Thanks to Bob Allen, thousands of Baptists have been introduced to Troy Davis.  Allen’s story for the Associated Baptist Press is based on my recent “I am Troy Davis” post, materials from the Friends of Justice website, and a good deal of fresh research.  It is great to see the tragic plight of Mr. Davis and the work of Friends of Justice presented to a Baptist audience.

Baptist criminal-justice activist applauds Ga. stay of execution

By Bob Allen
Wednesday, 29 October 2008
ARLINGTON, Texas (ABP) — An American Baptist minister who advocates criminal-justice reform hailed as a “miracle” the latest stay of execution for a black man convicted of murdering a white Georgia police officer nearly 20 years ago.

Alan Bean of the Arlington, Texas-based group Friends of Justice was one of about 600 death-penalty protestors who demonstrated on the steps of the Georgia State Capitol on the eve of the most recent scheduled date for execution of Troy Davis.

The provisional stay was issued Sept. 24 by the Atlanta-based 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. It was the third such stay for Davis, 40. His lawyers were given 15 days to file documents, after which the court will have 10 days to decide if the case should go back to a lower court, which could order a new trial.

Bean, best known for bringing attention to alleged racial injustice related to incidents at a Jena, La., high school in 2006, said the stay of execution was not expected. Davis has lost several appeals based on claims he is an innocent man.

Several public meetings and rallies were held in recent weeks around Atlanta demanding a new trial for Davis. One included about 1,000 people, who marched from a local park to Ebenezer Baptist Church, the historic congregation once co-pastored by Martin Luther King Jr. and Sr.

About 140,000 people signed a petition to halt Davis’ execution by lethal injection. Pleas for commutation of his sentence came from former President Jimmy Carter, former Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa and Pope Benedict XVI. Other supporters include entertainer Harry Belafonte and Sister Helen Prejean, the nun whose anti-death penalty activism inspired the film Dead Man Walking.

Davis has spent 17 years on death row for the Aug. 19, 1989 murder of Mark Allen MacPhail, a 27-year-old police officer in Savannah.

People close to Davis say he was wrongly convicted. There was no physical evidence linking him to the crime, and a murder weapon was never found. The case against him was solely based on witness testimony implicating him, and seven of the nine witnesses against him have since recanted.

Bean said he doesn’t know if Davis is guilty or innocent — which, he contends, is precisely why there needs to be a new trial. What is clear from reading court documents, Bean said in a recent blog, is that “law enforcement shaped testimony through threats and promises.”

“Police officers, outraged by the savage and merciless slaying of one of their own, rushed to judgment [and] then shaped the ‘evidence’ to support a hastily-reached conclusion,” he wrote.

Bean said the issue for him is not about Troy Davis or even just the death penalty. “Ultimately, this new movement is about our broken criminal-justice system and the urgent need for sweeping reform.”

Friends of Justice started in 1999 in response to a drug sting in Tulia, Texas, in which half of the town’s black males were arrested and convicted on the uncorroborated testimony of an undercover narcotics officer. The group advocates greater due-process protections for poor people of color, who populate the criminal-justice system in numbers disproportionate to their percentage of the population.

Bean labels that disparity the “New Jim Crow” and compares modern-day justice reform to the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s. He said the Georgia rally on behalf of Davis “felt like the early stages of a religious revival.”

“If you are the praying kind, please continue to pray for Troy Davis and for the nation that isn’t sure what to do with him,” Bean wrote.

Albert Woodfox

Thanks to Tory Pegram, Campaign Director of the Angola 3 Project (and Friends of Justice board member), for providing these handy links to three compelling pieces that aired this week on National Public Radio’s All Things Considered.  Advocates of the Angola 3 get their say along with the folks who are trying to keep Herman Wallace and Albert Woodfox in prison.  You can’t listen to these well-produced stories without believing that there has been a tragic miscarriage of justice in this case.  Listen and let us know what you think.

For those preferring cold print, I have pasted the website narrative below.

Part 1: Doubts Arise About 1972 Angola Prison Murder

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=96030547

Part 2: Favors, Inconsistencies Taint Angola Murder Case

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=96199165

Part 3: Why Did Key Angola Witness Go To The ‘Dog Pen’?

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=96255685

Deep in Louisiana, a long winding road dead ends at Angola, a prison unlike any other. The size of Manhattan, 30 miles from the nearest town, it’s really a place unto itself.

It was in this faraway place that a 23-year-old corrections officer was stabbed to death with a lawnmower blade in 1972. In the almost 40 years since, those are about the only details of the crime anyone can agree on.

