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Sunday, Sept. 21, 2008
See "in person" action
opportunities for those in or near Georgia and DC below.
Other than Georgia's Board of Pardons and Paroles, the U.S. Supreme
Court can stop the execution of Troy Davis. Troy Davis is scheduled to
be executed on Tuesday, September 23 at 7:00 p.m. for his alleged
murder of Police Officer Mark MacPhail in Georgia. Yet serious doubts
of his guilt remain and compelling evidence of his innocence has not
been heard in court.
There is no physical evidence linking Troy to the crime; no DNA, no
murder weapon. Seven out of 9 witnesses have recanted their testimony
implicating Troy, and one of the two remaining witnesses is the likely
suspect. All Troy Davis has ever asked for is the chance to be tried in
a court of law with the actual evidence. Now more than ever is the time
for justice to be served.
Troy Davis and his
family need your help!
Please see Bob Herbert's column in the New York Times, also below, and
note the following, send the e-mail, send the fax, and on Monday
morning make yourself heard again via telephone... The message is
simple: "I am calling to ask the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles
to reconsider the case of Troy Davis and to stop this execution."
A friend in California called me to say that "...in reference to
telephone numbers, I discovered this morning that for the State of
Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles, the most accessible - i. e., a
real person answered and spoke versus a series of recordings... Get a
real person at 404-656-5712...."
"...in reference to facsimile numbers, 404-651-8502 works...."
"...in reference to electronic messages. clemency_information@pap.state.ga.us
will most likely work....
"...according to the individual with whom this morning I spoke, more
than 84,000 electronic messages, more than 20,000 facsimiles and an
unquantified number of telephone calls had in favor of Mister Davis
been received....
"...THE STATE OF GEORGIA BOARD OF PARDONS AND PAROLES IS COUNTING....
"...PLEASE CONTINUE TO MAKE YOUR VOICE COUNT....
Click
here to read about last week's protests in Atlanta, including a
fast going on now that you can join in solidarity...
In
the New York Times....
September 20, 2008
Op-Ed Columnist
What*s the Rush?
By BOB HERBERT
Troy Davis, who was convicted of shooting a police officer to death in
the parking lot of a Burger King in Savannah, Ga., is scheduled to be
executed on Tuesday.
There is some question as to his guilt (even the pope has weighed in on
this case), but the odds of Mr. Davis escaping the death penalty are
very slim. Putting someone to death whose guilt is uncertain is always
perverted, but there*s an extra dose of perversion in this case.
The United States Supreme Court is scheduled to make a decision on
whether to hear a last-ditch appeal by Mr. Davis on Sept. 29. That's
six days after the state of Georgia plans to kill him.
Mr. Davis's lawyers have tried desperately to have the execution
postponed for those few days, but so far to no avail. Georgia is among
the most cold-blooded of states when it comes to dispatching prisoners
into eternity.
So the lawyers are now trying to get the Supreme Court to issue a stay,
or decide before Tuesday on whether it will consider the appeal.
No one anywhere would benefit from killing Mr. Davis on Tuesday, as
opposed to waiting a week to see how the Supreme Court rules. So why
the rush? The murder happened in 1989, and Mr. Davis has been on death
row for 17 years. Six or seven more days will hardly matter.
Most of the time, the court declines to hear such cases.
If that's the decision this time, Georgia can get on with the dirty
business of taking a human life. If the court agrees to hear the
appeal, it would have an opportunity to get a little closer to the
truth of what actually happened on the terrible night of Aug. 19, 1989,
when Officer Mark Allen MacPhail was murdered.
He was shot as he went to the aid of a homeless man who was being
pistol-whipped in the parking lot.
Nine witnesses testified against Mr. Davis at his trial in 1991, but
seven of the nine have since changed their stories. One of the
recanting witnesses, Dorothy Ferrell, said she was on parole when she
testified and was afraid that she*d be sent back to prison if she
didn*t agree to finger Mr. Davis.
She said in an affidavit: "I told the detective that Troy Davis was the
shooter, even though the truth was that I didn't know who shot the
officer."
Another witness, Darrell Collins, a teenager at the time of the murder,
said the police had 'scared' him into falsely testifying by threatening
to charge him as an accessory to the crime. He said they told him that
he might never get out of prison.
"I didn't want to go to jail because I didn't do nothing wrong," he
said.
At least three witnesses who testified against Mr. Davis (and a number
of others who were not part of the trial) have since said that a man
named Sylvester "Redd" Coles admitted that he was the one who had
killed the officer.
Mr. Coles, who was at the scene, and who, according to authorities,
later ditched a gun of the same caliber as the murder weapon, is one of
the two witnesses who have not recanted.
The other is a man who initially told investigators that he could not
identify the killer. Nearly two years later, at the trial, he testified
that the killer was Mr. Davis.
So we have here a mess that is difficult, perhaps impossible, to sort
through in a way that will yield reliable answers. (The jury also
convicted Mr. Davis of a nonfatal shooting earlier that same evening on
testimony that was even more dubious.)
There was no physical evidence against Mr. Davis, and the murder weapon
was never found. As for the witnesses, their testimony was obviously
shaky in the extreme * not the sort of evidence you want to rely upon
when putting someone to death.
In March, the State Supreme Court in Georgia, in a 4-to-3 decision,
denied Mr. Davis*s request for a new trial. The chief justice, Leah
Ward Sears, writing for the minority, said: "In this case, nearly every
witness who identified Davis as the shooter at trial has now disclaimed
his or her ability to do so reliably."
Amnesty International conducted an extensive examination of the case,
documenting the many recantations, inconsistencies, contradictions and
unanswered questions. Its report on the case drew widespread attention,
both in the U.S. and overseas.
William Sessions, a former director of the F.B.I., has said that a
closer look at the case is warranted. And Pope Benedict XVI has urged
authorities in Georgia to re-sentence Mr. Davis to life in prison.
Rushing to execute Mr. Davis on Tuesday makes no sense at all.
***
IN PERSON ACTION OPPORTUNITIES
GEORGIA
If you are in or near Georgia, see the web page of Georgians for
Alternatives to the Death Penalty at http://www.GFADP.org
for information on protest opportunities.
WASHINGTON, DC
WHAT: Emergency Rally at Supreme Court: Save Troy Davis
WHEN: Monday, September 22 @ noon
WHERE: One First ST, NE (Sidewalk in front of US Supreme Court Building)
For more info, contact cedp_dc@hotmail.com, or call 202 492 0441.
_____________________________________________________
SENT BY:
Abraham J. Bonowitz
Director of Affiliate Support
National
Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty
www.NCADP.org
abe@ncadp.org
202-331-4090
561-371-5204 (Mobile)
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