[Ppnews] Troy Davis’ sister speaks out, as Davis awaits a Supreme Court decision.

[Political Prisoner News]

Features » July 24, 2009




My Brother on Death Row




Troy Davis’ sister speaks out, as Davis awaits a Supreme Court decision.



By <http://www.inthesetimes.com/community/profile/5721>Alice Kim

http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/4554/my_brother_on_death_row/

For now, at least, Georgia death row prisoner 
Troy Davis is safe from execution. When the 
Supreme Court reconvenes in September, it will 
decide whether to hear his request for habeas 
corpus. Davis, an African-American, was convicted 
of the 1989 shooting and killing of white 
off-duty police officer Mark Allen MacPhail in a 
Burger King parking lot in Savannah, Ga. The 
conviction was based solely on the testimony of 
nine eyewitnesses­seven of whom have now recanted 
or contradicted their original statements. Some 
have even signed affidavits saying that police 
coerced them into pointing the finger at Davis. 
The primary witness, Sylvester Coles, is now 
suspected of committing the murder himself.

Martina Correia, Davis’ sister, has led an 
international campaign to save her brother’s life 
and prove his innocence. South African Archbishop 
Desmond Tutu and former President Jimmy Carter 
have publicly expressed their support for Davis.

Even as Correia faces her own personal battle 
with breast cancer, she continues to fight to win justice for Davis.

You are calling on Chatham County District 
Attorney Larry Chisolm to reopen Troy’s case. 
What are the grounds for a new trial?

Some of the original trial witnesses have 
recanted, and nine new witnesses have said they 
either witnessed the murder or heard one of the 
original eyewitnesses confess to the murder. The 
prosecution’s whole case against Troy has fallen 
apart. They have one primary eyewitness left, 
Steve Sanders, who on the night of the crime 
couldn’t identify the shooter and two weeks 
later, two months later, couldn’t identify the 
shooter. But he came to court and identified 
Troy. There’s no blood, no physical evidence, no 
DNA. We can’t kill this man because everything we 
used to convict him doesn’t exist.

Why has Troy’s case garnered such widespread attention and support?

You have people on both sides of the death 
penalty debate on the same side for a change, 
saying that we cannot execute the innocent. These 
people are willing to put their name on a 
document and say we need to stop, rewind and give 
this man a new trial, because this is not a case 
about black and white. This is a case about the 
truth. It does not make any sense to deny Troy a 
hearing based on the evidence, when this state 
has got millions of dollars to try to kill Troy with no actual evidence.

Rep. Bob Barr (R-Ga.) says that the 
Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 
1996, a piece of legislation he helped to write 
when he was in the House of Representatives, has 
been misinterpreted by the courts. What role did this act have on Troy’s case?

It says you have one year from conviction to 
bring forth information about your actual 
innocence. The law was enacted in 1996, but 
President Bill Clinton made it retroactive 10 
years, which is against international human rights law.

Troy didn’t have a lawyer from 1991 to 1996. When 
he was able to obtain a lawyer through the 
Georgia Resource Center, they didn’t have the 
funds to properly defend him. When they were 
getting their witnesses’ statements in the late 
1990s and early 2000s, they realized, “We 
actually have an innocent person here.” They went 
to the courts and after every affidavit they got, 
the courts said, “Oh, we don’t have to listen to 
that, because you should have brought it up in 
1992.” Well, we couldn’t bring it up, and why 
should that law apply if it wasn’t in effect until 1996?

What were the factors that led to Troy’s 
conviction? Was there prosecutorial or police misconduct?

Both were involved, and there was a media frenzy 
to hang Troy. We have one newspaper in the city 
and three television stations, and all the 
stations promoted were the prosecution’s statements from court.

The police terrify that black community­ride 
around with shotguns and everything else. So 
nobody knew what was going on. The prosecutor 
didn’t have anything. The police didn’t have 
anything until [Sylvester] Coles went in. Coles 
was the only one who testified he had heard the 
shot. Troy never had a weapon. Coles threw his 
weapon away and they never made him produce it. 
The ballistics report from 1989 said that it was 
negative for Troy’s fingerprints, negative for 
everything. Yet the prosecutors said in open 
court that they had a ballistics report that linked Troy to the crime.

