Family, friends celebrate Troy Davis' life at funeral

STORY HIGHLIGHTS "I am Troy Davis," chant those at the funeral Davis is called an innocent man put to death Many speak out against the death penalty He was the "soul of something profound," says his lawyer
(CNN) -- It was inevitable that the fiery politics of the death penalty would punctuate Saturday's remembrance of Troy Anthony Davis. His 20 years of claims of innocence on Georgia's death row earned him millions of supporters who believe the state wrongfully executed him on the night of September 21. Saturday, Davis' family and closest friends gathered inside the Jonesville Baptist Church to celebrate his life. A mass of flowers covered Davis' closed casket. Two photos flanked it -- one a color portrait of a young boy who grew up on the streets of Savannah's Cloverdale neighborhood and the other a black and white photo of a young man in a suit attending his murder trial. Those in attendance repeatedly chanted: "I am Troy Davis," the slogan adopted in the campaign to spare his life and one that went viral on social media networks. "Look at those last two lines of your program today," said Benjamin Jealous, president of the NAACP. "I am Troy Davis. And I am free." Jealous and other friends and advocates for Davis, including his lawyer, Jason Ewart, voiced Davis' last words before he was put to death by lethal injection. That he was sorry for the family of police Officer Mark MacPhail, but that he was innocent. "We're going to keep on fighting until his name is finally cleared and Georgia admits what it has done," Jealous said. "We're going to keep on fighting until the death penalty is abolished and this can never be done to anyone else." MacPhail was shot in the early morning hours of August 19, 1989, in the parking lot of a Burger King just a few miles north of the church where Davis was memorialized. Davis was tried and convicted for MacPhail's murder and sent to death row in 1991. But he and his family had always maintained that the jury convicted the wrong man. The MacPhails said they lived in agony as legal proceedings dragged on year after year. The case became controversial after several of the witnesses who testified against him at trial later said they were coerced to speak against Davis. It was battled in many courtrooms before his execution. But in the end, Davis lost all his appeals. "We are gathered here in a place of the most unjust execution of mankind," Ewart said. "Jesus was killed on the cross, not because he was guilty, but because we are. "Many have spoken of Troy as a symbol," Ewart said. "He was the soul of something profound." Ewart, a young antitrust lawyer signed onto defending Davis shortly after graduating from Emory University's law school in Atlanta. "I met him seven years ago. When I met him I was young. I was green," he said. "From the very first conversation I had with Troy I knew he could be my older brother, my friend, and eventually, he became just that." Raphael Warnock, pastor at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, invoked the 1994 book the made Savannah famous. "It's midnight in the garden of good and evil," he said. "But I am so glad God does his best work at midnight. When the adversary has our backs against the wall, that's when God does his best work. "Strange things happen in Savannah, Georgia," he said. "This city of cobblestone streets and verdant town squares ... you have become the ground zero for the struggle to abolish the death penalty once and for all. Savannah, Georgia, the world is watching you." Davis' mother, Virginia, died in April. She was not around to see the execution of her son, an act that would have surely been wretchedly painful to bear. Davis' sisters, Martina Correia and Kimberly Davis, attended the funeral Saturday, as did Correia's son De'Jaun Davis-Correia. Davis-Correia, born prematurely, said his uncle Troy was afraid to hold him when he was first born. He weighed only 3 pounds, 8 ounces. "He thought he would break me," Davis-Correia said. But he grew into a strong young man, he said, through his uncle's guidance. He spoke of how Davis, from death row, used to help his nephew with homework, even put his tests and exams on his calendar. People tell him now that he's a little version of his uncle. And that makes Davis-Correia, the nephew of an executed man, very proud. For all his life, his uncle lived 300 miles away, behind brick walls. But, he said, "It was always like he was home with us." The funeral was open to the public, but Davis was to be buried Saturday with only his family at his graveside. And then, just before people began streaming out of the church well into Saturday afternoon, a message recorded by Davis thanked his supporters all over the world for their efforts on his behalf. "Everything we do today will clear the way for a better tomorrow," Davis said. "We can correct all the wrongs if we band together. Don't give up the fight." The voice of the dead had filled the sanctuary.

