The death penalty is costly, arbitrary, and ineffective. Yet one of the great disappointments for those of us who supported Barack Obama is that the US Justice system is still heavily focused towards revenge not rehabilitation, criminalises a huge proportion of young black men and in a number of states despite the evidence of legal shabbiness, miscarriages and innocents being killed by the state a huge amount of penal resources are devoted to putting people to death. In this the United States is right up with those other Great Democracies, China, Iran, Russia and Saudi Arabia. Who says you can’t judge a country by the friends it keeps?
Troy Davis
Whilst the situation is complicated by the separation of powers in the United States between the Federal and State Governments for many the bell weather case of whether Obama’s American is any different is the case of Troy Davis. 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, and 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."
Troy Davis and his mother
Last week a federal district court in Savannah, Georgia denied Troy Davis' petition - ruling that Troy didn't reach the extraordinarily high legal bar to prove his innocence. Amnesty representatives were in court saw the witnesses and heard the facts first-hand, and as Executive Director Larry Cox put it "nobody walking out of that hearing could view this as an open-and-shut case".
So how is it that Troy has been put back on track for execution? The courts have been far too comfortable leaving room for doubt, error and bias. There is no physical or scientific evidence linking Troy to the crime. In fact, Troy had to rely on witnesses whom the judge didn't find credible, even though these are the same witnesses on which his conviction hangs!
Because the courts have failed to resolve the doubts in this case, Amnesty is taking Troy's story back to the court of public opinion. They want every news outlet talking about the disastrous system that would allow a man to be put to death even when doubts persist about his guilt.
Troy's case is so powerful because it has inspired:
A majority of witnesses to admit that they lied 19 years ago
Four witnesses to finally testify against the person whom they suspect to be the real killer of police officer Mark MacPhail
Pope Benedict XVI, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and former U.S. President Jimmy Carter to all call for clemency
A movement of human rights supporters to unite and pass Troy's story along from one person to the next to the next...
Martina Correia, sister of Troy Anthony Davis, in front of the O'Connell Monument in Dublin, Ireland with supporters. She received The Sean McBride Award for Outstanding Contribution to Human Rights 2010.
There are no second thoughts when it comes to death. As long as there's doubt, there should be no execution. But as long as there's hope, let us continue to fight for Troy Davis.
It seems even in Obama’s America Southern Trees still bear strange fruit.
The way we were. Lawrence Beitler's photograph of the lynching of Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith in Marion, Indiana, 1930.
Strange Fruit
Southern trees bear strange fruit,
Blood on the leaves and blood at the root,
Black body swinging in the Southern breeze,
Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees.
Pastoral scene of the gallant South,
The bulging eyes and the twisted mouth,
Scent of magnolia sweet and fresh,
Then the sudden smell of burning flesh!
Here is fruit for the crows to pluck,
For the rain to gather, for the wind to suck,
For the sun to rot, for the trees to drop,
Here is a strange and bitter crop.
Abel Meeropol, 1936.
See also;
http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2008/10/stay-of-execution-for-troy-davis.html
http://www.troyanthonydavis.org/
Audio recording from Troy Davis, who faces execution despite the fact that there was no physical evidence and 7 out of 9 non-police witnesses have recanted or contradicted their testimony.
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