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Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the June 8, 2000
issue of Workers World newspaper
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INTERVIEW WITH ASHANTI CHIMURENGA: "THE PEOPLE CAN
NEVER GIVE UP"
By Imani Henry
"The death penalty is a challenge to our revolutionary
spirit. The state planted this seed of terror. Regardless,
we in the movement can't accept it. They want us to think
that we're going to lose this battle, but it is a matter of
who's going to blink first. And we will win."
These are the words of Ashanti Chimurenga, a lawyer and
national organizer for the Shaka Sankofa Justice Coalition,
based in Houston. Workers World spoke with her May 25.
Shaka Sankofa, formerly known as Gary Graham, is a 36-
year-old African American death-row activist scheduled for
execution in Texas June 22 .
Sankofa has spent 19 years of his life on death row for a
crime he didn't commit. With this new threat to his life,
national days of action to stop his execution and to end
the death penalty have been called for June 16-19.
Chimurenga has been on the front line of Sankofa's case
since 1993. She first got involved as a lawyer with Amnesty
International's Death Penalty Project.
"Shaka Sanfoka was sentenced to death when he was only 17
years old," she explained. "This set off international
protests. The United States is the only industrialized
nation that refuses to sign off on international law
prohibiting the executions of minors. This helped us to
organize globally around Shaka's case."
In an election year when both major big-business
candidates, Vice President Al Gore and Texas Gov. George W.
Bush, support the death penalty, capital punishment in the
United States is being debated more frequently in the
media.
There is particular focus on Bush. His administration has
executed 132 people. Another 21 people are scheduled to die
on Texas's death row by mid-November.
At a news conference held on the steps of the Capitol in
Washington May 26, Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. and Rubin
"Hurricane" Carter, the wrongfully-imprisoned former boxing
star, focused attention on Sanfoka's plight.
Jackson called on Bush to grant him a stay of execution
and a new trial. Carter said, "We must not let him die,"
and that there is "clear evidence of his innocence,"
according to the Associated Press.
Carter also spoke that evening at Union Temple, a large
African American church.
Chimurenga, who helped to organize those events, remarked:
"It is important to understand how racism is involved with
the death penalty, who gets charged with capital crimes,
who gets put to death in the United States. It is
overwhelmingly Black, Latino, and Native people."
`U.S. IS A KILLING STATE'
"Every Black child born in the U.S. is born into a killing
state," she said. "I knew I was going to have to look death
in the eyes when I raised two Black male children in the
United States.
"Here in Texas, the majority of people on death row are
from Harris County, which is primarily African American and
Latino."
Chimurenga said: "Shaka was convicted of killing a white
man. In this country you are more likely to be executed for
killing a white person than if your victim is a person of
color. There are only six known cases of a white person
being executed for killing a Black man in the United
States."
She added: "There are many Black and Latino families who
have lost their loved ones to a murder, who aren't even
contacted by the prosecutor or police. But when a white
person is killed there is a rush to have a death-penalty
sentence."
The state of Texas, infamous for leading the country in
executions, also ranks fifth in the country for the
percentage of people living in poverty. Chimurenga said
there is a strong link between those statistics.
"There is a line of a song that goes `capital punishment
is for those without capital.' The issue is money.
Statistics show that your chances are higher of being
sentenced to death row when you have a court-appointed
lawyer. You have better chances with a private lawyer.
"Shaka's case represents the plight of thousands of young
people of color in the United States," Chimurenga told WW.
"He represents the 2 million people who are in prison in
the U.S.
"But like George Jackson and Malcolm X , Shaka became
politicized in prison. He became a political leader to
other prisoners. And now, like Mumia Abu-Jamal, Shaka
represents a political threat to the system.
"The state wants to finally silence his voice on June 22.
But we can never give up!"
Along with the National Days of Resistance set for June
16-19, activists in Texas urge supporters to call, fax, and
write Bush to condemn the death penalty and demand a stay
of execution for Shaka Sankofa.
To lodge a protest, readers can call (800) 252-9600 or
(800) 843-5789, fax (512) 463-1849, or write to Gov. George
W. Bush, Capitol Station, Austin, TX 78711.
- END -
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