Standing Up for An Innocent Man
Countdown For Justice
Calendar of Events Save Gary Graham/Shaka Sankofa
Sunday, June 18 - Father's Day Gospel Concert for Justice for Gary Graham at Grace Temple Baptist Church, 6503 Montgomery at Acres Home, 7 p.m. Admission is free. 713-692-6010 or 713-274-3738
Monday, June 19 - Juneteenth Parade with Graham/Sankofa delegation, call 713-521-0629.
Wednesday, June 21 - Austin Rally For Gary Graham. Buses and Cars leave SHAPE Community Center at 7 a.m. Transportation is Free.
Thursday, June 22 - Emergency Day of Protest and Resistance in Huntsville, Texas. Buses and cars begin leaving SHAPE Community Center at 8 a.m. until
PHONE NUMBERS FOR GEORGE BUSH
IN TEXAS:
1-800-252-9600
ALL OTHERS; 512-463-2000
FAX : 512-463-1849
CHAIRMAN TEXAS BOARD OF PARDON AND PAROLES - Gerald Garrett 512-463-1679 Fax 512-463-8120
GET INVOLVED! STOP THE TEXAS KILLING MACHINE! =====================================>
From: Mark Clement <MClement at bruderhof.com> Sent: Friday, June 09, 2000 3:28 PM
Please forward this message to as many people as possible.
CALL FOR MILLIONS TO DESCEND ON HUNTSVILLE, TEXAS ON JUNE 22, 2000 to Protest on Gary's Behalf.
Call for further information to: Tonya McClary at (202) 387-3891 X 17 Ricky Jason at (409) 924-7303
Numbers to call to protest Gary's death sentence:
Gov. Bush: Phone (512) 463-1782/Fax (512) 463-1849 and Garret, Clemency Section: Phone (512) 406-5852/Fax (512) 467-0945
Call Bush Headquarters: 512 463-2000 Texas Parole Board: 512 463-1679
governor George W. Bush jr. office of the governor P.O. Box 12428 Austin, TX 78711 phone: 00 1(512) 463-2000 fax: 00 1(512) 463-1849 for his e-mail look at the web site in, http://www.governor.state.tx.us/email.htm1
Board of pardons and parole Gerald Garrett, chairman price daniel, sr. building 209 w. 14th street, suite 500 Austin, TX 78701 phone: 00 1 (512) 463-1679 fax: 00 1 (512) 463-8120
Call Attorney General Janet Reno to protest the proposed execution of an innocent man - (202) 514-2001
Al Gore's Campaign Office - (615) 340-2000 (Call to ask them to challenge Bush on his death penalty record)
Call to tell the papers that Millions will be descending on Texas to protest Bush's plan to kill an innocent man.
Austin American-Statesman letters to the editor p.o. box 670 Austin, tx 78767-0670 phone: 00 1(512) 445-3500 fax: 00 1(512) 445-3679
the Dallas Morning News letters to the editor p.o. box 655237 Dallas, TX 75265-5237 phone: 00 1 (214) 977-8222 fax: 00 1 (214) 977-8319
Houston Chronicle letters to the editor p.o. box 4260 Houston, tx 77210-4260 phone: 00 1 (713) 220-7171 fax: 00 1 (713) 220-6677
Houston Defender letters to the editor p.o. box 8005 Houston, tx 77288-8005 phone: 00 1 (713) 663-6996 fax: 00 1 (713) 663-7116 ============================>
FROM MUMIA ABU-JAMAL TEXAS: THE DEATH STATE Column Written 5/2000 Mumia Abu-Jamal All Rights Reserved
Amendment VI In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the state and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defense --from the Bill of Rights, U.S. Constitution (1791).
As the issue of the death penalty in the U.S. stirs and quickens the storms of controversy, the Lone Star state of Texas, in its hunger for death, causes even some proponents of capital punishment unquiet moments of pause. If the American South is the nation's Death Belt, then Texas is the buckle of that belt. With its 215 executions since the U.S. Supreme Court allowed the resumption of capital punishment in 1976, the Lone State leads the nation in executions.
Texas may also lead the nation in another way: the highest number of cases where lawyers slept during death penalty trials! While perhaps no one knows the exact answer (it being not important enough to note or record), Texas has no shortage of cases where court-appointed lawyers were assigned to serious death cases where they spent most of their time, not investigating the case, not cross-examining witnesses, nor preparing the case for mitigation, but sleeping. Sleeping!
Consider the case of Joe Cannon, court-appointed counsel for the defense in Harris County, Texas. Cannon, known as a "court-house legend" in the county, slept soundly at many of the trials to which he was assigned. Cannon's "clients" were those who were most apt to be executed by the state, and according to one scholar's count, a dozen of them went to death row in a decade. David R. Dow, a University of Houston law professor who handled an appeal from a conviction where Cannon was counsel, took a look at the trial record and was flabbergasted.
"It was like there was nobody in the room for [his 'client']," Prof. Dow recalled. Dow, in an interview, spoke of reading the transcript, and finding that it "goes on for pages and pages, and there's not a whisper from anyone representing him" [The Washington Post National Weekly Edition, 5/22/2000, p. 9].
Small wonder.
This is the system that Texas Governor George W. Bush defends as one in which he is "absolutely confident" [Washington Post Weekly, p. 8]. Despite the corporationist press sweet slant on the issue, there are a growing number of folks who are vigorously opposed to the death machine, and the candidacy of Bush for U.S. president.
When Bush made a May 13, 2000 appearance at the historically black college Prairie View A & M University, he met messages of resistance from a number of groups, among them N'COBRA (National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America), the National Black United Front, the Nation of Islam's Muhammad Mosque #45, and supporters of Texas death row captive Shaka Sankofa (né Gary Graham), who were protesting for either a pardon or clemency.
Administrators at Prairie View, according to some published reports, were not pleased with the protests. The university, established shortly after the Civil War in 1878, is a prestigious place, and its administrators were justly proud of its 300+ graduates.
Yet activists from various movements were also justly concerned that the grads, embarking on a career of privilege, not forget the 70,000 African-Americans held captive in the Texas Department of Corrections, under draconian conditions. Some grads joined the protestors in shouting "Bush Go Home!," and booing the governor.
Such protests are a good beginning, but must be the seeds of movements to come. Free Shaka!
©MAJ 2000
(end)