Houston Chronicle, June 4, 2000:

A nine-member panel heard evidence at a “mock trial” in the case of condemned killer Gary Graham on Saturday, then concluded that he was wrongfully convicted.

The panel was assembled by a group called the National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America to hear evidence in cases relevant to the African-American community.

An attorney formerly with Amnesty International told the panel that Graham had inadequate legal representation at his trial and was convicted solely on the basis of a suspect eyewitness identification.

“The state of Texas is on the verge of killing an innocent man,” attorney Ashanti Chimurenga told the nine-member panel convened at the Thurgood Marshall School of Law at Texas Southern University.

Graham, also known as Shaka Sankofa, was convicted and sentenced to death for the May 1981 murder of Bobby Lambert, 53, of Tucson, Ariz. He is scheduled to be executed June 22.

The “trial” at Texas Southern was more like a closing argument. Chimurenga, who has been following Graham’s case since 1993 and is sympathetic to his cause, was the only person to present evidence. The prosecution’s side was not represented.

Chimurenga said only one eyewitness has ever testified that Graham was the killer.

The witness says she saw Graham shoot Lambert in a store parking lot.

But Chimurenga said the witness failed to identify Graham in a photo array shortly after the shooting. One day after being shown the array, the witness was brought in for a live line-up and she identified Graham.

Graham was the only person in the live line-up who had also been in the photo array the day before, Chimurenga said. It is likely, she suggested, that the witness identified Graham only because she remembered seeing his picture in the photo array.

“This procedure, riddled with improprieties, is what put Gary Graham on death row,” Chimurenga said.

She said Graham’s trial attorney failed to point out the faulty procedure to the jury and failed to call other eyewitnesses and alibi witnesses.

Prosecutors say they are convinced that Graham received a fair trial. Although Graham’s attorneys argue that no jury has heard new eyewitness evidence in the case, prosecutors say the new witnesses lack credibility or their accounts are vague.

In addition, prosecutors argue, the one witness who picked out Graham in Lambert’s death has never wavered in her identification.

The panel did not come back with a “verdict.” But at the end of the presentation, the members said there was a consensus that Graham did not receive a fair trial.

“The evidence overwhelmingly shows a deliberate frame-up, which is all too commonplace,” said Geronimo Ji Jaga, a former Black Panther now living in Louisiana.

Another panelist, Akilah M. Ali of the Republic of New Afrika, a North American group, said, “The consensus is indeed that the evidence is not sufficient to support a conviction on first-degree murder and the imposition of the death penalty.”

TSU law student Kantaki Auset agreed. “I think he needs to be released,” Auset said. “If all the evidence were heard in court, they would find that he is innocent. He needs to be released, and he needs reparations for his time in prison.”