Shujaa Graham, who spent three years on death row in California for a crime he did not commit, will be a special guest at the 11th Annual March to Abolish the Death Penalty. Shujaa is coming as a member of the Journey of Hope and Witness to Innocence. He will join exonerees Curtis McCarty, Ron Keine, and Greg Wilhoit at the march. Shujaa was last in Austin during the Anti-Death Penalty Alternative Spring Break in March talking to students about his experience as a wrongfully convicted person condemned to death.
Shujaa Graham was born in Lake Providence, Louisiana and grew up on a plantation. His family members worked as sharecroppers in the segregated South of the 1950s. In 1961, he moved to join his relatives in South Central Los Angeles and build a more stable life. As a teenager Shujaa experienced the Watts Riots and police occupation of his community. In and out of trouble, he spent much of his adolescent life in juvenile institutions, and when he turned 18 he was sent to Soledad Prison.
Within the prison walls, Shujaa came of age, mentored by the leadership of the Black Prison movement. Shujaa taught himself to read and write, he studied history and world affairs, and became a leader of the growing movement within the California prison system, as the Black Panther Party expanded in the community.
Shujaa was framed in the 1973 murder of a prison guard at the Deul Vocational Institute in Stockton, California. Despite the local community’s involvement and support, Shujaa and his co-defendant Eugene Allen were sent to San Quentin’s death row in 1976. Because the district attorney had systematically excluded all African-American jurors, in 1979 the California Supreme Court overturned the death conviction. After three years on death row, Shujaa and his co-defendant continued to fight for their innocence. Their third trial ended in a hung jury, and it was not until after a fourth trial that they were found innocent. Rather than being protected by the United States’ criminal justice system, Shujaa often points out that he won his freedom and affirmed his innocence “in spite of the system.”
Shujaa was released in March 1981, and began work in the Bay area building community support for the prison movement and against police brutality. Since then he has moved away from the Bay Area and created his own landscaping business. He now gives lectures on the death penalty, the criminal justice system, racism, incarceration and innocence in America. “I’m filled with ideals for a better future,” he says. “That’s my struggle, and that’s going to be my struggle until I die. But I have no regrets. The movement has become my life; it gave me something to live for, made me proud of myself, and offered me a greater sense of dignity. I may never enjoy the fruits of this labor, but our children will. Hopefully they won’t have to experience what we experienced. We’ve spent many hours campaigning for something that should be here already —justice.”
Shujaa and his wife, Phyllis Prentice, raised three children together, and he developed a program combining his story with original blues lyrics put to music. Shujaa indomitable spirit and commitment to justice through Witness to Innocence make him a powerful leader in the anti-death penalty and human rights movements.
Ron Keine, an innocent man who spent 2 years on death row in New Mexico, will be a special guest at the 11th Annual March to Abolish the Death Penalty. He will join exonerees Shujaa Graham, Curtis McCarty and Greg Wilhoit at the march. He is coming courtesy of Witness to Innocence.
“This is fast becoming one of the biggest events in the country. I’ll be there“, said Ron Keine.
Ron Keine was wrongfully convicted of murder and sentenced to death in New Mexico. Along with three co-defendants, Ron Keine was convicted of the murder, kidnapping, sodomy and rape of University of New Mexico student William Velten in 1974 and was sentenced to die in New Mexico’s gas chamber. An investigation by The Detroit News after Ron and his co-defendants were sentenced uncovered lies by the prosecution’s star witness, perjured identification given under police pressure, and the use of poorly administered lie detector tests. Ron spent 22 months on death row until the real killer came forward and confessed. At one point, Ron says, he was so close to going to the gas chamber that an assistant warden came to talk to him about what he wanted for his last meal. In late 1975, a state district judge dismissed the original indictments and the four men were released in 1976 after the murder weapon was traced to a drifter from South Carolina who admitted to the killing. The murder weapon, a 22-caliber pistol, was found only after a search warrant was issued to open the sheriff’s safe. Not only was the murder weapon found, there was also dated evidence showing that the gun was hidden from the defense at the original trial. Since his exoneration, Ron has traveled the country to tell his powerful story of innocence with the Witness to Innocence Project.
Curtis McCarty, an innocent man who spent 19 years on death row in Oklahoma will be a special guest at the 11th Annual March to Abolish the Death Penalty. Curtis is coming as a member of the Journey of Hope and Witness to Innocence. He will join exonerees Shujaa Graham, Curtis McCarty, Ron Keine, and Greg Wilhoit at the march.
Juries frequently rely on the testimony of forensic evidence experts to reach just conclusions in criminal trials. What happens when an expert lies in order to win a conviction?
