Gary McGivern

Gerald "Gary" McGivern (October 26, 1944 – November 19, 2001) was an American felon found guilty in 1967 of the armed robbery of a gas station in Pelham Manor, New York, United States, during which two police officers were wounded. McGivern was tried with his partner in the robbery, Charles Culhane, and was sentenced to ten to twenty years in state prison. On September 13, 1968, McGivern, Culhane and a third convict, Robert Bowerman, were being transported by two deputies, from Auburn State Prison to a court hearing in White Plains. During a rest stop along the New York State Thruway, a deputy's gun was seized in an attempted escape. During the struggle inside the police car, a deputy and Bowerman were shot to death.

McGivern and Culhane contended that Bowerman acted alone in the escape attempt, and that Bowerman killed the deputy. Following one trial ending in a hung jury, a second trial in which they were sentenced to death, then a successful appeal of that death sentence, in a third trial they were found guilty of felony murder and sentenced to 25 years to life. In a controversial New Year's Eve 1985 decision, New York Governor Mario Cuomo granted McGivern clemency, and he was paroled three years later. The decision also noted that "Singer's testimony. . .was inconsistent as to certain particulars" and "... the prosecutor's evidence --taken in the context of this particular trial-- presented substantial questions of credibility for the jury's consideration." (October 23, 1973 decision, 33 N.Y. 2nd at 95 and n.1). The Court ordered a new trial.

The third trial, in March 1975, ended in convictions and sentences of 25 years to life. The Culhane-McGivern Defense Fund was sponsored by the folk singer Pete Seeger, the poet Allen Ginsberg and the political commentator William F. Buckley Jr. The third trial conviction was upheld on appeal. Dissent highlighted the judge's unfair charge to the jury and the suppression of Robert Bowerman's prior history of escape attempts. Appeals attempting to overturn the third trial conviction were filed by attorneys Michael Tigar, William Kunstler, Karen Peters, John Mage and John Privitera. The conviction was upheld but not without dissent.

Executive clemency McGivern's and Culhane's paths now diverged. They were sent to different prisons, McGivern to the Green Haven Correctional Facility and Culhane to the Attica Correctional Facility, and elected to pursue different paths to gaining release.

McGivern took and passed two polygraph tests in 1979 regarding his involvement in the crime. The tests were administered by Charles Jones, a member of the Case Review Committee of the American Polygraph Association and Lincoln Zonn, who had had his own company and polygraph institute for the previous 30 years. Zonn's clients included the U.S. government and many law enforcement agencies. A group of religious leaders including the Green Haven prison chaplain presented a petition seeking clemency for McGivern. The Gary McGivern and Marguerite Culp Papers include correspondence, writings, journals, legal documents, news articles, artifacts, and photographs dating from 1967 to 2003.