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Michael Deshawn Gaines, 39, has been sitting in an Oklahoma prison for twenty years for a murder he maintains he didn’t commit. It’s a case that advocates say illustrates the arbitrary or random nature of life without parole sentences.
Born and raised in Lawton, Oklahoma, Gaines’ life changed forever when he got in a car with a group of friends who went on to rob and murder a drug dealer in 2003. Michael Gaines, Timothy Tabon Jr., Daniel Moore, and Diontay Perry were in a car together the night Travis Birchfield was killed and Chris Kopsky was injured.
However, that’s where accounts differ.
Gaines, the youngest of the four at 18, says he was tricked into taking a laced blunt and going along on a ride to a drug dealer’s house that Perry and Moore were already planning to rob.
“The truth is that I was the youngest out of the crew, and I was drugged, Gaines told the Black Wall Street Times in a call from Dick Connor Correctional Facility.
“The whole crime was premeditated like weeks before without me even knowing. These people was going around to solicit people to do this robbery with them. So, they run in to me, a little youngster, and drug me. We was supposed to be smoking weed and next thing I know I was high out of my mind.”
What happened?
Gaines claims he was told to open the door to ask for weed while Perry stayed in the car and Tabon and Moore pulled out guns behind him. As a result, he says the crew conspired to blame him for the murder.
According to Oklahoma court documents, Perry and Moore, who were able to afford their own attorneys, were ultimately charged with robbery with a dangerous weapon. They received 20-year sentences.
Meanwhile, Gaines and Tabon, both of whom had public defenders, were sentenced to life without the possibility of parole.
“Michael did not take anybody’s life. Police found the murder weapon on Timothy [Tabon],” Bree Williams, a criminal justice reform advocate, told the Black Wall Street Times.
For years she’s been fighting for a review of Gaines’ case. A petition on change.org has garnered nearly 20,000 signatures.
“I grew up in a law enforcement background where, if people say a crime was committed, that’s just what it is,” she said. “I never thought innocent people go to jail until hearing stories like Michael’s case.”
Life without parole
At first, Gaines says, a life sentence was never on the table. “When I first got locked up they wasn’t talking about life, but then two weeks after I got locked up some guy killed an Oklahoma Highway Patrolman, and then it was nothing but life,” he said.
Despite no DNA evidence tying him to the murder weapon, police allowed the other defendants to pin the murder on Gaines. For advocates, life without parole sentences are often arbitrary.
“There’s no uniform standard to decide which defendants deserve to eventually be eligible for parole and which don’t; these choices are inherently ‘arbitrary and capricious’ and the antithesis of fairness,” Peter Irons, a University of California, San Diego political professor, wrote in an op-ed for NBC News.
Irons, like many other advocates, sees LWOP (life without parole) as a slow death sentence.
“There are now more than 53,000 serving LWOP sentences, a four-fold increase in the past two decades. Another 44,000 are serving “virtual life” sentences of 50 or more years, past the life expectancies of almost all inmates. In other words, some 97,000 inmates have still been condemned to die behind bars,” he wrote.
A history of mass incarceration and exoneration in Oklahoma
Oklahoma is no stranger to severe sentences or wrongful convictions. The state holds the fourth-highest incarceration rate in the nation, according to federal Bureau of Justice statistics.
Oklahoma also holds the notorious distinction of having the record for the longest prison sentence to be exonerated.
Glyn Simmons spent nearly 50 years in prison for a crime prosecutors now say they can’t defend.
“They did it to me for 25 years. I gave them notice 25 years ago” that he had evidence pointing to his innocence, Glyn Simmons told the Black Wall Street Times in September. “I’m fighting cancer, plus I’m fighting my case.”
In 2021, Governor Kevin Stitt spared Julius Jones hours before his planned execution only to give him an LWOP sentence, despite millions supporting his innocence.
Most recently, Oklahoma County District Attorney Vicki Behenna dropped murder charges against a 15 year old accused of shooting another teen at a Choctaw High School football game last year.
The charges stemmed from one witness who later recanted her story.
“To Cordae’s family, I promise we are not giving up on identifying and prosecuting the person responsible for his death,” DA Behenna said in her press release. Her failure to gather more evidence has faced sharp criticism in the community, according to NonDoc.
Michael Gaines has hope for the future despite life without parole
Meanwhile, Michael Gaines admits he was in a gang, but he says he’s since changed his life by focusing on educational programs in prison and avoiding trouble.
“I still try to stay positive, man. This [prison] is really like a violent cesspool. If you want to live this type of life it’s easy,” Gaines said. “Really I just mind my business, even when it comes to me, I’m blessed to be avoiding a lot of this stuff.
While incarcerated, he’s graduated from classes that include “Thinking for a Change,” “Faith in Character,” drug and alcohol abuse, welding and business classes.
He remains hopeful that one day he’ll be free to live his life in service to others.
“I don’t have a choice because I feel like I still got a lot of life where I can get out there and do things right,” Gaines said. “I feel like the truth will come out one day; I deserve a second chance at life.”
Ineffective defense counsel
According to his mom, Michael Gaines “was a pretty good child” from a well-respected family who grew up in the church and played sports. In a single parent household, Michael Gaines helped raise his other siblings.
His mother, Lois Gaines, says the justice system failed him due to a court-appointed attorney who just “wanted him to take a plea to make his job easier” and “threatened Michael with the death penalty.”
“A life without parole sentence is a very, very harsh sentence for an 18-year old,” she said.
The toll it takes on his family isn’t lost on Michael.
“She’s made it a part of her life. She’s definitely hurt about it, stressed about it, getting sick about it. She don’t know what to do; She’s just lost,” Gaines said.
A mother’s plea
In a statement sent to the Black Wall Street Times, Lois Gaines questioned the legal system’s decision to place LWOP charges on an 18 year old whose brain wasn’t fully developed, essentially taking away his life.
“At this point, we just want Michael to be able to come home. We just want a fair chance for him in life. He was 18. How can you give a person a life without parole sentence at 18 years old? How much has his brain matured at that age?” Lois Gaines said.
“So, I’m just a mother begging and pleading for someone’s help for Michael to be able to get a chance at life, to know what it’s like to have a job, to know what it’s like to have a child, to know what it’s like to be around family, everything that the justice system has denied my child.”
The Comanche County District Attorney’s Office has not responded to multiple requests for comment.