Brothers and Sisters,
Your assistance is needed regarding a situation in the US. Please
make calls in protest of the attempted execution of Ahaka Sankofa.
Please forward this information within your network as well. Our
concerted efforts are needed.
Peace.
Jamila
________________________________________________________________________
--- [log in to unmask] wrote:
> From: [log in to unmask]
> Date: Mon, 5 Jun 2000 13:02:01 EDT
> Subject: DEMAND GOV. BUSH STOP THE EXECUTION OF SHAKA SANKOFA
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> under Bush’s watch,Absolutely the Last Draft - E.B.
>
>
> IS GOV. GEORGE BUSH’S “FIRST STAY OF EXECUTION” A PLOY
> TO DENY EVIDENCE IN SHAKA SANKOFA CASE FROM BEING HEARD?
>
> by
> Elombe Brath
>
> It is clearly evident to most of us who have been involved in trying
> to draw
> attention to the innocence of Shaka Sankofa, a death row Texas inmate
>
> formerly known as Gary Graham, that the recent staying of the
> execution of a
> white “convicted child killer and rapist” by Gov. George W. Bush in
> Huntsville, Texas, seems to be nothing more than a racist ploy to
> ignore the
> growing condemnation of Sankofa’s pending execution on June 22, 2000.
> This is
> particularly true after carefully scrutinizing Shankofa’s case and
> find that
> his claim to innocence is much more obvious than that of the
> reprieved
> inmate, Ricky Noel McGinn.
>
> Gov. Bush, who has already permitted 131 executions within the last 5
> 1/2
> years, has gained such a notorious reputation for having presided
> over so
> many executions that he is currently regarded by anti-death penalty
> activists
> as an “authorized serial killer.” The governor had recently been
> under
> pressure to grant a stay in the case of Shaka Sankofa so that
> pertinent
> evidence could be heard. It had been argued to Bush that since he
> has a such
> a hardline record regarding capital punishment cases (particularly in
> the
> view of a great many people in the Black community), he could easily
> afford
> to grant a stay of execution for Sankofa, who has been on death row
> since
> 1981 and has a case that truly indicates reasonable doubt if there
> ever was
> one.
>
> Furthermore, since Bush has presented himself as a “compassionate
> conservative” as part of his presidential campaign rhetoric, it was
> felt
> that this was a perfect case to establish what, for Bush, could be an
> example
> of what constituted a conservative with compassion. The fact that
> Sankofa is
> a Black man and McGinn is white could not be missed by most
> observers.
>
> Therefore, in regards to the Texas governor, we now know that his
> introduction of the metaphor “compassionate conservative was just
> simply his
> turning of a slick phrase. The words are symbolic but empty of
> meaningful
> substance. In retrospect, however, it might be better for us to say
> that his
> terminology did have both symbolism and substance, but its usage was
> grounded
> in the American criminal justice system’s racist conception of crime
> and
> those whom it believed should be subjugated to the lower strata of
> society.
> The 1857 decision of Chief Justice Roger Brooke Taney in the case of
> Dred
> Scott, i.e., in effect, that a Black man had no rights that a white
> man
> needed to respect, should guide our considerations.
>
> Gov. Bush’s compassionate conservatism seems to have been colored by
> American
> racist considerations as he chose to disregard his intervening on
> behalf of
> an inmate who should never have been convicted of the crime he was
> charged
> with in the first place: the murder and robbery of Bobby Lambert, a
> local
> drug trafficker who had been subpoenaed to testify in a then
> forthcoming
> possible police corruption investigation. Since Lambert still had
> $6000,
> along with drugs and a cache of weapons in his possesion when his
> body was
> discovered, many believe that the killing seems to be more of a
> contract
> killing than a robbery. This would also indicate why the local police
> are so
> hyped up to see Sankofa executed and have the book closed on the
> case.
>
> If this execution is allowed to go through, it will not only show
> that
> Illinois Governor George Ryan, a Republican conservative himself,
> could more
> rightfully be considered a “compassionate conserva- tive” (whatever
> that is)
> than his contempory colleague who coined the terminology. Gov. Ryan,
> also a
> believer in capital punishment, called for a moratorium on all
> further
> executions in Illinois when he became cognizant of the facts that at
> least 13
> death row cases in his state involved condemned inmates who were very
> likely
> innocent. Rather than posture and pontificate like Bush had done when
> he
> bragged that no inmate who had been executed under his watch was
> innocent of
> the crime they had been convicted, Gov. Ryan put principle above
> party line
> and self-righteous boasting while someone’s life hung in the
> balance.