When 18-year-old Pamela Kaye Willis was raped, stabbed, and strangled in her Oklahoma City home on December 10, 1982, Curtis McCarty became a suspect because he was acquainted with her. Soon after the murder in 1983, forensic analyst Joyce Gilchrist examined hairs from the crime scene and found they didnot match McCarty’s. Police interviewed McCarty several times over the next three years, but he was not arrested until 1985. During the three years of police questioning, Gilchrist secretly altered her notes to declare that the crime scene hairs could have been McCarty’s. Attorneys for McCarty did not discover the change in Gilchrist’s notes until 2000, when she underwent investigation for fraud in other cases. When the defense requested retesting of the hairs, the evidence had either been lost or destroyed deliberately. Gilchrist, implicated in two other cases that sent innocent men to death row, was later fired from her job with the Oklahoma City police department.
Curtis McCarty was sentenced to die three times and spent 21 years in prison – 19 on Oklahoma’s death row – for a crime he did not commit before DNA evidence led to his exoneration and release in May 2007.
Greg Wilhoit is an innocent man who spent five years of his life on death row for a crime that he did not commit. He received a full exoneration in 1993. On October 30, 2010, Greg will be at the Texas Capitol for the 11th Annual March to Abolish the Death Penalty. The march starts at 2PM. He is coming as part of the Journey of Hope … from Violence to Healing, which has proclaimed October 30, 2010 “Greg Wilhoit Day”.
The Journey of Hope is an organization led by murder victim family members joined by death row family members, family members of the executed, the exonerated, and others with stories to tell, that conducts public education speaking tours and addresses alternatives to the death penalty. They will be touring Texas telling their stories in cities across the state from October 15-31.
“At the sentencing,” Wilhoit said, “the judge told me I was to die by lethal injection. Then he said, ‘But if that fails, we’ll kill you by electrocution. If the power goes out, we’ll hang you. If the rope breaks, we’ll take you out back and shoot you.’”
On June 1, 1985, Greg’s wife Kathy was brutally murdered in Tulsa, Oklahoma, leaving Greg to raise two little girls 4 months and 14 months old. Almost a year later Greg was arrested and charged with Kathy’s murder because two dental “experts”, one of whom had been out of dental school less than a year, testified that a bite mark found on Kathy’s body matched Greg’s teeth.
Greg’s parents hired an attorney who had a reputation as one of the top defense attorneys in Oklahoma to represent him. Unfortunately, in the preceding years the attorney had become an alcoholic and had developed alcohol-related brain damage. He embodied the definition of an incompetent attorney and did no preparation whatsoever for Greg’s trial. He appeared in court drunk, threw up in the judge’s chambers, and literally put on no defense. Greg was consequently found guilty and sentenced to death.
Greg was assigned an attorney, Mark Barrett, from the Oklahoma Indigent Defense System to handle his appeal. Barrett was convinced of Greg’s innocence and worked tirelessly for over 4 years to help correct a terrible wrong. The 12 top forensic odontologists in the country examined the bite mark evidence and all 12 testified that the bite mark could not possibly be Greg’s. Greg was eventually granted a new trial and was out on bail for two years while the District Attorney decided whether or not to retry the case. A second trial was held in 1993, but after the prosecution presented their case (without the bite mark evidence) the judge issued a directed verdict of innocence and Greg was cleared of all charges.
Greg lost 8 years of his life, the opportunity to raise his two daughters, his livelihood, and his physical and mental health. He now lives off social security checks because he continues to suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. He has never received an apology or one penny in compensation. In 2003, the Oklahoma Legislature voted overwhelmingly to award exonerated inmates $200,000 for their time served in prison. However, Greg has yet to receive any compensation. Greg is trying to get on with his life, but it’s not easy to get over the nightmarish trauma of those eight years.
Greg was recently featured in John Grisham’s latest book, “The Innocent Man” (Grisham’s first non-fiction book), and travels across the country active in the movement against the death penalty, speaking to numerous universities, schools and other audiences about his experience as a survivor of death row.
Greg today lives in Oklahoma. He is engaged to get married on Sept 18th to his fiancée Judy. They have known each other for 25 years.
Greg will join other innocent death row exonerees who will be attending the 11th Annual March to Abolish the Death Penalty, including his fellow Oklahoma exoneree Curtis McCarty, as well as Ron Keine and Shujaa Graham. Curtis spent 21 years in prison – including 19 years on death row – in Oklahoma for a crime he did not commit. Shujaa spent 3 years on death row in California for a crime he did not commit. Ron spent two years on death row in New Mexico for a crime he did not commit.
We held the first planning meeting Saturday for the 11th Annual March to Abolish the Death Penalty, which is in Austin on October 30, 2010. We decided on a start time of 2 PM for the march. We plan to meet at the Texas Capitol, march down Congress Avenue and back to the Capitol for a rally. We will be inviting and confirming speakers over the next few weeks, so if anyone has any suggestions for speakers, let us know. The Journey of Hope … from Violence to Healing will be in Austin for this year’s march and will bring a few innocent death row exonerees and family members of murder victims to the march.