[video] Murder of Troy Davis - Rally for Life

The sister of Troy Davis, the Georgia man executed Wednesday night, said her brother was calm and treated his last moments with his family like any doting uncle would: he watched his 3-year-old niece's latest ballet moves. "Our last moments were joyous. My brother was giving us charge as to what he wanted us to do, telling us to hold our heads up, telling my nephew to continue to be all that he could be... My niece was showing him her ballet shoes and telling him to stand on his tippy toes like a ballerina," said Kimberly Davis from her Savannah, Ga., home. Davis' family last saw him between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. on Wednesday when there was still hope that his execution might be stopped. The execution was postponed briefly by the Supreme Court for a legal review, but at 11:08 p.m., Davis, 42, was dead from lethal injection. "When we left my brother yesterday, my brother told us to hold our heads up and be strong because if the state of Georgia did succeed in executing him, they would only take his physical body and not his soul," she said, crying at times. "My brother said he only wanted to be a free man and right now, he is free." Davis was convicted of the 1989 murder of police officer Mark MacPhail and sentenced to the death penalty. Members of the MacPhail family are convinced Davis was guilty, but many other observers are not Before being executed, Davis said, "I'd like to address the MacPhail family. Let you know, despite the situation you are in, I'm not the one who personally killed your son, your father, your brother. I am innocent." Witnesses said Davis' eyes fluttered as he received his first injection and lost consciousness, and that the entire process of lethal injection lasted about 15 minutes. Following Davis' death, the Twitter and Facebook world buzzed with the lyrics of Strange Fruit, the poem sung by Billie Holiday about the lynching of black men in the South. Some felt Davis' death equated to a modern day lynching. "That's what it is--a lynch mob in the state of Georgia, Chatham County," said Kimberly Davis. "We're going to carry on and continue to fight to bring down the death penalty," she said. "This fight didn't start with him and it's not going to end with him." Davis had his execution stayed four times over the course of his 22 years on death row, but multiple legal appeals during that time failed to convince a court of his innocence. Public support grew for Davis based on the recanted testimony of seven witnesses from his trial and the possible confession of another suspect, which his defense team claimed cast too much doubt on Davis' guilt to follow through with an execution. On Wednesday, busloads of Davis supporters gathered outside the White House and outside the Georgia State Prison in Jackson. Davis' 17-year-old nephew, Anthony, helped lead a group of men from Morehouse College to the prison, Kimberly Davis said. "One college student drove in from San Francisco by herself," Ms. Davis said. "So many people said that we're part of your family, we've been fighting the cause for your brother and we'll do whatever to continue the cause." The protesters, wearing t-shirts that said "I am Troy Davis" and holding signs that said "Too Much Doubt," cheered when the execution was briefly halted and cried when it was carried out. The family of MacPhail feels that justice has been served.

[video] Troy Davis Executed: Controversially Convicted Inmate Maintains Innocence Until The End