Two men – Herman Wallace and Albert Woodfox – were quickly convicted of killing Brent Miller. A judge sentenced them to life and the prison placed them in solitary confinement – for 36 years. It’s the longest any inmate has spent in isolation in modern U.S. history. Now, all these years later, the murder seems even more unsettled and elusive than it did then, and there are questions about their guilt. (more…)

Richard Abshire of the Dallas Morning News offers a timely update to the racially-tinged death of Brandon McClelland in Paris, Texas.  A companion piece chronicles the Northeast Texas community’s historical association with lynching.

This is the second time Paris officials have been accused of racial bias in recent history.  Last year, Shaquanda Cotton was sentenced to a Texas Youth Commission holding facility for pushing a teacher’s aid.

Neither Shaquanda Cotton’s mother nor the mother of Brandon McClelland want to see the men responsible for this latest outrage put to death–both women are staunch opponents of the death penalty–but they want to see justice served.

It has been argued that the white men accused of killing McClelland couldn’t have committed a hate crime because they were good friends with their black victim. 

Friends don’t drag friends to death. 

That said, it is difficult to establish the motivation of any crime.  Brandon McClelland paid the ultimate price for associating with violent individuals who were strangers to natural human affection.  We need to know far more about the victim’s relationship to his murderers.  According to Abshire:

The men were thought to be friends. Mr. McClelland was convicted of perjury for lying on Mr. Finley’s behalf in a manslaughter case. Mr. Finley went to prison from 2004 to 2007 for shooting a friend in a Paris park; Mr. McClelland was sentenced to a two-year term.

 Did McLelland perjure himself to help out a buddy, because he was threatened with dire consequences if he told the truth, or are we dealing with a complicated mix of both factors?  Is McLelland of normal intelligence, or were his white associates taking advantage of a man with a serious learning disability?  More light needs to be shed on these questions.

Is it fair to bring up the close historical association between Paris and lynching? 

It isn’t just fair; it is critically important.

Heinous crimes perpetrated by an entire community leave a psychic stain (ala Lady McBeth) that will not wash away.  You don’t torture a man to death and then wander casually back to business as usual.  Churches complicit in this kind of demonic rage remain crippled and scarred until confession is made and forgiveness is extended. 

Across America, especially in the southern states, individuals, families, and congregations shoulder crushing emotional and spiritual burdens, often without realizing it.  You see the consequences most clearly in the criminal justice system and in strained and tenuous relations between black and white communities. 

I congratulate Mr. Abshire for noting that a monument to the Confederacy stands on the courthouse steps in Paris.  I have noted the same phenomenon on the grounds of the state capitols in Little Rock, Arkansas and, last week, in Atlanta, Georgia. 

The most soul-destroying example of this form of spiritual oppression can be found in Colfax, Louisiana. 

 

In the cemetery across the street from a Baptist church you will find this obelisk celebrating the sacrifice of three brave souls who gave their lives fighting for “white supremacy” in 1873.  The marker was unveiled at a well-attended ceremony in 1921.  

Down the street at the courthouse stands a sign celebrating the “Colfax race riot” that broke the back of “Carpetbag misrule.”

Since I first stumbled upon these historical artifacts I have read two recent and carefully researched books on the Colfax Massacre.  The real facts do not reflect well on the tiny community. 

During the Reconstruction period, Grant Parish was carved out of central Louisiana as a protected space for Republicans (most of them black).  After a disputed election, 300 Democrats marched on a Colfax courthouse defended by 150 poorly armed black residents.  The brave champions of white supremacy set fire to the courthouse, then mowed down the Republican defenders as they fled.  Several dozen people taken captive during the “battle” were summarily executed later that night.

When a heroic US Attorney named J.R. Beckwith tried to bring a representative handfful of the murderers to justice, his efforts were blocked by a Supreme Court weary of Reconstruction.  In that sense, the marker in front of the Colfax courthouse is on target: the Colfax massacre did sound the death knell of Reconstruction politics in the South.  Hence the name of Charles Lanes’ book, “The Day Freedom Died“.

How are the people who worship across the street from a marker valorizing racial hatred affected?  How can black residents of Grant Parish expect to obtain justice from a courthouse that celebrates the mass murder of African Americans?

How can communities like Jasper, Tulia, Jena, Little Rock and Paris come to terms with the horrors of history?  In the natural flow of events it rarely happens. 

The only fitting response to the death of Brandon McClelland would be a formal, organized, community-wide process of remembering, confession and restoration.  Only then will the tragic stories stop flowing from the press.  Demons must be exorcised.