The next planning meeting is Sept 11 in Austin at 3 PM at Carver Library.
Saturday, October 30, 2010 at 2 PM
Austin, Texas
Texas State Capitol Building South Side (11th and Congress)
Ron Keine, Shujaa Graham and Curtis McCarty at 2009 March
The first organizing meeting to prepare for the 11th Annual March to Abolish the Death Penalty is on Saturday August 21 at the Carver Library in Austin from 3:00-4:30 pm. Please come to the organizing meeting and help us make this year’s march as great a success as last year’s!
Everyone who wants to help organize this year’s march is welcome to attend. Last year, we had the largest turnout since 2000 and the march was covered in all the state newspapers, including a photo on the cover of the Dallas Morning News. You can see some links to media coverage of last year on the march media page. The website also has videos of some of last year’s speakers.
The march itself is scheduled for October 30 in Austin. More details to come.
The annual march is organized by several Texas anti-death penalty organizations, including the Austin chapter of the Campaign to End the Death Penalty, Texas Moratorium Network, the Texas Death Penalty Abolition Movement, Texas Students Against the Death Penalty, Texas Death Penalty Education and Resource Center, Death Penalty Free Austin, and Kids Against the Death Penalty.
Please go ahead and start asking other groups to sponsor.
We have begun making plans for the 11th Annual March to Abolish the Death Penalty, which is set for October 30, 2010 in Austin, Texas.
We will soon hold the first planning meeting in Austin.
All the blog posts below this one have to do with the 2009 march, which was a great success. Now, we have to make sure this year’s march is just as successful.
Please use the comment section below to tell us what you thought about the 10th Annual March to Abolish the Death Penalty. You can tell also tell us about your own experiences while at the march.
If you have photos or videos of the march, please leave a link to them in the comments so that others may see them.
Thank you to everyone who attended in person and all those around the world who would have liked to attend.
Thank you to the many people who called the governor or signed the petition.
Thank you to everyone who donated their time or money to the march.
Thank you to the speakers who shared their stories with us.
Thank you to the many family members of people on death row for attending and speaking out.
Herman (brother-in-law of Reginald Blanton), plus others, including supporters of Clinton Young, Connie Wright (Wife of Greg Wright), Gloria Rubac, Sandra Reed, Curtis McCarty, Ron Keine, Shujaa Graham, Jeff Blackburn and crowd scenes.
Hundreds of protestors marched down Congress Avenue from the State Capitol to Sixth Street and back on Saturday, calling for an end to the death penalty in Texas.
Many carried signs with pictures of loved ones on death row.
However, most of the crowd held pictures of Cameron Todd Willingham.
Protestors say the state killed an innocent man when they executed Willingham in 2004 and they want Governor Rick Perry to acknowledge what they are calling a “wrongful” execution.
Willingham was convicted for the death of his three children, killed in a fire in Corsicana, Texas in 1991, but now forensic scientists are questioning the arson evidence used against him.
The governor has been criticized for replacing members of the Texas Forensic Science Commission just before they were to review a new report critical of the arson science used to convict Willingham.
Governor Perry told reporters after a luncheon earlier this month that he stands by his decision on the execution of Willingham and that people have already testified to the facts of this case.
Lydia Garza, a protestor, says she knows the pain the family feels because her son is on death row.
He was convicted under the law of parties, said Garza. He was not at the scene of the crime. He did not commit the murders, but yet he sits on death row.”
Garza tells KEYE TV she marched on Saturday not only for her son, but for all the families who have loved ones on death row.
“As Texans, as people, as humans, we cannot allow other people to be killed, said Garza. Thats not the way to justice.”
Speakers also called for an end to the death penalty in Texas, including Jeanette Popp, whose daughter was murdered.
“The man that killed my daughter was a human being, said Popp. He had a mother. He had a family and never could I put another mother what that man put me through.”
The tenth annual march against the death penalty in Texas had dozens of groups behind it, including the Texas Moratorium Network, The Austin Charter of the Campaign to end the death penalty and Texas Students against the Death Penalty.
Shujaa Graham, who spent three years on death row in California for a crime he did not commit, will be a special guest at the 11th Annual March to Abolish the Death Penalty. Shujaa is coming as a member of the Journey of Hope and Witness to Innocence. He will join exonerees Curtis McCarty, Ron Keine, and Greg Wilhoit at the march. Shujaa was last in Austin during the Anti-Death Penalty Alternative Spring Break in March talking to students about his experience as a wrongfully convicted person condemned to death.
