Shameful execution of Troy Davis

The state of Georgia shamefully executed Troy Davis on September 21, 2011 despite serious doubts about his guilt. But our fight to abolish the death penalty lives on.

Take a stand for Troy Davis. Pledge to fight to abolish the death penalty.
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.
Breaking News: The Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles denied clemency to Troy Davis on Tuesday. This means that very little is standing in the way of the state executing a ptentially innocent man this Wednesday. Join us in calling on the Board to reconsider its decision, and on the Chatham County (Savannah) District Attorney Larry Chisolm to do the right thing.

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Learn More: Notable Leaders, Artists and Other Troy Davis Supporters

Listen: Amnesty's telephone conversation with Troy (mp3)

Troy Davis Updates

Blog

Georgia Kills Troy Davis

The state of Georgia has killed Troy Davis. Now we must redouble our efforts to abolish the death penalty so such a travesty of justice never happens again.

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Press Release

Troy Davis Execution a 'Catastrophic Failure of the Justice System,' Charges Amnesty International

The U.S. justice system was shaken to its core as Georgia executed a person who may well be innocent. Killing a man under this enormous cloud of doubt is horrific and amounts to a catastrophic failure...

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Report

USA: Less than "ironclad," less than safe

Despite the fact that the case against Troy Davis is not “ironclad,” a federal judge’s ruling, if upheld, will clear the way for the state to kill Davis in its execution chamber.

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Troy Davis Issues

Death Penalty

Amnesty International opposes the death penalty in all cases without exception regardless of the nature of the crime, the characteristics of the offender, or the method used.

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U.S. Death Penalty Facts

The death penalty in the U.S. is unjust, costly, discriminatory and used disproportionately against the poor and minorities.

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U.S. Executions

We track all scheduled executions in U.S. states. Take action to stop current executions!

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Prisoners and People at Risk

Prisoners and people at risk are those whose human rights have been violated or are under threat of violation.

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Latest Troy Davis Solidarity Updates

Laura_Moye

lauramoye

Our movement for abolition has grown in size and energy today. #TroyDavis lives on! 6 minutes ago · reply · retweet · favorite

Supreme Court has decided and they will not block execution 3 hours ago · reply · retweet · favorite

High intensity. Prayer circle of a couple hundred around Davises. Helicopters above noisy, invasive. Singing here. 7 hours ago · reply · retweet · favorite

2 arrested outside prison for civil disobedience. Men in riot gear came out. #TroyDavis 7 hours ago · reply · retweet · favorite

Savannah State Univ students speak to a tv reporter #toomuchdoubt! at prison in jackson 4 #troydavis http://t.co/X

Stop the executon of Troy Davis

Troy Anthony Davis will be executed today.

On a terrible day for US justice, Troy Davis has been denied clemency despite far-reaching and high-level international support for his execution to be halted. On death row for 20 years, Troy has always asserted his innocence. There are numerous doubts around his case: far too many to justify his execution this evening.

 Please follow this link to stop the execution


http://action.amnesty.org.uk/ea-action/action?ea.client.id=1194&ea.campaign.id=12137&utm_source=aiuk&utm_medium=homepage&utm_campaign=deathpenalty&utm_content=troy2_main_home

	Troy Davis is scheduled to be executed on September 21st, just two weeks from today.
	The day is now here - the state of Georgia has set Troy Davis' execution date for September 21st, just two weeks from today. The U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear his final appeal earlier this year. But the story remains the same - Troy Davis could very well be innocent. However, in the state of Georgia, the Board of Pardons & Paroles holds the keys to Troy's fate. In the days before Davis' execution, this Board will hold a final clemency hearing - a final chance to prevent Troy Davis from being executed. Davis was convicted on the basis of witness testimony - seven of the nine original witnesses have since recanted or changed their testimony. One witness said in a CNN news interview "If I knew then, what I know now, Troy Davis would not be on death row." I know it's difficult to believe that a system of justice could be so terribly flawed, but keep in mind that Troy has survived three previous execution dates, because people like you kept the justice system in check! We've been bracing for this moment and the time for action is now! Here's what you can do to join the fight: Sign our petition to the Board of Pardons & Paroles urging them to grant clemency! We'll deliver your signatures next week. Organize locally for Troy: Take to the streets with us. Soon we'll be announcing the date for the official Troy Davis Day of Action. Sign up now to rally in the coming days to stop the execution of Troy Davis. Tell everyone you know! Spread the word about this injustice on Twitter by using the hashtag #TooMuchDoubt. Be sure to tell your Facebook friends Troy's story too! Thank you for fighting for Troy, Laura Moye Director, Death Penalty Abolition Campaign Amnesty International USA Follow my Troy Davis updates on Twitter: @lauramoye

