After Spending 41 Years in Prison, Former Death Row Prisoner Gary Tyler Debuts First Solo Art Exhibition

Gary Tyler was just 16 years old when he was charged with shoot­ing a white stu­dent in 1974 and sen­tenced to death, a crime that, many wit­ness­es agree, he did not com­mit. Mr. Tyler, then a sopho­more in high school in St. Charles Parish, Louisiana, was rid­ing a school bus that was attacked by a seg­re­ga­tion­ist mob. In the chaos, some­one fired a shot that killed a 13-year-old white boy, Timothy Weber. After Mr. Tyler, who is Black, spoke to one of the deputies, he was arrest­ed for alleged­ly dis­turb­ing the peace. He was beat­en while in cus­tody, charged with first-degree mur­der, con­vict­ed by an all-white jury, and sen­tenced to death. In all, he spent 41 years at Angola prison. 

Now, Mr. Tyler is debut­ing his first solo art exhi­bi­tion in Detroit, Michigan at the Library Street Collective. The exhi­bi­tion fea­tures a series of quilts made by Mr. Tyler and is called ​“We are the Willing,” which was also the mot­to of the Angola prison’s dra­ma club where Mr. Tyler served as pres­i­dent for 28 years. The series fea­tures both quilt­ed self-por­traits and bright­ly col­ored quilts of but­ter­flies, plants, and birds. In an inter­view, Mr. Tyler explained ​“I want­ed to do some­thing that was provoca­tive, eye-open­ing, where the audi­ence, when they leave, they’ll leave with an impres­sion that this indi­vid­ual, you would say he didn’t allow the con­di­tions of prison to dehu­man­ize him. He didn’t allow the prison to destroy his character.”

Mr. Tyler’s sen­tence was con­vert­ed to life in prison with­out parole in 1976 after Louisiana’s manda­to­ry death sen­tenc­ing regime was struck down as uncon­sti­tu­tion­al. In 1981, a fed­er­al appeals court found that Mr. Tyler’s con­vic­tion was uncon­sti­tu­tion­al but denied him a new tri­al. Several of the wit­ness­es who tes­ti­fied against him at tri­al lat­er recant­ed their tes­ti­mo­ny and claimed that they had been threat­ened by police to tes­ti­fy against him. During the 41 years Mr. Tyler served in prison, he was con­sid­ered a men­tor to many oth­er pris­on­ers, and was rec­om­mend­ed by the Louisiana Pardon Board for a par­don three times. Despite this, Mr. Tyler remained in prison until two U.S. Supreme Court cas­es struck down manda­to­ry life with­out parole for juve­niles, and he had an oppor­tu­ni­ty to again seek parole.

Mr. Tyler learned how to quilt in prison. He spoke of how his moth­er and grand­moth­er both sewed and how he was able to vol­un­teer with a char­i­ty that raised funds for the prison hos­pice by auc­tion­ing off quilts sewed by him and oth­er pris­on­ers. He explained that sewing was a way to feel con­nect­ed to his moth­er, who passed away before he was released. 

Mr. Tyler spoke about the sym­bol­ism in his quilts. He uses but­ter­flies to rep­re­sent his life’s jour­ney: ​“I saw my time in prison as being almost like a cocoon. Now that I am free it’s like I’m a butterfly.”

Mr. Tyler was released in May of 2016, and although he still pro­fess­es his inno­cence, he was required to plead guilty to manslaugh­ter before being paroled. The plea pre­vents Mr. Tyler from receiv­ing any reim­burse­ment for his time in prison, nor is he offi­cial­ly con­sid­ered an exoneree.

(Pictured, Gary Tyler, Captivity, 1974, 2023, Quilting Fabric, Thread, and Batting, 74 x 49 in.)

Image pro­vid­ed cour­tesy of the Library Street Collective. View the Library Street Collective’s images of Mr. Tyler’s exhib­it here. Mr. Tyler’s exhib­it runs through September 6, 2023.