It’s been confirmed that the State of Georgia set an
execution date for Troy Davis for Wednesday, September 21 at 7pm. This news sets the clemency process in motion
and while we have known that an execution date for Troy was inevitable. An
execution, however, is not. The Georgia Board of Pardons & Parole can still
prevent this execution by granting clemency. We expect that a clemency hearing
will be held in the days prior to the execution date and we remain hopeful that
the board will do the right thing and grant Troy clemency.
Tomorrow’s regularly scheduled GFADP meeting will be a Troy
Davis Campaign organizing meeting. Please plan to attend and get plugged in and
find out about next steps. We need a lot
of help, so please come to the Amnesty Office at 7pm (730 Peachtree St. NE
30308-use side entrance to get into building)
Please stay tuned for more information about a planned March
and Vigil.
In the meantime, here’s what you can do:
Thank you for everything that you continue to do to Stop the
Execution of Troy Davis! See you tomorrow at 7pm.
Troy Anthony Davis' execution set for Sept. 21
By Bill Rankin
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
10:01 a.m. Wednesday, September 7, 2011
The Georgia Department of Corrections has set the execution of Troy Anthony Davis for 7 p.m. on Sept. 21. The
agency set the time and date a day after a Chatham County judge signed a
death warrant for Davis, who was convicted of killing an off-duty
Savannah police officer in 1989. Davis' appeals are exhausted. He
is expected to once again ask the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles
to grant him clemency. The board has previously denied that request. Davis,
41, was convicted of killing Officer Mark Allen MacPhail as MacPhail
ran to the aid of a homeless man being pistol-whipped outside a Burger
King. The case has attracted international attention because a
number of key prosecution witnesses either recanted or backed off their
trial testimony. Other witnesses have come forward and said another man
at the scene told them he was the actual killer. Amnesty
International, the human rights organization, called on the parole board
to commute Davis' death sentence, saying doubts about Davis’ guilt have
never been erased. “The board stayed Davis’ execution in 2007,
stating that capital punishment was not an option when doubts about
guilt remained,” said Larry Cox, executive director for AIUSA. “Since
then two more execution dates have come and gone, and there is still
little clarity, much less proof, that Davis committed any crime.
Amnesty International respectfully asks the Board to commute Davis’
sentence to life and prevent Georgia from making a catastrophic
mistake.” In August, a federal judge emphatically rejected Davis'
claims that he was wrongly convicted. In a 172-page order, U.S. District
Judge William T. Moore Jr. said Davis failed to prove his innocence
during an extraordinary hearing in June ordered by the U.S. Supreme
Court. MacPhail, 27 and a father of two, was gunned down before he
could draw his weapon. After the killing, Sylvester "Redd" Coles went
to the police with his lawyer and told them he and Davis were at the
scene. At trial, he testified he was fleeing the scene when shots were
fired, leaving Davis as the culprit. Coles denied being the triggerman. At
the June hearing, Davis' lawyers wanted to call witnesses who had given
sworn statements that Coles had told them after the trial he was the
actual killer. But Moore did not allow these witnesses to testify
because Davis' lawyers did not subpoena Coles to testify. If they had,
the judge said, he could have tested the validity of Coles' alleged
confessions. If Coles had in fact confessed to these witnesses,
Moore suggested there could be an explanation --"he believed that his
reputation as a dangerous individual would be enhanced if he took credit
for murdering Officer MacPhail." Davis failed to prove the alleged
confessions were truthful, Moore noted. Of the seven witnesses
Davis' legal team say recanted their trial testimony, "only one is a
meaningful, credible recantation." The value of this recantation --
given by a jailhouse snitch who testified Davis told him he killed
MacPhail -- is diminished because it was already clear the witness
testified falsely at trial, the judge said. Moore answered one
question posed to him by the U.S. Supreme Court. He found that executing
an innocent person would violate the Eighth Amendment's ban against
cruel and unusual punishment. "However, Mr. Davis is not innocent," the U.S. district judge wrote in August. Chatham County Superior Court Judge Penny Freesemann signed the death warrant Tuesday. |
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GFADP Meeting tomorrow, September 8 at 7pmposted Sep 7, 2011 8:58 AM by Kathryn Hamoudah [ updated Sep 7, 2011 10:51 AM ] |