Newspaper Page Text
Southern ‘justice’
South African child facing legal lynching in Mississippi
By Benjamin Jealous
{ THE JACKSON ADVOCATE Editor
i “Under Apartheid, under the
i state of emergency, Black chil
i dren were tried as adults,” ob
. served Elaine Salo, a South Afri
| can doctoral candidate studying
i in Atlanta. “This case is very
{ reminiscent of that situation. He
i may not be accused of a political
i crime, but they are not taking his
| age into consideration. This is
| reallyachild wearetalkingabout.”
i After surviving some of Apart
i heid’s most turbulent years,
i Azikiwe Kambule, a 10th-grade
i South African child, ig facing the
! death penalty in Mississippi for a
! crime in which many say he was
i little more than a bystander.
i Despite having no criminal
; record, no history of violence, pro
! viding his full cooperation to the
| authorities, and notbeing present
i when the killing took place, Azi
has been charged as an accom
plice to capital murder. Mississip
. pi is seeking the death penalty
against Azi — a child who isn’t
even old enough to buy a beer, let
~ alone sit on a jury.
Two local prosecutors, Hinds
County District Attorney Ed Pe
ters and Madison County D.A.
James Kitchens, have already
>0 acted to seal Azi’s fate.
2 In April, Peters was quoted in
% the Clarion-Ledger, a local daily
newspaper, as saying that because
““the “jurors in [predominantly
“black] Hinds County have a rep
"l utation for refusing to vote for the
! death penalty,” he and Kitchens
"’ moved Azi’s trial to Madison Coun
"'ty where the outcome would be
*** more certain, if not predictable.
% The setting for John Grisham’s
“*A-Time To Kill, Madison’s racial
“fenvironment is notorious. “That
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jury’s gonna lynch ‘em,” says
Charles Tisdale, publisher of The
Jackson Advocate. “It’s just that
simple.”
With one of the largest white
populations in Mississippi, Madi
son has become a virtual haven
for the state’s less-tolerant elites.
“That county is home to this
country’s richest and poorest peo
ple,” says Tisdale. “The white
folks ran there to avoid desegre
gation, and the black folks who've
stayed have never received the
benefit of their own civil rights.”
Like his fictitious counterpart
in Grisham’s novel, county offi
cials say, the current Madison
County D.A. is hoping this high
profile death penalty case will
advance his career.
“Word is he’s planning on run
ning for Judge soon,” said a coun
ty attorney who asked that his
name not be printed.
Azi’s friends and supporters say
they are concerned that the part
time public defender who's de
fending him won’t be up to the
challenge.
“Those attorneys are contract
ed — they aren’t paid anything
extratohandle capital trials,” says
Sheila O’Flaherty who was with
the Mississippi Capital Defense
Resource Center until congres
sional Republicans eliminated its
funding earlier this year. The
office had been charged with mak
ingsurethat caseslike Azi’s didn’t
fall through the cracks.
According to Steve Hawkins,
executive director of the National
Coalition to Abolish the Death
Penalty, court-appointed attor
neys in Southern states often re
ceive the equivalent of four or five
dollars per hour to handle death
penalty tridls.
“Look at the facts,” says Rever
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Closer Look
end Robert Abrams, a United
Methodist pastor from Gulfport,
Mississippi, “and you will see this
boy is more of a victim than any
thing else.”
Azikiwe Kambule came to the
United States two years ago with
his mother who had received a
fellowship to finish her college
education in America.
“He was very excited,” remem
bers hismother, Busisiwe Chabeli.
“He had always heard us talk
about America and he wanted the
chance to see for himself.”
As a student at Chastain Mid
dle School in Jackson, Azi had no
trouble adjusting academically.
He received excellent grades, was
placedin honors classes and joined
the school choir. Yet, Azi found
himself under immense social
pressure — he didn’t look, speak
or dress like other children in his
neighborhood.
Azi wanted to fit in with his
peers, and not be the subject of
their ridicule. He met and started
spending time with youth who
were older and very street-wise.
While attending Jackson’s
Murrah High School, Azi’s grades
began to fall; his parents worried
that his new friends were the
wrong crowd. Fearing the worst,
they decided to scrape together
the funds tosend Azitoa boarding
school. Tragically, it was already
too late.
