Nizah Morris
Nizah Morris was born in 1955 and started living as a woman in her 20s.
She worked in childcare with her mother and routinely performed during the Thursday night drag show at Bob & Barbara’s Lounge in Philadelphia.
Her friend, Asa Khalif described her saying, “She was upbeat whenever you saw her, and you could always get a wisecrack out of her."
Towards the end of her life she became a Buddhist. Asa reflected on the final year of her life saying, "She was more at peace, her whole mentality changed...At one point in her life, she hadn't been able to have a good time because of the demons she was battling. She was comfortable in her own skin... Eventually she was able to live in the moment more.”
On December 22nd, 2002, Nizah was found lying on the sidewalk and bleeding from the side of her forehead. She was transported to the hospital in critical condition and placed on life support until December 23rd when she was taken off life support.
She was pronounced dead at 8:30pm on December 24th, 2002.
Her death sparked outcry from the LGBTQIA+ community in Philadelphia
Inconsistencies in the sloppy police report and overall neglect from the Philadelphia police department lead many to suspect foul play from the police.
Nizah had attended a Christmas party at Key West Bar the night of December 21st and due to being inebriated, she couldn’t walk or stand without help when she left the party at 2AM on December 22nd.
A 911 call was placed at 3:07 AM on December 22nd asking for help.
When the police arrived, officer Elizabeth Didonato offered to give her a “courtesy ride” to the hospital, something then (and now) unheard of for a Black trans woman. Nizah declined the ride to the hospital and asked to be taken home.
The police drove her four blocks and let her out at 15th and Walnut, they claim she said she lived there. Tim Cwiek from Philadelphia Gay News pointed out that the area they dropped her off is the business district, not a residential area.
At 3:25AM, 911 calls started to come in from passing motorists stating that she was lying in the street unconscious.
The Philadelphia Medical Examiner’s Office classified her death as a homicide on December 25th, 2002. The Philadelphia Police Department disputed this and requested a second opinion.
The second opinion was consistent with the Philadelphia Medical Examiner’s office, this was a homicide.
Nizah’s mother, Roselyn Wilkins, filed a complaint in May 2003 with the independent oversight Police Advisory Commission against the Philadelphia Police Department.
The Center for Lesbian and Gay Civil rights filed a civil suit against Key West Bar, the police officers, the emergency technicians and the city of Philadelphia in September 2003.
In December 2003, still “unable” to find her killer, The Philadelphia Police Department closed their investigation.
The suit The Center for Lesbian and Gay Civil Rights filed was settled in May 2004 for $250,000.
In 2006, three years after Roselyn initially filed her complaint with the independent oversight Police Advisory Commission against the Philadelphia Police Department, hearings start being held.
In November 2007, the Police Advisory Commission initially found that all officers, minus one, Officer Skala, had acted ethically.
Days later the Philadelphia Police Department advised the Police Advisory Commission that their findings were based on incomplete documents, a detective had revealed that Nizah’s homicide report had been missing since 2003.
The Police Advisory Commission voted to reopen the investigation into Nizah Morris’ death in March 2008.
After months of back and forth, in November 2008, District Attorney Lynne Abraham said she would grant access to the city’s evidence under one condition; non-disclosure agreements would have to be signed by members of the Police Advisory Commission, preventing 1) any public report from being released and 2) corrective action from being taken.
Named for Nizah, Morris Home opened in 2011. It is “the only residential recovery program in the country to offer comprehensive services specifically for the transgender and gender-expansive community.”
Under new leadership from executive director, Kelvyn Anderson, The Police Advisory Commission voted to re-open the investigation again in 2011.
In an opinion filed, she stated, “The nondisclosure agreement the 2008 Police Advisory Commission entered into with the D.A. undermines our effectiveness and credibility as a civilian oversight board and compromises the open‐ ness and transparency that is our raison d’être. As the current Police Advisory Commission refused to enter into such an agreement prior to obtaining access to the D.A. records on the Nizah Morris investigation, we are not restricted in our ability to cite, quote or describe the documents.”
Kelvyn Anderson went on to send a letter to U.S. attorney, Attorney Zane Memenger, requesting a full investigation, alleging, a “litany of errors.”
According to a 2015 report from The Daily Beast, the U.S. Attorney General's office never responded.
On Sept. 29, 2023, the Philadelphia Police Department announced a new Internal Affairs investigation of the Morris case.
In his article, Tim Ciwek notes that a prior 2005 investigation hadn’t looked cloosely at the paperwork submitted by officers who responded to Morris.
As of December 19th, 2023, the investigation was still active.
For almost 20 years, Tim Ciwek has relentlessly covered Nizah’s story and case for Philadelphia Gay News. You can read his reporting and the work of 13 other Philadelphia Gay News writers who continue to fight for police transparency and keep Nizah’s name alive here.