Gilliam

COLLEGE PARK -- About 50 death penalty opponents gathered at a rally at the University of Maryland campus here yesterday to protest Gov. Parris N. Glendening's refusal to meet with condemned killer Tyrone D. Gilliam Jr., who is on death row and is scheduled to be executed the week of Nov. 16.Jerome H. Nickerson Jr., Gilliam's attorney, said he has offered to delay a formal petition for clemency for his client until after Tuesday's gubernatorial election....

A convicted murderer facing a mid-November execution date will soon ask Gov. Parris N. Glendening for clemency, a request that could pose political risks for the governor in the final stretch of his hotly contested re-election effort.Tyrone Gilliam is scheduled to be executed the week of Nov. 16, but his attorneys are expected to ask Glendening for mercy in a request that could be filed before the Nov. 3 election.Glendening, a death penalty supporter, is not considered likely to grant clemency in the case.

A RECENT Justice Department study has found that death sentences imposed by juries declined 15 percent in the past year -- the first decrease in the death-sentence rate since 1990.And in spite of the intense publicity surrounding the high number of executions in Texas, executions this year across the United States dropped by 8 percent to 68.Texas remained the leader with 20 of those, followed by Virginia with 13 and South Carolina with 7.The decline comes in the face of public opinion polls that show a majority of Americans favor the death penalty.

The parents of murder victim Christine J. Doerfler have asked Gov. Parris N. Glendening to do two very different things with the life of her condemned killer. One wants to save it, the other to take it.Sources confirmed yesterday that Margaret and Robert Doerfler sent letters to Glendening expressing their differing views about the pending execution of Tyrone X. Gilliam, who is to die by lethal injection next week.Baltimore County Deputy State's Attorney Sue A. Schenning, who spoke with the Doerflers last night and has been in touch with them since their daughter's 1988 murder, said their divergence of opinions does not indicate a divided family.

Killer should spend decades behind bars thinking of his 0) crimeI am confused about why groups opposing the death penalty are making the Tyrone Gilliam case into a racial issue ("Death row mercy plea may hurt Glendening," Oct. 10). If Gilliam is guilty, it doesn't matter what race he is.I am offended that this case is being made a political issue with Gov. Parris N. Glendening in the balance. Whether Gilliam should die for his crime was ruled on by the courts. Certainly, few mothers would want their sons put to death for their crimes, just as few mothers would want their children murdered in cold blood.

Condemned killer Tyrone X. Gilliam lost another round of appeals yesterday after Maryland's highest court refused to halt his execution.His attorney, Jerome Nickerson, was expected to file another appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court yesterday.Today, Gilliam, 32, who is scheduled to die by lethal injection next week, will ask Gov. Parris N. Glendening for mercy in what may be Gilliam's last chance to stop the execution he has been fighting for nine years. He was convicted in 1989 of murdering 21-year-old Christine Doerfler, a hardware store accountant, during a robbery and carjacking.

A decade after kidnapping Christine J. Doerfler and shotgunning her to death during a robbery that netted $3, Tyrone X Gilliam was executed by lethal injection last night, proclaiming his innocence and asking God to forgive those who took his life.The execution ended a 10-year legal fight for Gilliam, 32, who claimed he didn't pull the trigger that ended the life of Doerfler, a 21-year-old Baltimore accountant who dreamed of working with children and entertained her nieces and nephews by impersonating Donald Duck.

The Baltimore County Courthouse was evacuated yesterday after a trained police dog mistakenly identified a mysterious package as a bomb in the chambers of Circuit Judge John F. Fader II, who signed the death warrant in the recent execution of murderer Tyrone X Gilliam.The box was later found to contain three red balloons and a mocking note that criticized the judge for ordering the execution of Gilliam, who died of lethal injection Nov. 16 for the murder and robbery of Christine J. Doerfler 10 years ago.A county police spokeswoman refused to release the exact wording of the note yesterday, saying police were investigating whether the mailing of the package and note constitutes a crime.

A legal aide to Gov. Parris N. Glendening withdrew from a review of a possible clemency appeal for condemned killer Tyrone X. Gilliam yesterday just hours before 200 people marched to the Supermax prison to oppose the execution scheduled for the week of Nov. 16.Mary Ellen Barbera said her decision was based on criticism from Gilliam's attorney that her role as a former deputy assistant attorney general -- in charge of criminal appeals -- should disqualify her...

I WAS TOO HIGH on PCP to remember," Tyrone Gilliam said in response to the question of who, indeed, had shot Christine Doerfler in the back of the head with a sawed-off shotgun the night of Dec. 2, 1988.Gilliam is to be executed this week for that murder. His cohorts that night, brothers Kelvin and Delano Drummond, are serving life sentences for the murder. Kelvin Drummond testified that Gilliam was the shooter. Gilliam confessed twice but now says his PCP-induced state impaired his memory."

NFL Chargers avoid having game against Ravens blacked out The San Diego Chargers have sold enough tickets to lift the local television blackout of their home opener Sunday against the Ravens. The Chargers were in danger of their first regular-season blackout since 2004. Both of their exhibition openers were blacked out, and the team has warned fans that there could be regular-season blackouts. The team said 4,000 tickets remain for their game against the Miami Dolphins a week from Sunday.

