Bay Area: Long Live Shaka Sankofa! Keep Up the Fight Against the Racist Death Penalty!
Fri, 23 Jun 2000
18 Bay Area Anti-Death Penalty Activists Arrested at Federal Court of Appeals Activists Vow to Stand Strong and Turn the Struggle to Save Shaka Into a Summer of Resistance to End the Death Penalty Thurs. June 22, 2000
As the Supreme Court refused to hear an eleventh hour appeal by attorneys for Shaka Sankofa (Gary Graham), a day-long protest by death penalty foes in San Francisco took dramatic action. Eighteen people broke from the picket, first blocking the entrance to the Federal Courthouse, then holding a banner and signs demanding a halt to the execution across the intersection of Mission and Seventh Streets, stopping traffic. San Francisco police quickly arrested the 18 people.
Soon after, all remaining appeals were refused, and the execution was carried out. Sankofa resisted his state sanctioned murder to the end.
This execution confirms what we already know about the racist and oppressive so-called justice system. It is another example of the of the U.S. government’s war against poor people and people of color.
Just prior to the execution, Sankofa urged the movement to keep up the struggle against the racist death penalty.
Teresa Gutierrez, a national coordinator of the International Action Center stated, “What they are doing is a test, to see what they can get away with. They are throwing cold water on the fire of this movement, to make people think that there is nothing they can do to stop the killing machine. We will not lie down while they kill our brothers and sisters, because after Shaka comes Mumia, Assata Shakur, and the poor and oppressed everywhere.”
Anti-death penalty groups are already planning massive actions for the Republican Convention and the Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles on August 13. Organizers have called for a “summer of resistance” to the death penalty, racism, and police abuse and terror.
George Bush and the ruling class may have been able to execute Sankofa, but they can never kill his voice. His resistance and his revolutionary determination are an inspiration to our movement. Long live Shaka Sankofa! Turn his struggle into a summer and a lifetime of resistance!
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