Shaka Sankofa
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Shaka Sankofa (born Gary Lee Graham on September 5, 1963; died June 22, 2000), was convicted and sentenced to death at the age of seventeen for the brutal murder of fifty-three year-old husband and father Bobby Lambert in Houston, Texas on May 13, 1981. He was executed by lethal injection at 8:49pm on Thursday, June 22, 2000 in Huntsville, Texas, aged thirty-six [1].
Lambert's murder occurred at night in the parking lot of a Safeway supermarket. Although he admitted that at the time of Lambert's death he was on a week-long spree of armed robberies, Sankofa maintained his innocence of Lambert's murder from the time of his arrest and throughout the nineteen years he spent on death row.
Sankofa's supporters brought his case international attention, aruging that his conviction was based on the testimony of a single eyewitness who said she saw him for a few seconds in the dark parking lot committing the murder [2]. The jury did not hear testimony from six other apparent eyewitnesses who believed that Sankofa was not the killer. No other suspects were questioned and there was a lack of physical evidence. Supporters also argued that there was other crucial evidence the jury did not hear and that he had poor legal representation at the time of his trial. He was also convicted as a juvenile.
At the time of his execution, Sankofa became the twenty-third inmate executed in Texas during 2000 and the two-hundred and twenty-second person to be executed in Texas since capital punishment was resumed there in 1982 [3]. Over half these executions took place under the jurisdiction of then-Governor George W. Bush.
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[edit] Childhood
Born to a severely mentally ill mother, Thelma Griffin, and a chronic alcoholic father, Willie Graham, his was a childhood of poverty, abuse and neglect. His mother required extended periods of institutionalization for her mental illness. As a result, Sankofa began living with other people. Passed from relative to relative, he was mainly raised by his paternal grandmother, who was also mentally ill, his father, who spent years of Shaka's childhood in prison, and stepmother, Elnora Graham, in an oppressed community in Northeast Houston amid extreme poverty. Although his parents and stepmother loved him dearly, life was difficult. Sankofa recalled as a young child having to chase and drag his mentally ill mother home when she took off down a neighborhood street totally nude, while neighborhood children laughed at her [4]. His mother, Thelma, was found dead on the street in 1988, just days after her release from a mental hospital. However, until their deaths (both parents are now deceased) they were fiercely sure of his innocence and spent their last years struggling to free him from death row [5].
A high school dropout who had had a poor education, Sankofa was unable to fully read and write by the time of his arrest. Growing out of control as a teen, his negative behavior began with nonviolent petty offenses. At seventeen, he was arrested for his first major felony: the series of armed robberies and aggravated assaults during his week-long spree of crime. At eighteen, Sankofa was on Death Row for the murder of Bobby Lambert.
[edit] Family
He is survived by his daughter, Diedre Hawkins (who never touched her father physically until his body was taken to a funeral home [6]) and son, Gary Lee Hawkins (ages 19 and 20 respectively at the time of their father's execution). He is also survived by his granddaughter, step-mother Elnora Graham, paternal grandmother, sister, step-sister and three brothers.
His son, who was two years old at the time of his father's arrest, was arrested at the age of 20 for the murder of his friend, 32-year-old Melvin Pope, on March 28, 2000, about three months before his father's execution. On March 27, 2001, he was convicted of the murder and sentenced to life in prison. He maintains his innocence [7].
[edit] Prison
In prison (Harris County Jail), Sankofa learned to read and write, earning his GED and paralegal certification. From the day of his arrest, he acknowledged his mistakes during his week-long crime spree and took full responsibility for his criminal acts. For these crimes, he had served almost two decades in prison, apologizing verbally and in writing to the victims of these crimes and expending time and energy to get the message out to young people to turn their back on criminal conduct [8].
He became a political activist and in 1995 changed his name to Shaka Sankofa. He also co-founded a prison organization and newspaper,The Endeavor Project, which were devoted to abolishing the death penalty. By the end of his life, he had also written a soon-to-be-published book, The Evolution of Shaka Sankofa [9].
