Marie Neba Tilong
Marie Neba in a family photo, courtesy of Claudel Tilong, by way of The Marshall Project.
Memorial by Travisbigboy
Marie’s son
Mommy, I ️💗 U and I wish you were alive and here with us so that you could be with us.
💗⚰️⚰️⚰️💗 I ️U Mom. 😭😭😭
Memorial by Dyno Mite
Marie’s son
I have been suffering a lot since my mother passed away and I was not happy with this. So I just wanted to know, Mom, if you are listening to me, I am really sorry for what I have done that made you mad sometimes. So I love you for ever in my whole heart. ️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️😭😭😭😭😭💗💗💗💗💗
I 💗 U, Mom.
From Mourning Our Losses:
Marie Neba Tilong was born on July 5, 1964 in Cameroon. She immigrated to the United States and settled in Texas, where she and her husband, Ebong Tilong, had three children: daughter Claudel Tilong first, and then, nine years later, twins Trevor and Travis. A nurse practitioner, Marie operated a home health care agency with her husband in Houston, Texas. Marie passed away from COVID-19 on August 25, 2020 at the age of 56.
Marie was suffering from Stage IV breast cancer when she was given by all accounts an extremely excessive sentence. After her trial, her husband and co-defendant fled the country. Marie filed for compassionate release, for which she seemed a suitable candidate: she was dying from Stage IV cancer—in this initial file for release, she cited a recent prognosis that gave her less than two years—and had three children at home, uncared for. She was denied.
In March 2020, as the pandemic began its swift and deadly spread behind bars, Marie filed for an emergency hearing to receive compassionate release. In a conversation with Star-Telegram, Marie described herself as “at crazy risk.” The federal government, however, opposed her compassionate release in June, arguing that, as she had not yet served half of her sentence, she was ineligible for release.
Marie wrote to the judge: “I don’t think I will make it here if I continue under such horrible conditions.” Indeed, the conditions at FMC Carswell, the only federal hospital correctional facility for women in the country, were some of the worst in the nation. The women there—most of whom suffer from a physical and/or mental illness—should have been the ideal candidates for home confinement or compassionate release. Yet they have faced “bureaucratic roadblocks, indifference and sometimes outright malevolence.” 349 women asked for compassionate release during the first three months of the pandemic, but the warden denied or failed to respond to 346, reflecting an overall trend of apathy and cruelty, in which federal prisons refused or ignored all but 2% of compassionate release requests. In the following months, more than 500 women contracted COVID-19 at FMC Carswell. On August 25, 2020, Marie became the sixth to die.
Marie tested positive for COVID-19 on July 3. Though the facility’s report considered her “recovered” by August 4, less than a week later, Marie was admitted to the Nursing Care Unit, citing abdominal pain and shortness of breath. On August 12, Marie was transported to the local hospital. A compassionate nurse at the hospital made a FaceTime call during Marie’s last days so that she could see Claudel, her daughter. A correctional officer in the room, however, interrupted the call: “It’s not allowed.” On August 24, Marie was placed on a ventilator. Her attorney, Zachary Newland, made another plea for her compassionate release at this drastic worsening in condition—so that her three children “wouldn’t have to watch her wearing handcuffs during the last days of her life.” This appeal went unheard, however, and Marie died the next day.
On August 26, Newland begged the judge to end Marie’s sentence. Hours after filing the request, he learned about her passing the day before. He learned that a nurse had again called Claudel on FaceTime during Neba’s final moments; Claudel, Trevor, and Travis watched their mother take their last breaths through the phone. One son said goodbye; the other asked his mother to say hi to Moses in Heaven.
Marie Neba, obtained from Kinka’s Blog.
“Marie Neba died in chains because the government consistently refused to recommend her compassionate release,” said Newland. Marie’s story is a painful and heartbreaking one, as it reveals a lack of compassion and regard for basic humanity at every level of the justice system. We stand with her children, Claudel, Trevor, and Travis, in mourning her passing.
This memorial was written by MOL team member Frances Keohane with information from reporting by Keri Blakinger and Joseph Neff of The Marshall Project, Kaley Johnson and Mark Dent of the Star Telegram, Jodine Mayberry of the Delco Times, and a press release by the Federal Bureau of Prisons.
If you are able, please consider supporting Claudel as she navigates schooling and a new child-care responsibility in the wake of her mother’s passing: https://gf.me/u/yucdfb.
