Outgoing Governor Pardons Man Implicated in Social Worker’s Death
Azikiwe Kambule. Photo courtesy of mugshots.com.
Outgoing Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour has pardoned nearly 200 people, including a South African man implicated in the 1996 carjacking death of a social worker, according to this Sentinel-Record article.
Prosecutors said Azikiwe Kambule and Santonio Berry killed social worker Pamela McGill because they wanted her red 1993 Dodge Stealth sportscar.
Kambule claimed he did not fire the shots that killed McGill. He was sentenced to 30 years for armed carjacking and five years for being accessory to a murder. Berry was sentenced to life without parole after pleading guilty to capital murder.
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So many tragedies: but lets be clear of the facts. He was not convicted of being an accessory to a murder, he plead guilty to and was found guilty of being an accessory AFTER a murder. He did not go to police with his knowledge of a serious crime. He was also convicted of armed criminal action because of his participation in (presence during) the car jacking that preceeded the murder. But facts can also be misleading.
In 2008, the NASW code of Ethics was amended to include this: “105.(c) Social workers should… seek to understand the nature of social diversity and oppression with respect to race, ethnicity, national origin, color, sex, …age,… immigration status…”
and 6.04 (d) Social workers should act to prevent and eliminate domination of, exploitation of, and discrimination against any person, group, or class on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, color, …”
At the time of the murder, Azikiwe Kambule was a 17 year old high school student, born and raised under apatheid in South Africa. He had been in this country for only 2 years. (His mother brought him here with her when she moved here to attend a university.) Two years later he was “running with a rough crowd” when another young man proposed and initiated a car jacking. That (armed) individual drove to an isolated location took the victim into the woods and upon his return to the car told Azikiwe that he had killed her. Azikiwe, could not have left the scene in part because he did not know how to drive, but he was also unfamiliar with the area.
When he was later questioned by police he was cooperative and admitted his involvement. (In what atthat time was a missing persons case.) Remember, he was a minor, new to the country, unfamiliar with our laws (and his rights under those laws.) He also knew that he had been part of something wrong. He was eventually represented in court by a public defender. There was a “change of venue” request from the prosecution and his is trial was moved ( along with that of the individual charged with the murder) from the county where the crime occured (predominently black) to one that was(predominantly white) more likely (by history) to return a death sentence against a black man. (The county where the trial occured is Madison County. It was also the setting for John Grisham’s novel: A Time To Kill.)
Azikiwe, who was an honor student at school and had no prior offences was denied bond during his trial and was eventually sentenced to 35 years without chance for parole.
A young woman was murdered. That was a horrible crime that deserved aggressive prosecution. Our constitution allows and encourages that. But by all accounts the particular manor of Azikiwe Kambules conviction and subsequent incarceration appears to be a manner of injustice.
We are expected to value social justice and to challenge manifestations of social injustice. On occasion, fulfilling such obligations may be difficult or unpopular. So be it. That does not negate the obligation. .
Also from our Code of Ethics: “Social workers pursue social change, particularly with and on behalf of vulnerable and oppressed individuals and groups of people. Social workers’ social change efforts are focused primarily on issues of poverty, unemployment, discrimination, and other forms of social injustice. These activities seek to promote sensitivity to and knowledge about oppression and cultural and ethnic diversity. Social workers strive to ensure access to needed information, services, and resources; equality of opportunity; and meaningful participation in decision making for all people.”
Gary
Azi was a boy with so much potential and intellect! Just a question of being at the wrong place at the wrong time. I have from the outset maintained that while the boy had to pay for his actions, the punishment was very harsh! The odds were always going to be against young Azi! being a boy from SA and having parents who were students at the time and could most probably not afford the best legal fees in the US, Azi never stood a fair chance, let alone any chance at all! I thank God for the Governor’s pardon on Azi, although a valuable life was senselessly lost, I believe Azi deserves a chance to be given another shot at life, he has seen his teen and youth years evaporate in a foreign jail cell. I say this not because I’m a SAn but because Azi has without a shadow of a doubt served his debt to the society and already in his 30’s deserves a chance to start life afresh! My heart goes out to ur victims family Azikiwe and my heart goes out to ur family and to u my brother May the Lord that forgives be with u and give u great strength!
Valerie
gee– do they tell social workers to take a bus?
do they teach them to dodge bullets?
you people are nuts
I think it is important to take it into consideration that Azi recovered from his mistakes and he learned the whole saga in a very very rigorous way . You can’t leave your own country and go to another country and commit such a horrible crime . It will be a lesson to him and others that when you are in a foreign country you must behave positively and consider the law of that country . I think Azi must write a book about the whole story and tell us the whole thing regarding his predicament when he was incarcerated.
Sorry that I can’t share in your joy over his release as I watched parents grieve over the lost of their only daughter while people marched in the streets for his release. She came from a small town where everybody knows everybody and this whole town came together for her memorial service. I sung at that event. A few years later they lost a second child to a horrible accident who had moved back home to help care for his aging grieving parents. The mother never stopped grieving until her death and her father is in a nursing home after suffering a stroke. With the stroke of a pen the memory of this beautiful young lady was dis honored . It seems like this small town girl suddenly became insignificant along with her entire family. The remaining family is not the type to speak out but when I speak out about this tragedy there are words of appreciation from them to never let Pamela be forgotten in all this. The pain of losing her is ever present here in Poplarville and I doubt that young man feels it at all.
This is very disheartening. All families have effected by this.. No one but the two of them knows what happened. He should have never been released. He is no better than his co-defendant. My heart goes out to the young woman’s family,the truth is still yet to come out.