Dear Friends,

Would you take five minutes, and help Friends of Justice win $5,000 to fund our work?  Friends of Justice has been nominated for the JusticeMakers Competition, which recognizes people doing innovative work for due process and human rights in the criminal justice system.  This competition includes a “People’s Choice Award”, where members of the general public can rank the different nominees and determine who gets a $5,000 prize.

Would you sign in to the JusticeMakers website, and rank our proposal?  While you’re at it, take a look at the other amazing projects out there!  It’s sure exciting to see all the amazing work that folks are doing around the world to defend equal justice for all!  I hope you’ll be inspired.

Friends of Justice is counting on you–our supporters–to put us over the top and help us win $5,000!   For a small organization like us, that prize would make a big difference–it means that when some desperate parent calls us because their child is being wrongly prosecuted, we will have the resources to investigate their case and see what can be done.  Sign in today at http://www.justicemakers.net.

Thanks for your support,

Lydia Bean

More information below…

(more…)

James Dobson, Religious Right personality and founder of Focus on the Family, is circulating a letter from the future.  Dobson’s vision of America under the limp-wristed leadership of President Barack Obama is as dark and twisted as the “Chick tracts” that label non-fundamentalists as the spawn of Satan (especially liberals and Catholics).  It’s like an Onion parody.

Dobson’s Letter meanders on for a dozen pages but the central premise is painfully simple: the ultra-liberal (ACLU-affiliated) judges President Obama will appoint to the Supreme Court are going to run amok.  Not only will they legalize gay marriage, they will sanction any church, school or Boy Scout troop that refuses to celebrate gayness.  Books critical of “the gay agenda” will be pulled from the shelves of Barnes and Nobles.  Home schoolers will be punished for teaching their children that homosexuality is wrong or that Jesus Christ is the way, the truth and the life.  Sex education classes will rejoice in the gay life style and teachers and parents who refuse to go along . . . well, you get the idea.

The letter is aimed at the naive evangelical Christians who, polls suggest, are flocking to the Democratic candidate in surprising numbers.  These deluded souls thought they were voting for change; instead they unleashed a liberal apocalypse.

Dobson et al make a pretense of dissociating Obama from this scourge of the liberal fundamentalists.  The poor man never dreamed that placing a few ACLU types on the court would transform America into Sodom and Gomorrah in a mere four years.  Obama wrings his hands in disbelief as the Frankenstein monster he has unleashed rampages through the heartland.

Dobson’s Obama, following the lead of Bill Clinton, fires all the US Attorneys in America, replacing them with card carrying members of the ACLU eager to punish former Bush officials.

If you want to tell Dr. Dobson what you think of his letter (please read it first) you can go to the Matthew 25 website.  But I have come not to scorn Focus on the Family but to lament the demise the implosion of an organization that once did good work.

When Nancy and I were starting out in pastoral ministry, Dobson’s organization produced a series of parenting manuals and practical videos aimed at the evangelical mainstream.  The basic themes were tough love, the need for clear parent-child boundaries, consistent consequences, and the idea that parenting is a high calling.  If children are allowed to rule the home, Dobson taught, they will become unhappy tyrants who grow into undisciplined and unloving adults.  Think of a biblically based “Super Nanny” and you’ll have the right idea.

Then Dobson ran off the rails.  Every year his comb-over became more extreme and his religion more political.  Before long, Dobson was Rush Limbaugh with a Bible.  His gay-hating, gun-toting, free enterprise-loving, militaristic Jesus became harder and harder to square with the Jesus of the Gospels.

And now we have this fear-mongering letter.  Dr. Dobson clearly has no idea how progressive Americans think and feel.  Tragically, an equal and opposite ignorance can often be found on the extreme left.  Dobson’s exercise in self-parody simply widens the gap.

In my last post I told you that, barring a miracle, Troy Davis would die on Monday evening.  Folks, we got our miracle!

“Upon our thorough review of the record,” the 11th Circuit Court of appeals (federal) announced today, “we conclude that Davis has met the burden for a provisional stay of execution.”

This outcome was NOT expected.  The international outcry surrounding this case is having an effect.  We have to sympathize with the families of Troy Davis and Officer Mark MacPhail, the man Davis is accused of killing in 1989.  This emotional roller coaster ride has been excruciating for everyone associated with the Davis case.

“I am Troy Davis!” 600 supporters chanted from the steps of the Georgia State Capitol Thursday evening.  “Justice matters!” we roared again and again; “Innocence matters!”

