The Militant (logo)  

Vol. 72/No. 38      September 29, 2008

 
Troy Davis supporters call for
broad effort to stop execution
(front page)
 
BY CLAY DENNISON  
ATLANTA—Supporters of Troy Davis, who faces execution September 23 for a crime he did not commit, are urging the broadest possible protests on his behalf. On September 12 the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles denied clemency to Davis. The U.S. Supreme Court is scheduled to discuss whether to hear Davis’s appeal on September 29, six days after his execution date.

In a letter posted on the www.troyanthonydavis.org web site, Martina Correia, Davis’s sister, said, “This is not the time to think he will be executed. We have to fight them and we have to fight hard.”

On September 11, 500 people rallied on the steps of the Georgia State Capitol here to demand a halt to the execution of Davis. Many wore blue T-shirts that said, “I am Troy Davis.” Speeches were punctuated by chants of “Free Troy Davis,” “Justice matters,” and “I am Troy Davis.”

The high point of the rally was a phone call from Davis himself. “This is not just my fight,” he said. “There are a lot of innocent people in prison. A lot of laws need to be changed.”

“I am not just Troy Davis. I am you,” he said. “The same thing that happened to me could happen to any of you.”

Daveeda Argrow and Denise Larkin, young workers who had come from Savannah, Georgia, said that they talked to drivers caught in traffic in front of the gathering. Some of them parked their cars and came to the rally, they noted.

Among those addressing the crowd were Correia; officers of Amnesty International; Shujaa Graham and Darby Tillis, two former death-row prisoners who won exoneration; Edward DuBose, president of the Georgia Conference of the NAACP; and relatives of Curtis Osborne, a prisoner who was recently executed.

Earlier that morning, a small delegation of Davis’s relatives and supporters presented the parole board with petitions containing more than 23,000 signatures asking the board to grant him clemency. The next day the board heard testimony first from supporters of Davis and then from the prosecution. “[Our] lawyers presented the additional witnesses who told accounts of police detectives threatening them with guns and [the] DA threatening with perjury if they changed their testimonies against Troy,” Correia wrote in her letter.

“The lawyers showed how they put Troy’s picture on wanted posters … and they took a Polaroid out of my mom’s house and they only showed the witnesses that photo to identify Troy several days after he had turned himself in. So Troy was never picked out of [a] lineup.”

“Then less than 30 minutes after [the] DA’s side left, the Parole Board held a press conference and denied Troy,” explained Correia.

Seven of the nine nonpolice witnesses against Davis have recanted their testimony or contradicted the story they told in court. There was never any physical evidence tying Davis to the murder for which he was convicted and sentenced to death.

Corriea announced that there will be another rally in Atlanta. She urged supporters to hold protests, contact news media outlets, and continue to send messages to the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles asking it to reconsider Troy’s case. Fax numbers for the board are: 404-651-8502; 404-651-6670; and 404-651-5282. More information on the case can be found at www.gfadp.org and www.troyanthonydavis.org.  
 
 
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