globalized the variable

display = serial.Serial("/dev/ttyUSB0", 19200, serial.EIGHTBITS, serial.PARITY_NONE, serial.STOPBITS_ONE, timeout=5,

                        rtscts=False)

status="alive"

def stoplisten():

    while True:

            print("failing decode quietly")

        # Check if the received character is 'E'

        if received_char == 'E':

            print("KILL")

            global status

            status="kill"

# Find the ID of the first MIDI device since I only have one

def findAMIDIDevice():

    # get the output of amidi -l which lists onboard midi devices