Five years ago, tonight at Midnight, Kevin Conner, a comrade of ours, a socialist and a convicted murder on death row was executed by the State of Illinois. Below is an excerpt from "Kevin A. Conner A Life of Resistance."
On the Saturday before Kevin’s execution I asked Kevin what had happened to the big five, which was my reference not Kevin’s. He sat back and counted on his fingers. Bellicose gave up his appeals process and was executed in 2001. Chuck was in court seeking to commute his sentence to Life. Gamba had his sentence commuted to 60 years, and if he were to live into his nineties would taste freedom again. Adofo was now in general population serving life without parole. Kevin then added, “oh, and I’ll be dead on Wednesday.”
Kevin explained the changes on death row. New DNA testing had thrown a cloud of doubt over the death penalty. Many states had killed men, and some women, that were later proven definitively as being unable to have committed the crimes they were executed for. This had prompted the Governor of neighboring Illinois to declare a moratorium on executions, putting pressure on other states to reduce their death penalty cases. The continuous rounds of state cutbacks, while prison populations ballooned, was making the public defender system utterly overstretched. From the bourgeois’ perspective, the capital offense appeals process was an unnecessary irritant and they either needed to speed up the killing or commute sentences over to general population.
Chuck Roche made it off Death Row. He didn’t get his sentence commuted. Kevin’s sister, Debbie, sent me a newspaper clipping that he had strung his bed sheets together and hung himself in his cell in January of this year.
Last weekend
I spent 9 hours with Kevin on Saturday and another 5 on Sunday before I flew back to California. As we shook hands, Kevin wished his best regards to all my comrades and I let him know that our fight against capitalism and the bosses would be the best way to exact our revenge on his death.
On the day of Kevin’s midnight execution, Kevin wrote his last letter to me. He ended it, in the same way, he did a hundred letters before: stay strong, in solidarity, Kevin.
A month later I was driving out to Debbie’s house east of Indianapolis with my comrades, Allyson, Sean and Cliff, for Kevin’s Memorial. We pulled up outside her home in the college town of Greencastle. It was Midwest hot. There were plenty of trees and sunlight, and after having spoke to Debbie several times on the phone I got to meet her and her family. We presented a plaque on behalf of the Labors Militant Voice, the socialist group that we belong to and which Kevin was a member of.
We waited and waited for Lisa, Kevin’s widow to arrive. We later found out that her car had broken down on the side of the freeway. I thought of her with her carload of family sitting in their broken down junker in the 100-degree sun. Such is poverty that it invades and punishes lives for sentences that extend beyond generations.
Lisa was unable to attend Kevin’s execution. She feared that her sanity would be pushed too far. Kevin didn’t ask her to be there. Debbie witnessed her brother’s death against the advice of many so that Kevin could see the face of love as his last image. He smiled and fell under.
My last words in person to Kevin, after we hug and shook hands, was to pledge that we would avenge his murder by continuing to fight capitalism until the system is brought down.
Kevin A. Conner (1965-2005)
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