Do you think Obama will pardon Troy?

No. Because he only pardons at the federal level, 
so there is no jurisdiction there. But that 
doesn’t mean that Obama doesn’t have influence. I 
wish he would intervene. We have been sending 
letters and sending letters, but Obama hasn’t 
said anything about Troy’s case. And I can’t believe he doesn’t know about it.

You’ve worked with Amnesty International and 
other anti-death penalty organizations. How have 
you been able to build such widespread support for Troy?

I was persistent. People thought I was lying or 
biased because I was Troy’s sister. But I kept 
showing people court transcripts and documents, 
and I was able convince the Amnesty International 
Secretary General to do a special report on the 
case. I had Troy’s lawyer send over his court 
transcripts to a special investigator in the 
U.K., and this legal expert took about three 
months to go over Troy’s case line by line, item 
by item. They wrote a 35-page report, and when 
the report hit the Internet in February of 2007, 
everything hit the fan. People could not believe 
that they were trying to kill Troy with this kind 
of evidence. If we had the power of Internet 10 
years ago, my brother would probably be free right now.

What other factors have been critical in building 
a loud and vocal movement to save Troy’s life?

Grassroots efforts. Getting the message to the 
people­­not to all the big organizations, but 
talking to the people who care about human 
rights, human kindness and dignity, and educating 
them about the whole system. Then people were 
willing to spread the knowledge and tell Troy’s 
story. I challenged them: “Go find the 
information for yourself.” And that’s what people did.

You have faced a personal battle with breast 
cancer. It’s not unusual for you to be in chemo 
one day and flying across the country to speak at 
a conference the next day. How do you keep going?

I have a strong faith in God and in family. If I 
have to sacrifice myself or my health to make 
sure that my brother is free, then I’m willing to do that.

And I live in a place where we don’t just have 
racism, we have classism and all other kinds of 
-isms. People tell me all the time, “Oh, Savannah 
is such a beautiful place.” But you don’t have to 
live here in my skin. As long as you don’t cross 
certain lines, everything is fine. People think 
Savannah has evolved. But those same trees with 
the moss on them that are so beautiful to look 
at­if those trees could talk they would tell you a whole different story.

It doesn’t make any sense for me to see little 
black and Hispanic boys, lined up on a street 
corner with people searching their pockets just 
because they’re standing there. When police cars 
pull up in the park, little boys are so afraid 
that they just take off running. Then when they 
shoot one of those boys in the back, it’s always justified.

I’m standing up for a whole lot of Troy Davises. 
Not just people on Death Row, but people who 
cannot fight the system, because those are the 
people that they target. They target people who 
don’t have power to fight back.

What kind of transformation have you seen in Troy 
over the last 18 years, and how has he been able 
to maintain his spirit and his strength?

Troy has always been a good person, a good 
spirit, a good aura. When you walk into a room 
with Troy and he smiles, it just lights up your 
spirit. He has no hatred toward anybody because 
he believes that in order for God to help him, he 
can’t harbor ill will toward the people who wrong him.

Troy has a strong sense of family. He has a lot 
of friends, people from all faiths and religions 
visiting him, prisoners and guards giving him 
encouragement. Yet he still knows there’s an 
underlying thing­that the state of Georgia wants 
to kill him. But you know what, we can’t live in 
fear. And so we have to keep fighting, keep 
pushing and keep doing whatever we can. 
Troy­through through his letters and cards and 
pictures that people send him from all around the 
world­is able to travel in his imagination. 
That’s a powerful thing, for people who have 
never met you and who you may never see to stand up for you.


GET INVOLVED:

<http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/4554/my_brother_on_death_row/www.troyanthonydavis/call-to-action.html>Troy 
Davis Call to Action
<http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/4554/my_brother_on_death_row/www.nodeathpenalty.org/content/index>Campaign 
to End the Death Penalty

Alice Kim serves on the board of directors for 
the Campaign to End the Death Penalty and is 
co-editor of its national newsletter, The New 
Abolitionist. She is also the director of The 
Public Square at the Illinois Humanities Council.


<http://www.inthesetimes.com/community/profile/5721/>More 
information about Alice Kim




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415 863-9977

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