ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, March 16, 1997 TAG: 9703180088
SECTION: HORIZON PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: STEPHANIE SAUL NEWSDAY
The question of whether a minor should be sentenced to death for a crime plagues the courts, and it's a question that's answered differently from state to state
When Mississippi Gov. Kirk Fordice announced in 1994 that he wanted to make his state the ``capital of capital punishment,'' he had never heard of Azikiwe Kambule.
But three years later, the case of the South African youth who awaits trial in a Mississippi jail has become an international rallying point for death-penalty opponents. They say that because Kambule was 17 at the time he allegedly participated in the slaying of Pam McGill, a popular Jackson, Miss., social welfare worker, he should be ineligible for execution.
But prosecutors plan to seek the death penalty when Kambule goes on trial in May. If convicted of murder, he would become the fourth prisoner in Mississippi - and the 48th across the United States - on death row for a crime committed when he was under 18.
``He isn't even old enough to buy a beer, let alone sit on a jury,'' said Benjamin Jealous, program coordinator for the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, a Washington, D.C., anti-death-penalty group.
With homicide arrests of juveniles rising 170 percent nationwide in the past decade, the question of whether minors should be sentenced to death presents a growing dilemma for prosecutors, judges and juries.
The 47 death row inmates awaiting execution for crimes they committed as minors reflect a 39 percent increase since 1983. And since 1973, when the Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty, nine men have been executed who were under 18 at the time of their crimes.
States treat juvenile murderers differently. In 13 states that have the death penalty, Kambule would be excluded from a possible death sentence. Four states allow executions of those 17 and older at the time of their crimes. Another 21 of the 38 death-penalty states either have a minimum age of 16 or no minimum. Despite the fact that some states have no minimum age for imposing the death sentence, the U.S. Supreme Court has established a national minimum by ruling in 1988 that anyone under 16 ``is not capable of acting with the degree of culpability that can justify the ultimate penalty,'' effectively barring the execution of anyone younger at the time of his crime.
Although the court has held that a death sentence would be cruel and unusual punishment for a 15-year-old, it has left open that possibility for
16- and 17-year-olds, said William Geimer, a Washington and Lee University law professor who assists lawyers in capital cases. In Virginia, 14 is the youngest age at which a juvenile can be tried as an adult.
Such inconsistencies in how juveniles are treated under death-penalty laws are among the reasons the American Bar Association asked for a moratorium on executions in the United States last month.
Ronald Tabak, a New York City lawyer who served as chairman of the ABA committee that proposed the moratorium, said the execution of minors is opposed even by many death-penalty supporters.
``The educational experiences that one has, and also the appreciation of what it means to have life or take a life, are not generally as mature,'' Tabak said.
Also, he said, those under 18 are more easily coerced into confessions than older defendants, raising the likelihood that an innocent person would be executed.
``When you're killed by somebody 16 or 17, you're just as dead,'' said Jackson Police Chief Robert Johnson, whose agency helped investigate McGill's slaying. ``It doesn't matter what age the perpetrator is if it's a cold-blooded, calculated murder.''
Johnson's views are popular in Mississippi, a state that has lagged behind many of its Southern neighbors in death sentences and executions. Mississippi has not executed a prisoner since 1989. But the state's current political leaders appear determined to increase death-penalty prosecutions to match the ``tough on crime'' stance of such states as Texas and Florida.
The abduction of Pam McGill prior to her death occurred on a county line.
Prosecutors decided to try Kambule and a co-defendant in the county more likely to deliver the death penalty.
``The jurors in Hinds County have a reputation for refusing to vote for the death penalty,'' Hinds County District Attorney Ed Peters told the Jackson newspaper, explaining why he had asked that the case be tried in Madison County.
Death-penalty opponents say it is ironic that Kambule's native South Africa recently abolished the death penalty. And a prestigious girls' high school in Pretoria has waged a letter-writing campaign on his behalf, asking Madison County prosecutor John Kitchens not to seek the death penalty against Kambule. Kitchens did not return telephone calls.
``They are obviously focusing on the fact that South Africa doesn't have a death penalty and, therefore, this should not be imposed on this guy in another country,'' said Daniel Ngwepe, a spokesman for the South African Embassy in Washington, D.C.
Ngwepe has visited Kambule in jail. ``Our involvement is just to make sure he's aware of his rights,'' Ngwepe said.
Kambule accompanied his mother to Mississippi from Spruitview, near Johannesburg, in January 1994 when she began studying psychology at Jackson State University.
His mother, Busisiwe Chabeli, said her son was ostracized at school because of his foreign mannerisms and dress. Chabeli said her son's grades began to decline in the Jackson public school system, so she decided to send him to a private boarding school in a rural section of Mississippi.
But by the time Chabeli and her husband, a lawyer for Coca-Cola's South African operations, raised enough money to send Kambule to boarding school, he was already in trouble.
In January 1996, McGill disappeared after withdrawing $50 from an automatic teller machine.
A month later, Kambule was arrested as a suspect in the crime. He told police he was with 21-year-old Santonio Berry the night Berry followed McGill from the teller machine to her apartment, then forced her at gunpoint into her car.
Kambule told police they drove down a long dark road as McGill pleaded with them to let her out. Instead, Berry drove to a rural location, where he took McGill into the forest and shot her.
All the while, Kambule said, he was sitting in the car, and attorneys for Kambule have said he was merely a bystander, a kid at the wrong place at the wrong time.
``Azikiwe is not responsible,'' said his attorney, Chokwe Lumumba. ``Why was he with him? He's with him because he's a kid. He was hanging out. He was not hanging out to commit a crime.''
But under law, it does not matter than Kambule was not the triggerman, and prosecutors have said his role was not a secondary one.
``If I had a nickel for every defense claim of that nature, I think I'd be a rich man,'' Johnson said of Kambule's defense claim that he was an innocent bystander.
Berry has entered a guilty plea in exchange for a sentence of life in prison. He is expected to testify against Kambule.
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