CLICK HERE FOR VIDEO JACKSON, Ga. -- Troy Davis, convicted of murdering an off-duty Savannah police officer more than 20 years ago, held fast to his claims of innocence even as he was finally executed by lethal injection on Wednesday night. Strapped to a gurney and minutes from death, Davis stated that he had not carried a gun the night of the murder and did not shoot the officer, Mark MacPhail, in a fast food restaurant parking lot on an August night in 1989. Speaking directly to MacPhail's brother and son, who witnessed the execution, Davis beseeched them to continue to examine the events that night. "All I can ask is that you look deep into this case so you can really find the truth," he said. Davis then addressed prison officials preparing to inject him with a lethal mix of chemicals. "May God have mercy on your souls," he said. The first injection began at 10:54 p.m. and Davis was declared dead at 11:08 p.m. Afterward, Davis' attorneys and legal advocates quickly decried the execution as a terrible miscarriage of justice. "I had the unfortunate opportunity tonight to witness a tragedy, to witness Georgia execute an innocent man," Jason Ewart, one of Davis' attorneys, said outside the prison. "The innocent have no enemy but time, and Troy's time slipped away tonight." Meanwhile, family members of the murdered officer expressed relief that the execution was over, according to the Associated Press. News of the execution quieted hundreds of protesters who had lined the highway across from the entrance to the prison for hours, chanting and singing as they faced a small army of baton-wielding prison guards in full riot gear, sheriff's deputies and state police. The crowd of protesters was quickly dispersed by police after Davis' death was announced. Local observers called the protests the largest at the state's death row in many years. "I've never seen anything like this," said Don Earnhart, manager of a Jackson, Ga., radio station, who said he has covered executions for several decades. Protests were also seen at the state capital, Atlanta, in Washington, D.C. and at the U.S. embassy in London. The execution was delayed for more than four hours by a last-minute petition to the U.S. Supreme Court by Davis' legal team. The justices denied the petition without comment or dissent. Davis' death ends an extraordinary legal saga that included three last-minute stays of execution and dozens of hearings before state and federal appellate courts. Over two decades, his legal team argued that a lack of physical evidence linking Davis to the crime and recantations by a number of critical eyewitnesses who originally implicated him in the shooting were reason enough for the Georgia courts to grant him a new trial. But state and federal courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court, repeatedly ruled against his appeals for a new trial and he was ultimately executed on the basis of the original jury verdict. On Tuesday, the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles, which has sole authority to commute a death sentence in the state, rejected Davis' plea for clemency, essentially sealing his fate. MacPhail's family members had repeatedly stated their certainty that Davis was guilty of the crime and consistently fought his efforts to obtain clemency. Earlier this week, the state's pardons board was bombarded by hundreds of thousands of petitions to spare Davis' life, including ones from William S. Sessions, a former FBI director, and Bob Barr, a four-term Republican congressman from Georgia and death penalty supporter. Many of those opposed to the execution noted the lack of physical evidence tying Davis to the crime and the recantation of eyewitness, many of whom told attorneys for Davis that they had been pressured by police to testify that Davis was the shooter. "Imposing an irreversible sentence of death on the skimpiest of evidence will not serve the interest of justice," Barr wrote in an editorial on the case last Wednesday. On Wednesday morning, Davis offered to submit to a lie detector test, but the request was denied by prison officials. As the hours until the execution dwindled, calls for clemency continued from around the nation and the world, including from a group of former death row wardens, who wrote to Georgia authorities calling on them to halt the death sentence due to doubts about Davis' guilt. Among the group was the former warden in charge of the Georgia death chamber. "While most of the prisoners whose executions we participated in accepted responsibility for the crimes for which they were punished, some of us have also executed prisoners who maintained their innocence until the end," the wardens wrote. "It is those cases that are most haunting to an executioner." Meanwhile, the family of the murdered policeman, Mark MacPhail, and the case's original prosecutor have argued strenuously for Davis' execution, and have asserted that there is no doubt that he is guilty of the murder. Joan MacPhail-Harris, the officer's widow, said this week that Davis "has had ample time to prove his innocence" and failed to do so, according to the Associated Press. She, along with MacPhail's children, urged the pardon's board to deny Davis' petition for clemency this week. An extraordinary hearing last year ordered by the U.S. Supreme Court gave Davis the rare opportunity to present evidence of his innocence as part of a petition for a new trial. The judge overseeing the hearing ruled that the state's case against Davis "may not be ironclad" and agreed that Davis had raised some doubts about his conviction. However, the judge concluded that Davis had not provided the court with compelling evidence of his innocence and denied his request for a retrial. Supporters of Davis said the unwillingness of the U.S. justice system to reconsider his death sentence in light of the witness recantations and other new evidence exposed fundamental problems in the justice system. "Troy Davis has become an incredible symbol of everything that is broken, everything that is wrong" with the capital punishment in the U.S., said Larry Cox, executive director of Amnesty International's U.S. branch, in an interview on the prison grounds. Jason Ewart, Davis attorney, said he hoped Davis death would lead to systematic reform. "This case struck a chord in the world, and as a result the legacy of Troy Davis doesn't die tonight," Ewart said, standing beside Davis' family members outside Georgia's death row. "Our sadness, the sadness of his friends and his family, is tempered by the hope that Troy's death will lead to fundamental legal reforms," he said, "so we will never again witness, with inevitable regret, the execution of an innocent man as we did here tonight." John Rudolf
John Rudolfjohn.rudolf@huffingtonpost.com

[video] Race Matters??: Georgia Didn’t Spare Troy Davis’ Life, But Check Out What They Did For Samuel David Crowe A Few Yrs Back… And He Confessed!