There were just a few men setting up the stage when I arrived at the Capitol an hour before the rally was scheduled to begin.  Gradually, the sidewalk began to fill with the most diverse crowd I have seen at a justice rally.  Black and white, old and young, sophisticates and just plain folks, college students and preachers–all were united by a strange mix of love and outrage.

As the crowd assembled I moved from person to person, introducing myself.  Amnesty International president Larry Cox impressed me immediately.  When I asked if he had a law practice before assuming his current duties Larry shook his head.  “I’m not a lawer,” he said, “I’ve been an activist all my life.”

 

Unlike most of the speakers, Cox read from a prepared transcript, but with such intense urgency that his passion was palpable.  Cox is adamantly opposed to the death penalty, a commitment shared by virtually all of the two dozen people who graced the makeshift stage last night.  One African American pastor confided to us that, until joining the fight for Troy Davis, he was a death penalty proponent.  No more.

But Mr. Cox has grown to love Troy Davis and his family.  This isn’t just about the death penalty anymore.  It’s personal.

An imposing statue of Thomas E. Watson (d. 1922) dominates the main entrance to the Georgia Capitol Building.  As the speakers took their turns at the microphone last night, old Mr. Watson glared down on us, his fists raised in angry protest.  I suspect the statue was made from a photograph of the firey Watson on the stump, but last night, his face bathed in the spot lights that surround the Capitol, he looked like a man possessed.

“Who’s this Watson guy,” I asked the wife of an Episcopal clergyman. 

“I’m not sure,” she replied, “but I hear he laid the groundwork for segregation in the state of Georgia.

She’s right.  According to the New Georgia Encyclopedia, Thomas E. Watson was a complex character who began his political career during the Reconstruction years.  The Georgia politician was a populist who defended the small farmer against the industrialists of his day.  Initially, he worked hard for the black vote, opposing lynch law and the practice of re-establishing slavery by leasing black prisoners out to the highest bidder.

But Watson soon changed course.  As the Jim Crow regime took hold in Georgia, his stump speeches became studded with anti-black, anti-Catholic and anti-Jewish rhetoric of the most ghastly sort.  Another good man had fallen under the demonic shadow of white supremacy. 

Instead of taking down Watson’s statue, the modern state of Georgia decided to erect a tiny display celebrating black suffrage.

 There is also a statue of a young Jimmy Carter tucked away in a corner of the Capitol Building.  Carter’s monument is smaller and less prominent than Watson’s; I almost had the feeling that the current political regime is ashamed of the state’s most famous citizen.

 Jimmy Carter is commonly defamed as a weak and ineffectual president, but I suspect history will remember the Georgian more kindly than did his contemporaries.  Andrew Bacevich argues persuasively that Carter’s much-maligned “malaise speech”, delivered at the height of the first energy crunch, was a warning America ignored at its peril.  Carter told us we were addicted to fossil fuels and that we were spending beyond our means.  We didn’t want to hear it, so we elected Ronald “Morning in America” Reagan. 

Last night I had the odd sense that the state of Georgia is locked in a death match between the spirit of Jimmy Carter and the tragic legacy of Thomas Watson.  Carter’s Georgia wants to give Troy Davis a full hearing; Watson’s Georgia wishes Davis had been hung a few days after his conviction.

As Larry Cox emphasized last night, we can only claim that the State of Georgia may be executing an innocent man.  Until Davis receives a full hearing we can’t weigh the facts effectively.  That’s why a hearing is manditory.

But one thing is obvious to anyone who has read through the affidavits of the recanting witnesses in this case: law enforcement shaped testimony through threats and promises.  Police officers, outraged by the savage and merciless slaying of one of their own, rushed to judgment then shaped the “evidence” to support a hastily-reached conclusion.

Those who know Troy Davis best are convinced of his innocence.  He doesn’t fit the psychological profile of a man trying to save his skin.

Troy’s sister, Martina Correia, has no doubts about her brother’s innocence.  Tears streaming down her face, Ms. Correia told us of her long struggle withcancer.  “Every month the doctors have to pump poison into my veins to keep my alive,” she told us.  “I’ve been on chemotherapy for years, just trying to stay alive long enough to see Troy walk free.  And I just can’t understand why the State of Georgia wants to pump poison into the veins of my brother to take his life when they know their case against him has fallen apart.”

Did last night’s rally have any influence on today’s miraculous ruling from the 11th Circuit? 

All we know for certain is that Troy’s attorneys have fifteen days to file the necessary paperwork with the court.  The court then has ten days to respond. 

