An American Nightmare 
#307 - Written 15 December 1996 
by Mumia Abu-Jamal 

    Who comes to America, only to find death awaiting? 
     Young Azikiwe Kambule, recently arrived from South Africa, may find the face of death grinning at him in a Mississippi courtroom. 
     The youth has been charged by the state with capital murder, and it is seeking the death penalty in the case. 
     Azi, named after the renowned African journalist, and Nigeria's first president, Nnamdi Azikiwe, was a mere 16 years old when he was in a car with another man, who allegedly abducted and killed a woman named Pam McGill, of Jackson.  The killing of Ms. McGill took place outside the car and not in Azi's presence. 
     Arrested one week later, he cooperated fully with investigators, going out several times to pinpoint the location, without success.  As a 16 year-old, in a foreign country (not having been in the U.S. for over two years), with no drivers license, no car, and no knowledge of the area beyond Jackson, this is hardly surprising. 
     Several months later the other man, the driver, took the cops to the crime scene that Azi couldn't find. 
     It was only after this, after a body was found, that Azi was charged as an accomplice to capital murder, and thus he became a teenage candidate for the death penalty.  A teen with no criminal history, who was not at the crime scene, who killed no one, stands eligible for death in a Mississippi courtroom in January of 1997. 
     The cruel irony here is that if Azi's family stayed in South Africa, even if he were guilty, under the newly reaffirmed constitution there, neither he, nor anyone else, would even be eligible for a death sentence, for there, in a land millions of Americans have come to loathe, there is no death penalty, as it has been found to violate fundamental human rights. 
     But, unfortunately, Azi is in America--in a state called Mississippi, where death, especially for a young black boy, is more than a possibility.  It is a probability. 
     A group of human rights activists have formed the Azikiwe Kambule Committee for Justice to save this youth's life.  It is headed by South African poet and former political prisoner Dennis Brutus, former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark, actor Mike Farrell (M-A-S-H) and other anti-death penalty activists.  The Committee can be reached at 918 F Street, NW, Suite 601, Washington, D.C. 20004. 
     Please lend a hand in support of life.