>
> Many people are demanding that the death penalty be totally
> abolished,
> precisely because of the possibility that an innocent person might
> be
> mistakenly put to death. What is being argued by supporters of
> Sankofa, Mumia
> Abu-Jamal and Thomas Miller-El, another Texas death row inmate whose
> case
> needs equal scrutiny, is that in these three cases (as well as some
> others)
> there is overwhelming evidence that the “trials” of the defendants
> did not
> truly represent due process of the law. And in all three cases, all
> that the
> defendants are simply asking for is a real opportunity to prove their
>
> innocence in court.
>
> As Shaka Sankofa indicates in *his recently released CD Let The
> Evidence Be
> Heard,
>
> All I’m asking you,
> is for a trial fresh and new,
> and after that, go on and do
> what you gotta do.
> But until then, I’m innocence
> and that’s my word.
> All I’m asking you
>
> is let the evidence be heard.
>
>
> *produced by Eligah “Ricky” Jason, c
> 2000
>
> There are those who believe that all persons who have been charged,
> tried and
> convicted by the state always claim they are innocent. And indeed, in
> a great
> many cases, that might be true. But whether true or false, the fact
> remains
> that this argument does not negate the reality that a whole lot of
> people who
> have been incarcerated - and even executed - have really been
> innocent of the
> crimes for which they had been convicted. With the amount of cases
> being
> discovered recently that document the railroading of defendants
> through
> corrupt police practices such as intimidating withnesses, fabrication
> of
> evidence, tampering of juries, obscuring DNA discoveries, etc., it is
> well
> known that everybody that is in jail, prison, detention or on
> probation or
> parole are not necessarily hardened criminals who have met their
> just
> deserts.
>
> The case of Shaka Sankofa, like that of Mumia Abu-Jamal and Thomas
> Miller-El,
> and scores of other individuals whose incarceration
> is reflective of political manipulation by the capitalist state, is
> what
> concerns us. And make no mistakes about it, in the U.S., capital
> punishment
> is just what its terminology implies: Capital punishing those who
> have no
> capital! In other words, if you don’t have no cash, then your ass is
> good to
> go.
>
> And so it was with Shaka Sankofa 19 years ago, then a 17 year old
> Black man
> christened Gary Graham. Like many troubled young men today, he had
> found
> himself on the wrong side of the law on several occasions. This he
> has never
> denied. When he was caught, he confessed and did his time. Thus, like
> many
> young men of every race, ethnicity and class in the U.S., he
> established a
> juvenile record that police authorities automatically use to try and
> tie
> ex-offenders to in investigating future crimes.
>
> As it was with a young Malcolm Little (later Malcolm X and El Hajj
> Malik
> El-Shabazz), George Jackson, or even Larry Davis (now Adam Abdul
> Hakeem),
> Gary Graham (now Shaka Sankofa) entered the penal system not as a
> revolutionary but one whose misguided activities brought them there.
> But once
> incarcerated for any amount of time, some use that time not to try to
> better
> their criminal potential but to better their lives. Instead of
> utilizing
> their time to be served as trading stories with other inmates of how
> to
> better commit crimes upon their release, they personally try to
> rehabilitate
> themselves since most correctional facilities see their role only as
> punishing those incarcerated instead of correcting their behavior so
> that
> they could be returned to society as a better person than when the
> came into
> prison.
>
> Therefore, some like those mentioned above, chose to better their
> lives by
> adapting new values. Sometime these values are religious based,
> whether
> Islamic or Born Again Christians, health and/or new ifestyles
> oriented. Other
> times they adapt themselves to ideological and revolutionary
> discipline to
> change their lives. It is usually this latter choice that the
> authorities
> most abhor and fear. In fact, interestingly, the system seems to
> prefer those
> who rather continue their lives of criminality and become
> incorrigible more
> than become disciplined and committed revolutionaries. It is this
> choice,
> that of revolutionizing his life, that Sankofa has chosen; and this
> is the
> reason why the Texas state authorities have become so obsessed to
> take his
> life.