The great news is that the final decision will be made after a presidential election that is currently diverting attention from virtually everything else.   Sarah Palin’s hair stylist is getting more attention these days than the economy.  Soon we will be in a news cycle much more attentive to the Troy Davis story.  That shouldn’t matter, but it does.

Last night in Atlanta, the horror of an imminent outrage mixed with a strange kind of elation.  Several speakers talked about their sense that a movement was gathering momentum.  It’s not just about Troy Davis, and it’s not even restricted to the death penalty.  Ultimately, this new movement is about our broken criminal justice system and the urgent need for sweeping reform. 

Thomas Watson is now with the angels.  His statue may have been brimming with hate last night, but whatever survives of the complicated Georgia politician looks down on the world through the compassionate eyes of Almighty God. 

We don’t just need a new and better criminal justice system in America; we need a bigger God.  How the justice, mercy and humility of Jesus ever got twisted into the vengeful religion that dominates so much of America today I don’t know.  My hunch is that it started withthe extreme psychological tension of trying to reconcile slavery and Jim Crow segregation witha white-hot religious piety.  Religion adapted to hate.  Evangelical Christians need to come to terms with this legacy.  It’s not enough for Southern Baptists to apologize for slavey (although that marked a wonderful beginning); we need to understand that our entire religious outlook has been shaped by history.

Last night felt like the early stages of a religious revival.  As the evening grew late, one of the leaders looked out on the crowd and issued a dangerous invitation.  “We need to end this night with prayer,” he said.  “And God is telling me that there is a preacher with us this evening who has a word from God.”

Two people, a man and a woman, rushed to the stage without a second’s hesitation.  The woman looked out on the crowd, her face wrapped in rapture.  “In my church we believe in letting the Holy Spirit speak through us,” she said.  “And tonight the Spirit wants me to speak as he has given me utterance.”

With that she broke into “the tongues of men and of angels”, the language of ecstasy common among Pentecostals and “charismatic” Christians.  I’m not sure what the Episcipalians and Presbyterian preachers made of that, but I was touched.  I was reminded of my tongue-speaking parents and the Holy Ghost meetings they used to take me to back in the day.

If you are the praying kind, please continue to pray for Troy Davis and for the nation that isn’t sure what to do with him.

I have frequently mentioned the lack of attention to the criminal justice system in this year’s presidential race.  It seems I spoke too soon. According to Politico blogger Jonathan Martin, Rudy Giuliani has recorded robocalls on behalf of John McCain featuring Obama’s opposition to manditory sentences and suggesting that the Democrat has been palling around with (shudder) “liberal judges”.

Rudy takes to phones to hit Obama on crime

Rudy Giuliani is portraying Barack Obama as soft on crime in robocalls being blasted out to swing states by the RNC and the McCain campaign.

The call comes on the heels of a mailer being sent out by the Florida GOP focused on crime, an indication that even while on the stump, John McCain focuses on contrasting himself with Obama on taxes and spending, his campaign and his party are using other wedge issues in a more targeted fashion as Election Day nears.

The focus is on the Democrat’s opposition to mandatory minimums, and the bill of particulars is tough.

“You need to know that Barack Obama opposes mandatory prison sentences for sex offenders, drug dealers and murderers,” Giuliani says. “It’s true. I read Barack Obama’s words myself.”

To legally ensure that the RNC can share the cost, the former New York mayor adds: “And recently congressional liberals introduced a bill to eliminate mandatory prison sentence for violent criminals, trying to give liberal judges the power to decide whether criminals are sent to jail or set free.”

One voter in Maine got the call this morning, a sign McCain is still pursuing the lone electoral vote in the state’s 2nd Congressional District.

Barring a miracle, Troy Davis will die by lethal injection on Monday night. With the election so close you can taste it, nobody wants to talk about an execution.   A rally is scheduled for 6:00 pm on October 23rd on the steps of the Georgia State Capitol and I plan to be there.  

The state-sanctioned death of Troy Davis will receive a few passing mentions in the major newspapers and thirty seconds on CNN.  Davis has some high-profile supporters (Jimmy Carter, Desmond Tutu, the Pope, Amnesty International) and that’s enough to warrant a few equal-and-opposite quotes from supporters and state officials. 

Then our eyes will drift back to the horse race between Barack Obama and John McCain and the plight of Troy Davis affair will be forgotten.

Don’t expect the presidential candidates to defend an innocent man.  John McCain has enough problems with the Republican base without taking up for a convicted cop killer.  This late in the game, the disciplined Obama campaign isn’t going to hand McCain a Willie Horton moment.

