Kevin Stanford

Kevin Stanford is a 39 year old African-American on death row in the United States, in the
Commonwealth of Kentucky.  He was arrested on January 13, 1981.  He was 17 at the
time.  Several white police officers told him that his mother or public defender would meet
them at the station.  Instead once they got him to police headquarters, they beat him for
several hours.  They threatened to throw him off a bridge and kill him unless he made the tape
that they requested.  Even with this brutality, Kevin told them who the real killer was.  Kev
admitted that he had gone along with 3 others on a robbery in order to pay back money for
drugs that he owed.

Kevin never met his father. His mother never wanted him and physically and mentally abused
him.  He was first molested, along with his female cousin (who is a week younger than him)
by a female babysitter.  After that Kevin was sexually molested by boyfriends of his mothers,
and others.  He was left along to fend for himself by the age of 5 and often went across the
street to a bar to find something to eat while his mother was out with men or at work.
The actual killer in Kevins case is an informant for the police.  He was picked out of a lineup
by two women who saw two men walking from the car after the white female was shot.
Both witnesses said that Kevin was not one of those two men.  But the jury never heard any
of this. This person had been sentenced to a life sentence at the age of 16 for a gang rape in
which he had been the instigator, and the person who brandished the weapon, and threatened
the victim.  He was paroled in 7 years.  At the time of this crime, this person had 3 pending
armed robbery charges, for which he received 10 years.  This was Kevins first felony, and he
received 20 years for this one robbery.  These were robberies all in the same 3 block radius
of this crime.  Kevin had a public defender.  This public defender came to see him twice in
the year and a half before his trial.  No mitigation or investigation was done on his case.  he
had an all white jury and the judge, Judge Liebson stated that this was the most community
animosity he had ever seen on a case.

During Kevins trial a juvenile detention guard, one who was only there for a couple of days,
did not usually work there, came forward to testify that Kevin bragged about the killing.
Supposedly 6 teenagers were present.  The prosecutor stated in his closing statement that all
of these kids heard Kevin brag.  Neither the prosecution or the defense ever bothered to
interview or question these teenagers.  Kevin has tried for 20 years almost to get his public
defenders to talk to these teenagers, who are of course adults now.  They are just now
getting around to it.  All of these persons, without exception have said that Kevin was
withdrawn and never discussed his case.  Even those teenagers who said they did not like
Kevin.

The Racial Justice Act was passed in Kentucky, but is not retroactive, so it does no good for
the many black men on death row in Kentucky who had all white juries.  There is not one
person on Kentucky's death row for killing a black person, all of the victims are white.
Recently a bill was proposed to eliminate the death penalty for juveniles in kentucky.  The
chairman of the committee would not even let a vote be taken, and everyone was too
intimidated by his power to force the issue.  The prosecutor at that time got up and said that
no one on Kentuckys death row is innocent and that they have investigated their cases.  That
of course is absurd.  Sadly, prosecutors have little interest today in justice, it is all about
winning, and in the face even many times of positive proof of someones innocence, because
they do not want to admit fault, or whatever the reason, they will continue to say they are just
sure they have the right person.

The actual killer in Kevins case was not a juvenile, he is the uncle of Kevins co defendant.
kevins co defendant was 16 at the time and received life plus 60 years.  Both his co
defendant and the uncle and another juvenile who was a friend of Kevins co defendant and
the uncle stated it was Kevin.  But they had told Kevin that if he got them caught, that they
would put it all on him.  He attempted to sell cartons of cigarettes stolen in the robbery, which
is what led back to Kevin.  Kevin had been a drug addict and alcoholic since about the age
of 7.

At the time of Kevins arrest he was living on the streets.  He had not gone to school on a
regular basis for many years.  Because of the severe sexual, mental and physical abuse his IQ
was borderline mentally retarded.  He has since being in prison completed high school and is
only a few credits short of a degree in Sociology from Murray State University here in
Kentucky.  He had to quit because of the elimination of most of the education programs in
the prisons, especially for those on death row.

The police officers who beat Kevin when he was arrested had been used to abusing Kevin.
His mother never bothered to go along when Kevin was picked up, and he was into
shoplifting and stealing.  Often these police officers would pick him up when there was a
crime in the area, take him into a substation, chain him to a desk and beat him until he told
them what he knew about the crime.  Kevin is small, only about 5 feet, 5 inches and was at
that time only about 135 pounds, so he was no match for them.

Kevin has tried for all these years to encourage his public defenders to investigate so many
matters, to correct the lies and mistakes put into the briefs by the state, but to no avail; and
because of this he has never had so much as a hearing.  Kevin has also petitioned the court to
let him remove the public defenders office from his case.  The answer is always no; you have
to keep the lawyer that you have.

Because of the many lies put into the briefs by the Attorney General, it paints a totally false
picture of the crime and Kevins participation.  It states things such as that Kevin knew the
victim and her parents; something that is totally untrue. If this had been the case, there is no
doubt that the prosecutor would have had the parents testify to this fact.  The mother did
testify to identify her daughters purse.  But neither the defense or the prosecutor ever asked
her if she knew Kevin; because of course she did not.  This provides the prosecution with
their motive; namely that Kevin knew the victim, so of course had to kill her in order that she
would not identify him.

Kevins mother told him in front of the prosecutor before the trial that she wanted nothing
further to do with him.  This was certainly a signal to the prosecutor, who later became a
judge, that he had nothing to fear from anyone speaking up for Kevin.  Kevin was alone at
the trial; no one was there for him.  He also was given thorazine and many other mind altering
drugs before and during his trial.  This lack of emotion was used by the prosecutor in the
closing statement when he said "See this monster, he has no remorse, just look at him.!"  Of
course Kevin was practically catatonic from all of the drugs given him, especially mixed with
the street drugs in his system.  The night of the crime he was high on several drugs and a lot
of alcohol, given partly to him by the female cousin who was molested along with him starting
at the age of about 5 or 6.

Kevin is in his final appeals.  There are lawyers willing to help, but their hands are tied
because the courts insist that Kevin keep his public defenders.  Kentucky has always been
one of the most poorly funded public defenders offices in the country; but of course the
judges, many of whom used to be prosecutors seem not to care about that fact.

Kevin N. Stanford 032700

 Kevin's attorney:

Margaret O'Donnell.
Law office:
McNally and O'Donnell, PSC,
 P.O. Box 1243,
Frankfort, Kentucky
40602-1243  USA
Email:  mod@dcr.net

                          
                   Kevin as a baby                                      Kevin as a child                                Kevin as a teenager

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Last updated December 24, 2010  Canadian Coalition Against the Death Penalty
This page is maintained and updated by Dave Parkinson and Tracy Lamourie