When Jonathan Pryce's Sam Lowry, the bureaucrat at the center of Terry Gilliam's mad chef d'oeuvre, Brazil (1985), goes to work in the Department of Information Retrieval, his office resembles a badly multiplexed movie theater. Saturday at 10:15 a.m., in the Wheeler Auditorium of the Enoch Pratt Free Library downtown, the Pratt's Film Talk series will present Brazil - and with the fate of the Senator uncertain (anyone who hasn't seen the new print of Akira Kuroswa's Rashomon should rush there now)

On December 23, 2008, JEROME MORRIS GILLIAM, survived by wife, Winifred E Gilliam; parents, Walter and Josephine Gilliam Sr.; brother, Ralph Gilliam; sisters, Beverly Street, Delores McClain, Betty Carlos and Detrick Cabean and a host of other family and friends. Family will receive friends at the family owned WYLIE FUNERAL HOME, P.A., 638 N. Gilmor Street, Sunday from 1 to 4 P.M. Services will be held Monday at the United House of Prayer For All People, 1515 Ashland Avenue, 6:00 P.M. wake, 7:00 P.M. funeral.

On September 10, 2008, BROMBY ANN GILLIAM. On Wednesday, friends may call at the VAUGHN C. GREENE FUNERAL SERVICES, 5151 Baltimore National Pike from 3 to 8 P.M. On Thursday, Mrs. Gilliam will lie in state at Bethany Baptist Church, 4200 Townsend Avenue (21225), where the family will receive friends from 10 to 10:30 A.M., with services to follow. Inquiries to (410) 233-2400.

On Tuesday, May 13, 2008 HAZEL DELORES GILLIAM (nee Banks). Viewing Tuesday May 20, 2008, 3-8 pm at Vaughn C. Greene Funeral Home, 5151 Baltimore National Pike. Wake Wednesday, May 21, at 10:30 a.m. followed by Homegoing Celebration at 11 a.m. at First Baptist Church, 525 N. Caroline St., Baltimore, MD 21205

Simmie Knox, an acclaimed artist known for his portrait of President Bill Clinton and other American leaders, will present his portrait of the late philanthropist James H. Gilliam Jr. to St. John's College President Christopher Nelson. Knox, based in Washington, D.C., was selected by St. John's to paint the portrait. Nelson will receive it in the president's office at 3 p.m. Tuesday. Knox has been commissioned to paint portraits of notable Americans such as Clinton, Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., Muhammad Ali, congressmen and state senators, a New York City mayor, civic leaders, and numerous individuals, many in Maryland.

On March 31, 2007, CRAIG BLAIR of Owings Mills; Beloved Husband of Saundra Karen; Father of Antonio, Antonae, Cheri, Phlonda and Donna; Brother of Calvin, Gary, Eric, Sheila Scott, Carolette Owens, Gina McAdams, Janette Street, Lavern Nelson-Gilliam and Sharon Harvey. He is also survived by ten grandchildren, 4 great-grandchildren, one uncle, two aunts, two godsons, a stepmother, mother and father in-law and a host of nieces, nephews, cousins and other family and friends. Friends may call the WYLIE FUNERAL HOME P.A OF BALTIMORE COUNTY, 9200 Liberty Road on Wednesday, from 5-8 P.M. Services Thursday, at the Mt. Moriah Baptist Church, 2201 Garrison Boulevard.

Scheronda Gilliam took her son to the Harriet Lane Clinic in East Baltimore to make sure he was healthy. But besides medical advice for her baby, Gilliam received tips about GED classes and job training for herself, information that could help her son as well. "I want to make a better person of myself," said Gilliam, a 33-year-old janitor who would rather work with computers. Helping Gilliam to reach her technology goal were Sam Zand and Dan Cataldo, Johns Hopkins University students who are volunteers with Project Health, a program that connects disenfranchised and low-income adults with public benefits such as medical care, housing and education.

The cool quotient of Fells Point has ratcheted up a couple of notches with the addition of a new hangout, Tea-ology. Think coffeehouse for tea drinkers. That's what owners Sunny Gilliam and Del Powell had in mind when they opened the place on Eastern Avenue a couple of months ago. "I used to be an avid coffee drinker and switched to tea," says Gilliam. "I noticed tons of cool coffeehouses [around Baltimore], but no teahouses. So, we decided to apply a cool, urban feel to a teahouse." Tea-ology has a certain Zen atmosphere in its use of soft "tea colors" in the interior.

Eight-year-old Kevin Wang waited calmly when his young opponent forgot to hit his time clock after moving. He shared his pencil so they could both "annotate" the match, or write down all the moves. But when his outgunned adversary seemed to be doing his best to steer the match to a draw, Kevin had had enough. He finished the boy off, cornering the king with two rooks. Kevin, a third-grader from Potomac, was one of 320 kids who competed at the Maryland State Scholastic Team Chess Championship yesterday in Cockeysville.