So I decided to invest money I don’t have in a protest no one will notice.  I’m flying to Atlanta because I can.  Many of you would stand up for Troy in Atlanta if you could, but you can’t.  If you want me to stand proxy for you let me know (all contributions gratefully received).

Politicians and quarterbacks think the same.  Up by ten late in the game, Team Obama is running the ball straight into the line while Team McCain runs trick plays and guns for the end zone.  The caution of the Democrat and the increasing desperation of his Republican challenger tell us things about America we’d rather not know.

Although Barack Obama styles himself as an agent of change, his campaign, from the outset, has been a model of disciplined caution.  Having studied the losing strategies of Democratic presidential campaigns over the last few decades, Obama understands that what you say isn’t nearly as important as what you don’t say. 

Any impression that you are weak on national defense and terrorism, soft on crime, insufficiently patriotic or too attentive to the needs of the poor and the underprivileged spells death for Democrats.  Which explains why a progressive politician from Chicago presents himself as pro death penalty, supportive of the war in Afghanistan, opposed to gay marriage and a champion of the middle class who rarely mentions poor folks and avoids all contact with Muslim Americans.

The Democrat has come to terms with the unpleasant realities of Middle America.  He tells us who we are.  Colin Powell can stand up for Muslim Americans (and thank God he did), but Powell isn’t running for president.

John McCain hates gutter politics, but the realities of American life give leave him with no alternative.  If he thought the high road would carry him to victory he would take it.  But his handlers gave him a choice: whine about Bill Ayres and socialism or wave the white flag.  And if the candidate is too principled to sing the praises of pro America real Americans, then you bring in the surrogates to do it. 

Watching this hate parade from the curb, we learn a few more unpleasant truths about America.  We are desperately afraid of terrorists, criminals and folks who don’t look, speak and pray like we do.  We aren’t all that way, but Republican strategists are hoping that more than 50% of us are. 

John McCain knows the low road probably won’t take him to the White House.  After sacrificing the last vestige of personal dignity he will be remembered as the guy who lost to Barack Obama in ’08. 

But maybe, just maybe, he can still turn this thing around.  That’s what keeps him going.

Obama’s caution tells us that America remains a fearful center-right empire heavily invested in military might and mass incarceration.  This year’s Democratic hopeful can’t rush back to Arkansas to preside over the execution of a mentally retarded man.  The last successful Democratic presidential candidate took no pleasure in this crude guesture, but the times demanded it.  Once elected, Clinton punted on health care reform and turned his attention to a massive omnibus crime bill he knew would enjoy bipartisan support.  Politics ain’t beanbag.

Barack Obama knows he can’t intercede for Troy Davis–politics is the art of the possible.

Fortunately, most of us aren’t preachers, politicians or bank presidents and are therefore free to follow the dictates of conscience.  My conscience tells me to get up at 4:30 tomorrow morning so I can be at DFW by 6:00.  To be honest, it feels like a futile gesture.  One more anonymous face at a Troy Davis rally isn’t going to change anything.  

But maybe, just maybe, we can still turn this thing around.  That’s what keeps me going.

Troy Davis is scheduled to die by lethal injection on Monday, October 27th at 7:00 pm.  Amnesty International is sponsoring a rally at the Georgia State capitol this Thursday, October 23rd and is calling for people of all faiths to make next weekend a time of prayer.  Details below:

http://www.amnestyusa.org/uploads/file/TroyDavisSolidarityRalliesOct23.pdf

STAND FIRM FOR JUSTICE!
Global Day of Action for Troy Davis
Thursday, October 23rd

Troy Davis was denied clemency by the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles on Friday, September 12, and the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear his petition on October 14. This means that he may be scheduled for execution in the very near future. There will be a large rally at the state capitol in Atlanta, GA on October 23. Please organize solidarity rallies or other public events to demand justice for Troy Davis on this date.
IMPORTANT! This is a GLOBAL call to action. Please email jcohn@aiusa.org with a time and place of your event.

AT YOUR EVENT:
Make and bring signs that say “I am Troy Davis!”, or “We Are Troy Davis!”; you may also hold up enlarged photos of Troy Davis Emphasize that this execution is taking place despite that fact that Troy Davis’ strong claims of innocence have never been resolved. Express your sympathies for the family of Troy Davis and the family of Officer Mark Allen MacPhail. Emphasize that this execution, like all executions, will solve nothing and only add to the pain caused by the original crime. Call for abolition of the death penalty.