Last January, a week before he
was to leave for the Piney Woods
School, Azi found himself in the
middle of a car-jacking in which a
young African-American woman
was kidnapped and ultimately
killed.
According to police testimony
during a pre-trial hearing, Azi
himself was so far away from the
crime scene that he did not hear
o)
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the gunshots. When arrested, he
was the only oneto cooperate with
the police. He fully explained the
terrible series of events that end
ed with the death of Pamela McGill
— a young African-American
woman who was popular in the
local community. After hisarrest,
Azi tried repeatedly to help the
authorities in their investigation.
Civil rights activists say they
fear that outrage about McGill’s
murder has inhibited many peo
ple’s ability to see the injustice
being perpetrated by local prose
cutors.
“While the tragedy of Ms.
McGill’sdeathis an emotional fire
burning out of control in our com
munity, we must look at the larg
er political dynamic of the prose
cutors’ decision to move this trial
toMadison County toensurethese
two young people get the death
penalty,” commented L.C. Dorsey,
assistant professor of social work
at Jackson State University and
Annual Labor Day Blood
The 17th Annual Shepeard
Blood Center/Channel 12
Blood Give-In is scheduled to
take place on Tuesday, Au
gust27th, fromßa.m. toB p.m.
in the Activities Building of
First Baptist Church. The gift
of life is a gift of love, so plan to
join us and be a “Donor For All
Seasons” at this year’s Blood
Give-In.
This event has become a big
tradition in the Augusta area,
enabling Shepeard Blood Cen
tertomaintain a sufficientblood
supply for the CSRA hospitals
during the Labor Day Week
end, helping to save the lives of
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guaranies
former executive director of the
Mississippi Prison Defense Com
mittee.
“It seems that their guilt has
been decided even before the trial
has begun.”
Scheduled tocommence August
19, Azi’s caseis already beginning
to attract national and interna
tional attention.
“Thesituation inwhich Azi finds
himself speaks volumes about the
use of the death penalty against
children,” Hawkins says.
“During this decade, only five
nations in the world are known to
have executed persons for crimes
they committed before their eigh
teenth birthday. Those countries
are Iran, Pakistan, Yemen, Saudi
Arabia ... and the United States.
And America has executed more
than the other four combined.”
According to the National Coa
lition to Abolish the Death Penal
ty, acondemned child in the Unit
ed States alsotendstobe ofdarker
hundreds of CSRA citizens dur
ing this crucial time of year.
The Blood Give-In is
Shepeard’s largest blood drive of
the year and it is strategically
planned at the end of the sum
mer, right before Labor Day
Weekend. This has traditionally
been the most difficult time of
year for maintaining a sufficient
blood supply. Through the years,
Shepeard has come to depend
upon citizens ofthe CSRA to come
out to give of themselves at this
crucial time of year. This year’s
goal is 450 units of blood during
the. twelve-hour period. “It’s a
chance for people to truly give a
financing
L
protection
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August 15, 1996
hue— 66 percent of these persons
sentenced to death as children
have been from racial minorities.
“Nowhere is the international
rule of law more clear than the
prohibition on the use ofthe death
penalty against children. The
International Covenant on Civil
and Political Rights, which the
United States has ratified, clearly
states that the ‘sentence of death
shall not be imposed for crimes
committed by persons below the
age of eighteen’” Hawkins ex
plains. “Indeed, every major hu
manrights treaty in the world has
the same express wording.”
Rev. Abrams says he is con
cerned that Americans have be
come so fearful and angry about
violencein theircommunitiesthat
they’re no longer contemplating
the consequences of their respons
es to crime.
“Thereis a feeding frenzy going
onin America right now,” he says.
“And we are feeding onouryouth.”
Give-In
gift of themselves and one of
the few opportunities to give
such a significant gift without
reaching into their pocket,”
says Judith Goodwin,
Shepeard’s director of public
relations.
The event will be chronicled
by live-remote broadcasts all
day from WRDW-Channel 12,
Kicks 99 and Cool 93 - The
Oldies Station. Free break
fast, lunch and dinner will be
provided by Hardee’s and
Wifesaver. Coupons for free
meals from Chick-Fil-A will
be given to all donors. Free
babysitting is also available.
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