The Houston Chronicle

Graham executed after struggle, Inmate maintains his innocence to the end as appeals run out

Friday, June 23, 2000
Section A, Pg. 1, 3 Star Edition

By SALATHEIA BRYANT, LISA TEACHEY, MIKETOLSON, RONNIE CROCKER, JOHN W. GONZALEZ, TONYFREEMANTLE, ALAN BERNSTEIN, STEVE LASH
Staff

HUNTSVILLE - Gary Lee Graham, who transformed from just another death-row convict to a cause celebre in the anti-death penalty movement, was executed by injection late Thursday after a day of prison-side protests and a frenzied round of 11th-hour legal maneuvering.

"I would like to say, I did not kill Bobby Lambert," Graham said in an angry, rambling six-minute statement from the gurney. "I'm an innocent black man being murdered today. What is happening here is an outrage."

Officials said Graham had to be taken by force from his cell and into the death chamber. During the struggle, he tore the paper uniform he was forced to wear for refusing a strip search the day before. He had an additional restraint around his head.

Covered with a white sheet, the 36-year-old inmate appeared nervous as he rushed through his final statement. He was pronounced dead at 8:49 p.m. He died with one eye partially open, facing the witnesses.

"My heart goes out to the Graham family, as they begin the grieving process," said Lambert's grandson, Bobby Hanners, who witnessed the execution. "I also pray that Gary Graham has made peace with God. But I truly feel that justice has been served."

After media and other witnesses entered the Huntsville Walls Unit, where the death chamber is located, about 8:15 p.m., protesters began chanting, "Thou shalt not kill."

When the witnesses emerged afterward, shortly before 9 p.m., the crowd turned silent. Uniformed officers from the Texas Department of Public Safety raised their riot shields and stepped toward them in a line. Behind them were Texas Department of Criminal Justice officers with visored helmets, batons and plastic "flexicuffs."

Then the crowd turned suddenly toward the officers and began shouting, "Shaka was innocent" and "Long live Shaka," using Graham's adopted name of Shaka Sankofa. One protester held a U.S. flag upside-down. Another man, holding a large cardboard syringe, burned an effigy of Texas Gov. George W. Bush and shouted, "Die, die, die."

The execution brought to a close a long-running legal drama and ended a difficult day for Houston attorneys Richard Burr and Jack Zimmermann. Since 1993, the pair has worked to bring what they call new evidence before a jury.

In numerous appeals, they have attacked the eyewitness account of Bernadine Skillern, who was a customer at the Safeway supermarket where the May 13, 1981, murder occurred. They also brought forward witnesses to the crime who were not called to testify in the original trial.

At an afternoon news conference in Zimmermann's Galleria-area office, both men appeared emotional.

"We as a state, because of human error, human frailty and no will to acknowledge our own frailty, are about to put to death man who is innocent," Burr said. "There is no greater miscarriage of justice, or travesty, or horror that a state can do to one of its citizens than this."

A strong majority of the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles refused at midday to recommend issuing a reprieve or commuting Graham's death sentence. The board unanimously rejected a conditional pardon for Graham.

The Supreme Court later ruled 5-4 against a last-minute stay.

Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist and Justices Sandra Day O'Connor, Antonin Scalia, Anthony M. Kennedy and Clarence Thomas voted to reject the appeal.

Justices John Paul Stevens, David H. Souter, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen G. Breyer voted to order the execution postponed, presumably to give the court more time to consider his appeal.

But the execution was delayed more than two hours as attorneys filed a civil lawsuit in Austin, which was denied.

Bush, forced into uncertain political territory by the Graham case, said he supported the parole board's decision.

"He's had full and fair access to the courts," Bush said. "After considering all the facts, I'm sure justice is being done. May God bless all the victims, and may God bless Mr. Graham."

For 19 years after Lambert's slaying, Graham steadfastly maintained his innocence. That ignited a variety of legal challenges over the years and criticism of the Texas criminal-justice system.