IDEAS FOR SOLIDARITY EVENTS:
Candlelight vigils (religious or secular) – Provide at least one speaker to put the event in context and to open and close the event. If possible, you might want to close the event with music or singing (the tone should be somber and serious). Be sure to provide candles and signs and/or banners with brief versions of the above messages. Have Troy Davis fact sheets on hand to give to interested passersby. Public rallies – Provide a few speakers, and a bullhorn or microphone. If possible, you might also want to include music or singing in the event (the tone should be somber and serious). Be sure to provide signs and/or banners with brief versions of the above messages. Have Troy Davis fact sheets on hand to give to interested passersby. Prayer service – Go here – http://salsa.net/peace/vigilsvc.html – for an example of an execution watch prayer service.

RESOURCES: Photos and fact sheets are available at http://www.amnestyusa.org/troydavis.

Barring a legal miracle, Troy Davis will be executed sometime between October 27th and November 3rd.

If you have been following the Troy Davis story you will have heard a lot about witnesses who have recanted their original testimony.  Some said they saw Davis pull the trigger.  Some testified that Davis had privately confessed to the crime.  And then there are those who insist that another man, Sylvester “Red” Coles, did the shooting.  Some are willing to testify that they heard Coles confess to the murder.

Fear is the glue holding all these accounts together.  Fear of the police; fear of retaliation; fear of being implicated in a dangerous business; even fear of an interminable interrogation.  Again and again, witnesses insist that they broke down after hours of interrogation and told the police “what they wanted to hear”.  Here is the major flaw in the Davis case: the investigation was handled by traumatized officers still suffering from grief and shock.  It was like asking the father of a murder victim to solve the case.

The men and women who signed the abridged affidavits that appear below are not particularly admirable people.  They lied under oath, or they refused to step forward until it was too late.  But eventually they did the right thing.

Or did they?  Three Georgia jurists found these statements compelling; four did not.  According to the law, Troy Davis must die because he failed to prove his innocence beyond a reasonable doubt.  The anti-appeals movement has been so successful that a convict must now prove innocence prior to a hearing.  The government’s case can crumble to dust, but unless you have smoking-gun proof of innocence it doesn’t matter.

Please give these affidavits a quick read and tell me if you find them credible.  Then go to the Amnesty International Troy Davis page, scroll down to the “Take Action” link, and send a letter to the Georgia board of pardons and paroles.

Affidavits Recanting Testimony or Statements Given in the Troy Davis Case

(From: Amnesty International, ‘Where is the justice for me?‘: The case of Troy Davis, facing execution in Georgia , Feb. 1, 2007)

Kevin McQueen
“The truth is that Troy never confessed to me or talked to me about the shooting of the police officer. I made up the confession from information I had heard on T.V. and from other inmates about the crimes. Troy did not tell me any of this… I have now realized what I did to Troy so I have decided to tell the truth… I need to set the record straight.”

Monty Holmes
“I told them I didn’t know anything about who shot the officer, but they kept questioning me. I was real young at that time and here they were questioning me about the murder of a police officer like I was in trouble or something. I was scared… [I]t seemed like they wouldn’t stop questioning me until I told them what they wanted to hear. So I did. I signed a statement saying that Troy told me that he shot the cop.”

Jeffrey Sapp
“I got tired of them harassing me, and they made it clear that the only way they would leave me alone is if I
told them what they wanted to hear. I told them that Troy told me he did it, but it wasn’t true. Troy never said that or anything like it. When it came time for Troy’s trial, the police made it clear to me that I needed to stick to my original statement; that is, what they wanted me to say. I didn’t want to have any more problems with the cops, so I testified against Troy.”

Dorothy Ferrell
“From the way the officer was talking, he gave me the impression that I should say that Troy Davis was the
one who shot the officer like the other witness [sic] had… I felt like I was just following the rest of the
witnesses. I also felt like I had to cooperate with the officer because of my being on parole…I told the
detective that Troy Davis was the shooter, even though the truth was that I didn’t see who shot the officer.”

Darrell “D.D.” Collins
“After a couple of hours of the detectives yelling at me and threatening me, I finally broke down and told
them what they wanted to hear. They would tell me things that they said had happened and I would repeat
whatever they said. … It is time that I told the truth about what happened that night, and what is written here
is the truth. I am not proud for lying at Troy’s trial, but the police had me so messed up that I felt that’s all I could do or else I would go to jail.”

