Without divine intervention or a pardon from Texas Governor George W. Bush, death row inmate Shaka Sankofa, also known as  Gary Graham, will die from lethal injection June 22.

Mr. Sankofa is one of 20 people Texas is set to kill over the next four months, despite widespread debate about the death penalty and whether it can be applied fairly or properly.

In addition, activists fear if Mr. Sankofa is put to death, a mixed blend of politics and racism could open the door for the execution of Mumia Abu-Jamal, a Pennsylvania death row inmate, who supporters say is innocent.

Both of the death row inmates are Black and it would take action by two white Republican politicians to save their lives, activists note. In the past Republicans, and some Democrats, have used support for capital punishment to garner support and shore up their political images, activists add.

In 1992, then-presidential hopeful and Arkansas governor Bill Clinton allowed a Black man to be executed. Activists said the man was mentally retarded and should not have been on death row.

These two cases, Mr. Sankofa and Mr. Abu-Jamal, are a litmus test for Republicans and Democrats, said Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr., who has sponsored legislation for a moratorium on federal application of the death penalty. He was joined May 26 by celebrated former New Jersey death row prisoner Rubin �Hurricane� Carter, former Illinois death row inmate Darby Tillis, Nation of Islam Minister Benjamin F. Muhammad, and Richard Burr, Mr. Sankofa�s attorney, for a Capitol Hill press conference.

Two controversial death row cases involve Republican governors and Vice President Al Gore has not taken a stand on these cases, the Illinois Democrat noted. Mr. Gore also supports capital punishment.

Though Illinois has placed a moratorium on the death penalty and other states have questioned its use, Gov. Bush seems unmoved by cases where innocent people have been released from death row, many based on DNA evidence.

The Texas lawmaker, whose state leads the nation in executions, contends he has never signed a death warrant for an innocent person. Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge, who has been mentioned as a possible Republican vice presidential candidate for Mr. Bush, is set to execute Mr. Abu-Jamal as soon as the legal process is exhausted, add defenders of the former Black Panther and journalist.

A judge recently granted Mr. Abu-Jamal�s legal team until June 2 to file a supplemental brief about his case and revised death penalty laws. The prosecution must reply by June 23. Mr. Abu-Jamal was convicted in the 1980s killing of a white Philadelphia police officer. His lawyers say he never received a fair trial, was targeted for his political activism and witnesses say police coerced them into lying about the case.

As Texas makes its sixth attempt to execute Mr. Sankofa, politicians and activists also claim he didn�t get a fair trial. In his case, witnesses have recanted testimony and the original defense lawyer failed to properly represent Mr. Sankofa, they argue.

�George Bush is a serial killer. In five years, he has killed one person every two weeks. The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles don�t even meet face to face. Instead, they work by faxing hundreds of pieces of paper to each other,� said Atty. Ashanti Chimurenga, coordinator for the Shaka Sankofa Justice Coalition. The coalition has launched a 30-day campaign to save Mr. Sankofa�s life.

In Texas, the governor needs a favorable recommendation from the Board of Pardons and Paroles to grant clemency, according to the Death Penalty Information Center, a Washington, D.C.-based  anti-death penalty group. In Pennsylvania, the governor can grant clemency based on the advice of the State Board of Pardons, the center said.

�Many say that the Texas court system is broken, but I believe its working perfectly. The U.S. constitution was built on white supremacy and was the same document that didn�t recognize Blacks as whole human beings. The rush to kill us has just been escalating over the years,� said Atty. Chimurenga.

According to Justice For All, a Texas-based pro-death penalty group, capital punishment is deserved for violent crimes, and Mr. Sankofa�s time has come.

�Living murderers are much more likely to harm or murder people in the future, than executed murderers,� said Dudley Sharp, a Justice For All spokesman. �Since there�s no proof of an innocent person being executed, obviously the death penalty process will always protect more innocent lives than it will ever put at risk,� he said.

