At the age of 16 in 1974, Mr Tyler, who is black, was the youngest person on Louisiana’s Death Row, where an all-white jury sent him to die for the slaying of 13-year-old Thomas Weber, a fellow Destrehan High School student in St Charles Parish in southern Louisiana.
Mr Tyler was on a bus filled with black students who were passing an unruly crowd of white students when Thomas was shot, the statement said. Police found a gun on the bus and Mr Tyler was charged with capital murder and tried as an adult.
After his death sentence, white students who testified against him recanted their stories. The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals called his conviction fundamentally unfair and said he was never given his right to the presumption of innocence. But he never received a new trial.
US Band UB40 documented the injustice with Tyler, recorded for its debut album in 1980.
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California Kills ‘John Wayne Day’ Because He Was a Big Racist https://t.co/lfofFvJ4h8
— teleSUR English (@telesurenglish) April 30, 2016
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Fill out the witness slip to support HB 306, Illinois’ opt out bill.
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Both the Chicago mayoral and council elections are primarily financed by white, male donors who don’t reflect the racial and class diversity of the city’s residents. The experience in Chicago is emblematic of national elections, where a small cadre of white major donors—.01 percent—accounted for over 40 percent of all campaign contributions.New research provides disturbing evidence that the financing of our elections by a small group of big donors has very real consequences. Demos
Fred Klonsky 