Posted on September 23rd, 2011 - By Bossip Staff They cannot be serious… The parole board in the state of Georgia spared a convicted killer from execution hours before he was due to die by lethal injection on Thursday and commuted his sentence to life in prison. The Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles made its decision less than three hours before Samuel David Crowe, 47, was to be executed, according to a spokeswoman for the state’s prisons. “After careful and exhaustive consideration of the requests, the board voted to grant clemency. The board voted to commute the sentence to life without parole,” the parole board said. What? Requests?? What about all of the requests they got to re-consider Troy Davis’ case? There’s got to be something else to it. Crowe’s death would have marked the third execution since the U.S. Supreme Court lifted an unofficial moratorium on the death penalty last month. Crowe was not present at the parole board hearing in Atlanta. He had already eaten his last meal and was preparing to enter the execution chamber at the prison in Jackson, Georgia, Mallie McCord of the Georgia Department of Corrections said. In March 1988, Crowe killed store manager Joseph Pala during a robbery at the lumber company in Douglas County, west of Atlanta. Crowe, who had previously worked at the store, shot Pala three times with a pistol, beat him with a crowbar and a pot of paint. Crowe pleaded guilty to armed robbery and murder and was sentenced to death the following year. “David (Crowe) takes full responsibility for his crime and experiences profound remorse,” according to Georgians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, an advocacy group, who welcomed the board’s decision. At Thursday’s hearing, his lawyers presented a dossier of evidence attesting to his remorse and good behavior in jail, according to local media reports. The lawyers also said he was suffering from withdrawal symptoms from a cocaine addiction at the time of the crime. Wait, what??? So, the guy who confesses gets commuted to a life sentence. But the guy who says he’s innocent gets put to death? What part of the game is this?
SOURCE

Troy Davis executed in Georgia

(AP Photo/CBS News) (CBS/AP) JACKSON, Ga. - Defiant until the end, Troy Davis was executed Wednesday night for the murder of an off-duty police officer. He convinced hundreds of thousands of people around the world, but not a single court, that he was innocent. As he lay strapped to a gurney in the death chamber, the 42-year-old told relatives of Mark MacPhail that he was not responsible for his 1989 slaying. "I am innocent. The incident that happened that night is not my fault. I did not have a gun," he insisted. "All I can ask ... is that you look deeper into this case so that you really can finally see the truth," he said. Davis was declared dead at 11:08 p.m. The lethal injection began about 15 minutes earlier, after the Supreme Court rejected an 11th-hour request for a stay. "Justice has been served for Officer Mark MacPhail and his family," state Attorney General Sam Olens said in a statement. The high court did not comment on its order, which came about four hours after it received the request and more than three hours after the planned execution time. U.S. executions, by the numbers Polygraph for Troy Davis blocked, attorney says Troy Davis clemency bid denied on execution eve Hundreds of thousands of people signed petitions on Davis' behalf, and prominent supporters included an ex-president and an ex-FBI director, liberals and conservatives. His attorneys said seven of nine key witnesses against him disputed all or parts of their testimony, but state and federal judges repeatedly ruled against him -- three times on Wednesday alone. Davis asked his friends and family to "continue to fight this fight." Of prison officials he said, "May God have mercy on your souls. May God bless your souls." MacPhail's widow, Joan MacPhail-Harris, said there was "nothing to rejoice," but that it was "a time for healing for all families." "I will grieve for the Davis family because now they're going to understand our pain and our hurt," she said in a telephone interview from Jackson. "My prayers go out to them. I have been praying for them all these years. And I pray there will be some peace along the way for them." Davis' supporters staged vigils in the U.S. and Europe, declaring "I am Troy Davis" on signs, T-shirts and the Internet. Some tried increasingly frenzied measures, urging prison workers to stay home and even posting a judge's phone number online, hoping people will press him to put a stop to the lethal injection. President Barack Obama deflected calls for him to get involved. "They say death row; we say hell no!" protesters shouted outside the Jackson prison before Davis was executed. In Washington, a crowd outside the Supreme Court yelled the same chant.

