Tyrone Delano Gilliam Jr. (August 29, 1966 – November 16, 1998) was an American convicted murderer executed by the state of

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; ...

in 1998. Gilliam was convicted and sentenced to death for the kidnapping and murder of 21-year-old Christine J. Doerfler on December 2, 1988.

Murder

On the evening of the murder, Gilliam was drinking and using drugs with Kelvin Drummond and his brother, Tony Drummond. The three men

car-jacked Carjacking is a robbery in which the item taken over is a motor vehicle.Michael Cherbonneau, "Carjacking," in ''Encyclopedia of Social Problems'', Vol. 1 (SAGE, 2008: ed. Vincent N. Parrillo), pp. 110-11. In contrast to car theft, carjacking is ...

Doerfler as she got out of her car in a parking lot, and when they found that she only had three dollars on her, they forced her to go to an ATM and withdraw cash. During the drive to the ATM, they changed their minds, and after pulling over in a secluded area, Gilliam shot Doerfler in the head with a

sawed-off shotgun A sawed-off shotgun (also called a sawn-off shotgun, short-barreled shotgun, shorty or a boom stick) is a type of shotgun with a shorter gun barrel—typically under —and often a shortened or absent stock. Despite the colloquial term, ...

. Gilliam and both of the Drummond brothers were arrested three days later after they attempted to rob a convenience store. Police found the murder weapon in Gilliam's car, and after Kelvin Drummond named Gilliam as the shooter, Gilliam confessed.

Trial

Gilliam chose to have his case tried by a judge rather than a jury. Judge John Fader of the Circuit Court for Baltimore County found Gilliam guilty of

first-degree murder Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification or valid excuse, especially the unlawful killing of another human with malice aforethought. ("The killing of another person without justification or excuse, especially the ...

, robbery with a

dangerous weapon A deadly weapon, sometimes dangerous weapon (although some jurisdictions differentiate between the two) or lethal weapon, is an item that can inflict mortal or great bodily harm. By statutory definition, certain items, especially firearms, are d ...

, use of a handgun in the commission of a felony and kidnapping. On October 31, 1989, Gilliam was

sentenced to death Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that t ...

for the murder of Christine Doerfler. Tony Drummond was convicted separately and received a sentence of life without the possibility of parole, while Kelvin Drummond agreed to plead guilty and testify against Gilliam. In exchange for his testimony and

guilty plea In legal terms, a plea is simply an answer to a claim made by someone in a criminal case under common law using the adversarial system. Colloquially, a plea has come to mean the assertion by a defendant at arraignment, or otherwise in response ...

he received a sentence of life with the possibility of parole.

Appeals

Gilliam's initial direct appeal to the

Maryland Court of Appeals The Supreme Court of Maryland is the highest court of the U.S. state of Maryland. Its name was changed on December 14, 2022, from the Maryland Court of Appeals, after a voter-approved change to the state constitution. The court, which is composed ...

was rejected in 1990, and the

US Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point of ...

refused to hear Gilliam's case in 1991. Gilliam then filed a petition for post-conviction relief in Baltimore County Circuit Court. The court denied relief, and Gilliam's appeals to the Maryland Court of Appeals and the US Supreme Court were refused in 1993 and 1994 respectively. After his attempt to file a second post-conviction petition in the state courts was rejected Gilliam made a petition for

habeas corpus ''Habeas corpus'' (; from Medieval Latin, ) is a recourse in law through which a person can report an unlawful detention or imprisonment to a court and request that the court order the custodian of the person, usually a prison official, t ...

relief with the US District Court for the District of Maryland. In November 1996, the court ruled that Gilliam's death sentence should be vacated based on

ineffective assistance of counsel In United States law, ineffective assistance of counsel (IAC) is a claim raised by a convicted criminal defendant asserting that the defendant's legal counsel performed so ineffectively that it deprived the defendant of the constitutional right gua ...

, however the state filed a Rule 59(e) motion to alter or amend the judgment, and in April 1997, the court reversed itself and denied Gilliam's habeas petition. Gilliam appealed the district court's decision to the

US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit The United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit (in case citations, 4th Cir.) is a federal court located in Richmond, Virginia, with appellate jurisdiction over the district courts in the following districts: *District of Maryland * ...

, which affirmed the district court's decision in January 1998. On October 5, 1998, the US Supreme Court refused to hear the case. That same day Judge Fader signed a death warrant which went into effect on November 16, 1998.

Execution

Gilliam was executed by

lethal injection Lethal injection is the practice of injecting one or more drugs into a person (typically a barbiturate, paralytic, and potassium solution) for the express purpose of causing rapid death. The main application for this procedure is capital puni ...

at the Maryland Penitentiary on November 16, 1998. He was pronounced dead at 10:27 p.m. Gilliam's last hope had been a petition for clemency to Governor

Parris Glendening Parris Nelson Glendening (born June 11, 1942) is an American politician and academic who served as the 59th Governor of Maryland from January 18, 1995, to January 15, 2003. Previously, he was the County Executive of Prince George's County, Mary ...

, which was rejected the previous day. Two last-minute appeals to the US Supreme Court were also turned down. None of Doerfler's family chose to attend the execution and Gilliam's family was prohibited from attending. Gilliam did not apologize or express remorse in the

death chamber An execution chamber, or death chamber, is a room or chamber in which capital punishment is carried out. Execution chambers are almost always inside the walls of a maximum-security prison, although not always at the same prison where the death ro ...

, and his

last words Last words are the final utterances before death. The meaning is sometimes expanded to somewhat earlier utterances. Last words of famous or infamous people are sometimes recorded (although not always accurately) which became a historical and lite ...

were "Allah, forgive them for what they do." Like all inmates executed in Maryland, Gilliam was not given a special

last meal A condemned prisoner's last meal is a customary ritual preceding execution. In many countries, the prisoner may, within reason, select what the last meal will be. Contemporary restrictions in the United States In the United States, most states g ...

. He was 32 years old.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gilliam, Tyrone Delano, Junior 1966 births 1998 deaths American people executed for murder 20th-century executions by Maryland 20th-century executions of American people People from Baltimore County, Maryland People executed by Maryland by lethal injection People convicted of murder by Maryland

Murder

Trial

Appeals

Execution

See also

References