SURVIVOR STORIES

JAMES BANNISTER

James Bannister

Framed by Corrupt Cops, With No Evidence, Still Incarcerated!

 James Bannister is serving a life sentence without possibility of parole for the murder of Daniel Williams and Thomas Kaufman. There was no physical evidence linking him to the crime. The only two witnesses who testified that he was involved have recanted. One was a 12-year-old boy who says that police pressured him to ID Bannister. After he recanted, Bannister was awarded a new trial. At his new trial, a co-defendant agreed to testify against Bannister in exchange for having one of his murder convictions reversed and his life sentence vacated. His co-defendant has now forcefully recanted.

On November 9, 1989, multiple assailants shot and killed Daniel Williams outside the Stateway Gardens building in the Stateway Gardens housing complex in Chicago. An Illinois Technical Institute guard in the nearby vicinity, Thomas Kaufman, also was killed by a stray bullet.

Denise Brady was the first witness to talk to police. She had witnessed the incident as it unfolded. She was standing at the elevators at the base of 3517 South Federal Street when she saw five men confront and shoot Dan Williams. The next day, she identified 29-year-old Kevin Young as the man who first confronted and shot at Dan Williams. As soon as Brady identified Kevin Young, police set about trying to determine the identity of the other four men. That same day, police listed possible associates and ordered their photos.

Days after the shooting, a second witness, Ruth Wilson, told police that she heard the shooting from her apartment at 3547 South Federal Street and looked out her window and saw Michael Meyers and Kevin Young, along with three other men she could not identify, leaving the scene.

Gregory Gordon, a third witness, also spoke with police soon after the shooting and reported seeing five armed men at the elevator before the shooting began. He identified the five individuals as Kevin Young, Michael Johnson, Michael Meyers, Eric Smith, and Thomas Carter.

Just prior to the shooting of Williams and Kaufman, Andre Johnson also reported to police that Kevin Young confronted him and shot him in the arm. Johnson told police that Young had been accompanied by four other men -- Michael Johnson, Michael Meyers, James Young, and Thomas Carter.

Denise Brady's, Ruth Wilson's, Gregory Gordon's, and Andre Johnson's stories consistently included the involvement of five shooters being involved in the November 9, 1989, Stateway Gardens shootings.

Only one witness, 12-year-old Deanda Wilson, said he saw more like six or seven shooters. Only Wilson named James Bannister and Eric Smith as part of the group involved in the shooting. Wilson also named Donnie Harris as involved, but he eventually identified photos of the above named six and added that Bannister was also involved.

Bannister and all six co-defendants were eventually convicted of the Williams and Kaufman murders. When Deanda Wilson later admitted that he actually did not see the offense and only picked photographs of the men that police encouraged him to pick, Bannister and Smith were eventually awarded a new trial, as there was no other evidence implicating the two (Gordon did not testify at the first trial).

Ten days before his new trial was scheduled to begin, the State dropped a bombshell on the defense. Co-defendant Michael Johnson had accepted a State's plea offer that no man could refuse -- a reversal of the jury’s verdict of guilt for the two murders and a transfer from Tamms, a super-maximum prison to a medium security prison.

The State's win-at-all-costs tactics led to Bannister's original conviction. His second resulted after an almost inconceivable series of events. When Judge James M. Schreier ordered Bannister's new trial, he noted several times that he would not have found Bannister guilty had Bannister taken a bench trial during his first trial. Strongly hinting at his belief in Bannister's innocence, Judge Schreier ordered Bannister's bond to $10,000 ($1000 to walk) when he did not have bond available before his first trial. His defense team, taking the hint, immediately demanded trial and elected to have a bench trial.

Bannister's defense, overly encouraged by Judge Schreier's words, and more importantly, not knowing that Johnson would testify against Bannister until days before trial, critically failed to break its waiver of a jury and failed to ask for time to find and call witnesses to substantively refute Johnson's testimony. 

The same judge that told Bannister he would have acquitted him at his first trial found him guilty at his second trial based on the State's knowing presentation of the perjured testimony of Deanda Wilson and the induced testimony of codefendant Michael Johnson. Bannister, via his post conviction, asks for a trial new based on evidence of the State's misconduct, the defense's ineffectiveness, as well as evidence of his actual innocence. The new evidence of innocence is the recantation of Michael Johnson who admits he only testified against Bannister to get a lesser sentence and out of Tamms.  (See the CBS News story and interview with Johnson at https://www.cbsnews.com/chicago/video/judge-to-take-another-look-at-innocence-claims-for-james-bannister/) He also presents proof that another co-defendant, Kevin Young, told multiple people against his own penal interest, that Bannister was not with him and the others responsible for the shooting that evening.

PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

James Bannister was tried two times for the murders of Dan Williams and Thomas Kaufman.

He was first tried along with five of his six co-defendants and all six were convicted of two counts of first-degree murder and sentenced to natural life imprisonment on May 23, 1991. The appellate Court of Illinois affirmed Bannister's conviction on March 31, 1994 and the Illinois Supreme Court denied Bannister's petition for leave to appeal on October 6, 1994. 

On August 3, 1995, Bannister filed a petition for post-conviction relief on the grounds that the State's key witness recanted his trial testimony. Almost six months later, on January 24, 1997, Judge Schreier dismissed Bannister's petition.

On June 10, 1997, Bannister appealed Judge Schreier's ruling. The First District Appellate Court reversed and remanded to the trial court to hold an evidentiary hearing on Bannister's claim of actual innocence finding that Deanda Wilson's trial testimony was dubious.

After an evidentiary hearing, Judge Schreier granted Bannister's petition (along with his co-defendant Eric Smith), vacated his convictions and ordered a new trial on January 9, 2004.

After bench trial, Judge Schreier found both Bannister and Smith guilty of two counts of first-degree murder on June 16, 2004. The Appellate Court of Illinois affirmed Bannister's conviction on December 4, 2007. The Illinois Supreme Court also affirmed on October 29, 2009. The United States Supreme Court denied Bannister's writ of certiorari on November 29, 2010. 

While his writ of certiorari was pending, Bannister filed a pro se post-conviction action on February 24, 2010. On May 17, 2010, he filed a supplemental petition. On June 6, 2011, the Court appointed Jennifer Blagg as Bannister's post-conviction attorney and on June 13, 2016, Ron Safer filed his pro bono appearance. Bannister, though counsels, has updated his prior court filings.

Oral arguments the prosecution’s motion to dismiss Bannister’s petition will be heard on April 7 at 10:30 am by Judge Patrick K. Coughlin in the Cook County Circuit Court in Markham, 16501 S. Kedzie Prkwy., Rm. 106.

1) All the information in this sheet is taken from Bannister’s Amended Petition For Post-Conviction Relief, prepared by his attorney, Jennefer Blagg.

2) People v. Bannister, No. 90-CR-1812, 1991 WL 11675411 (Ill. Cir. Ct. May 23, 1991).

 3) People v. Bannister, 635 N.E.2d 473 (Ill. App. Ct. 1994).

 4) People v. Bannister, 642 N.E.2d 1300 (1994).

 5) People v. Bannister, No. 90-CR-1812, 2004 WL 5544365 (Ill. Cir. Ct. June 16, 2004).

 6) People v. Bannister, 880 N.E.2d 607 (Ill. App. Ct. 2007).

 7) People v. Bannister, 923 N.E.2d 244 (Ill. 2009).

8)  Bannister v. Illinois, 562 U.S. 1061 (Nov. 29, 2010).