| Jefferson Keane | |
|---|---|
| |
| First appearance | "The Routine" (episode 1.01) |
| Last appearance | "Capital P" (episode 1.04) "Dead Man Talking" (episode 6.01) (Spirit) |
| Reason/Cause | Executed by Lethal Injection |
| Details | |
| Prisoner No. | 97K186 |
| Aliases | Tizi Ouzou |
| Gender | Male |
| Age | 35 (Deceased) |
| Date of Conviction | May 14, 1997 |
| Date of Death | July 28, 1997 |
| Affiliations | The Homeboys & The Muslims |
| Spouse | Mavis Woodson (Widow) |
| Relatives | Billie Keane (Brother) Cornelius Keane (Father) Grace Keane (Sister) |
| Kill Count | 3 |
| Episode Count | 6 Episodes |
| Portrayed by | Leon Robinson |
- "I want my family to know that I love them and I believe that this punishes them more than it punishes me. I am so sorry for the three murders that I did and I wish by killing me today, you could bring them back. My time on this earth has been far too short. Maybe too short to get it all done right. But so, I'm ready to move on. All praise to Allah. All praise."
- ―Jefferson Keane[src]
Jefferson Keane, later known by his Muslim identity Tizi Ouzou (Arabic: تيزي وزو), was an African-American inmate featured in Oz. He was a Story Arc character in Season 1. Portrayed by Leon Robinson.
Plot Summary[]
- "Prisoner number 97K186, Jefferson Keane. Convicted May 14, '97 - Two counts of murder in the first degree. Sentence: Life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. Convicted again, murder in the first degree of inmate Julio Martinez. Sentence: Death "
- ―The Narrator[src]
Character Summary[]
Jefferson Keane was a cold blooded criminal in a system that never needed to see him as otherwise. Keane was the first leader of the Homeboys to be introduced and was proven to be a powerful and effective leader as well. Keane is serving life for shooting a wedding couple in cold blood for ripping off his package of drugs. Eventually Keane gets tired of the thug life and converts to Islam, renaming himself “Tizi Ouzou”. He even forms a strong bond with minister Kareem Saïd, who was an enemy at first and became a friend and spiritual guide later. Keane was a hardened criminal who saw the errors of his ways and desired to change to save his soul. Before he was executed, he believed his death would put an end to the war of his Homeboys and the Mafia. However, things only took a turn for the worst after his death.
Season 1[]
Keane runs the Homeboys, the black gangster inmates involved in drug dealing. He first appears sponsoring new inmate Paul Markstrom who would like to join the Homeboys and appears to be worthy of membership. Keane does not know at the time that Markstrom is in actuality an undercover police officer. He then appears with Markstrom and Simon Adebisi confronting Muslim inmate Kareem Said. Because the Muslims are anti-drugs, Keane views Said as a threat taking away several African-American soldiers and customers away from the Homeboys. Said shows that he is not scared however and the Homeboys and Muslims leave each other alone.
Keane is then approached by Irish inmate, Ryan O'Reily and is asked to murder Italian-American inmate, Dino Ortolani. He initially refuses, as the current rules keeping the inmates from war involve killing no Wiseguys. This changes however when Billie, his homosexual brother, is savagely beaten by Ortolani after making a pass at him in the showers. Angered, Keane conspires with O'Reily to get revenge on him. An opportunity presents itself after Ortolani is put in the hole and sedated after killing Emilio Sanchez in the infirmary. O'Reily asks CO Mike Healy to let in Homeboy Johnny Post into the hole. Post then spills some flammable fluid over Ortolani and sets him on fire while he is unable to defend himself or even notice it, killing him.
Later on, when O'Reily finds out that the Italians intend to take revenge on whoever did it, he suggests that Keane rat Post out to them to take the heat off the two of them. Keane refuses, but O'Reily rats him out to the Mob’sleader, Nino Schibetta. O'Reily is playing both sides to stay in the good graces of both the black gang members and the Sicilian mobsters. The Sicilians seek their revenge on Post by castrating and killing him. They later put the severed penis in Keane's cell to let him know they are aware of the fact Post was not acting on his own.
Keane later converts to Islam and softens his image. This puts him at odds with his Homeboys and his brother Billie, who is homosexual. To get in Schibetta's good graces, O'Reily sets it up with the COs to have Keane fight two Latinos in the gym. The fight is caught on video tape, Keane ends up killing one of the Latinos and is sentenced to death row under the reinstated death penalty. Fellow inmate Tobias Beecher discovers that Keane was set up and tries to file an appeal on his behalf, but Keane wishes to stay on death row because he worries that if he is taken off of death row, he will revert back to his old ways. Keane's sister needs a kidney transplant and Governor Devlin grants a stay of execution for him to donate his kidney, but only under intense political pressure. Keane's execution went on as scheduled as he hoped to bring peace between the Homeboys and Wiseguys through his death. However, after his death things only get worse between the gangs.
After Death[]
After his death, Keane makes an appearance in a hallucination had by Tim McManus in A Game of Checkers. Later, in Dead Man Talking, he reappears in the Afterlife, where he co-narrates the episode with Augustus Hill.
Appearances[]
| Episodes | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Season 1 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |||
| Season 2 | ||||||||
| Season 3 | ||||||||
| Season 4a | ||||||||
| Season 4b | ||||||||
| Season 5 | ||||||||
| Season 6 | ✓ |
Kill Count[]
Personal
- Wedding Couple: Both shot to death for ripping off Keane's drug package. (1997)
- Julio Martinez: Broke his neck in a duel to the death. (1997)
Proxy
- Dino Ortolani: Burned him to death while he was in the hole by Johnny Post. (1997)
Appearances[]
| Episodes | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Season 1 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |||
| Season 2 | ||||||||
| Season 3 | ||||||||
| Season 4a | ||||||||
| Season 4b | ||||||||
| Season 5 | ||||||||
| Season 6 | ✓ |
Gallery[]
| The Homeboys |
|---|
|
Simon Adebisi - Burr Redding - Kenny Wangler - Jefferson Keane - Poet - Junior Pierce - Supreme Allah - Tug Daniels - Leroy Tidd - Mondo Browne - Reggie Rawls - Malcolm Coyle - Paul Markstrom - Desmond Mobay - Johnny Post - Curtis Bennett |
| The Muslims |
|---|
|
Kareem Saïd - Zahir Arif - Hamid Khan - Salah Udeen - Tizi Ouzou - Nacim Bismilla - Huseni Mershah - Jamal Yusef - Ahmad Lalar - Sanjay Afsana |
| Death Row |
|---|
|
Jefferson Keane - Richard L'Italien - Donald Groves - Shirley Bellinger - Richie Hanlon - Moses Deyell - Mark Miles - Nat Ginzburg - William Giles - Chris Keller - Cyril O'Reily - Jaz Hoyt - Timmy Kirk |