KENOSHA, WI — Gov. Tony Evers granted 14 commutations on Friday, Nov. 13, including one that allows DeQuelvin Douglas to be considered for parole in 2029. Douglas is serving a life sentence for a 1995 Kenosha shooting that killed Jerry Darden and wounded Solomon Bankhead.
Douglas was 15 when the shooting occurred on March 30, 1995. According to a Wisconsin Court of Appeals decision, Douglas retrieved a gun from his home during a confrontation and shot Bankhead, who survived. Douglas then pursued Darden, who was fatally shot and died in a nearby parking lot.
A Kenosha County court sentenced Douglas to life in prison in December 1995. Now 47, he has spent about 31 years in prison. The governor’s office said the commutation moves his parole eligibility from 2056 to 2029. The Wisconsin Parole Commission will decide whether to grant parole once he becomes eligible.
Douglas appeared before the state’s Commutation Advisory Board on Sept. 18 and took responsibility for the shooting. The governor’s office cited his education, restorative justice work and service as a certified peer specialist while incarcerated.
Douglas’s case was the only one of the 14 prosecuted in Kenosha County. In neighboring Racine County, Evers granted a commutation to Wazir El-Amin, formerly known as Wade Curtis, who was sentenced to life in 1990 for first-degree intentional homicide. The other 12 cases were prosecuted in Milwaukee, Calumet, Douglas, Jefferson, Marinette and Monroe counties.
Friday’s grants were Wisconsin’s first since 1995. Evers approved 14 of the 24 applications heard by the board in August and September and denied the remaining 10. The board weighed prison conduct and rehabilitation, public safety, and the impact on victims and survivors.
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