His group contends eyewitness testimony, failed appeals and Supreme Court rejection of Mr. Sankofa�s case justify his execution.

The fact that the eyewitness could not initially identify Mr. Sankofa in a photo and a lack of physical evidence tying the 36-year-old  man to the crime are irrelevant, according to defenders of the death penalty.

Death penalty opponents point out that in almost all cases where there is a white victim, capital punishment is evoked.

Forty-three percent of death row inmates are Black, and 35 percent of those put to death since 1976 have been Black, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. Blacks are estimated to be 12 percent of the total U.S. population.

The majority of death row inmates in Texas and Pennsylvania are Black, according to the center.

Mr. Graham was convicted of killing a white man during a crime spree committed when he was 17-years-old. According to Mr. Sankofa�s lawyer, seven out of eight witnesses contend his client did not kill the man. He said four witnesses, who have all passed lie detector tests, confirm Mr. Sankofa was with them the night of the murder.

Further, Atty. Burr said police could not link Mr. Sankofa physically to the crime, and the original trial attorney failed to present this evidence within the 30 day period allotted after his conviction. That failure has left Mr. Sankofa on death row for 19 years, he said.

Min. Louis Farrakhan has written Gov. Bush asking for clemency for Mr. Sankofa, and has repeatedly called for justice for Mr. Abu-Jamal.      

�Through all of the judicial reviews that he�s had, the evidence has never been heard. When you look at the death penalty, and the disproportionate number of Blacks, Latinos and the poor who are on death row, there�s a cinch in the system that things are unfair. It all stems from the pattern of racial profiling, police, prosecutorial and judicial misconduct,� said Min. Robert Muhammad, southwest regional minister of the Nation of Islam, who started a fast on May 22, saying he will not break it until Mr. Sankofa is free.  

�This is nothing but an exercise in white supremacy, there is no evidence to substantiate the conviction nor the sentencing of Gary Graham (Shaka Sankofa), or Mumia,� added Min. Benjamin, who once served as chair of the defense committee for Mr. Sankofa.

�People argue that racism exists in the death penalty because 12 percent of the U.S. population is African American, and 73 percent are white, and that 43 percent of death row are African American. That�s irrelevant. What�s relevant is what percentage of murders you commit,� contends Dudley Sharp, of the Texas death penalty group, who argues Blacks commit more murders than whites and wind up on death row because of it.

According Ricky Jason, of the Sankofa Justice Coalition, Mr. Sankofa has resisted being moved into a death watch cell. For that refusal, he was gassed and beaten by hooded prison guards, said Mr. Jason.

�During my last visit, I heard the guards say, �We�re gonna execute the n_ _ _ _ _  this time.� This is not a plan to execute, this is a lynching. If we let this happen, all of the sacrifices that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad made for us will be in vain. Everyone talks about how the justice system doesn�t work. It�s not supposed to work, the people must work,� Mr. Jason argued.

Different groups are at work to stop Mr. Sankofa�s execution and mobilize efforts to end the death penalty:

• Rep. Jackson attended a town hall meeting on the death penalty the evening  of May 26 at Bethel AME Church in Baltimore.

• Mr. Sankofa�s supporters are scheduled to hold a community forum on June 2, at the House of the Lord Church in Brooklyn, New York.

• National anti-police brutality activist Al Sharpton and Millions for Mumia are scheduled to protest June 8 in D.C. and hold a mass anti-death penalty protest in front  of New York�s Republican Party Headquarters June 19.

Deeming Gov. Bush �the King of Death,� the Campaign to End the Death Penalty plans to protest wherever he campaigns. �Bush has made a career on being tough on crime, and as governor of the state that kills people the fastest, we will continue to target him because of who�s dying. It�s poor people and it�s Black people,�  said campaign spokesperson Joan Parkin.

(Eric Ture Muhammad contributed to this report from Washington, D.C.)