http://abcnews.go.com/sections/us/DailyNews/graham000623.html
June 23 Convicted murderer Gary Graham was executed in Texas amid protests from death penalty opponents and a political firestorm surrounding Gov. George W. Bush. The 36-year-old Graham, convicted in the 1981 shooting death of Bobby Lambert, was put to death by lethal injection at 8:49 p.m. CT Thursday, shortly after his last-ditch appeal to a Texas federal court was rejected. In the final hours, the U.S. Supreme Court voted 5-4 to allow the execution to proceed.
Graham kept his promise to physically fight his execution until the end. He fought Huntsville Prison guards who extracted him from his cell and was finally handcuffed to the execution table with his head held down with a strap, according to prison officials. He delivered a final, six-minute statement before he was executed by lethal injection. He said his execution was murder part of the genocide of black people in America, according to witnesses.
I die fighting for what I believed in, Graham said. The truth will come out. The Rev. Jesse Jackson, Amnesty International official Bianca Jagger and the Rev. Al Sharpton were among the witnesses to Graham’s execution. Jackson, who was witnessing an execution for the first time, appeared red-eyed and visibly upset, and Jagger began crying as Graham read his statement.
Witnesses said that as the injection was being administered, Graham looked at Jackson, and died with one eye closed and one eye open. His open eye was focused on Jackson.
He wants us to fight for a moratorium on the death penalty. He said, ‘I did not kill Mr. Lambert. I’m an innocent man being murdered by the state. Reverend Jackson, please fight,’ Jackson said.
‘Cannot Stop the Revolution’
One of the witnesses to the execution, a red-eyed and apparently distraught Mike Graczyk of The Associated Press, said Graham invoked the names of Malcolm X and Nelson and Winnie Mandela. He also asked to be called Shaka Sankofa to reflect his African heritage. He said, ‘You can kill a revolutionary, but you cannot stop the revolution’ Graczyk quoted Graham as saying.
‘This is nothing more than simply state-sanctioned murder in America. They know I am innocent, and they won’t acknowledge it They are murdering me tonight.’ Huntsville Prison spokesman Larry Fitzgerald read a statement from Bobby Hanners, Lambert’s grandson, who expressed sympathy for Graham’s family but insisted the execution was just. My heart goes out to the Graham family, which must go through the grieving process, Fitzgerald read. But I truly believe that justice has been served.
Outside the Prison
Outside the Huntsville Prison, a lack of information during a delay lasting nearly three hours combined with excruciating 104-degree heat to help bring tensions almost to the boiling point.
Approximately 500 protesters, including armed Black Panthers, gathered outside the Huntsville death house, holding signs and yelling, Killers! Murderers! No justice, no peace!
The Panthers were warned by prison officials that weapons would not be tolerated.
And, at first, it seemed the militants would abide by that. But as the evening progressed and as rumors flew through the crowd during the lengthy delay some began brandishing rifles.
Riot police rushed to scene, but the potentially volatile situation was defused before long.
At least six people were arrested, but it was unclear whether any of those detained were Black Panthers. In the end, the crowd dispersed without incident.
Legal Fight to the End
Graham’s lawyers fought their client’s execution fiercely. After the Supreme Court rejected a last-minute appeal, Graham’s lawyers filed a civil action with U.S. District Court in Austin, delaying the execution a last time.
If they had managed to delay the proceedings until midnight, Graham would have been granted an automatic 30-day reprieve.
After the federal court rejected the civil suit, prompting Graham’s lawyers to consider another action in the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans before deciding to file no further appeals for him, allowing Graham’s execution to go forward.
The Supreme Court’s rejection of Graham’s emergency appeal was close — justices voted 5-4 not to stop the execution.
Before Graham’s last-minute appeals, the 18-member Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles, which could have recommended a 120-day reprieve or a commutation to a lesser sentence, voted not to advise a delay in the execution.
Only such a recommendation would have allowed Bush to grant a reprieve (see bottom sidebar).
Bush, the likely Republican presidential nominee, said he supported the execution and pointed out that Graham’s case had been reviewed by 33 state and federal judges.
After considering all of the facts I am convinced justice is being done, Bush said after final appeals were denied. May God bless the victim, the family of the victim, and may God bless Mr. Graham.
Witness Stands by Story
Lambert was shot and killed outside a Houston Safeway supermarket on May 13, 1981. Shortly after, Graham pleaded guilty to 10 aggravated robberies during a weeklong crime spree that prosecutors say began with Lambert’s slaying.
But Graham, who was 17 at the time, always maintained his innocence in the Lambert killing. The state’s key testimony came from a single eyewitness who identified Graham as the gunman at the scene. The witness, Bernadine Skillern, watched from inside her car as the gunman confronted, then shot Lambert.
I saw Mr. Graham shoot and kill Mr. Lambert on that parking lot in 1981, Skillern said last week. That has not changed. It’s not going to change. I saw him shoot and kill him.
A week after Lambert’s death, police arrested Graham, naked and asleep, at the home of a 57-year-old woman he had abducted at gunpoint and raped.
One of Graham’s victims, David Spiers, told ABCNEWS’ Good Morning America his own experience convinced him Graham was indeed capable of extreme violence during his multi-day crime spree.
I was 13 of 22 victims, Spiers said.
Spiers recalled that he had had car trouble and Graham picked him up to take him to get help. But once in the car, Graham pointed a sawed-off shotgun at Spiers and blew away half of his leg.
‘I’m gonna kill you, because I’ve already killed three or four people,’ Spiers said Graham told him. Spiers also said Graham threatened to return to Spiers’ disabled car later to kill the victim’s fiancée and parents so they can go with you.
Spiers said he struggled with Graham, got the gun and fired toward his head, but Graham ducked and was injured. Then Graham’s girlfriend pointed a .357 magnum at Spiers and was ordered by Graham to finish him off.
Capital Punishment Concerns
The controversy in the Graham case came as questions swirled about how the death penalty is applied in Texas and throughout the nation.
In January, Illinois Gov. George Ryan, a Republican death penalty supporter, announced a moratorium on executions in his state until an investigation is completed. Thirteen inmates were released from death row there since 1977, more than the number executed.
We had a system that was in disarray and it didn’t work and what we wanted to do was make sure that we had a system that was fair and justice worked with moral certainty, Ryan said Thursday night on ABC’s Nightline.
A 10-year statistical study released last week shows that two-thirds of death sentences were overturned during the appeals process.
Earlier this month, Bush for the first time authorized a 30-day reprieve for a condemned murderer, Ricky McGinn, until DNA tests could take place.
Despite recent concerns about the fairness and accuracy of the death penalty system, an ABCNEWS.com poll last week showed that just more than six in 10 Americans still favor capital punishment for convicted killers.
