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Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the June 8, 2000
issue of Workers World newspaper
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TEXAS PRISONERS' MEMORIAL: "STOP LEGAL LYNCHINGS"
The Fifth Annual Prisoners' Memorial Day was held May 27,
sponsored by the Texas Death Penalty Abolition Movement. An
activist opened the program with the words: "We are here
today in front of the Walls Unit in Huntsville, Texas,
where over 200 people have been executed since 1982. It is
a solemn occasion because we are remembering those murdered
by the state of Texas.
"But it is also a joyous occasion because we see the light
at the end of the tunnel and know that the death penalty is
on the way out."
Speakers condemned the pace of executions in Texas,
comparing it to the frequent lynchings under slavery.
Innocent men killed by the state of Texas, including James
Beathard and Odell Barnes, were remembered. So were
juveniles like Glen McGinnis, battered women like Betty Lou
Beets and mentally ill people like Larry Robinson.
Revolutionary leader Ponchai Kamau Wilkerson, who died
March 15, was commemorated by his companion Njeri Shakur as
a man who fought the injustice of Texas prison slavery
until his last breath.
At the prison cemetery 130 flowers were laid on the
graves, representing the 130 people killed during Gov.
George W. Bush's reign as of that date.
--
G.R.
- END -
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