Shaka Sankofa: An Innocent Life Wasted? Essay

Have you ever heard, I saw you last night on Grand Avenue at seven p.m., but you werent there at that time? Well what if the same person thought they saw you shoot someone? This is exactly what happened to Shaka Sankofa. Sankofa was put to death based on the testimony of one witness, who identified him from her car in a parking lot, forty feet away, in the darkness of night, in the shooting of a grocery clerk. No murder weapon was found, and two other credible witnesses say that Sankofa was not the killer both were employees of the store and came within close contact of the killer on the night of the murder. These witnesses never saw the witness stand (Essence Magazine). This fact raises questions about Sankofas court appointed lawyer. In fact, Ronald G. Mock had been disciplined five times by the Texas bar association for a breakdown in the adversarial system of justice. If Sankofa had a better lawyer would he be a free man? If he could afford one would the other two credible witnesses been on the stand (Essence Magazine). The death penalty is, certainly, a very controversial issue. Many people are for it, and many people are against it. Throughout the years, society has changed their thoughts on the death penalty, but there has never been one worldwide view that has been the same. Some people think that it is a cruel and inhumane act, while others think that the person who committed the crime should pay. I will attempt to you show you that the death penalty is not morally justified. I will do this by showing you that one the death penalty is racist, two it is biased towards the economically distressed, and three it is grossly ineffective in the stopping of violent crimes and homicides in the United States legal system....

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