>
> From entering prison 19 years ago as virtually a young illiterate,
> naive and
> inarticulate Black man named Gary Graham, lacking self-esteem, who
> found
> himself ensnared in a capital murder case, he has developed to the
> point that
> he stands before us today as a literate, bold and articulate
> self-defined
> African man renamed Shaka Sankofa, bursting with pride of who he is
> and
> committed to fight for his life as well as the lives of others. He is
> firmly
> assured in the knowledge of his innocence and is desirous of
> rebuilding his
> life so that he can contibute to the advancement and upliftment of
> his
> people, while helping others that have also found themselves in
> similar
> circumstances as he experienced nearly two decades ago.
> One may ask, Why do we feel so strong about Sankofa’s innocence?
> Well, we are
> eager to reply. Picture yourself in Sankofa’s shoes in 1981. His case
> began
> May 13, 1981. Ironically, it was an ominous date for the crime he was
> being
> charged which occurred exactly four years before another more serious
> crime
> was committed against our people - the horrendous bombing of the MOVE
>
> headquarters on Osage Avenue in Philadelphia which killed scores of
> people,
> while coincidently making another symbolic link between Shaka’s case
> and that
> of Mumia.
>
> Sankofa’s arrest also took place six months before Mumia Abu-Jamal,
> the
> former Black Panther Party Philadelphia information minister and
> up-and-coming revolutionary Black journalist, had a chance encounter
> with a
> swirl of events which caused the death of Police Officer Daniel
> Faulkner and
> allowed the city and state apparatus to frame Mumia for the shooting
> and
> railroad him to death row where he still languishes today, still
> struggling
> to prove his innocence in his own respective case.
>
> Incidently, Mumia’s case evolved when this prize-winning journalist
> was
> forced into what even then was a dangerous occupation: moonlighting
> as a
> cabdriver to legitimately supplement his income to support his
> family. It was
> a fateful night in December when he rolled up on a scene in
> Philadelphia
> and just happen to see a man being beaten by a policeman with a
> flashlight.
> Leaving his cab to investigate, he was shocked to see that the the
> victim
> happened to be his brother. Some witnesses claimed that there were
> people
> other than Mumia on the scene who eventually got away before police
> reinforcements arrived. And several witnesses have stated that Mumia
> was not
> the person who shot Officer Faulkner.
>
> But since Mumia was also shot at the scene, and because of his
> radical
> history of criticizing police abuses, Faulkner’s fellow police
> officers
> seized upon the opportunity to focus on their old nemesis as the only
>
> possible killer, in spite of countervailing evidence that indicate
> his
> innocence. A bogus trial ruled over by a biased judge, Albert Sabo,
> who
> conducted the court proceedings in the usual manner that had
> permitted him to
> send more men to death row than any other judge in the U.S. However,
> Judge
> Sabo is also said to be the judge who has had most of his court’s
> convictions
> overruled during appeal. Hence the reason that Mumia’s prosecutors -
> and perse
> cutors - have gone out of their way to make sure that Mumia is not
> granted a
> new trial.
>
> In Sankofa’s trial, however, three people did get to testify; two
> testified
> that he was not the man seen shooting Bobby Lambert at the scene. The
> other,
> Bernadine Skillern, testified that she did see “Gary Graham shoot
> Lambert.”
> But there are some considerations regarding the accuracy and thus
> credibility
> of her testimony.
>
> For instance, although the description of Lambert’s killer did not
> match the
> physical characteristics of Graham/Sankofa (e.g. the killer was
> identified as
> being about 5’3” and Sankofa is 5’10’), and his complexion was
> different than
> that of the man described at the scene of the crime, those
> contradictions
> were ignored. Furthermore, it must be remembered that Ms. Skillern
> went
> through a photo book of potential suspects at the police station
> during which
> time Shaka’s photograh was pointed out, the very day before she
> would pick
> him out of the lineup that sealed his doom.
>
> Skillern’s ID was sufficient for the court to convict Sankofa, even
> though
> four people passed polygraph tests stating that he was several miles
> away at
> another location at the time the crime was said to have been
> committed.
>
> Even favorable evidence furnished by the state criminal justice
> system did
> not forestall Sankofa from being convicted. To wit, while Lambert was
> killed
> with a .22 calibre handgun and Shaka also did own such a gun, his gun
> was
> tested by the Texas police crime laboratory which verified that his
> weapon
> could not have been the one that killed Lambert.
