Friday, January 3, 2025
1:00 pm
Governor Holcomb’s Office
200 W. Washington St.
The following article was first posted by Supporters of Kofi Ajabu as a press release on December 22, 2024.
Governor Holcomb’s last day in office is January 12, 2025 making time of the utmost essence. Below is a press release that was distributed last week with the hopes that you will help us raise awareness of Kofi Ajabu’s petition for clemency to Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb.
Supporters and family of Kofi Ajabu are aggressively pleading Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb to grant clemency to Ajabu for his role in the March 17, 1994 killings of Nicholas Allemenos, Lisa Allemenos, and Christopher James. The killings of Chris, Lisa, and Nick were a terrible and tragic incident where Kofi Ajabu did not physically participate in the killings.
Ajabu received a sentence for life without parole from Judge Sanford M. Brook, which was remanded on appeal to a sentence of 240 years, which virtually establishes the same sentence, which supporters criticize as “excessive.” Significantly, the jury foreman from the criminal case 71S00-9512-CR-01377 is advocating for Kofi’s early release from his 240 year sentence, which he and supporters call “excessive.” Watch full video clemency recommendation here.
In May 2024, Jury Foreman, Orvan Mabie, sent Ajabu a letter stating he had to find him guilty “because of the way the Indiana law was written”…but that he “never believed he killed anybody.” The decision has haunted him for 30 years, and he has made it his life purpose to help my brother get clemency.
Ajabu’s accomplishments behind bars include becoming masterful at meditation, yoga and energy-balancing practices, developing conversational skill in five languages including Spanish, Twi, Putongua, Vietnamese and French, and earning his Bachelor’s degree in General Studies from Ball State University.
According to Ajabu’s criminal attorney, “The legal purpose of clemency is to provide a mechanism for the executive branch to show some mercy when the legal system has provided excessive punishment.” According to family member Mmoja Ajabu, ”Holcomb would pardon someone else.”
From Washington, DC Black Lawyers for Justice lead counsel, Malik Shabazz Esq. says, “as tragic as the incident that Mr. Ajabu was involved in; his sentence does not reflect his auxiliary role in those murders. He has served 30 years in prison and has achieved outstanding academic and reformative progress. Granting clemency to Kofi is the right thing to do and keeping him behind bars contributes to mass incarceration.”
Photo Credit: Kofi Ajabu (pictured right) with sister Nzinga Harrison and children.
