Urgent action is needed in the case of Troy Davis!
On June 25th the United States Supreme Court refused to hear his case and Troy, who may very well be innocent, will be executed unlessimmediate pressure is brought to bear on the State Board of Pardons and Paroles. Please read the Amnesty International Press release provided below and learn more about Mr. Davis's case by visiting his website at
www.troyanthonydavis.org/.
You can send or fax a letter urging clemency to the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles:
2 Martin Luther King, Jr, Drive, SE, Suite 458, Balcony Level, East Tower, Atlanta, Georgia 3033-44909, fax number 404-651-8502.
Update July 22nd, 2007:
Troy Davis
was granted a 90-day reprieve on Monday, July 16. During the next 90 days, the Georgia
State Board of Pardons and Paroles will examine Troy's claim of innocence. Thank you
for all of your communications to the BPP. You have made a difference! If you have not
already written to the BPP, please do so as soon as possible. It is not too late and in
fact a continuous influx of letters in support of Troy will by a constant reminder to the
BPP that the world is still watching them very closely.
PRESS
RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Contact: Wende Gozan at
212/633-4247
Monday, June 25, 2007
or Brian Evans at
202/544-0200 x496
SUPREME COURT'S DEATH PENALTY
RULING IN TROY
DAVIS CASE REVEALS 'CATASTROHPIC FLAWS IN THE
U.S.
DEATH PENALTY MACHINE'
(
Washington ,
D.C. ) -- Amnesty International is deeply
disappointed with today's Supreme Court ruling that permits the execution of
Troy Anthony Davis in
Georgia . The organization maintains
that evidence in his favor, which has never been heard in a courtroom, is enough
to demonstrate that
Davis should be granted a new
hearing.
"The Supreme Court decision is
proof-positive that justice truly is blind -- blind to coerced and recanted
testimony, blind to the lack of a murder weapon or physical evidence and blind
to the extremely dubious circumstances that led to this man's conviction," said
Larry Cox, executive director of Amnesty International USA (AIUSA). "At times
there are cases that are emblematic of the dysfunctional application of justice
in this country. By refusing to review serious claims of innocence, the Supreme
Court has revealed catastrophic flaws in the
U.S.
death penalty machine."
Troy Anthony Davis, who is African
American, was convicted in 1991 of murdering Mark McPhail, a white police
officer. Davis '
conviction was not based on any physical evidence, and the murder weapon was
never found.
The prosecution based its case on
the testimony of purported "witnesses," many of whom allege police coercion.
Seven of the nine non-police witnesses for the prosecution have recanted their
testimony in sworn affidavits. One witness signed a police statement declaring
that Davis was
the assailant, then later said, "I did not read it because I cannot read." In
another case a witness stated that the police "were telling me that I was an
accessory to murder and that I would … go to jail for a long time and I would be
lucky if I ever got out, especially because a police officer got killed … I was
only 16 and was so scared of going to jail."
There are also several witnesses
who have implicated another man in the murder. According to one woman, "People
on the streets were talking about Sylvester Coles being involved with killing
the police officer, so one day I asked him … Sylvester told me that he did shoot
the officer."
Despite this, Davis' habeas corpus
petition was denied by the state court on a technicality -- evidence of police
coercion was "procedurally defaulted," that is, not raised earlier, so the court
refused to hear it. The Georgia Supreme Court and 11th Circuit Federal Court of
Appeals deferred to the state court and rejected
Davis ' claims. Today the U.S. Supreme Court
refused to hear his case and
Davis is now left without any legal recourse;
he could be executed within weeks. It is shocking that in more than 12 years of
appeals, no court has agreed to hear evidence of police coercion or consider the
recanted testimony.
"It is appalling that so many
judges were able to look away from such a grave breach of justice. Evidence of
innocence simply hasn't mattered," said Sue Gunawardena-Vaughn, director of
AIUSA's Program to Abolish the Death Penalty. "This should be viewed as a day of
great shame for our nation, one in which the green light was given to execute a
citizen who may well be innocent."
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