>
> The state appointed attorney that was assigned to represent Sankofa
> could be
> the poster boy for incompetent counsel. He did little or no
> investigation,
> was reluctant to call witnesses whose testimony could exonerate his
> client,
> and worst yet, praised Skillern - the only so-called witness against
> his
> client - as being credible!
>
> Indeed, with a defense attorney like this, was there a need for a
> prosecutor?
>
> Shaka Sankofa’s five near death experiences with the executioner
> represent
> cruel and unusual punishment. Thus far, all of his sentencing dates
> have been
> stayed when high authorities (or as some believe, perhaps an even
> higher
> authority) intervened at the last minute because of their reviewing
> the
> obvious contradictions in the trial process.
>
> He came within three hours of being put to death before a stay saved
> him in
> 1987; in April of 1993 a stay arrived just eight hours before he was
> scheduled to be killed; in August of the same year he was scheduled
> to be
> killed on the 17th - Marcus Garvey’s birthday when a stay arrived
> five hours
> before he was to be placed on the gurney; and in January of last
> year, it was
> 24 hours that separated him from having his life extinguished. And
> now we are
> faced with another grueling torturous death date in roughly two weeks
> - June
> 22nd.
>
> Gov. Bush is playing a very disingenuous game. The 30 day stay he has
> just
> granted Ricky Nolen Mcginn, who they not only convicted in the
> axe-slaying
> murder and rape of his 12-year-old step-daughter seven years ago but
> have
> leaked out that he has faced similar sex abuse charges in previous
> arrests,
> are now compounded with the information that contrary to what we have
> been
> led to believe, Gov. Bush “has pardoned two convicted sex offenders,
> including an East Texas man pardoned, after DNA tests proved their
> innocence”, according to the New York Times of this past Thursday,
> June 1st.
>
> This particularly shocking because while a stay is only temporary and
> a new
> sentencing date can set in the future, initiating the whole process
> of facing
> death once again, a pardon is an ending to that process. When one has
> their
> sentence stayed, besides lending a sense of relief to most on on
> death row,
> even if they were to have the sentence commuted to life in prison
> without
> parole, there might still be a chance that an innocent person could
> eventually be freed if information could be found in the future that
> would
> clearly prove their innocence. In order for this to occur, however,
> one would
> have to be alive.
>
> One such case is that of Henry Lee Lucas, who is a “confessed serial
> killer
> who actually had commited the murder for which he was convicted”,
> according
> to the aforementioned New York Times article. Lucas had his death
> sentence
> commuted to that of life in prison in 1998, authorized by the
> governor during
> “his watch.”
>
> Understanding this, Bush’s latest move looks to be not only cynical
> but
> diabolically hypocritical. We believe that his actions are definitely
>
> suspicious. As he takes off along the campaign trail bragging about
> having
> granting his “first reprieve”, we find that his Lt. Gov. Rick Perry
> happens
> to be out of the country, technically leaving the decision to
> intervene on
> Sankofa’s behalf on Texas’s State Senate president pro tem to Rodney
> Ellis, a
> liberal Democrat from Houston who just happens to be Black.
>
> For the record, it was Texas State Senator president pro tem Rodney
> Ellis
> that actually issued the stay for McGinn, just as Ellis has also
> issued the
> other previous stays that we are now learning about.
> It is this realization, particularly as it relates to the case of
> Shaka
> Sankofa, that we have come to our conclusion. In being consistent
> with the
> belief that the death penalty in the U.S. should be abolished,
> including
> those pardoned by Bush, we have a very difficult time wondering why
> he seems
> to find it so easy to pardon white men convicted of murderous sex
> offenses
> but can’t deal with granting an innocent Black man a stay to have his
> day in
> court?
>
> We don’t need any more long drawn out, torturous periods of waiting
> to find
> out what the decision is going to be. Gov. Bush should grant a
> reprieve to
> immediately stop the pending execution of Shaka Sankofa! Set a new
> trial date
> and let the evidence be heard which could save his life, clear his
> name and
> render justice in a case that never should have been tried in the
> first place.
>
> Yo, Governor Bush...What’s up with that?
__________________________________________________
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