We need Amnesty, and Amnesty needs us from Joan Baez

 

  Joan Baez writes

" All my life I've felt humbled in the face of the suffering of others. It is only that I, by accident of birth, was born in the right place at the right time, and that someone else, not me, huddles in a prison cell, is tortured, and faces the unbearable consequences of having been born in the wrong place at the wrong time. Or, as the legendary Phil Ochs song says, there but for fortune, go you or I. 

 Happily for me, I discovered early on that, in the words of Swedish Ambassador Harald Edelstam, "I cannot tolerate injustice." This inability to tolerate injustice has brought me to the roots of human misery, called me to engage in the fight for the rights, freedoms, and the dignity of others. And in so doing, has helped me to maintain my own dignity.

In 1972 I was inspired to devote a year of my life to helping Amnesty launch its first US office on the west coast, and years later, when the organization had grown to worldwide proportions, to perform in both its A Conspiracy of Hope and Human Rights Now! tours.  Today I stand with Amnesty and their Death Penalty Abolition Campaign to fight for the life of Troy Davis, who within weeks could be executed for a crime he may not have committed. There remain serious doubts of his guilt. His death sentence defies all logic and morality.  In matters of life and death, there is no room for doubt.  With their death penalty campaign work, Amnesty has long been a leader in the struggle to abolish the death penalty in every corner of the world.  In honor of Amnesty's 50th birthday, please join me in this life-saving work. Become a member during Amnesty's September membership drive and a generous donor will match your gift dollar-for-dollar.   It used to be that human rights abuses weren't on anyone's agenda. Today, when human rights prevail, it happens thanks to organizations like Amnesty.  Amnesty has grown into the most powerful human rights movement in history, winning freedom for tens of thousands of individuals jailed for expressing their beliefs, shutting down torture chambers and halting executions.  At the heart of these human rights victories is the dedicated Amnesty member who stuffs envelopes, signs petitions, is visible at marches and rallies, recruits friends, tweets, and supports Amnesty with financial contributions.   I have a special place in my heart for Amnesty. I hope that you do, too. We need Amnesty and Amnesty needs us."

Death Penalty no thanks (but thank you, Niluccio, for this piece)

Noose in Abu Ghraib prison, Iraq (AP)

 Amnesty International believes that the death penalty is ulitmate inhumane violition of human rights. Sheffield Amnesty group work consistently in opposing the death penalty around the world, especially in the USA and in Belarus (Europe's last executioner.)  Thanks to Niluuccio for  the piece below explaining our implacable opposition to the death penalty.

Following Guido Fawkes’ little blaze (ahem) of publicity with his “bring back hanging” e-petition campaign, there’s been a lot of stuff (including from him) about the supposed “deterrence” of having a noose in the criminal justice system.
Crime rates are high because we don’t have judges with black caps and men like Albert Pierrepoint to dish out justice. Apparently.
So, if you’re looking for evidence to support an argument that capital punishment is a deterrent against serious crime – then you can find it. This chap on the Telegraph site will run you through some. Equally, if you’re looking for evidence to support an argument that capital punishment is not a deterrent against serious crime, then, yes, you can find that as well.
This is precisely why abolitionists like Amnesty have for so long said that there is no proven "deterrent effect" attaching to the death penalty. Because there isn’t.
In this sense it’s fallacious to say that capital punishment “works”. It works to kill people, yes (and not always quickly or painlessly, and not even always guilty people either), but it doesn’t work in the criminological sense of deterrence.
In the absence of the deterrence argument capital punishment's proponents should either drop their support or give other reasons for it. The major alternative "pro" argument is that perpetrators of the most serious crimes "deserve" the "ultimate" penalty – death at the hands of the state. Actually, if you listen closely, the "just desserts" viewpoint is never far away from death penalty debates. "Heinous" criminals don't deserve to live. Why should they when their victim has been cruelly killed?
In a sense, this would at least be an honest argument about ethics, societal norms and what values a decent society lives by. On the abolitionist side Amnesty and others argue that the death penalty is wrong, full-stop. It's a human rights violation in its own right. 
Everything else is subsidiary to this: the arbitrariness of its application (poor people, ethnic minorities and the badly-represented being more likely to die, as in the US); the error rate (confidence-sapping miscarriages like the Birmingham Six here or the 139 US death row prisoners released on grounds of innocence since 1973); its politicisation (Ken Saro-Wiwa and others in Nigeria; executions after protests in Iran); or even the means of extinguishing life (is a lethal injection "better than" hanging?).
In the end all of these (individually quite powerful reasons to be opposed) are themselves "utilitarian" arguments. They still skirt around the central question: is it right to invest the governing authority with the powers to judicially kill?
In the end you’re either for or against it on essentially moral grounds. I’m against.
Meanwhile, cases like Troy Davis’ in the USA just ram the point home to me: it’s wrong anyway (a justice system should dispense justice not death), and it leads to horrendous cases like this where a man has spent 20 years on death row for a crime he may not have committed. What more evidence do you need to oppose Guido’s ill-judged idea to unearth a relic of the past?

