Robert Talib Douglas

by Claire Schaeffer - Duffy

My friend Robert Douglas has been in prison for a quarter of a century, convicted of a robbery and a murder he says he did not commit. He has spent the last nine of those years on death row in Graterford , PA fighting for what he has yet to receive — a fair trial.

"He definitely didn't have a fair trial. If he did, he would be acquitted... He didn't have an honest prosecutor or a good defense lawyer," says Mary Hanssens, a former nun and Robert's friend, who is now part of a team of federal defenders representing him.

Robert grew up in the "projects" of northern Philadelphia . He admits he was "no angel" in his youth. In the late seven-ties, he pleaded guilty to stabbing a man over an altercation about a watch. He served eleven months in prison and was given five years probation. Imprisonment and the birth of a son chastened him. After his release, he worked two jobs and checked in regularly with his probation officer. Then, in July of 1981, the police arrested him for two crimes that occurred seven months apart: the murder of Donald Knight (August 1980) and the assault and robbery of Harry Feldman, a 58-year-old salesman (March 1981).

The arrest shocked Robert. Knight was a close friend, whom he had been helping weeks before his death. Prior to the robbery trial, the prosecution offered Robert six to twelve years in exchange for a guilty plea. He refused the deal, eager to prove his innocence in court. Although the robbery happened after Knight's murder, Robert was tried and convicted for the second crime first. He was sentenced to twenty to forty years in jail. That conviction was considered an "aggravating circumstance" during the penalty phase of his murder trial and influenced the court's decision to execute him. In his remarks to the jury, Randolph Williams likened Robert to a mad dog or horse with a broken leg that should be put out of its misery and killed.

There was no physical evidence linking Robert to the robbery, says James McHugh, an attorney who compiled one of Robert’s numerous briefs. He was convicted on the basis of "tainted eyewitness identification testimony." His codefendant Donald Hall, who admits to robbing Feldman, has also said Robert was not involved in the crime.

"I told my lawyer at the trial that I wanted to take the stand and tell the jury that Douglas had nothing to do with it, but he would not let me do this," wrote Hall in an affidavit McHugh obtained in 2001.

Like many people on death row, Robert was inadequately represented at his murder trial. His attorney, Joseph Quinn, who had never tried a capital case, met with him only once before trial. Quinn was ill-pre-pared for the unethical tactics of the prosecution, which included bribing their key witness Michael McLaurin, who was with Knight when he died. Immediately after testifying at a preliminary hearing that Robert killed Knight, Mclaurin, a man with a significant criminal record, had his bail reduced and was released from jail. His damning testimony was read to the jury. He never appeared at Robert's trial where a cross-examination by the defense could have cast doubt on his credibility.

"The whole system broke down in (Robert’s) case," says Phyllis Goldfarb, a law professor at Boston College who studied his case for her seminar on the death penalty. "U was not a fair trail. The only live witness who put Robert at the scène (of the crime) did not appear in court, No one knows why. The prosecution tried to suggest that (McLaurin) was afraid. It is plausible he did not go to court because he himself was the guilty party or he felt remorse. He was the last person to see the victim alive."

In 1987, the Pennsylvania Court of Common Appeals unanimously granted Robert the right to a new trial due to "incompetence of counsel," The state's higher court re-versed that ruling. For years, his case hung in a limbo of appeals. Since his trial in 1983, three witnesses for the prosecution recanted their testimony, including McLaurin who died in prison. Romaine Phillips, the assistant district attorney who "negotiated" McLaurin's testimony was permanently disbarred, convicted of conspiring to participate in the affairs of the court. Marvin Halbert, Robert's trial judge, was removed from the bench because of "unconventional behavior" in the courtroom. (According lo The Philadelphia Inquirer, that unconventional behavior included eating and talking on the phone while witnesses testified.) In 2000, Robert learned that Quinn's investigator, hired for a $150, never served subpoenas on Robert's character witnesses.

Robert's story is not unique. Our prisons are full of poor black men, like himself, serving sentences for crimes they did not commit. A devout Muslim, he has refused to accept this injustice. He says he now has the documents to prove his innocence, It has taken him twenty years to obtain them.

Last November, the Court of Common Appeals vacated Robert's death sentence but denied him the right to a fair trial. Hanssens' team say they will appeal the latter decision right up to the federal level. The process will take time and that means more years in prison for Robert. Initially discouraged by the November ruling, he is now trying to widen his network of support. He asks for letters. Money orders are also welcome. Please send them to:

Robert Talib Douglas AY 3357
Box 244
Graterford, PA 19426-0244
USA

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