October 23, 2005

St. Louis, MO - The Organization for Black Struggle, Affiliate of the Black Radical Congress, is making an urgent plea to all justice-seeking friends to stop the state murder of Marlin Gray. Gray has an execution date of Wednesday, October 26 at 12:01 am. The recent discovery of the 1995 execution of Larry Griffin is hovering over us as a grim reminder of what can happen. We must mount an mammoth offensive before another innocent black man is murdered in Missouri.

Marlin Gray’s case may be another example of being at the wrong place at the wrong time. In 1991, Gray and three teen-agers visited a well-known hang out called Chain of Rocks Bridge. They encountered Julie and Robin Kerry and their out-of-town cousin, Tom Cummins, all white. Before the dawn, Julie and Robin end up in the Mississippi River; Julie’s body was never recovered. Cummins was the original suspect and was arrested and charged with the murders. His story had conflicting and incredulous facts, like alleged jumping 80 feet into the cold water and swimming against the mighty currents in attempts to save his cousin. When found by the Coast Guard, Cummins’ hair was completely dry and contained no river silt. He also failed a polygraph test.

Another scenario, pieced together based on documents, is that Cummins had a romantic thing for Julie. As she was sitting on the bridge guard rail, Cummins made an advance towards her, perhaps a kiss. She leaned backward to avoid him and fell into the water. Her sister jumped in to try and save her.

Guilt shifted from Cummins when it was discovered that Gray and others were also on the bridge that fateful night. In short order, the sole white member of their group, was used to turn state’s evidence against the three young, black men. Charges were then dropped against Cummins who eventually sued the St. Louis Police Department and walked away with $150,000. The black youth all received the death penalty in one of the most high-publicized murder cases of the 1990’s.

If we can stop Pepsi Cola from canceling Kanye West’s contract, surely we can halt the lethal execution of a black man who has proclaimed his innocence from the start. No physical evidence, beaten confessions by police, prosecutorial misconduct, deals cut in exchange for false testimony—all have been ignored at this point by the racist judicial system. The only way to get justice for Marlin Gray, co-defendant Reginald Clemons and the Kerry family is to get to the real truth. The only way to stop the execution is to put pressure on Missouri’s Governor.

Stop the death machine! What you can do in the next 48 hours:

1. Call, write or email Governor Matt Blunt (R) to stop the execution of Marlin Gray. Contact information is 573-751-3222 (phone); 573-751-1495 (fax); mogov@mail.state.mo.us (email).

2. Circulate this announcement to your email contacts and listservs immediately.

3. Sign Marlin’s petition at http://www.petitiononline.com/alive205/petition.html

4. For those in Missouri, visit the OBS website for updates and information on vigils, etc. at www.obs-onthemove.org. Hit “Future Actions” page on left-hand navigation bar.