Vol. 73/No. 28      July 27, 2009

The same day Davis’s supporters delivered petitions with 60,000 signatures to the office of Chatham County’s district attorney, asking that a new trial be granted for Davis based on questions raised in his appeals.

Davis, an African American, has spent nearly 18 years on death row after his conviction for the 1989 slaying of a white Savannah police officer, Mark MacPhail. There was no physical evidence tying Davis to the crime. Seven out of nine state witnesses have since recanted their testimony, some saying they were pressured by the cops to testify against Davis.

Attorneys for Davis say that new evidence proves their client was a victim of mistaken identity. They say three people who did not testify at his trial have said that another man confessed to the killing.

About 25 people from the NAACP and Amnesty International handed a stack of petitions more than two feet high to Lydia Sermons, spokeswoman for District Attorney Larry Chisolm, at a news conference outside the Chatham County courthouse.

“We have sufficient evidence, we believe, to show that Troy Anthony Davis is innocent,” said Prince Jackson, president of the NAACP’s Savannah branch. “We are asking that he be given a chance. After all, his life is at stake.” “He [Chisolm] doesn’t have to wait for them,” said Martina Correia, Davis’s sister. “He could still open this case at any time.”

In Washington, D.C., NAACP president Benjamin Jealous said, “The execution of a likely innocent man must not proceed, and we are thankful the court has put the brakes on Troy’s execution. We read the Supreme Court’s delay as a message to the state of Georgia to resolve the issue by reopening the case in the state courts.”

Laura Moye of Amnesty International said, “This delay is an indication that the Supreme Court is concerned by the gravity of Troy Davis’s innocence claims. We will continue to call on all authorities, including the Supreme Court, to finally hear the evidence that has motivated hundreds of thousands of people worldwide to raise their voices and demand justice.”

The case has attracted public support all over the world. Prominent individuals, including former U.S. president James Carter, Pope Benedict XVI, and Nobel Peace Prize-winner Desmond Tutu have issued calls to stop Davis’s execution.

Lisa Potash, Socialist Workers Party candidate for mayor of Atlanta, was among those who traveled to Savannah to collect signatures on the petitions for Davis. Potash and her supporters have made the fight to stop the execution and to win freedom for Davis an important part of her campaign. They have joined marches, rallies at the state Capitol, and the petitioning effort in Savannah.

“The death penalty is a weapon of terror used against the working class in this country,” she explained. “Our campaign joins with others to use this time to continue the fight to free Troy Davis.”

Davis’s supporters are also campaigning to get the state’s Department of Corrections Commissioner Brian Owens to allow the media access to Davis so that he may tell his story. While the media has been allowed to interview other inmates, 60 Minutes, Dateline, and the Associated Press have all been denied access to Davis.

The Georgia anti-death penalty group, the NAACP, and Amnesty International are organizing several campaigns to defend Davis. These include calling District Attorney Larry Chisholm’s office at (912) 652-7308 to ask that Davis’s case be reopened, writing letters to the editors of local newspapers, and joining the petitioning campaign in Savannah.
 
 
Related articles:
Charges dropped against 4 more in ’71 cop killing
New evidence surfaces in killing by Canadian cops  
 
 
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home