http://blogs.amnesty.org.uk/blogs_entry.asp?eid=7876

News from Georgia,USA

Why the war to save Troy Davis isn't over

On March 28, 2011 I woke up elated about my 10 year anniversary as a cancer survivor. I looked outside and it was cold and gloomy, the sun was nowhere to be found. It's about 9:30 a.m. and the phone rings, it's my brother Troy Davis' lawyer and from the tone in his voice I knew, it was not good news.

My heart sank to a heavy place as I listened to his monotone voice saying,  "We just received news that the United States Supreme Court has denied Troy's appeal." Knowing that the appeals for Troy have always been an uphill battle and the lawyers have always stated that from a legal standpoint. Yet today I also heard optimism in the statement, "We will seek and exhaust all legal
means available to us." I know from a legal standpoint denial by the Supreme Court is nothing a lawyer finds optimism in, yet I felt the readiness for yet another battle.

My first concern was my mother and my brother Troy. I cannot imagine facing three execution dates and the possibility of a fourth. I knew Troy would be more concerned about our family than himself, but I also knew that as much faith and spirituality as my mother has, she is still a mother and we are fighting for my brother's very existence. In this fight Troy is no longer voiceless and my family is no longer invisible, yet the court still refuses to hear what we have to say. Innocence does matter and beyond a reasonable doubt should be of utmost.

One thing for certain is that the global concern about this case is growing and yet the highest court in the United States is not willing to address the issue of innocence and new evidence. We live in country that is supposed to promote democracy and human rights for other countries yet it is not unconstitutional for us to execute innocent people in the U.S. if the courts feel they received a fair trial.

I am both enraged and empowered, for this battle to save Troy is a war of life and death for me! Until there is no breath left in my body I will fight for Troy, fight against the injustice of the death penalty, because this battle is bigger than Troy it is a war against a system is not impartial, a system that cares less for fairness and more for finality. In no way have we ever diminished the loss and hurt of the McPhail family, yet both families have been victimized. Being a mother and having Stage 4 cancer I understand the importance of life and I am willing to give my life to spare my brother's. No matter the final outcome of this case, my war against the death penalty is far from over and I will no longer be a victimize by this system in the United States, that justice depends on your ability to pay for it.

The hearing held in June 2010 in Savannah was like a puppet show, it was entertaining to some, upsetting to others, yet once the judge opened his mouth and looked at my brother with disgust I knew that no matter what Troy's lawyers had to present the judge had already made his decision to deny Troy, so he was just going through the motions like a puppeteer. I saluted the witnesses, even though they were criminalized by the state prosecutor for recanting their trial testimony. When they testified against Troy all those years ago, the police treated them like heroes, even though they had the same criminal history in 1989. It also seemed amazing that all the police who testified had amnesia about their role of misconduct with the witnesses, yet the judge chose to believe them over recanted testimony of the very witnesses they used to secure a conviction and death sentence for my brother.

The Georgia Parole Board said they will not execute when there is doubt. The case of Troy Anthony Davis is full of doubt.

As Troy said to me, "It's not over 'til God says it's over, this fight for justice did not begin with me and will not end with me."

The battle for Justice and the War to save Troy wages on! My name is Martina Correia and I am on Death Row because that is where my brother lives, our lives intertwined. If Troy is executed he will become even more powerful, because people all around the world are saying, "I AM TROY DAVIS," and his story will be heard.

(source:  Opinion, Martina Correia, The Grio)