Shaka Sankofa

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Shaka Sankofa (born Gary Lee Graham) (September 5, 1963 – June 22, 2000) was convicted and sentenced to death at the age of 21 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 8:49 pm 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, arguing 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.^[1] 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.

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.[2]

1 Childhood
2 Family
3 Prison
4 Execution
5 Shaka Sankofa's final statement
6 Funeral and memorial service
7 References
8 See also
9 External links

[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.[3] 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.[4]

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 twenty, he was arrested for his first major felony: the series of armed robberies and aggravated assaults during his week-long spree of crime. At twentyone, Sankofa was on Death Row for the murder of Bobby Lambert.

[edit] Family

Sankofa was survived by his daughter and son, Gary Lee Hawkins, ages 19 and 20, respectively, at the time of their father's execution. He was also survived by his granddaughter, stepmother, paternal grandmother, sister, stepsister, 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.[5]

[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.[6]

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.[7]

[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, 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.^[2]

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.[8]

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."^[2]

Witnesses to the execution on Sankofa's behalf included his stepmother 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.[9]

“

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 y'all are doing is right. What y'all 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.

”

[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.[10]