A Georgia State Patrol trooper watches over demonstrators calling for Georgia state officials to halt the scheduled execution of convicted cop killer Troy Davis at the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison in Jackson, Georgia, on Wednesday, September 21, 2011. (Credit: Getty Images) As many as 700 demonstrators gathered outside the prison as a few dozen riot police stood watch, but the crowd thinned as the night wore on and the outcome became clear. The scene turned eerily quiet as word of the high court's decision spread, with demonstrators hugging, crying, praying, holding candles and gathering around Davis' family. Laura Moye of Amnesty International said the execution was "the best argument for abolishing the death penalty." "The state of Georgia is about to demonstrate why government can't be trusted with the power over life and death," she said before Davis was put to death. About 10 counterdemonstrators also were outside the prison, showing support for the death penalty and MacPhail's family. Members of Davis' family who witnessed the execution left without talking to reporters. MacPhail's son and brother also attended. "I'm kind of numb. I can't believe that it's really happened," MacPhail's mother, Anneliese MacPhail, said in a telephone interview from her home in Columbus, Ga. "All the feelings of relief and peace I've been waiting for all these years, they will come later. I certainly do want some peace." Of Davis' claims of innocence, she said, "He's been telling himself that for 22 years. You know how it is, he can talk himself into anything." Davis' execution had been stopped three times since 2007, but on Wednesday he ran out of legal options. The pardons board rejected him, and Georgia's governor does not have the power to grant condemned inmates clemency. As his last hours ticked away, an upbeat and prayerful Davis turned down an offer for a special last meal as he met with friends, family and supporters. "Troy Davis has impacted the world," his sister Martina Correia said at a news conference. "They say, `I am Troy Davis,' in languages he can't speak." His attorney Stephen Marsh said Davis would have spent part of Wednesday taking a polygraph test if pardons officials had taken his offer seriously. "He doesn't want to spend three hours away from his family on what could be the last day of his life if it won't make any difference," Marsh said. Davis' supporters include former President Jimmy Carter, Pope Benedict XVI, a former FBI director, the NAACP, several conservative figures and many celebrities, including hip-hop star Sean "P. Diddy" Combs. "I'm trying to bring the word to the young people: There is too much doubt," rapper Big Boi, of the Atlanta-based group Outkast, said at a church near the prison. At a Paris rally, many of the roughly 150 demonstrators carried signs emblazoned with Davis' face. "Everyone who looks a little bit at the case knows that there is too much doubt to execute him," Nicolas Krameyer of Amnesty International said at the protest. The U.S. Supreme Court gave Davis an unusual opportunity to prove his innocence in a lower court last year, though the high court itself did not hear the merits of the case.

Troy Anthony Davis enters a courtroom for a hearing Jan. 16, 1991, during his trial for the shooting death of off-duty police officer Mark MacPhail. (Credit: AP Photo) He was convicted in 1991 of killing MacPhail, who was working as a security guard at the time. MacPhail rushed to the aid of a homeless man who prosecutors said Davis was bashing with a handgun after asking him for a beer. Prosecutors said Davis had a smirk on his face as he shot the officer to death in a Burger King parking lot in Savannah. No gun was ever found, but prosecutors say shell casings were linked to an earlier shooting for which Davis was convicted. Witnesses placed Davis at the crime scene and identified him as the shooter, but several of them have recanted their accounts and some jurors have said they've changed their minds about his guilt. Others have claimed a man who was with Davis that night has told people he actually shot the officer. "Such incredibly flawed eyewitness testimony should never be the basis for an execution," Marsh said. "To execute someone under these circumstances would be unconscionable." State and federal courts, however, have repeatedly upheld Davis' conviction. One federal judge dismissed the evidence advanced by Davis' lawyers as "largely smoke and mirrors." "He has had ample time to prove his innocence," MacPhail-Harris said. "And he is not innocent." The last motion filed by Davis' attorneys in Butts County Court challenged testimony from two witnesses and disputed testimony from the expert who linked the shell casings to the earlier shooting involving Davis. Superior Court Judge Thomas Wilson and the Georgia Supreme Court rejected the appeal, and prosecutors said the filing was just a delay tactic. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, which helped lead the charge to stop the execution, said it considered asking Obama to intervene, even though he cannot grant Davis clemency for a state conviction. Press secretary Jay Carney issued a statement saying that although Obama "has worked to ensure accuracy and fairness in the criminal justice system," it was not appropriate for him "to weigh in on specific cases like this one, which is a state prosecution." Dozens of protesters outside the White House called on the president to step in, and about 12 were arrested for disobeying police orders. Davis was not the only U.S. inmate put to death Wednesday evening. In Texas, white supremacist gang member Lawrence Russell Brewer was put to death for the 1998 dragging death of a black man, James Byrd Jr., one of the most notorious hate crime murders in recent U.S. history. Davis' best chance may have come last year, in a hearing ordered by the U.S. Supreme Court. It was the first time in 50 years that justices had considered a request to grant a new trial for a death row inmate. The high court set a tough standard for Davis to exonerate himself, ruling that his attorneys must "clearly establish" Davis' innocence -- a higher bar to meet than prosecutors having to prove guilt. After the hearing judge ruled in prosecutors' favor, the justices didn't take up the case.

