The following biography was written by Toney.
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Read his story.
Toney was born an only child to loving and now dearly departed parents. At a young age he had dreams of playing professional football, and began his quest when his father took him to enroll in youth football. After he aged out of youth football, he played throughout junior high and on into high school. But during those years, he discovered another love: music. Which, besides the love, was the one constant in the home. Every week, his father would buy whatever albums were released that week, so by the time Toney reached his teens, they'd already owned quite an extensive record collection. His father would allow him to use those records to sometimes DJ parties for neighbors and friends.
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When dreams of playing football were derailed, he put his energy and focus into music. At 19 he moved to Los Angeles to pursue a musical career. He was in pursuit of that dream when he was unjustly arrested and convicted for "crimes" that have taken away 32 years—and counting—of his life.
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His love of music hasn't waned, and he uses the time in solitary to compose song lyrics across multiple genres, including pop, country, hip hop, rock, and R&B. In fact, he hopes a country song he composed will someday be recorded and become a breast cancer awareness month anthem, with the sales proceeds going to cancer research. He has also created a clothing brand that donates part of its sales proceeds to worthy causes. Actually, proceeds from the initial test batch of T-shirts were donated to an elementary school in the Greenwood section of Tulsa, Oklahoma for the purchase of school supplies. Several songs and poems are available here.
If you've already viewed the documentation (if not, please do), and read the corresponding text, then you've seen how witnesses lied about the "evidence" and how facts were distorted - even manufactured - to give the appearance of guilt. But it is undeniable that there's zero actual evidence that crimes were ever committed.
The charges against Toney has never been about the poor, sickly Black child who died. Prosecutors didn't care about her, which is evidenced by the fact that—as part of their scheme to manufacture evidence against Toney—they facilitated the rape of another Black child.
It was simply a "by any means necessary" plot to legally lynch Toney for false allegations leveled against him the year prior. The same lies that make up the same stories—from Emmett Till to Greenwood's "Black Wall Street"—that have played out so many times throughout the deep south: a white woman accuses a Black man, and the Black man must pay with his life.
Thankfully, Jacksonville, Florida, one of the historically most racist places anywhere, had evolved a bit and lynch mobs were no longer an option for dealing with racial hate. But the "good ol' boys," still very much in power in the 90's but no longer able to mete out their Jim Crow brand of "justice," didn't soon forget and jumped at the opportunity as soon as it arose to exact revenge against Toney.
Fortunately, the "good ole boy" regime - one that, around the time they were orchestrating Toney legal lynching, freed a KKK member (his codefendant testified at trial that they rode around "looking for a n****r to kill"), who'd spent less than 3 years on death row - is no longer in control. The current State's Attorney is actually concerned about justice, as well as past injustices. She created a conviction integrity review unit with the sole purpose of exacting justice for those who were wrongfully convicted under long standing "good ol' boy régimes."
This online campaign may be Toney's best hope at justice. And not just for him, but also so the child's family members who have spent decades anguishing over the horrid ordeal they've been misled to believe occurred can finally find some peace of mind. An obviously innocent man has been wasting away in a cage for over 3 decades, and it's time to right that wrong.
Please join us in the fight for justice for Toney. You can start by signing the petition. All support, including simple words of encouragement, will be most appreciated.
Your time and support is the key to changing Toney's life - to saving his life. Your support will make the difference, thank you.
JUSTICE FOR TONEY!!!
