Visiting La Crosse, Gary Tyler speaks of his 41 years wrongfully in prison for a murder he didn’t commit

He served 41 years of a life sentence for a murder he didn’t commit and today that Louisiana man is in La Crosse to tell his story.

Back in 1975, at the age of 17, Gary Tyler was imprisoned for the shooting death of a white, 13-year-old boy during violent high school protests by whites against blacks in Louisiana.

Tyler was the youngest prisoner on death row in Louisiana. But his death penalty sentence was changed to life in prison, and Tyler stayed behind bars for four decades, until his guilty verdict was overturned in April, 2016.

Now 60, Tyler has been visiting La Crosse this week, speaking to students and others about how he survived at the brutal Angola prison.

“I didn’t lose hope and I felt that, in order to provide in prison, I had to keep up the belief that one day I would, eventually, be released from prison,” Tyler said.

Tyler says the U.S. court system needs a better way to evaluate how people are punished for crimes.

While in prison, Tyler earned a GED and served as a mentor to other inmates. He urges young people to find ways of avoiding crime, by being active in their communities.

“Living the life of crime is not the answer,” he said. “Changing your life is the answer.”

Tyler has been a symbol of racial injustice. Musicians have written songs about him, including Gil Scott Heron song ‘Brother Tyler.’

“When I got locked up in the 80s, if I’m not mistaken, there was over 400,000 people that was in the prison,” he said. “Now, there’s 2.2 million people. That’s more than some nations in the world.”

Tyler spoke at Viterbo University on Thursday night, as part of an observance of Constitution Day.