On Thursday, it also sparked often-intense protest outside the death chamber at the Huntsville Walls Unit.

Graham supporters and anti-death penalty protesters began gathering by 11 a.m. and sweltered in the heat. They beat drums, chanted slogans and criticized Bush in a series of mostly peaceful demonstrations throughout the afternoon.

Among the protesters was Deidra Hawkins, Graham's 19-year-old daughter, who is pregnant with her second child, Graham's third grandchild. She thanked her father's supporters and urged the crowd, "Don't stop protesting because he's gone."

About 6 p.m., the originally scheduled time of the execution, several protesters ran into a restricted area directly in front of the prison waving flags and shouting "Free Shaka Sankofa." Eight people were arrested; seven for disorderly conduct and one for aggravated assault of a public servant.

Witnesses for the victim were Hanners; Justice for All president Dianne Clements; Rick Sanford, a 1981 Graham robbery victim; and Roe Wilson, an appellate specialist with the Harris County district attorney's office.

"This is the end of 19 years of legal battle, where Mr. Graham was vigorously and legally represented," Wilson said afterward. "He was given every consideration for his claims. It was time for this to be carried out."

It was Graham's eighth execution date, according to prison officials. He was the 23rd inmate executed this year in Texas.

"We will prevail," Graham said before his death. "Keep marching. Black power. Keep marching. Black power. They are killing me tonight. They are murdering me tonight."

Then he went silent.

Witnessing the execution on Graham's behalf were Minister Robert Muhammad of the Nation of Islam in Houston, his spiritual adviser; the Revs. Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton; and celebrity Bianca Jagger, a vocal foe of the death penalty. She left the execution in tears.

Earlier, Muhammad told supporters to think of the day as a celebration for Graham and not a funeral.

"His life is not in vain. Through his life he has called the whole world to look at Texas. He represents everything we've marched for, chanted for, lost our jobs for and got arrested for," Muhammad told about 60 Houston protesters as the group prepared to board a bus for Huntsville at the SHAPE Community Center.

"All of it has come down to this little boy born in Fifth Ward, Texas. The little high school dropout. Through all of this, our brother has evolved into a freedom fighter."

On Wednesday night, Graham struggled briefly with five prison guards at the Terrell Unit in Livingston when his visitation period ended at 5 p.m. Graham was surprised when officials began shackling his wrists, ankles and waist to move him to the death house in Huntsville.

The move was a surprise to Graham who thought he would be returning to his cell on death row in Livingston.

"We were attempting to put that apparatus on him yesterday," said prison spokesman Larry Fitzgerald. "But as soon as we unshackled his hands to move them from the back to the front that's when he started to struggle."

Fitzgerald said five officers subdued Graham.

"The struggle was very short-lived. It probably was only a minute or so," Fitzgerald said. "We were able to put the restraints on him. He was then carried to the van . . . We did not actually use an extraction team because he never really got into the cell."

Fitzgerald said there was extra security as Graham was brought to Huntsville; the van carrying him was escorted by state troopers and a helicopter. Graham arrived at the Huntsville Unit before 6:40 p.m.

Fitzgerald said Graham was checked immediately after the incident and was not injured. Graham did not say anything during the struggle or on the drive to Huntsville.

He refused every meal since breakfast Wednesday, requesting only coffee. He did not request a last meal.

"He does not want to eat in fact on the table of those who would kill him," said Jackson, who visited with Graham on Thursday and witnessed the execution.

Because Graham resisted the move his visitations were limited Thursday. In the morning he saw family, spiritual advisers and a lawyer.

Under the clemency petition process for Graham the board considered a reprieve, commutation and conditional pardon. The board voted 14-3 not to recommend a reprieve. It voted 12-5 not to recommend commutation and 17-0 not to recommend a conditional pardon. Board member Brendolyn Rogers-Johnson was on administrative leave because of a death in the family and did not vote.

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