Rally against the impending execution of Troy Davis
May 19, 2009 at 3:50 pm by Mara Shalhoup in News
Three times over the past two years, Troy Davis has come within 24 hours of his scheduled execution, only to be spared by an eleventh-hour stay.
Now, with another execution date all but certain, the longtime death row inmate has filed what very well could be his last appeal — and a rally tonight on the Capitol steps will attempt to bring even more awareness to Davis’ high-profile innocence claims.
Seven of the nine trial witnesses who took the stand against Davis in 1991 have since recanted their testimony, many of them alleging intimidation by Savannah police officers who were investigating the murder of one of their own. Officer Mark MacPhail, who’d been working off-duty as a security guard when he came to the aid of a pistol-whipped homeless man, was brutally gunned down in a Burger King parking lot in 1989.
Davis was later convicted of killing MacPhail, but witnesses have since claimed that another man — one of the two trial witnesses who didn‘t rescind his testimony against Davis — might have been the killer.
In several, narrowly decided court rulings — including ones from the state Supreme Court and 11th Circuit Court of Appeals — Davis has been denied a hearing during which a judge could consider evidence of his innocence.
According to the AJC:
“Davis’ new evidence eviscerates the state’s case against him,” the [most recent] filing said. “Despite substantial new evidence of his innocence, no court has ever held a hearing to assess the scores of new witnesses that show Mr. Davis is innocent.”
The petition says that carrying out Davis’ execution without a “full and fair hearing in which he could make a truly persuasive demonstration that he is actually innocent” would be unconstitutional.
Many big names, both locally and internationally, have come out in support of Davis, including former Congressman Bob Barr, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, former FBI Director William Sessions and Pope Benedict XVI.
The rally will run from 6-8 p.m. at 206 Washington St. and will coincide with more than 100 anti-death penalty events to be held around the world today.
(Photo courtesy Georgia Department of Corrections)
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