Gray’s testimony on the witness stand that convicted him, describing Gray as "arrogant, controlling and pathetic." He said Gray manipulated the younger and weaker co-defendants.

Cummins, now a 33-year-old firefighter in Maryland, has an unlisted number. Gene Cummins said none of the police report statements about his son "rings true at all."

Gray’s appeals attorney, Joanne Descher, said the state didn’t present sufficient evidence to convict him of first-degree murder, failing to show he participated in the crimes or planned and directed them.

The state, in fact, conceded he was not on the bridge at all when the women died.

The pending appeal also cites prosecutorial misconduct, saying that Moss referred to Charles Manson in describing Gray and failed to disclose that Cummins had made an identical claim of police brutality during interrogation. Moss did not return phone calls to comment on that.

The following article was recently published in The Saint Louis American.

Verification Link; http://www.stlamerican.com/articles/2005/11/08/news/local_news/localnews04.txt

Local News

Clemons campaign rises from Gray’s grave

Wednesday, November 2, 2005 5:28 PM CST

Pallbearers bring the body of Marlin Gray from the sanctuary of St. Peter's AME Church Tuesday afternoon. Gray was executed by the state of Missouri last week. Photo by Wiley Price

Doubts about Chain of Rocks convictions continue

By Meliqueica Meadows

Of the St. Louis American

As one defendant in the infamous Chain of Rocks Bridge case was laid to rest Tuesday, the fight to save another kicked into high gear.

Nearly 100 family members, friends and supporters of Marlin Gray, who was executed by the state of Missouri on October 26, turned out for his funeral service at St. Peters A.M.E. Church. Gray’s brother, the Rev. Mark Williams, an assistant minister at the church, officiated at the service and eulogized the deceased.

Their bid for a stay of execution for Gray having failed, death penalty opponents have turned their energy to the Reginald Clemons case. Community activist and American columnist Jamala Rogers is busy trying to recruit and organize volunteers for the Justice for Reggie Clemons campaign.

Despite contrary accounts about the case, which has been badly reported in many local media, Gray and Clemons were the only defendants with a prior relationship. The two became increasingly close after their imprisonment, which, Rogers said, makes Gray’s death even more difficult for Clemons to accept.

“Reggie’s taking the execution of Marlin very hard, but he’s still holding out hope for his own case,” Rogers said.

“Now that the facts of the case are getting out there in a broader way, I think the support will become greater. We want people to continue probing, asking questions and putting pressure on the governor.”

Questions surrounding the case have escalated for 14 years. Gray continued to maintain his innocence until his death. He said that he, Clemons and two acquantances, Antonio Richardson and Daniel Winfrey (the only white defendant), went to the Chain of Rocks Bridge on the night of April 4, 1991 to hang out. Gray said it was by chance they met 21-year-old Julie Kerry and 19-year-old Robin Kerry, who were on the bridge with their cousin, 19-year-old Thomas Cummins, who was visiting from Baltimore.

Cummins said Gray, Clemons and the other defendants robbed him after raping his cousins, then forced him to jump into the Mississippi River after throwing the girls from the bridge.

However, Cummins was initially the main suspect in the case. Cummins later failed a polygraph, and police reports said his version of the events of that night changed several times.

Initially, Cummins said he and the girls had been robbed and attacked by the group of young men. Later he allegedly admitted that Julie, who was seated on the railing, fell to her death after being startled when he made a romantic pass at her. He said Robin followed her in a failed attempt to save her sister.

Cummins alleged that detectives beat his confession out of him and later filed suit against the St. Louis Police Department. He received a $150,000 settlement and became the chief witness in the separate murder trials of the other defendants.

Both Gray and Clemons claimed that confessions had been beaten out of them as well. Clemons was even ordered to receive medical treatment upon the sight of the judge at his arraignment, but the evidence of Cummins’ suit and subsequent monetary settlement was not disclosed during either trial.

Clemons has been represented by a New York-based group of lawyers with the Simpson, Thatcher & Bartlett law firm. David Elbaum, Michelle Cherande and John Aenney feel their case is strong enough to have the investigation reopened. They filed a request for the U.S. Supreme Court to review the case, which was denied October 3 of this year. They have since filed an appeal.

Elbaum said they will await the ruling of the high court and, if denied, would file an application for clemency with Governor Matt Blunt.

Whatever their next course of action, Clemons’ lawyers know they need to act quickly. The Missouri Attorney General’s office has issued a statement saying it will seek an execution date for Clemons within the next few weeks.

“In early October, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear Mr. Clemons’ petition. Since that occurred, the Attorney General’s office will be in the process of asking the Missouri Supreme Court to set the execution date,” said Jim Gardner, press secretary for Attorney General Jay Nixon.

“It’s up to them when they set that date, whether they do it in two days or two months or even longer. That’s at the discretion of the court.”

Clemons’ lawyers think the facts in the case leave more than enough room for reasonable doubt, which they feel should be enough to have the case reopened and possibly spare their client’s life.

“There are just so many significant and troubling aspects of the case. There was ineffective assistance with counsel at the higher level, police brutality and prosecutorial misconduct,” Cherande said.

“There are so many questions that it’s just hard to believe you could execute anyone in this type of situation.”

“Were working very hard to do every single thing we can to see that Reggie Clemons is not executed, because we think that it is unfair and a violation of all reasonable standards that the people of Missouri should hope would be upheld,” Aenney said.

“He had incompetent counsel and was beaten to the point of hospitalization. The statements that he made after that beating were used against him. The prosecutor brought cases, individual cases, against four different people initially and the strategy was so he could change the arguments to focus on each person.”

“We’re looking at how to really vindicate Marlin’s death,” Rogers said.

“We need to build from the momentum that came from the community’s response to the facts of this case. People are outraged that somebody could be executed with as much reasonable doubt as there is surrounding this case.”

For more information about the Justice for Reggie Clemons campaign, call (314) 367-5959.