On the night of April 4, 1991, two groups of young people met by chance on the Chain of
Rocks Bridge. The Bridge, closed for years to car traffic, was a hangout place for young
people in the area. One group was comprised of Marlin Gray (24 years old); Reggie
Clemons (19 years old); Tony Richardson (16 years old); and Daniel Winfrey (15 years
old). All except Winfrey were African-American. The other group was made up of sisters
Julie and Robin Kerry (20 and 19 years old, respectively) and their cousin, Tom Cummins
(19 years old). They were all Caucasian. Before the dawn, the two sisters had
drowned after falling into the Mississippi River. What happened that night changed the
lives of six families forever.

Cummins as Suspect #1

Tom Cummins was the first suspect in this case. Cummins told several conflicting and
unbelievable stories about what happened on the bridge that night. He first told the police
that he jumped into the frigid Mississippi River. Yet despite the fact that this would
have been an 80 foot leap into near freezing water, Cummins was dry from the waist up
when police talked to him shortly after the incident. Cummins then failed a lie detector
test, and told the police that his cousins had fallen from the bridge as the result of an altercation
that began after he made a sexual advance toward one of them. He was arrested
and charged with the murder of his cousins. However, soon thereafter the police
found a flashlight left at the bridge by Tony Richardson, and this discovery gave rise to
shifting the blame from Cummins to Reggie’s group.

Police Brutality and Forced Confessions

When Reggie was brought in by the police for questioning, he asked for an attorney but
was denied one. After hours of threats and police beatings, Reggie made a coerced
statement in which he denied pushing the girls from the bridge. At his arraignment, the
judge noted Reggie was injured and sent him to the hospital. Reggie and his codefendant
Marlin Gray both said they were beaten and threatened by the police, and
were coerced into giving scripted confessions. Tom Cummins said he too had been
beaten by police and forced into a confession, even though his father later said that his
son had been treated “professionally and courteously” during police interviews. While
Reggie’s and Marlin’s allegations of police brutality were ignored, Cummins was released
from custody and eventually settled his police brutality lawsuit with the City for $150,000.
Ineffective Counsel Compromises Justice
Despite paying for legal representation, Reggie and his family received little in return.
The two lawyers hired by Reggie’s family had little death penalty experience. Even
worse, they had been married and were recently divorced; one moved to California and
took another full-time job during the pre-trial period of Reggie’s case, while the other
was so unprepared that he did not read the police reports or interview witnesses before
trial. During trial, Reggie’s defense team stopped making objections, claiming they
were tired of being overruled by the judge. In 1999, one of Reggie’s lawyers had his license
suspended.

Prosecutorial Misconduct Overrules Fairness

The misconduct of the prosecutor, Nels Moss, was so extreme that two federal courts
later found that his actions in Reggie’s case were “abusive and boorish.” The Center for
Public Integrity found Moss to be “a recidivist breaker of the rules by which prosecutors
are supposed to operate.” At Reggie’s trial, Moss did everything from using tactics to
prevent black jurors from serving on the jury to misrepresenting the evidence to directly
violating a court order. Despite the fact that Moss was eventually held in contempt
of court for his actions during trial, and he presented no physical evidence linking
Reggie to the crime, he still got his guilty verdict.

Missouri v. Reginald Clemons (death row inmate); Read the case details at www.justiceforreggie.com; A sad example of our perverted justice system