Jersey Panthers Mark Anniversary of Sankofa Execution

‘A Black Man Was Lynched Today…’

Jersey Panthers Mark Anniversary of Sankofa Execution

By ‘little’ Red

“…A Year Ago By George W. Bush!…” read Carol Cleveland’ s heartwrenching poster, depicting the shadow of hanged men, adjoining a picture of Shaka Sankofa, whom the poster was actually referring to.

Sister Cleveland was among many who participated in the New Black Panther Party’s June 22^nd ‘Black Power Silent Vigil Against The Racist Death Penalty’ at the Federal Building in Newark.

“That day sent chills up the spine of the entire Black Nation,” said Bro. Zayid Muhammad, the party’s chief of staff, who opened the program with a libation calling out the names of other innocent people wrongly put to death.

He cited Rafael Herrera, a Mexican immigrant who proved his innocence, but who was still put to death with the approval of the United States Supreme Court because his time for appeal had expired. He also cited the case of Odell Barnes, a case supported and popularized by Paterson-born and bred ex-middleweight contender, now death penalty abolitionist Rubin ‘Hurricane’ Carter, among others. Barnes was also put to death by Bush in Texas.

As Texas’ governor, George W. Bush set a record for state executions sending some 153 people to their deaths.

Bush was not the sole object of the protestors’ ire, however. The Panthers also cited the cases of Ajamu Nasser and Ziyon Yisrayael in Indiana, who were also wrongly put to death. Nasser and Yisrayael were bold anti-drug activists in their area who uncovered very serious police corruption in their organizing efforts. Yisrayael’s lawyers proved that the police were actually trying to silence them for exposing their complicity in drug selling when they raided and fired into Yisrayael’s home several years ago. When the officer leading the raid was shot in the back and killed from so-called ‘friendly fire,’ Nasser and Yisrayael were held legally responsible for his death.

Their plea for justice was ignored by then governor Evan Bayh, a ‘Clinton’ Democrat, who was rewarded for his death penalty enforcement with making the keynote address at the 1996 Democratic National Convention.

The state of Indiana is currently confronted with growing support for the case of Zolo Azania, one very similar in its features to Sankofa’s case.

The vigil’s participants were especially concerned with the cases of Mumia Abu-Jamal and Imam Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin, formerly H. Rap Brown.

In each of these cases, evidence has recently surfaced indicating each man’s innocence. Yet efforts to have them both executed persist. Abu-Jamal was convicted in 1982 of killing a Philadelphia police officer. Arnold Beverly, a man who has just come forward under oath and who has also taken and passed a lie detector test, has confessed that he shot and killed officer Daniel Faulkner, and not the internationally acclaimed journalist and former Black Panther. Al-Amin is being charged with capital murder for the killing of an Atlanta police officer. Just recently, however, the authorities admitted that they had no blood or physical evidence against the fearless Muslim leader after saying for months that they did. His trial could begin as early as this fall.

The Panthers said that they were just putting forward something important in their 10 Point Program and Platform.

“Shortly before his death, our beloved late national chairman Khallid Abdul Muhammad, modified the eight point to include a call for the immediate end to the death penalty,” Muhammad explained. “He recognized the gravity of what happened to Shaka Sankofa, and wanted us to make sure that we were doing our share to make our people recognize as well,” he finished.

’Bro. Zayid’ Kazi Angaza Kikongo Muhammad

7/26/01