Stop the Execution of Reggie Clemons in Missouri!

There are several troubling aspects to this case. Apparently Cummins, one of the alleged victims, initially made a confession to police that he had murdered his two cousins by pushing them off the bridge. After the four eventual suspects were caught, Cummins retracted and said that he had been mistreated by police and coerced into giving the confession. -- US Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, 2004

Reginald Clemons, (left) currently on death row in Missouri for the last 17 years, almost all of his adult life, was convicted and sentenced to die as an accomplice to first-degree murder, rather than a principal actor. His sentence remains upheld by the state and federal courts, despite police and prosecutorial misconduct, a stacked jury, and plenty of error.

Reggie was one of three African American youths sentenced to death at separate trials in St Louis City, Missouri, in 1992 and 1993 for the murder of two young white women in 1991.

The second African American youth, Antonio Richardson, who was just 16 years old, borderline retarded and neurologically impaired at the time of his offense had his death sentence reduced to life imprisonment in 2003.


The third African American youth, Marlin Gray (left) was executed at 12:07 a.m., Wednesday, October 26, 2005.

A fourth co-defendant, Daniel Winfrey, white, pled guilty to a lesser offense in return for testimony against his three black co-defendants. He has since been released from prison. Charges against the original suspect in the case, Thomas Cummins, also white, were dropped and he became a key prosecution witness before suing the police for brutality against him during interrogation.

Reginald Clemons and Marlin Gray independently made similar allegations of abuse against the same police officers, allegations which remain an issue in efforts to prevent Clemons execution.

Reginald Clemons was convicted primarily on the testimony of Cummins and Winfrey, and on his own allegedly coerced statement implicating himself in the crime. Concern about the limited foundations for this conviction is heightened by evidence that the jury that convicted him was likely even more pro-prosecution than research show the average US capital jury to be.

[V]acation of the death penalty is required when even one juror is improperly excluded. Here there were six…
US District Court judge, 2002

A federal judge ruled in 2002 that as a result of the improper exclusion of jurors Reginald Clemons should receive a new sentencing hearing or have his death sentence reduced to life imprisonment. However, a three-judge panel of the Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit overturned this decision on the grounds that the claim had not been properly preserved for federal judicial review. One of the judges dissented against upholding the death sentence, however, pointing to the improper exclusion of a seventh juror. At the same time, both the District Court judge and the three judges on the Court of Appeals agreed that Reginald Clemons had been prosecuted by a prosecutor whose conduct at trial was “unprofessional”, “abusive and boorish”, but decided that this improper conduct had not prejudiced the defendant. The federal courts have also dismissed claims that Clemons‟ legal representation at trial was inadequate under the deferential lens federal appeal courts adopt under US law.

Clemons was already scheduled for execution in June 2009, but the execution was stayed by the Missouri Supreme Court which appointed a “special master” judge to examine the case after his lawyers raised doubts about the reliability of his conviction and questions about the proportionality of his death sentence.

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What's wrong with the Reggie Clemons case?

No Physical Evidence
No physical evidence ties Clemons to the crime or the events leading up to it. The prosecution conceded that he neither killed the victims nor planned the crime.

Two Witnesses: 1 Former Suspect, 1 Co-Defendant
Two eyewitnesses were critical to the conviction. Thomas Cummins initially confessed to police that he murdered the victims, his cousins. After identifying Clemons and three other suspects, charges against him were dropped. On the day Clemons was sentenced to death, Cummins filed a police brutality lawsuit, resulting in a $150,000 settlement. Daniel Winfrey pled guilty to a lesser offense in exchange for testimony against Clemons and the other two.

Police Coercion Alleged
Clemons alleges that he confessed under the pressure of police brutality to raping one of the victims. He never confessed to the murders. He subsequently retracted his confession. Two other suspects independently alleged mistreatment by the police. Witnesses attest to Clemons’ face being swollen after his interrogation.

Prosecution Misconduct
Four federal judges have agreed that the prosecutor’s conduct was "abusive and boorish.” In his closing statement, he compared Clemons to two convicted serial killers, even though Clemons had no criminal record. He was 19 years old when the crime occurred. This behavior was part of a pattern that earned the prosecutor repeated criticism by state and federal courts.

Inadequate Legal Representation
Clemons’ lawyer was later suspended from practicing law following numerous complaints. His co-counsel had a fulltime job in another state when she represented Clemons. Another lawyer hired by Clemons’ mother to assist in the case said that as the trial loomed, it was clear the two trial lawyers had not done the necessary preparation.

Question Of Race
Race, particularly race of victim, biases the U.S. death penalty. Here, the murder victims were white, the three convicted defendants were black, and the two crucial witnesses were white. Blacks were disproportionately dismissed during jury selection, resulting in an unrepresentative jury given St. Louis’ sizeable black population.

A ‘Stacked’ Jury
In 2002, a U.S. District Court judge ruled that Clemons’ death sentence should not stand because six prospective jurors had been improperly excluded at jury selection. A higher court overturned this ruling on technical grounds – saying that Clemons’ lawyer had not properly preserved the claim for federal judicial review.