Waiting 20 Years to Die

At 11:08 p.m. on September 21, 2011 Troy Davis was executed by lethal injection. He was convicted of shooting Savannah, Georgia police officer Mark MacPhail.         

The execution of Mr. Davis has drawn international out cry against the Georgia State Board of Pardons and the legitimacy of the death penalty. Amnesty International supporters sent over 630,00 letters to the board asking for a stay of execution for Mr. Davis. Former president Jimmy Carter, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, William S. Sessions, a former F.B.I. director and 51 members of Congress asked the board to give Mr. Davis clemency.

Strong evidence of Mr. Davis' innocence has fueled worldwide protests. After the first trial in 1991, seven of the nine eyewitnesses recanted their stories. Some of these witnesses admitted to police coercion. There was no physical or DNA evidence linking Mr. Davis to the crime. And a testimony that suggested that one of the prosecution's witnesses may have been the actual killer.

The shooting took place on the night of August 19, 1989 while Mr. MacPhail was moonlighting as a security guard. Mr. MacPhail was coming to the aid of a man being beaten in the parking lot. As he approached Mr. Davis and two other men, Mr. MacPhail was shot and killed.

Within the time between his conviction and execution, Mr. Davis had to endure four scheduled execution dates. The first three executions were stayed until a later date; the last two executions were halted only hours before the scheduled time.    

More than 90 prisoners have been released from death row within the USA since 1991. And in every case the defendants had been found guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

Mr. Davis reportedly declared his innocence up to the end. His last official statement before the execution was: "The struggle for justice doesn't end with me. This struggle is for all the Troy Davises who came before me and all the ones who will come after me. I'm in good spirits and I'm prayerful and at peace. But I will not stop fighting until I've taken my last breath." And Mr. Davis' final words were to the relatives of Mr. MacPhail, "May God forgive you… and my God bless you."

Plymouth State University student Ryan Patten, a sophomore noted the racial apprehension in the south, "There's always been tension that way, I mean it's a possibility." Overall Patten disagreed with the decision due to the overwhelming lack of evidence, " I don't think its right, if there is simply no evidence to link him to the crime."

According to research done by Amnesty International, "the single most reliable predictor of whether someone will be sentenced to death is the race of the victim." 77% of homicide victims in cases resulting in execution since 1976, were white. And in a 1990 report, just a year before Mr. Davis' first trial, the non-partisan U.S. General Accounting Office had found, "a pattern of evidence indicating racial disparities in charging, sentencing, and imposition of the death penalty." In simple English, if you are black you are statistically more inclined to receive the death penalty and or be executed.

We are not stupid; we know how the situation of a black man convicted of shooting a white cop in the south can end. But where does this leave the abolitionist and the human rights activists? With such overwhelming appeal to Mr. Davis' innocence, global coverage and outrage, twenty years of doubt, no physical evidence, no DNA evidence, and seven out of nine eyewitnesses recanting, how could this happen?

I am anti-death penalty through and through. I had worked on Troy Davis' case along with Amnesty International since it came to me in an email as an Urgent Action two years ago. And I am beyond words with anger at the decision of the board. But we cannot give up, Troy Davis fought the injustice to his last breath; and so must we.

Amnesty International will be coming to Plymouth State University on October 22. They will be holding their annual New Hampshire State Conference, hosted by myself and other members of Amnesty International in alliance with two members from the New Hampshire Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty. All are welcome and encouraged to come to this event. The second half of the conference will be dedicated to the abolition of the death penalty. The time has come for the United States to join the other 139 countries in the world that have abolished this barbaric and outdated punishment.