[edit] Execution
Sankofa was put to death following a series of last minute legal maneuvers, including an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, which declined to halt the execution in a 5-4 vote. Sankofa's attorneys then filed a civil suit in federal court in Austin, Texas, charging the execution was a violation of his civil rights. District Court Judge James Nowlin rejected that claim.
There was heavy security outside the Huntsville Unit, known as "The Walls", with riot police equipped with tear gas and batons. Thousands of protesters, both for and against the death penalty, showed up outside the prison on the night of Sankofa's execution. Anti-death penalty advocates marched, waved signs and chanted, "Let Gary Graham live!" Prison authorities took no chances, corralling Sankofa's opponents and supporters on separate ends of the imposing brick prison. At one point, about a hundred Sankofa supporters attempted to confront around twenty Ku Klux Klansmen demonstrating in favor of the execution, but the police kept them apart. Two protesters who tried to break through police barricades, were tackled by officers, who handcuffed them and took them away [10].
After the appeals had failed, Sankofa resisted when the time came for him to be taken to the death chamber. A Cell Extraction Team was dispatched to force him towards the death chamber, where it took five jail guards to strap him to the gurney [11].
Witnesses to the execution on the victim's behalf included Bobby Hanners, Lambert's grandson; Diane Clements, a family friend and director of the victims' rights group, Justice for All; and Rick Sanford, one of Graham's victims during his rampage. "My heart goes out to the Graham family as they begin the grieving process," Hanners said in a written statement. "I also pray Gary Graham made peace with God. But I truly believe justice has been served." [12]
Witnesses to the execution on Sankofa's behalf included his step-mother Elnora Graham, Bianca Jagger, Rev. Jesse Jackson and Rev. Al Sharpton.
[edit] Shaka Sankofa's final statement
Sankofa released a final statement in which he again asserted his innocence and denounced the government.
"I would like to say that I did not kill Bobby Lambert. That I'm an innocent black man that is being murdered. This is a lynching that is happening in America tonight. There's overwhelming and compelling evidence of my defense that has never been heard in any court of America. What is happening here is an outrage for any civilized country to anybody anywhere to look at what's happening here is wrong.
"I thank all of the people that have rallied to my cause. They've been standing in support of me. Who have finished with me.
"I say to Mr. Lambert's family, I did not kill Bobby Lambert. You are pursuing the execution of an innocent man.
"I want to express my sincere thanks to all of ya'll. We must continue to move forward and do everything we can to outlaw legal lynching in America. We must continue to stay strong all around the world, and people must come together to stop the systematic killing of poor and innocent black people. We must continue to stand together in unity and to demand a moratorium on all executions. We must not let this murder/lynching be forgotten tonight, my brothers. We must take it to the nation. We must keep our faith. We must go forward. We recognize that many leaders have died. Malcom X, Martin Luther King, and others who stood up for what was right. They stood up for what was just. We must, you must brothers, that's why I have called you today. You must carry on that condition. What is here is just a lynching that is taking place. But they're going to keep on lynching us for the next 100 years, if you do not carry on that tradition, and that period of resistance. We will prevail. We may loose this battle, but we will win the war. This death, this lynching will be avenged. It will be avenged, it must be avenged. The people must avenge this murder. So my brothers, all of ya'll stay strong, continue to move forward.
"Know that I love all of you. I love the people, I love all of you for your blessing, strength, for your courage, for your dignity, the way you have come here tonight, and the way you have protested and kept this nation together. Keep moving forward, my brothers. Slavery couldn't stop us. The lynching couldn't stop us in the south. This lynching will not stop us tonight. We will go forward. Our destiny in this country is freedom and liberation. We will gain our freedom and liberation by any means necessary. By any means necessary, we keep marching forward.
"I love you, Mr. Jackson. Bianca, make sure that the state does not get my body. Make sure that we get my name as Shaka Sankofa. My name is not Gary Graham. Make sure that it is properly presented on my grave. Shaka Sankofa.
"I died fighting for what I believe in. I died fighting for what was just and what was right. I did not kill Bobby Lambert, and the truth is going to come out. It will be brought out.