[video] Innocence Matters: Meet Troy Davis

Interview with Troy's sister Martina Correia explaining the Life of Troy Davis

[video] Martina Correia: Sister of Death Row Prisoner Troy Davis is "Appalled" By U.S. Supreme Court Ruling

DemocracyNow.org - The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday refused to hear the appeal of well-known Georgia death row prisoner Troy Anthony Davis, likely setting the stage for Georgia to schedule his execution. Davis was convicted in 1989 of killing an off-duty white police officer, Mark MacPhail. Since then, seven of the nine non-police witnesses who fingered Davis have recanted their testimony. No physical evidence ties Davis to the crime scene. With his legal appeals exhausted, Davis' fate rests largely in the hands of Georgia's Board of Pardons and Parole, which could commute his death sentence and spare his life. Democracy Now! interviews Troy Davis' sister, Martina Correia. "No one wants to look at the actual innocence, and no one wants to look at the witness recantation as a real strong and viable part of this case," Correia says. "I think there needs to be a global mobilization about Troy's case." For the video/audio podcast, transcript and to sign up for the daily news digest, visit http://www.democracynow.org/2011/3/29/shocked_and_appalled_sister_of_death For additional interviews about Troy Davis' case from the last several years, see the Democracy Now! news archive: http://www.democracynow.org/tags/troy_davis FOLLOW US: Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/democracynow Twitter: @democracynow Please consider supporting independent media by making a donation to Democracy Now! today, visit http://www.democracynow.org/donate/YT

[video]Virginia Davis, Mother of Troy Davis

http://iamtroy.com/ is the home of the NAACP's campaign to save the life of Troy Davis. Davis has been on death row in Georgia since 1991, but there is overwhelming evidence of his innocence that has never been heard in court.

[video] Trailer: Examining the Troy Davis Case

http://www.amnestyusa.org/troy Troy Davis is at risk of execution as early as September 2011, even though grave doubts about his guilt remain. With all legal appeals exhausted, Davis' fate will be in the hands of Georgia's Board of Pardons and Paroles. Once his execution date is scheduled, they will be presented with the option of permanently preventing his execution.

[video] Troy Davis Case: Part One

http://www.amnestyusa.org/troy Troy Davis is at risk of execution as early as September 2011, even though grave doubts about his guilt remain. Part One "The Investigation" gives a thorough explanation of the case as well as the many problems with how the crime was investigated. With all legal appeals exhausted, Davis' fate will be in the hands of Georgia's Board of Pardons and Paroles. Once his execution date is scheduled, they will be presented with the option of permanently preventing his execution.

[video] Troy Davis Case: Part Two

http://www.amnestyusa.org/troy Troy Davis is at risk of execution as early as September 2011, even though grave doubts about his guilt remain. Part Two "A Case Unraveled" examines how the evidence in his case has completely fallen apart. With all legal appeals exhausted, Davis' fate will be in the hands of Georgia's Board of Pardons and Paroles. Once his execution date is scheduled, they will be presented with the option of permanently preventing his execution.

[video] Troy Davis Case: Part Three

http://www.amnestyusa.org/troy Troy Davis is at risk of execution as early as September 2011, even though grave doubts about his guilt remain. Part Three "Proving Innocence" examines how the legal system makes it extraordinarily difficult to prove one's innocence. With all legal appeals exhausted, Davis' fate will be in the hands of Georgia's Board of Pardons and Paroles. Once his execution date is scheduled, they will be presented with the option of permanently preventing his execution.

[video] Troy Davis Case: Part Four

http://www.amnestyusa.org/troy Troy Davis is at risk of execution as early as September 2011, even though grave doubts about his guilt remain. Part Four "Clemency" explains what clemency is and why it is appropriate for Davis' case. With all legal appeals exhausted, Davis' fate will be in the hands of Georgia's Board of Pardons and Paroles. Once his execution date is scheduled, they will be presented with the option of permanently preventing his execution.

[video] Extra: More on the Troy Davis Case

http://www.amnestyusa.org/troy Why is Amnesty International interested in the Troy Davis case? Troy Davis is at risk of execution as early as September 2011, even though grave doubts about his guilt remain. This video tells the deeper story of Troy Davis through the lens of human rights and death penalty abolition.

[video] The Troy Davis Case: An Animation

http://www.amnestyusa.org/troy Troy Davis is at risk for being executed in early September 2011. Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles will be holding a final clemency hearing, in which Davis' fate will be in their decision.

