You may– I suspect it’s unlikely, but you may– recall this August 2021 post about Makyi Toliver, a former student of mine and one I was quite fond of, who had been sentenced to 45 years in prison for felony murder. I don’t know if you know what felony murder is, but it’s a wildly unjust fucking crime. Makyi and a sixteen-year-old friend attempted to steal a gun from a third person, a bungled theft that led to the gun’s owner killing his friend and shooting Makyi at least eight times. This, somehow, led to Makyi being convicted of murder. 45 years. At 20.
I’ve corresponded with Makyi a couple of times– not enough, to tell the truth– since he’s been locked up. Yesterday morning I checked my messages and noticed that his account was marked as inactive. I didn’t initially think much of it; maybe he’d been transferred or the prison was changing providers or something.
At 8:00 yesterday evening I got a text message from another teacher who had also had him in her classes. Makyi was dead. As far as we know right now, he died from suicide. Why “as far as we know”? The jail and the coroner are refusing to give his mother any information, which means we’re relying on– wait for it– rumors and secondhand information from other former students at Parchman.
Makyi was a good kid. He was a good kid and he had an immense amount of potential and he didn’t fucking deserve any of this.
I hate it here, and I’m not okay.
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Makyi was a good kid who definitely didin’t deserve any of what happened to him. I recall a conversation with him where he told me he made a bad decision that ended up costing him his life. He didn’t deserve to die at such a young age and we may never know what happened or what he was thinking. My heart breaks for his family and friends. These young boys need to be given a chance to do better, he deserved that chance. Tears flow as I write this because none of us will ever know what happened, we just know that Makyi is dead and we must try to go on not knowing…
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This story really punched me in the guts. I am currently reading Jon Snow’s The State of Us: The good news and the bad news about our society. It opens with a devastating fire in a tower block in a very rich borough in London, yet the block itself was a poorly maintained building housing low income and immigrant families. A month or so before this Jon and Bill Gates had been judging a debating competition in London, they were both blown away by the eloquence and confidence of a 12 year old girl, Firdaws Hashim, to whom they awarded a prize. Firdaws and her family were among the 72 people who died in the Grenfell Tower fire.
The book is UK-centred, but speaks with a world’s eye view. It is simply written as a discussion of equality with memoir elements, but I think you might find it interesting.
Jon is a UK journalist, international correspondent and TV presenter https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jon_Snow_(journalist), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grenfell_Tower_fire
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Makyi and his family lived down the street from me years ago. He and his brother were friends with my kids. Makyi spent hours at my house, sometimes just hanging in our basement playing our PS2. He was a sweet kid. Hiilarious and very smart.
My kids and I moved out of that neighborhood in 2012. I hadn’t seen him since around 2013. I kept track of him through his mom.
She called me today to give me the news. I live less than a mile from the facility he was sent to. I had no idea he’s been gone for nearly 2 weeks now.
I loved that kid. I am utterly heartbroken. My heart hurts for his family the most.
Our system is broken and, as far as I’m concerned, that is what killed Makyi.
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