Shaka Sankofa's son convicted
'I will continue to fight'
By Gloria
Rubac
Houston
Hours after being sentenced to life in prison, Gary
Hawkins sent a message to his supporters: "I want to say
thank you everybody who has supported me and my family
throughout this recent bout of injustice. This sort of
wrongdoing by the state must not be accepted quietly. I am
innocent and I will continue to fight. I believe that one day
in the not-so-distant future, justice will finally be served
in both my case and in my father's. Regardless of the latest
outcome, I encourage you all not to give up. Stay motivated
and stay proud. Justice will be ours!"
Hawkins is the son of executed Texas prison activist Shaka
Sankofa. Hawkins was convicted of capital murder March 27 in
a Houston courtroom packed with supporters and family
members. Since the state did not seek the death penalty,
Hawkins was automatically sentenced to life in prison.
Hawkins and his supporters were stunned as the verdict was
read. There was absolutely no physical evidence or motive
linking him to the murder of his good friend, Melvin
Pope.
"They've already taken my daddy away from me and now they
want my brother," cried his sister, Deidra Hawkins.
"This is another case of injustice and what will we do?
We'll fight and we'll continue to struggle, that's what!"
stated Njeri Shakur, an activist with the Texas Death Penalty
Abolition Movement and a friend of both Sankofa and
Hawkins.
The only person who put Hawkins at the scene of the
robbery and murder, Stanley White, admitted robbing Pope but
was offered a deferred 10-year probated sentence in exchange
for fingering Hawkins as the killer.
"I can't see how they could have believed his lies,"
Hawkins told this reporter. "I never thought they'd come back
with a guilty verdict--because I am innocent. But I felt
something was wrong when the jury came back in with their
heads hanging down. Two of them were crying when the judge
polled each juror. How could those who thought I was innocent
not be strong enough to hold their position?"
In telephone conversations from the Harris County jail
after his conviction, Hawkins reminisced with this reporter
about the big demonstrations for his father back in 1993 that
he participated in as a 14-year-old.
"I remember being outside the death house with my
grandfather back then protesting the execution of a Mexican
man and there were lots and lots of people there in
Huntsville. I didn't think it would happen to my father. But
I also remember when Ricardo Aldape Guerra was finally freed
from death row--that was so great! That's what I wanted for
my dad," Hawkins said.
Activists from the Texas Death Penalty Abolition Movement,
the S.H.A.P.E. Community Center, the National Black United
Front, the Nation of Islam and the Huntsville 8 Support
Committee, as well as family members, filled the courtroom
every day of the weeklong trial. The Abolition Movement had
held fundraisers to help pay attorney fees and collected cash
donations during the trial to deposit in Hawkins' jail
account for his 22nd birthday on the second day of trial.
Street meetings and flyers generated support from many who
had stood with his father up until his execution last June
22.
What became apparent during the trial was that the Houston
police did not even investigate the murder of a young Black
male they found on the side of a street. Melvin Pope's cell
phone was on the ground beside his body and his beeper was
actually going off, yet not one phone number was recorded by
the cops. Not a fingerprint was taken off anything, no blood
was tested--until they found out the victim had been with
Hawkins earlier in the day.
Then they pushed full steam ahead to pin the murder on
Hawkins, the son of the most widely known person executed in
Texas in recent history.
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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