Execution Report: Gary Graham

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Graham's case attracted national attention from the media, anti-death-penalty groups, and even Hollywood. As the date drew nearer, each side offered new evidence to support their positions. Graham's attorneys presented signed affidavits from three jurors who said they had a change of heart because they did not know about the other two eyewitnesses when they sentenced him to death. Harris County prosecutors filed an affidavit signed by the bailiff who escorted Graham from the courtroom after his death sentence, who heard him say, "Next time, I'm not going to leave any witnesses." A prosecutor filed an affidavit stating that the bailiff related the comment to him within minutes of the time it was allegedly made.

Harris County District Attorney Johnny Holmes noted that Graham's case was reviewed 35 times by the courts and that his conviction was never overturned. The Supreme Court rejected Graham's appeal in May.

Graham, who called himself Shaka Sankova since 1995, was in the top 25 in Texas death row seniority and had seven prior execution dates. In January 1999, he called for violence and asked his supporters to go to Huntsville armed with AK-47 rifles to stop his execution. New Black Muslim Movement leader Quanell X urged young blacks to take out their anger against whites in wealthy neighborhoods if this execution was carried out. And recently, Graham reiterated his intention to "stop this thing by any means necessary."

Many Huntsville businesses closed early Thursday because of safety concerns. The Walker County courthouse closed at noon and city officials advised business owners to clear the area. Prison workers who live in about 30 houses near the Walls Unit, where all Texas executions are performed, were told to leave and staffers in the administrative offices were given the day off. Police set up barricades Wednesday night and set up two protest areas on opposite sides of the Walls Unit, one side for Graham's supporters and the other side for the Ku Klux Klan.

At noon on Thursday, the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles denied Graham a 120-day reprieve by a 14-3 vote. The board also voted against commuting his punishment (12-5) and against a pardon (17-0). Later in the afternoon, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals and the U.S. Supreme Court, both of which had turned down Graham's appeals in the past, did so again. The Supreme Court's vote fell 5 to 4. Graham's lawyers' final move was to file a civil suit against the Texas parole board. A federal judge rejected that suit and Graham's attorneys did not appeal that ruling. The execution, scheduled for 6:00 p.m., was delayed for over two hours because of the last-minute appeals and lawsuit.

Though under Texas law the governor has the power to grant one 30-day stay of execution per prisoner, that option was not available to Governor George W. Bush because his predecessor, Ann Richards, used it on Graham in 1993. Even if that option was available to him, however, it is a given that Bush, who said he supported the execution, would not have used it.

Outside the Walls Unit, a small fight broke out when some of Graham's supporters snuck into the Klan demonstration area, but a riot team from the Texas Department of Public Safety quickly moved in to stop it. After the Supreme Court's decision was announced, Graham supporters broke through police lines and six were arrested.

Graham resisted and fought the guards who took him from death row in Livingston to the Walls Unit in Huntsville Wednesday evening. He refused meals that night and on Thursday. Extra restraints were used to strap him to the gurney, where he made a long, defiant final statement in which he said he was being lynched and that the death penalty was a "holocaust for black people in America." Gary Graham, a.k.a. Shaka Sankova, was pronounced dead at 8:59 p.m.

By David Carson. Posted on 16 July 2000.
Sources: (unavailable)