STACEY “SABUR” TYLER DEFENSE FUND

Stacey "Sabur" Tyler was wrongfully convicted of murdering his girlfriend in 1995 and sentenced to death. His case is not the typical and now widely popular case of innocence because it does not involve DNA. The crux of his defense is that his girlfriend's death was not the result of a crime at all, but was in fact a self-inflicted accident.On November 5,1993 while at home in the trailer he shared with his girlfriend Evon Fleetwood she complained that it was "chilly" and Stacey suggested that she go and light the kerosene heater. While he was in the kitchen about to prepare some food he heard her cry out for him and when he looked to see what was the matter her hair and upper torso were in flames! He immediately ran to her aid and pushed her outside where he rolled her on the damp ground to extinguish the flames, burning the back of his hand in the process. Because there was no telephone line at the trailer and not being sure how seriously she was hurt he believed his first duty was to help Evon by bringing her back in the house, helping her remove her burnt clothes and wetting towels to soothe her burns. After doing everything he could to aid her he knew that she needed to go to a hospital and be seen by a doctor so he told her he was going to try and find someone to take her to the hospital. It took about 2 hours before some of Evon's family members and eventually the EMTs and police arrived and Evon was taken to the hospital.

She pleaded with the EMT to let Stacey ride in the ambulance and accompany her to the hospital. Not long after Stacey and Evon left for the hospital family and friends who had all begun to pour into and around the trailer began to cast suspicion to the police that perhaps this wasn't an accident despite the fact that both Stacey and Evon had told them that she got burned trying to light the heater. They wanted to believe that something more sinister occurred. They claimed that Stacey had told them that the heater had "exploded" yet there were no visible signs to indicate an explosion. As a result the police began to investigate it as a possible assault perpetrated by Stacey.In the hospital however Evon was asked by both doctors and nurses on several occasions if Stacey had done this to her and each time she emphatically responded NO! When the nurse asked her what happened before she could respond one of the EMTs told the nurse that he was told that the heater exploded. When the nurse asked Evon if that was true she didn't respond right away which caused the nurse to suspect (as she would later testify to at trial) that Evon was withholding something. When asked again if the heater had exploded after a few seconds she said yes. This hesitation was turned into a theory that prosecutors would later use in court to paint a picture of domestic violence where the abused victim seeks to protect the abuser. However in Stacey Tyler's case there was no documented history of abuse.

A more plausible explanation for Evon's hesitation is the fact that the heater had not actually "exploded". However what she was clear about is that Stacey didn't have anything to do with it. Actually what we believe happened is that when Evon went to light the heater when she bent down to light it the flare up from the heater ignited her hair which she wore in a shoulder length " jheri curl" style wit activator and other highly flammable chemicals. Due to the severity of her burns she had to be transported to a burn center in Norfolk Virginia which was the closest facility to their Murfreesboro, North Carolina home. While there she was intubated for 14 days which meant she could not talk and she was administered heavy doses of pain medication and sedatives.During this time, the police investigation which was consisted primarily of interviews of some of Evon's family members and a few neighbors began to villainize Stacey and placed a cloud of suspicion around the events of November 5th. However there were only two witnesses there that day: Stacey and Evon and both of their stories stated that this was an accident. In order to build a criminal case, police knew they needed Evon to say that Stacey was responsible for this. So on November 19, 1993 two detectives from Hertford County, NC went to the burn center in Virginia to interview Evon.

Evon was still unable to talk and had been under heavy sedation for 2 weeks but the nurse who was treating her said that she could respond by nodding or shaking her head. She claimed that she had gradually reduced the pain medication and stopped the sedative and properly "oriented" Evon prior to the interview. What this meant is that Evon had been given certain commands like wiggle your right foot. By wiggling her right foot the nurse testified in court that this showed that Evon could hear, understand and respond to commands. However Stacey's trial attorneys failed to introduce evidence that after 2 weeks of heavy sedation with powerful medications like Versed and Fentanyl there was nothing done to determine if she was competent and capable of using the rational part of her brain. For instance she wasn't asked if she knew who the President of the United States was. There's a huge difference in asking someone to wiggle that right foot and judging if they are competent enough to make decisions on her own behalf. The fact that she was unable to give consent to any of the medical treatment she was undergoing is evidence enough that she hadn't been declared competent enough to use her capacity for reasoning.However she was asked several questions to which she gave conflicting responses. The first question she was asked was did Stacey do this to her. She shook her head no. Then she was told that Stacey had been taken into custody and was no longer a threat to her.

For 30 years he has been fighting for his freedom and to clear his name. While incarcerated he accepted Islam and has become a devout Muslim known as Sabur, which means "patient and persevering". His court appointed attorneys have not argued a single claim to support his innocence on appeal. In fact his entire appeal motion filed in 1998 consists of arguments made by his attorneys, who have visited him no more than six times in 25 years, claiming that he is mentally retarded! He unsuccessfully filed a motion to have his attorneys removed from his case and replaced with more competent representation but his motion was denied in 2013.With the help of fellow death row prisoner and rapper Rrome Alone he is seeking to raise money to hire his own legal team to exonerate him and restore his name and reputation.