Vol. 71/No. 30      August 20, 2007

Troy Davis (center) with sisters Ebony Davis (right) and Martina Correia in 2003.

Davis, a 38-year-old African American, has spent over 15 years on death row after being framed up for the murder of a white policeman.

With no murder weapon or physical evidence, the case against Davis relied on witness accounts. Seven of nine witnesses produced by the state have since recanted their testimony. Many, like witness D.D. Collins, gave graphic descriptions of being coerced by police to testify against Davis.

“[T]he police put me in a small room and some detectives came in and started yelling at me…I told them…that I didn’t see Troy do nothing,” Collins, who was 16 at the time, wrote in a 2002 affidavit recanting his testimony. “They were telling me that I was an accessory to murder and that I would pay like Troy was going to pay if I didn’t tell them what they wanted to hear.”

Of the two that have not recanted, one has left the state and refuses to talk about the case. The other has been implicated in the shooting by three new witnesses. “If executing Troy Davis on the evidence we now have is the best our justice system can do, then that system is not worthy of the name,” said Congressman John Lewis in a statement at the Davis clemency hearing.

When an appeal was brought to the federal district court, the court declined to review the new evidence. It claimed the Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act prevented this. The U.S. Supreme Court also refused to hear the case.

“It is not illegal to kill an innocent person in this country,” Davis’s sister, Martina Correia, told the Militant. “Before this, I never would have believed I would be told that innocence doesn’t matter. That evidence can be ignored,” she said. “This is not just about Troy. It’s about all the others in this country on death row.”

Shareef Cousin was one of the supporters present outside the parole board hearing. Cousin was framed up for murder in 1995 at the age of 16. At the time of the murder, Cousin was in a car with three of his teammates being driven home from a tournament by his basketball coach. In spite of this, he spent four years on death row in Louisiana. He was then exonerated, but remained in jail on other charges until 2005.

Davis was a victim of “the same forces that put me in jail: police intimidation of witnesses, prosecutorial misconduct, withholding evidence, etc,” Cousin, who is now a sophomore at Morehouse College, told the Militant. He said the Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 is one of the major obstacles Davis will have to overcome. “It should be called the Kill ’Em Quicker Law,” Cousin said.

A letter-writing campaign has resulted in thousands of letters appealing to the parole board to review the new evidence. Among those who have written to support Davis’s fight are Georgia congressman John Lewis, Nobel Prize-winner Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Pope Benedict XVI, and former FBI head William Sessions.

Meetings and other activities to build support for Davis continue to be organized. To learn more and find out how you can help go to www.TroyAnthonyDavis.org. or contact Amnesty International.

Bob Braxton contributed to this article.  
 
 
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