Gary Tyler

Gary Tyler (born July 19, 1958), from St. Rose, Louisiana, is an African-American man who was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death for the October 7, 1974, shooting death of a white 13-year-old boy and the wounding of another at Destrehan High School in St. Charles Parish, Louisiana. At the time, he was the youngest person on death row. Many observers believed that Tyler was wrongfully convicted, especially after several key witnesses recanted their testimony. Tyler's cause was taken up again in 2007 by human rights organizations and a variety of public figures after his case was highlighted by columnist Bob Herbert in The New York Times. In 2016, after serving 41 years in prison, Tyler pleaded guilty to manslaughter, and was resentenced to the maximum term for that crime of 21 years; since he had already served nearly twice that, he was released.

Background Gary Tyler is one of eleven children of Juanita and Uylos Tyler of St. Rose, Louisiana. Tyler and his siblings attended local schools, which were segregated into the 1970s. When he was 16, he began to take the bus to Destrehan High School. Previously all-white, the school had conducted court-ordered desegregation since 1968, bussing black students to the school. In the school sessions in 1974, racial tensions had been rising, with fights breaking out in the halls and at games. The white community continued to resist desegregation and black students were harassed at the school by white students. The racially charged atmosphere had been heightened by the arrival of in Destrehan of members of the Ku Klux Klan, led by national director David Duke, for the professed purpose of protecting whites. Two Klansmen were arrested on October 9 for allegedly carrying a stolen gun. Security was intense in the small, second-floor courtroom, and Judge Marino said that some witnesses had reported being threatened.

After three days of jury selection, opening arguments were held on November 10. The prosecution sought to enter into evidence a pair of gloves which they alleged had been worn by Tyler on the day of the shooting, and contained traces of gunpowder. Tyler's attorney, Jack Williams, objected that the results of laboratory tests on the gloves had only been made available to him the week before, the day before the trial began. Furthermore, Williams said that he had been assured by the prosecution that the gloves would not be used in the trial. The prosecution said they had only told Williams the gloves would not be used so far as any lab tests were concerned—adding that that assurance was given before the tests were conducted.

Deputy Gary Zeringue testified that he had been given the gloves on the day of Tyler's arrest, without indicating where he got them. The bus driver, Ernest Cojoe, testified that as a 23-year veteran of the Army, he was familiar with firearms, and he did not believe the gunshot he had heard had come from a .45-caliber pistol fired inside the bus, as the report would have sounded louder. Cojoe then heard someone shout that a shot had been fired from the third seat from the rear of the bus, but he was unsure what had actually happened. Her testimony contradicted Dabney's, who had said that he and another student were sitting in the same seat as Tyler; on cross-examination, Blanks said of Dabney that "he is lying. He has to be." L. J. Hymel of the state attorney general's office said the State had proven beyond a doubt that Tyler fired the gun out the window of the bus. Williams argued that the credibility of Blanks, the only witness who testified to having seen Tyler fire the gun, was doubtful, because her testimony that she was sitting next to Tyler was contradicted by all of the other witnesses, who said Tyler was sitting next to someone else. Williams argued, "I don't see how you can not have a reasonable doubt about where she sat. And if you have a reasonable doubt, you cannot believe her." Tyler said that the jury "didn't understand the laws." She said that she had lied on the witness stand, that actually she had not seen anything happen on the bus, and that she had testified falsely because the prosecuting attorney had threatened to charge her with perjury and with being an accessory to murder if she did not. At this time, Peebles began to theorize that Weber was not shot from the bus at all and may have even been killed by someone in or behind the crowd who was shooting at the bus. After an extensive hearing, the district court denied the motion on April 28. He joined the general prison population at Angola to serve his sentence.

The US Supreme Court ruled in Miller v. Alabama (2012), that mandatory life sentences without parole for persons convicted as minors was unconstitutional for all juvenile offenders, even for persons convicted of murder. The court ruled that this decision had to be applied retroactively, potentially affecting nearly 3000 persons nationally who had been convicted as minors and received such sentences.

Tyler gained freedom following Louisiana Supreme Court review and consultation with the St. Charles Parish district attorney's office on his case. The DA and court agreed to vacate Tyler's conviction for first-degree murder if Tyler agreed to enter a guilty plea to manslaughter. The judge sentenced him to the maximum of 21 years for that charge. Since Tyler had already served 41 years, nearly twice that time, he was finally released from prison on April 29, 2016. Tyler told the Weber family at the hearing that he was "truly sorry for their loss and pain," saying, "I accept responsibility for my role in this."

Public activism

In 1989, the Louisiana Board of Pardons recommended that Tyler's sentence be commuted to 60 years. However, Governor Buddy Roemer rejected the recommendation. Roemer was running for reelection against David Duke at the time. He refused to consider the pardon as the election was racially charged. He feared a backlash from white voters if he freed Tyler.

Human-rights organizations, including Amnesty International, Tyler did not gain a pardon; he had by then served 32 years in prison.

Tyler's supporters have claimed that there was a miscarriage of justice in his case. Some of the issues include:

The white community of Destrehan High School, like others in the Deep South, was vehemently against integration and was anti-black. The school board had reluctantly adopted busing to achieve integration of the school 20 years after the Supreme Court ruled that segregation of public schools was unconstitutional. On the day of the shooting, 100-200 white students had been involved in a violent protest against black students. The bus driver has insisted that he believes the shot was fired from outside of the bus. The gun which the police claim was used in the murder (and produced as evidence at the trial), was a Colt .45 government-issue. It was identified by officers of the parish sheriff's department as having been stolen from their firing range. The gun later disappeared from the sheriff's evidence room. Tyler's trial counsel, Jack Williams, "had never handled a murder case, much less a death penalty case. He kept his meetings with his client to a minimum and would later complain about the money he was paid." Four major witnesses against Tyler have recanted their testimony since the trial, claiming they were terrorized and pressured by police.

Tyler uses his quilts and his 2025 memoir, Stitching Freedom, to speak for himself and ensure his story is never forgotten.