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Socialist Action /July 2000
Commentary by Mumia Abu-Jamal
Killing for a Job
On the evening of June 22, 2000, at approximately
8:49 p.m., the life of Shaka Sankofa (né Gary Graham) was snuffed
out by the state of Texas. With a sweaty-lipped smirk and a nod, Texas Governor
George W. Bush cleared the way for the state's killing of a young Black
man.
The legalized lynching of Sankofa, the 132nd in
recent Texas history, was but the latest in a long line of state killings.
All of these have but one objective: to propel Bush, the younger, into the
White House.
With serious questions about his guilt, and equally
serious questions about the competency of his original, court-appointed
trial counsel, the Graham (Sankofa) case posed serious questions about the
entire Texas death machine.
Sankofa's trial lawyer has the dubious distinction
of having a subsection of Texas death row unofficially named for him: the
"Mock Wing." The wing is so named for Harris County defense attorney
Ronald G. Mock, whose 12 clients were shuffled to the Texas death row. With
the legalized lynching of Sankofa, seven of his clients have been killed
by the state, and five now await death.
Sankofa's trial took two days, and the lawyer (Mock)
called no witnesses during the guilt phase of the trial. In a recent interview,
Mock told reporters, in a boast, that he flunked criminal law at Texas Southern
University's Thurgood Marshall School of Law. He never called, nor interviewed,
two eyewitnesses, that would've cleared Sankofa of the May 13, 1981, killing
of a 52-year-old white man.
One of his former colleagues, attorney Chester
L. Thornton, was quoted in a recent interview describing Ron Mock as the
kind of "lawyer who play[s] along with the rules" (The New York
Times, June 11, 2000). He served the interests of the judges, perhaps, by
rushing cases through the trials, but it can hardly be said that he served
the interests of his clients, most of whom are dead.
The strong, rebellious spirit of Sankofa drew hundreds
of supporters to the city of death, Huntsville, Texas, to protest in favor
of life.
The Sankofa case, which poses the spectacle of
the broken Texas death machine killing an innocent young man, is an indictment
of a system that is, in essence, one built upon the most premeditated of
murders.
Politicians, and their corporate media mouthpieces,
make much of the kinds of crimes that rock major U.S. cities, like rapes,
robberies, and murders. But, usually, poor folks commit crimes for money.
Politicians kill poor folks for their own political advantage: for a promotion;
for a job.
Which one is worse?
Who will condemn a criminal political system? Remember
Shaka, and like his mighty namesake (of the Zulu Empire), let us build an
army, dedicated to life, and to the destruction of the death machine.
On this, one of the most important issues of our
time, let us understand that there would've been no difference if there
was a Democrat at the death-switch in Huntsville. Shaka Sankofa was killed
by a deadly political system; not a political party.
Let the movement grow!
© 2000 MUMIA ABU-JAMAL
Socialist Action /July 2000 |