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<a href="http://www.counterpunch.org/marlowe09102008.html" eudora="autourl">
http://www.counterpunch.org/marlowe09102008.html<br><br>
</a></font><font face="Verdana" size=2>September 10, 2008<br><br>
</font><h1><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=4><b>A Case for
Clemency <br><br>
<br>
</i></font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=5 color="#990000">The
Pending Execution of Troy Davis
</b></font></h1><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=4>By LAURA TATE
KAGEL<br>
and JEN MARLOWE <br><br>
</font><font face="Verdana" size=6 color="#990000">T</font>
<font face="Verdana" size=2>roy Anthony Davis’ execution date and time
has been set. If clemency is not granted, Davis will soon be choosing his
last meal and determining how his body should be disposed of after his
death, scheduled for 7pm on September 23rd.<br><br>
Davis’ case for clemency is compelling, and has already attracted the
attention of media and human rights groups in July of last year.
Twenty-four hours before Davis’ scheduled execution on July 16, 2007, the
Georgia State Board of Pardons and Paroles issued a ninety-day stay to
allow it to consider evidence of innocence presented at Davis’ clemency
hearing. <br><br>
The Georgia Supreme Court subsequently agreed to hear the death row
prisoner's extraordinary motion for a new trial, but in March the Court
rejected the motion largely on procedural grounds in a 4-3 vote.<br><br>
Troubled by this result, Chief Justice Sears stated in her
dissent:<br><br>
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<dl>
<dd>“[…] I believe that this case illustrates that this Court’s approach
in extraordinary motions for new trials based on new evidence is overly
rigid and fails to allow an adequate inquiry into the fundamental
question, which is whether or not an innocent person might have been
convicted or even, as in this case, might be put to death.”<br><br>
</dl>In July of 2007, the Board of Pardons and Paroles said that it would
“not allow an execution to proceed in this State unless and until its
members are convinced that there is no doubt as to the guilt of the
accused.” <br><br>
But were Davis to be granted a new trial today, the State would have
great difficulty proving its case beyond a reasonable doubt. There was no
physical evidence linking Davis to the crime for which he was convicted,
the 1989 murder of an off-duty police officer in Savannah, Mark MacPhail.
At the trial, the witness testimony presented inconsistencies, and since
then, seven of nine non-police witnesses have recanted or contradicted
their original testimony, several citing that they gave their original
statements against Davis under police intimidation or coercion.<br><br>
Furthermore, affidavits signed by numerous people who came forward after
Davis' conviction implicate one of the non-recanting witnesses in the
murder. These affidavits put that witness, Sylvester Coles, at the scene
with a .38 caliber gun – the same caliber as the murder weapon, and
detail how he hid the gun after the shooting in a dark parking lot and
even later boasted about having committed the murder and escaping
punishment. At the time of the original investigation, Coles and his
lawyer met promptly with the police, who subsequently neglected to
question Cole’s involvement in the murder, search his house for the
murder weapon, or include his picture in witness photo spreads.<br><br>
The testimony of the other non-recanting witness is also highly
questionable. He identified Davis at trial as the shooter, although he
had claimed two years earlier that he “wouldn’t recognize them [the
shooter and another man at the scene] again except for their
clothes.”<br><br>
Numerous national, state, and local human rights groups and individuals
are taking actions to protest Davis’ imminent fate. They are organizing a
rally to take place on September 11th at six in the evening at the State
Capitol in Atlanta, a day before Troy’s scheduled clemency hearing with
the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles. Amnesty International launched
an on-line letter-writing campaign at
<a href="http://www.amnestyusa.org/troydavis">
www.amnestyusa.org/troydavis</a> to urge the Board to be true to their
July 2007 words, stating that no execution would proceed in Georgia
unless and until its members are convinced that there is no doubt as to
the guilt of the accused. If Troy Anthony Davis, whose case against him
is full of holes, doubts and discrepancies, is executed on September
23rd, it will be, indeed, a travesty of justice.<br><br>
Laura Tate Kagel</b> is the State Death Penalty Abolition Coordinator for
Amnesty International USA in Georgia.<br><br>
Jen Marlowe</b> is an activist/writer/filmmaker who has been following
Troy Davis’s case and corresponding via letters with Davis.<br><br>
<a href="HTTP://www.amnestyusa.org/troydavis">
www.amnestyusa.org/troydavis</a><br><br>
Justice Matters: Rally to Save Troy Davis<br><br>
Thursday, September 11, 2008<br><br>
6 - 8 p.m.<br><br>
Georgia State Capitol<br><br>
(front steps on Washington St.)<br><br>
Atlanta, GA<br><br>
<a href="mailto:troy@aiusa.org">troy@aiusa.org</a> / 404-876-5661 ext.
13<br><br>
<br><br>
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