Honks and thumb-up from cars greeted the protesters, who marched in front of the courthouse. After the rally a smaller contingent began a march downtown, where three demonstrators were arrested by a large group of cops for supposedly not staying on the sidewalk. Anthony Freddie, a longtime leader of the Gary Graham Justice Coalition, condemned the arrests as a "form of intimidation.

This is the sixth execution date that has been set for Graham, 36, who is now known as Shaka Sankofa.

Nineteen years ago, at the age of 17, he was convicted of the May 1981 killing of Bobby Lambert and sentenced to death. During the two decades he has spent on death row in Texas, Graham has proclaimed his innocence and organized with family and supporters to fight his conviction.

The Black youth was convicted and sentenced to death on the testimony of one witness, who claims to have seen him at the site of the shooting in the dimly lit parking lot of a grocery store. Six eyewitnesses said he was not the gunman, and five other people placed him far from the scene. There is no physical evidence linking Graham to the murder.

Still, on May 1 the Supreme Court refused to hear his appeal for a new trial, upholding a lower court's ruling that said that the Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 applied to Graham, even though his case was on appeal before this antidemocratic law took effect. This law, enacted under the Clinton administration, cuts the appeals process short and speeds up the date of execution despite evidence that would find the accused not guilty.

Just three days later on May 4 Harris County assistant district attorney Roe Wilson asked for and received the June 22 execution date from state district judge Michael Wilkinson.

Wilson told the Houston Chronicle, "Legally all his avenues are finished....The system has worked although he might not like the answer. The time has come for it to end."

In an interview published in the May 18 Chronicle, Graham stated, "June 22 is certainly on my mind. At the same time, I have tremendous faith in the brothers and sisters in the community." He added, "I'm not willing to pay a debt I do not owe. I cannot and will not cooperate with this lynching. They are going to do what they have to do. That's why I'm willing to accept gas [pepper spray]."

Prison official Larry Fitzgerald confirmed that pepper spray had been used against Graham and responded, "That's true. We did gas him. We'll probably gas him again if he continues to refuse to cooperate. That's the way the penitentiary works."

Meanwhile, defense lawyers Jack Zimmerman and Richard Burr are filing a petition for clemency with the state Board of Pardons and Paroles.

Since 1995, when George W. Bush became governor, the parole board has granted clemency only one time, rejecting 68 other petitions. During his tenure 131 prisoners have been executed--20 this year alone. The pace of executions in Texas far exceeds that of every other state.

In a politically calculated move Bush, the probable Republican presidential candidate, for the first time agreed to a 30-day reprieve for death row inmate Ricky McGinn to allow DNA retesting that could exonerate him.

The rally in Houston was one of several protests and events since Graham's execution was set, including a June 3 rally in Austin in front of the governor's mansion, three news conferences, and a moot court panel here at Texas Southern School of Law to review the evidence that the courts refused to hear. The Gary Graham Justice Coalition is planning further protests.

Lea Sherman is a meat packer in the Houston area and Socialist Workers candidate for U.S. Senate.  
 
 
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