#troy davis

[ai-yo]

The Marcellus Williams case reminded me a lot of Troy Davis back in 2011 who even after mass protest, shoddy evidence, and list of things that should have halted the execution was still executed

[cheerfullycatholic]

[morbidology]

On 19 August, 1989, police officer Mark  McPhail was shot and killed in a Burger King parking lot in Georgia after attempting to intervene in a fight. 20-year-old Troy Davis, who was there at the time but fled before the shots were fired, was apprehended after nine witnesses claimed to see him shoot the officer.

Despite missing crucial evidence, which included the murder weapon, Davis was convicted of the murder. Over the years, seven out of the nine witnesses retracted their claims that they witnessed Davis shoot the officer. Nevertheless, Davis was executed on 21 September, 2011.

He had many supporters who believed in his innocent and due to this, his execution had been successfully delayed twice, but sadly not for a third time regardless of the fact that nearly one million people had signed a petition for clemency. His last words were:

“Well, first of all I’d like to address the MacPhail family. I’d like to let you all know, despite the situation – I know all of you are still convinced that I’m the person that killed your father, your son and your brother, but I am innocent. The incident that happened that night was not my fault. I did not have a gun that night. I did not shoot your family member. But I am so sorry for your loss. I really am – sincerely. All I can ask is that each of you look deeper into this case, so that you really will finally see the truth. I ask my family and friends that you all continue to pray, that you all continue to forgive. Continue to fight this fight. For those about to take my life, may God have mercy on all of your souls. God bless you all.”

[flight828manifest]

[itspileofgoodthings]

Riot helmets outnumbered the protesters who, after Troy Davis was executed, stuck around to throw useless punches into the courthouse grass, while a woman near the forest of batons lay sprawled facedown in the lawn gripping a Bible, a green sea beginning to memorize the shape of her grief. If I say Death, cure death, and have such power over the scythe, how many cranes will it take to lift her out of this drowning?                                            If I tell you white supremacist Lawrence Brewer was executed five hours earlier for the murder of James Byrd— if I ask you to look for birds foraging between his intricate tattoos, I don’t mean to distract you from the cross that still burned on his arm that day. I don’t expect you to stare into a graffiti of iron-crosses and spider webs scrawled across flesh and find a thrush vibrating with birdsong, but I want you to know why I listen for more than the cawing of crows:                                            I wanted Brewer dead. So dead, my tongue swelled fat with hexes, so fat I wonder how forgive could ever fit inside my mouth. Somehow it’s always there, fluttering in the larynx of Ross Byrd—the man whose father was dragged, urine soaked, by Lawrence behind a truck. Watch him say it.                                            Forgive. I swear, the word has feathers. I want to learn to get its wings between my teeth before more retribution blots out the sky.                                            When I tell you glare flickered off a cop’s visor and startled a single crow away from the murder that flapped the sky into inky pieces, I want you to watch it close enough to notice its feathers aren’t black at all. Like bruises and ink, they are only this full-bodied purple—purple your eyes will still tell you is black the next time you see it spread out across sky. Watch it spread like the flush of pancuronium bromide into diaphragm, watch close enough to pinpoint when the muscles lock.                                            If it is said the injection is humane, we mean to say this is humanity: no crack of rope, jerk of limb, no bloated face, clenched jaw, or reek rising twisted in smoke from a cooked torso— we mean to say there is nothing to disturb the nest between our ribs, there is nothing to make a heartbeat rumble like a murder of so many wings.

Jamaal May, The Sky, Now Black with Birds

[mfgalaxy]

Troy Davis will not die tonight

"The execution of Troy Davis was delayed temporarily by the US supreme court on Wednesday night, in a dramatic intervention just as he was due to be put to death by lethal injection.

"As the first news came in at the Jackson prison that houses death row, a huge cheer erupted from a crowd of more than 500 protesters that had amassed on the other side of the road.

"Davis's supporters kissed each other and threw placards which read "Not in my name" into the air.

"But the jubilation was short-lived. Talk of a reprieve from the US supreme court quickly gave way to rumours of a stay, and finally the realisation that the court had only ordered a temporary delay as it considered the matter. The mood then grew more sombre as the waiting game that has now been going on for years with Davis resumed."

[mfgalaxy]

The Georgia State government is about to murder Troy Davis

As of this writing, Troy Davis is still alive. But barring unforeseen intervention, by the time you read this, the government of Georgia state will have executed him.

Troy Davis is an African American man convicted of killing a Euro-American policeman. The Guardian newspaper in England has an article entitled “Troy Davis: 10 reasons why he should not be executed." Those reasons include:

That of the nine trial witnesses who said he shot policeman Mark MacPhail to death, seven have since recanted their claims.

“Many of those who retracted their evidence said that they had been cajoled by police into testifying against Davis. Some said they had been threatened with being put on trial themselves if they did not co-operate.”

Sylvester Coles “was the man who first came forward to police and implicated Davis as the killer. But over the past 20 years evidence has grown that Coles himself may be the gunman and that he was fingering Davis to save his own skin.”

The case has drawn international attention, including calls for clemency from Pope Benedict, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, and former US president Jimmy Carter. Below is a four-part discussion on the Davis case by Amnesty International.

[sasukehoe]

Troy Davis died five years ago. :(