Bio

Quisi Bryan was born on October 2, 1970. Public records identify him as an American.

There is little public information about his childhood, family, schooling, or early work. Available sources do not provide further verified details about his upbringing.

Murder Story

Quisi Bryan was born on October 2, 1970. He was convicted of murdering Cleveland police officer Wayne Leon during a traffic stop in 2000. Bryan is on death row in Ohio and is scheduled to be executed on November 15, 2028.

On June 25, 2000, Officer Wayne Leon pulled Bryan over for a traffic violation at a gas station in the Central neighborhood of Cleveland at E. 40th St. and Community College Boulevard. Bryan shot Leon in the face, killing him instantly.

Bryan was found guilty of murdering Leon and was sentenced to death.

In 2015, federal public defenders Lori Riga and Alan Rossman represented Bryan on an appeal to the United States District Court for the Northern District of Ohio. Judge James G. Carr overturned Bryan’s case because prosecutors improperly tried to remove a prospective Black juror from Bryan’s trial because of her race.

The United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit reversed Carr’s decision 2-1 in December 2016. The Sixth Circuit ruled that the Toledo federal judge improperly substituted its interpretation of the evidence for the findings of the trial judge. The United States Supreme Court declined to hear a challenge to the Sixth Circuit’s decision.

Bryan was scheduled to be executed on October 26, 2022, at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility. On June 24, 2022, his execution was delayed to January 7, 2026. On June 20, 2025, his execution was again delayed to November 15, 2028.

In 2007, Bryan pled guilty to several sexual assaults that happened prior to his 2000 crime and was sentenced to up to 48 years in prison. In April 2017, he was resentenced to 22 years in prison for those assaults after the Ohio Supreme Court ruled that judges in five Cuyahoga County rape cases had wrongly applied sentences to the law at the time the crimes occurred.

In 2014, Bryan was convicted by the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas of raping and kidnapping a woman on March 15, 1994. The jury found him not guilty on a second count of rape that stemmed from the same incident. Judge David Matia sentenced Bryan to a maximum of 50 years in prison. Bryan was charged after the woman’s rape kit was tested and his DNA matched. The victim testified that Bryan led her at knife point behind a vacant home on East 93rd Street in Cleveland into an abandoned car and raped her twice. She said Bryan threatened to kill her if she did not cooperate.