"I want you to take this thing off into international court, Mr. Robert Mohammed and all ya'll. I want you, I want to get my family and take this down to international court and file a law suit. Get all the video tapes of all the beatings. They have beat me up in the back. They have beat me up at the unit over there. Get all the video tapes supporting that law suit. And make the public exposed to the genocide and this brutality world, and let the world see what is really happening here behind closed doors. Let the world see the barbarity and injustice of what is really happening here. You must get those video tapes. You must make it exposed, this injustice, to the world. You must continue to demand a moratorium on all executions. We must move forward Minister Robert Mohammed.
"Ashanti Chimurenga, I love you for standing with me, my sister. You are a strong warrior queen. You will continue to be strong in everything that you do. Believe in yourself, you must hold your head up, in the spirit of Winnie Mandela, in the spirit of Nelson Mandela. Ya'll must move forward. We will stop this lynching.
"Reverend Al Sharpton, I love you, my brother.
"Bianca Jagger, I love all of you. Ya'll make sure that we continue to stand together.
"Reverend Jesse Jackson and[?] know that this murder, this lynching will not be forgotten. I love you, too, my brother. This is genocide in America. This is what happens to black men when they stand up and protest for what is right and just. We refuse to compromise, we refuse to surrender the dignity for what we know is right. But we will move on, we have been strong in the past. We will continue to be strong as a people. You can kill a revolutionary, but you cannot stop the revolution. The revolution will go on. The people will carry the revolution on. You are the people that must carry that revolutionary on, in order to liberate our children from this genocide and for what is happening here in America tonight. What has happened for the last 100 or so years in America. This is the part of the genocide, this is part of the African [unintelligible], that we as black people have endured in America. But we shall overcome, we will continue with this. We will continue, we will gain our freedom and liberation, by any means necessary. Stay strong. They cannot kill us. We will move forward.
"To my sons, to my daughters, all of you. I love all of you. You have been wonderful. Keep your heads up. Keep moving forward. Keep united. Maintain the love and unity in the community.
"And know that victory is assured. Victory for the people will be assured. We will gain our freedom and liberation in this country. We will gain it and we will do it by any means necessary. We will keep marching. March on black people. Keep your heads high. March on. All ya'll leaders. March on. Take your message to the people. Preach the moratorium for all executions. We're gonna stop, we are going to end the death penalty in this country. We are going to end it all across this world. Push forward people. And know that what ya'll are doing is right. What ya'll are doing is just. This is nothing more that pure and simple murder. This is what is happening tonight in America. Nothing more than state sanctioned murders, state sanctioned lynching, right here in America, and right here tonight. This is what is happening my brothers. Nothing less. They know I'm innocent. They've got the facts to prove it. They know I'm innocent. But they cannot acknowledge my innocence, because to do so would be to publicly admit their guilt. This is something these racist people will never do. We must remember brothers, this is what we're faced with. You must take this endeavor forward. You must stay strong. You must continue to hold your heads up, and to be there. And I love you, too, my brother. All of you who are standing with me in solidarity. We will prevail. We will keep marching. Keep marching black people, black power. Keep marching black people, black power. Keep marching black people. Keep marching black people. They are killing me tonight. They are murdering me tonight."
(http://www.tdcj.state.tx.us/stat/grahamgarylast.htm)
[edit] Funeral and memorial service
More than two thousand people attended the June 28, 2000 wake and two thousand two hundred people attended Sankofa's funeral the following day. He was buried in a gold-colored casket, wearing a turquoise and gold African garment [13].
[edit] External links
- CNN - Graham Case Before Texas Board As Clock Ticks Towards Execution (includes video and audio files)
- CNN - Texas Parole Board Considers Fate of Condemned Man (includes video and audio links)
- Greta Van Susteren talks to Shaka Sankofa, and Discussion: Transcript (aired June 9, 2000)
- Death by Technicality - The Execution of Shaka Sankofa
- Pro-Death Penalty: Gary Graham
- Campaign to End The Death Penalty: Fact Sheets: Gary Graham
- Moratorium Now!
- Who is Gary Graham? Stop the Execution of Gary Graham
- More information on Gary Graham's execution (from his supporters)
- Information on Sankofa's childhood
- Photos of crowd outside the prison three days before Sankofa's execution
