Too Much Doubt
By: Laura Moye, Death Penalty Abolition Campaign, Amnesty International USA
Troy Davis was convicted of murdering a Georgia police officer in 1991. Nearly two decades later, Davis remains on death row — even though the case against him has fallen apart.
The case against him consisted entirely of witness testimony which contained inconsistencies even at the time of the trial. Since then, all but two of the state’s non-police witnesses from the trial have recanted or contradicted their testimony.
Many of these witnesses have stated in sworn affidavits that they were pressured or coerced by police into testifying or signing statements against Troy Davis.
One of the two witnesses who has not recanted his testimony is Sylvester “Red” Coles — the principle alternative suspect, according to the defense, against whom there is new evidence implicating him as the gunman. Nine individuals have signed affidavits implicating Sylvester Coles.
An execution date for Troy Davis is scheduled for September 21! In the days before Davis’ execution, the Georgia Board of Pardons & Paroles will hold a final clemency hearing – a final chance to prevent Troy Davis from being executed.
LEGAL PROFESSIONALS SIGN-ON LETTER APPEALING TO THE GEORGIA BOARD OF PARDONS AND PAROLES ON BEHALF OF TROY ANTHONY DAVIS
Troy Anthony Davis is scheduled for execution on September 21 at 7pm. Davis has faced execution dates three times and three times his execution has been stayed amid doubts concerning the impact of numerous witness recantations and new evidence against another suspect. Following an evidentiary hearing in federal court in June 2010, a federal judge ruled that Davis had not clearly established his innocence. Yet significant questions remain about the integrity of Davis’ conviction. Please consider signing on to the letter below urging the State Board of Pardons and Paroles to prevent the execution of Troy Davis.
INSTRUCTIONS: To endorse this letter, please send your name, title, affiliation (e.g. law firm, academic institution or organization if applicable), mailing address, phone number and email address to dpac@aiusa.org or call 202-509-8174.
Or, simply endorse online here:
Please share this letter with attorney, law professor and other legal professional contacts of yours, so that we can build a strong list!
Note: AmnestyUSA and the National Lawyers Guild may publicize this letter, including all of its endorsers; therefore, they assume we can publicly list your name in association with this letter. If you do not want your name publicized, please let them know and they will include it only on the final version going to the State Board of Pardons and Paroles. We will not use your name for other purposes unless we receive explicit permission from you. When an execution date is set, which could happen at any time, we will send this letter to the Board.
For facts about this case, and more actions to take, please visit http://www.justicefortroy.org Please send your endorsement as soon as possible. Time is of the essence.
Legal Professionals Sign-on Letter Urging Clemency for Troy Davis
Dear Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles,
We, the undersigned legal professionals, are writing to urge you to prevent the execution of Troy Anthony Davis. The case against Mr. Davis “may not be ironclad,” as the federal judge who presided at Mr. Davis’ evidentiary hearing in June 2010 admitted. There is no physical evidence linking Davis to the weapon used to kill off-duty police officer Mark Allen MacPhail in 1989, and there is no DNA that can be relied on to clear up longstanding doubts in the case.
After highly divided rulings from appeals courts, the U.S. Supreme Court ordered an evidentiary hearing for Davis to determine if he could “clearly establish innocence.” While the district court which conducted the hearing ruled that his innocence was not “clearly established”, doubts about Davis’ guilt were revealed rather than resolved. During the hearing, the State attacked the credibility of the very witnesses used to obtain the death sentence. Former police officers responsible for investigating the case failed to explain why they had not treated an alternative suspect as such, had excluded him from photo-lineups, and had failed to search the home of that suspect for a weapon he admitted carrying on the night of the murder. In addition, a new eyewitness testified that he saw the alternative suspect, a relative of his, commit the murder.
As legal professionals, we believe that there is no compelling reason to put a prisoner to death when there are lingering doubts about the integrity of a conviction, especially when commuting the sentence to life imprisonment is possible. This is such a case, and the State Board of Pardons and Paroles has the authority to reconsider Mr. Davis’ death sentence. We urge you to grant clemency in this case.
Yours Sincerely,
