Rev. Darryl Gray is a prominent figure in St. Louis, not only as the Senior Pastor at the Greater Fairfax Missionary Baptist Church, but also as a longtime civil rights activist. Rev. Gray has been engaged in the struggle for racial justice for over 40 years. It was his dedication to seeking racial justice that led him to relocate back to St. Louis, Missouri when Ferguson erupted in an uprising in 2014, following the death of Michael Brown at the hands of a Ferguson police officer. He first met Missouri death row inmate Kevin Johnson in 2022, just three months before Johnson's execution. Rev. Gray became Johnson's spiritual advisor and baptized him shortly before the execution.
More than 90 people were executed in Missouri during the modern era of the death penalty before Kevin Johnson would become the 93rd person to be executed in Missouri, on November 29, 2022. A U.S. Supreme Court ruling earlier that year deemed it a constitutional right for the condemned to have a spiritual advisor present with them, even permitting the spiritual advisor the opportunity to say a prayer and "lay hands" on the condemned during his execution. As a result of this ruling, Rev. Gray became the first spiritual advisor in the state of Missouri to stand next to the condemned man in the death chamber and lay hands on him during the execution.
On May 18, 2023, I sat down with Rev. Darryl Gray at the Greater Fairfax Missionary Baptist Church to interview him about his experience serving as the spiritual advisor for Kevin Johnson, focusing primarily on the ways in which he was impacted by Johnson's execution. In the above video clip, Rev Darryl Gray speaks on the death penalty, social justice and the power of the people, on the Bernie Hayes TV show. In the first link found below, Rev. Gray answers a series of questions that were posed to him in 2018 by a reporter with The Christian Science Monitor. The second link leads to an article that focuses on Rev. Gray's experiences serving as the spiritual advisor for Kevin Johnson, culminating in the moments that he sat with Kevin during the night of his execution.
Q & A: In St. Louis, the Rev. Darryl Gray is "Praying with my Feet."
A St. Louis Pastor Counseled Kevin Johnson in his Final Days. And Sat by his Side as he Died.