Larry Young
“I couldn’t honestly remember what anyone looked like or what different people were wearing. Plus, I had
been drinking that day, so I just couldn’t tell who did what. The cops didn’t want to hear that and kept
pressing me to give them answers. They made it clear that we weren’t leaving until I told them what they
wanted to hear. They suggested answers and I would give them what they wanted. They put typed papers in
my face and told me to sign them. I did sign them without reading them.”

Antoine Williams
“They asked me to describe the shooter and what he looked like and what he was wearing. I kept telling
them that I didn’t know. It was dark, my windows were tinted, and I was scared. It all happened so fast. Even
today, I know that I could not honestly identify with any certainty who shot the officer that night. I couldn’t
then either. After the officers talked to me, they gave me a statement and told me to sign it. I signed it. I did
not read it because I cannot read.”

Robert Grizzard
“I have reviewed the transcript of my testimony from the trial of Troy Davis… During my testimony I said that the person who shot the officer was wearing a light colored shirt. The truth is that I don’t recall now and I didn’t recall then what the shooter was wearing, as I said in my initial statement …”

Michael Cooper
“I have had a chance to review a statement which I supposedly gave to police officers on June 25, 1991. I
remember that they asked a lot of questions and typed up a statement which they told me to sign. I did not
read the statement before I signed. In fact, I have not seen it before today. … What is written in that
statement is a lie.”

Benjamin Gordon
“I just kept telling them that I didn’t do anything, but they weren’t hearing that. After four or five hours, they
told me to sign some papers. I just wanted to get the hell out of there. I didn’t read what they told me to sign and they didn’t ask me to.”

Affidavits Containing Evidence Implicating Another Suspect in the Troy Davis Case
(From: Amnesty International, ‘Where is the justice for me?’: The case of Troy Davis, facing execution in Georgia , Feb. 1, 2007)

Joseph Washington
“I saw Sylvester Coles – I know him by the name Red – shoot the police officer. I am positive that it was Red
who shot the police officer…”

Tonya Johnson
Red then took both guns next door to an empty house and put them inside the screen door and shut the
door … he threatened me after this happened. He told me that he wanted to make sure that I did not tell the
police about the guns he hid in the screen door that morning. This is why I did not testify about the guns at
Troy’s trial because I was afraid of what Red would do to me if I did. I have not told anyone about this until
now because I was still scared… But I have decided that I must tell the truth.”

Anthony Hargrove
“I know a guy named Red, from Savannah. His real name is Sylvester Coles. I’ve known Red for years and
we used to hang out together. Red once told me that he shot a police officer and that a guy named Davis
took the fall for it. He told me this about a year or so after the officer was killed…”

Gary Hargrove
“I am sure that Red was facing in the officer’s direction when I heard the shooting. … I was never talked to
by the police or any attorneys or investigators representing Troy Davis before his trial. I didn’t go up to talk to the police that night because I was on parole at the time and was out past my curfew so I didn’t want my
parole officer to find out about that.”

Shirley Riley
“People on the streets were talking about Sylvester Coles being involved with killing the police officer so one
day I asked him if he was involved… Sylvester told me he did shoot the officer …”

Darold Taylor
“I remember reading in the paper once about how a guy named Troy Davis got sentenced to the electric
chair… One day when I was in the parking lot of Yamacraw drinking beers with Red. I told him about how I’d
heard that he was the one who killed the officer. Red told me to stay out of his business. I asked him again if he killed the officer and Red admitted to me that he was the one who killed the officer, but then Red told me again to stay out of his business.”

April Hester Hutchinson
“Red turned to me and asked me if I would walk with him up to the Burger King so ‘they won’t think that I had nothing to do with it’. That’s exactly what he said… I told [the police] that I saw Red talking to my cousin Tonya and that Red was real nervous. I did not tell them about what Red had said to me because I was
scared he would hurt me. I was thinking that if he did that to a police officer, what would he do to me? I didn’t want to die like that officer, so I kept my mouth shut.”

Anita Saddler
“When I saw Red and Terry, they were jumpy and couldn’t stand still. Their eyes were shifting around and
they were looking everywhere. They walked up to us and Red asked us to go up to Burger King and see
what happened. Like I said, they were real nervous and fidgety. Red had a gun which was stuck into his
shorts. I saw the outline of his gun through his white shirt. I had seen him with a gun many times before.”

Peggie Grant (mother of April Hester Hutchinson)
“A few hours later, April called me on the phone. She told me that she had had a conversation with Red
where he asked her to walk up with him to where the officer was shot so that the police would think that he
was with her and not think he did anything.”