[video] The Back Story on Troy Davis

Author and human rights activist Jen Marlowe explains why death row inmate Troy Davis, whose execution date could be set any day, should go free.

[video] Troy Davis recap of crime by Martina Davis-Correia

Troy Davis is on Georgia's death row for the 1989 murder of Savannah police officer Mark MacPhail, despite a strong case of innocence. A new execution date might be set at any time. [video] Troy Davis recap of murder by Martina Davis-correia www.JusticeForTroy.org for more details

[video] CLEMENCY DENIED FOR TROY DAVIS!

September 20, 2011 CNN http://MOXNews.com

I Am Troy Davis by James Clark

Before I moved back to my hometown to work for the repeal of California's death penalty, I spent a few years living in Atlanta, Georgia -- home to Coca Cola, Cartoon Network, and a criminal justice system intent on executing a man who may well be innocent. I've never met him, but Troy Anthony Davis, on Georgia's death row since 1991 despite grave doubts concerning his guilt, is the reason I left the work I was pursuing in graduate school and devoted myself to working against the death penalty. I remember the exact moment. In September 2008, I got a call from a classmate who knew I had been involved in human rights activism in the past. He asked if I'd ever heard of Troy Davis, and I confessed that I hadn't. He told me he was scheduled to be executed in a few days and asked me to research the case and let him know if I wanted to get involved. When I got home, I Googled the name -- I invite you to do the same. I learned that Troy, a young African American man, was convicted in Savannah in 1989 of killing a white police officer named Mark Allen McPhail. I learned that no physical evidence connected him to the crime, but that nine eyewitnesses had testified against him at trial. Then I learned that seven of them altered or recanted their testimony, many alleging pressure and coercion from police officers to identify Troy as the man who killed their fellow officer. And I learned that one of the remaining witnesses had been implicated as the real killer -- the one who had originally implicated Troy. Like many people who are confronted with the facts of the case, I was originally skeptical. I wondered how such seemingly glaring problems could have gone unaddressed and thought I must be missing another piece. I investigated further, even reading the arguments of the prosecutor who secured Troy's death sentence, but even there I found no missing piece that might explain away my doubts of Troy's guilt. Spencer Lawton, the former Savannah District Attorney, finally broke his public silence on the case when he thought the appeals process was over, publishing in the Savannah Morning News his response to the claims made by Troy and his global movement of supporters. It was unconvincing. At its root, this case comes down to the credibility of witnesses, because nothing else can give us any clues as to who committed the horrible crime that took the life of Officer McPhail. The problem is that neither side believes the witnesses. With seven recantations, most of the witnesses were either lying then or are lying now. The state of Georgia has consistently maintained that their credibility 20 years ago cannot be impugned, but that their allegations now of being pressured by police have no credibility at all. Troy's execution date that September came, and I marched with activists in Atlanta that morning. The day before, I was nearly arrested trying to deliver a letter to the Attorney General concerning the case (apparently not having an appointment meant I was trespassing). I drove down to Jackson for the execution, where death row is located, and on the way we got a call that the Supreme Court has issued an emergency stay of execution. That was Troy's second execution date. He's had one more since, but remains alive on death row. His final appeals have now been denied and a fourth execution date is expected soon. I've since learned a lot more about the justice system and the death penalty, but it's still hard for me to wrap my mind around how this could happen. In Troy's most recent appeal, the judge who ordered to hear the recanting witnesses for himself ruled that even though the case "may not be ironclad" and there is "minimal doubt," Troy had not proven his innocence by "clear and convincing evidence." That's what I've learned about the death penalty: life and death tread the gap between phrases like "minimal doubt" and "clear and convincing." Thousands of people around the world have lent their voices to the movement to save Troy Davis' life and demand that the state never executes where doubt exists. Marching with the mantra "I Am Troy Davis," these activists and advocates know that when justice is denied to one, when one innocent person can be killed by the state, then justice is denied to all and we are all Troy Davis. Visit Amnesty International to learn how you can join the growing global movement and tell the Georgia State Board of Pardons and Paroles to stay true to their mission and refuse to take a possibly innocent life. Image credit: Georgians For Alternatives to the Death Penalty (GFADP) Follow James Clark on Twitter: www.twitter.com/lebowskigrande James Clark

[video] Innocent Man Executed?

Troy Davis maintains his claim of innocence days before his scheduled execution by the state of Georgia.