| Supporters rally to stop execution of innocent man, Troy Davis, set for July 17 |
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| by Jonathan Springston | |
| Wednesday, 11 July 2007 | |
 Troy Davis Nevertheless, the Supreme Court of the United States refused to hear Davis’ death row case on June 25, leaving him little legal recourse. Four days after the decision, the state of Georgia petitioned for a death warrant, and the execution date is now set for July 17 in Jackson, Georgia. “By refusing to review serious claims of innocence, the Supreme Court has revealed catastrophic flaws in the U.S. death penalty machine,” said Larry Cox, executive director of Amnesty International USA. A jury convicted Davis in 1991 of murdering police officer Mark Allen McPhail in Savannah, Georgia, and he has since gone through numerous appeals. Davis is scheduled to appear on July 16 before the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles, which could grant him clemency. And on Tuesday, Davis’ supporters — including representatives of Amnesty International, the Georgia Coalition for the People’s Agenda, Rainbow/PUSH, the ACLU, the U.S. Human Rights Network and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference — delivered 4,000 letters to the board calling on them to make that decision. “I would rather suffer a hundred who were guilty to go free by my hand than one who was innocent suffer death by my hand,” wrote the Rev. Joseph Lowery, co-founder of SCLC, in a letter read at the press conference held in front of parole board headquarters. “Now his fate lies in the hands of [the board],” Cox told the crowd. “Amnesty International implores the parole board to prevent a terrible and irreversible miscarriage of justice and to grant clemency.” “I am demanding justice for Troy and Officer Mark McPhail,” Martina Correia, Davis’ sister, told APN. “I won’t rest until they put me in my grave.” “If we got a new trial, I don’t know what evidence the state would have,” Jason Ewart, one of Davis’ lawyers with Washington, D.C.-based Arnold & Porter, LLP, told APN. “If they don’t care about innocence, they don’t care about the law,” Correia said of those who refuse to examine new evidence in the case. “The police officers that coerced these witnesses, they didn’t do anything to honor their comrade.” Ewart said his team is working around the clock trying to get a new case in Savannah based on new evidence that could absolve Davis. “We want an evidentiary hearing,” he said. “A court should at least take a look at [the evidence] to see if it is credible. We think we have a strong argument, and we think the judge will be fair and listen to what we have to say.” Correia has been writing letters to organizations on Davis’ behalf ever since he was arrested in 1989. “Nobody believed me because everybody thought I was biased,” Correia told APN of her struggles to convince people her brother is innocent. She credits a February 2007 Amnesty International report on Davis’ case as the point when many started to seriously reexamine his case. “He’s a very prayerful person and he’s asking God to help,” Correia said of Davis. “More and more people are contacting him from everywhere. He knows there are thousands of people writing letters and making calls. He knows that people are working hard. We are not giving up at all.” To send an urgent message to the State Board of Pardons and Paroles urging clemency, go to http://takeaction.amnestyusa.org/siteapps/advocacy/index.aspx?c=jhKPIXPCIoE&b=2590179&template=x.ascx&action=8894. Jonathan Springston is a senior staff writer for Atlanta Progressive News and may be reached at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it |
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