Amnesty request help to stop execution of Troy Davis

international | rights, freedoms and repression | news report

Thursday April 30, 2009 03:06

by Justin Morahan

Dissenting Judge says execution would be unconscionable and unconstitutional

Summary. After eighteen years on Death Row, Troy Davis is in imminent danger of being executed after losing his appeal for a new trial. Amnesty International are asking for creative actions to draw attention to his case.

On 16 April, Troy Anthony Davis lost his appeal for a new trial against conviction for the murder of Police Officer Mark Allen McPhail in August 1989 in the State of Georgia. He had been convicted by a jury in 1991 and has been on Death Row since then. He has continued to maintain his innocence.

In the 11th US Circuit Court of appeals, two of the three judges found that Troy could not establish by clear and convincing evidence that a jury would not have found him guilty (in a new trial) but a third Judge, Rosemary Barkett dissented. (See below)

There have been several appeals on behalf of Troy Davis from people around the world including Archbishop Tutu and Pope Benedict 16. Two years ago Rev Martin Morgan of the First Congregational Church in Atlanta offered to take the place of Davis if his execution could not be prevented.

Amnesty International are now requesting that people put together any activity, event or creative action that draws attention to his case on May 19th. In an alert of 29 April 2009 , Amnesty says: "When we first introduced you to Troy Davis in early 2007, few people outside of Georgia knew about the injustice taking place. In the past two years, countless people have come to see Troy's case as a prime example of why the death penalty must be abolished - the risk of executing someone for a crime they did not commit is just too high".

DISSENTING JUDGE'S OPINION

Judge Rosemary Barkett, in her dissenting opinion of April 16, 2009, wrote:

"In the affidavits, seven of nine key trial witnesses recanted their testimony which pointed to Davis as Officer McPhail's murderer. The two remaining non-recanting witnesseswere Sylvester "Red"Coles, who was himself alleged to have been the shooter in affidavits, and Steve Sanders, who identified Davis at trial two years after the incident, despite admitting to police immediately following the shooting that he would not be able to recognize the shooter.

The majority of the affidavits support the Defence's theory that, after Coles raced to the police station to implicate Davis, the police directed all of their energy towards building a case against Davis, failing to investigate the possibility that Coles himself was the actual murderer.

For example none of the photospreads shown to eyewitnesses even include a picture of Coles. Additionally, three affiants now state that Coles confessed to the killings

To execute Davis, in the face of a significant amount of proffered evidence that may establish his actual innocence, is unconscionable and unconstitutional".