'Stop the executions now!'

On Oct. 27, activists from Texas were joined by allies who came from as far away as Uganda, Alaska and France for the 8th Annual Texas March to Stop Executions held in Houston.

Houston march, Oct. 27 WW photos: Gloria Rubac

African Americans, Latin@s and whites rallied to celebrate the victories that saved the lives of Kenneth Foster, Clarence Brandley and Ricardo Aldape Guerra and to remember the losses of Shaka Sankofa (aka Gary Graham), Frances Newton, Joseph Nichols and 402 other executed men and women in Texas.

The wide range of endorsers included actor Susan Sarandon; death row political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal; the Central Labor Council in Derry, Ireland; the Houston NAACP; and Dr. Evelyn Bethune, granddaughter of the late Black educator and civil rights activist, Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune.

Family members of death row inmates speak at rally.

The march and two rallies were broadcast live by KDOL Radio in Livingston, where the 380 men on Texas death row are housed. They listened live for two and a half hours and were energized by it. “It was really uplifting to know that so many people were out there fighting for us. To hear the drums, the chanting and the speakers,” Howard Guidry, a leader of Panthers United for Revolutionary Education (PURE) on death row, told his family during a visit later the evening.

PURE’s message to the rally read in part: “Thank you for saying ‘No!’ to executions. Because of people like you we will win this battle against capital punishment.”

Gabriel Gonzales of DRIVE (Death Row Inner-communal Vanguard Engagement Movement) wrote: “It feels good to see that people out there believe in us and what we do in here. We are certainly in the belly of the beast, dealing with life and death on a daily basis. ... You all out there who stand with us are our heroes. ... But you are not just people, but comrades, because we all share the same struggle, whether as socialists, as the people or as revolutionaries who would rather ‘die on our feet than live on our knees.’ ”

Before the march began from Emancipation Park, near the site of the old Houston Black Panther Party headquarters, there was an opening rally there. A tribute was given by Peoples Party III leader Kenyha Shabazz to Houston Panther Chairman Carl Hampton, shot to death on July 26, 1970, by Houston police near the rally place. Other speakers included the Journey of Hope, the National Black United Front and a Ugandan who had spent 18 years on death row there until the person he was convicted of killing turned up alive.

Mary Delaney, 74, and Velma Johnson, 72, members of the SHAPE (Self Help for African People through Education) Community Center’s “Elders Institute of Wisdom” then led the march, which ended up at the center headquarters for a closing rally. Death row families carried the lead banners.

Members of the Salvadoran organization CRECEN carried their large banner in the march. The Free Radicals Protest Samba School Drum Corps provided rhythm for the chants as almost 500 people marched, yelling: “Texas Says Death Row! We Say ‘Hell No!’” and “No Justice, No Peace! Kenneth Foster Must Be Released!”

SHAPE Community Center director, Deloyd Parker, co-chaired the closing rally, which heard from the family of freed death row prisoner Clarence Brandley. His brother Ozell spoke and two of his sisters were introduced. Clarence, unable to attend due to serious health problems, sent a message saying: “I will never forget the men I left behind on death row. Keep up the fight and never give up until we win abolition!”

Rally speakers included immigrant rights activist María Jiménez on the freeing of Ricardo Aldape Guerra from death row in 1997. Bryan McCann from the Campaign to End the Death Penalty- Austin chapter spoke on the saving of Kenneth Foster from execution on August 30. Lee Greenwood, whose son Joseph Nichols was executed last March 7, said he asked her to continue the fight for all those he would leave behind on the row.

Howard Guidry’s mother, Joyce, said she would always stand tall and fight for him. Delia Pérez Meyers spoke for her brother Louis; as did Robert Garza’s family. A large delegation of SEIU activists with the Justice for Janitors Campaign attended and spoke.

Scott Cobb of the Texas Moratorium Network in Austin garnered loud cheers as he told of the campaign to remove Sharon Keller, the presiding judge of Texas’ highest court, from office for refusing to stay open for an extra 20 minutes to hear an appeal from Michael Richard, who was executed on Sept. 25.

Richard’s execution came a few hours after the U.S. Supreme Court announced they would hear a Kentucky challenge to the lethal injection procedure. Keller’s response that “We close at 5 p.m.” has outraged many. There was a protest at her house. To sign the judicial complaint, go to www.sharonkiller.com.

Deloyd Parker concluded: “What solidarity! What a victory! We drew people from infants to great grandmothers and the Black, Latin@, and immigrant communities joined in. As people in our community saw us in the park and in the street they joined in. We were strong. We were powerful. We renewed their belief in the struggle. They could feel our strength and knew that we really are going to abolish the death penalty.” Go to www.marchtoendexecution.org.

The writer, an organizer of the Texas Death Penalty Abolition Movement, was a co-chair of the Oct. 27 rally.