Tuesday 23 September 2008

LAST DAY TO STOP THE EXECUTION OF TROY DAVIS


Fellow Abolitionists, The State of Georgia is scheduled to execute Troy Davis at 7 PM tonight. This is a travesty. There is no physical evidence in the case, and 7 out of 9 witnesses have recanted. Troy's legal options are dwindling. The Georgia Supreme Court, by a 6-1 vote, declined to issue a stay of execution today. And the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles has said publicly that it would not re-consider its decision to deny Troy clemency. The only good news is that his case is gaining national and international attention, as you can see from the numerous articles here. If Georgia carries out this execution, the State will be an embarrassment to people around the world. We can't allow an innocent man to be executed without a fight. In the hours to come, please take the following actions: If you haven't signed Amnesty International'

s petition, please do so. http://www.amnestyusa.org/troydavis

You can call the Georgia Attorney General, Thurbert E. Baker, calling on him to rescind the death warrant, at 404-656
-3300 Fax 404-657- 8733

The White House can issue executive clemency. Phone Numbers
Comments: 202-456-1111
Switchboard: 202-456-1414
FAX: 202-456-2461

People can also call Gov. Perdue, who appoints the Parole Board, to put pressure on the Board's members and come
out publicly against the execution at (404) 656-1776 | Fax (404) 657-7332.

You can also call the U.S. Attorney General in Georgia at 404-656-3300. The fax number is 404-657-8733. Ask them
to reopen the case so that the the new evidence can be heard.

Finally, even though the Parole Board says they won't reconsider, people can continue to flood them with calls, faxes
and emails: Phone, 404-651-6671; fax 404 651 8502.
__________________________________________________________
Articles:
*From ABC News: Questions Linger as Man's Execution Nears
*From the Chicago Tribune: Execution Set, But Questions Linger
*From the Associated Press: Georgia Death Row Inmate Presses Innocence
*From the Guardian (UK): US state of Georgia urged to halt Troy Davis execution
*From the Atlanta Journal-Constitution: US state of Georgia urged to halt Troy Davis execution

Op-Eds:
*BET News: Halt the Execution
*Huffington Post/Susan Sarandon: Stop the Execution of Troy Davis!
*Newsvine opeds. Also, Martina Correia, Troy's sister, outlines a growing trend on Facebook of people changing their
profile picture to Troy's picture.
________________

ABCNEWS
Questions Linger as Man's Execution Nears

Troy Davis Scheduled to Die Today; Seven Witnesses Recant

By SCOTT MICHELS
Sept. 23, 2008 —
Georgia plans to execute a death row inmate today for the 1989 murder of a Savannah police officer, though several
key witnesses have recanted their incriminating testimony.

Unless the U.S. Supreme Court steps in, Troy Anthony Davis, 39, will die by lethal injection tonight. The Supreme
Court is scheduled to decide whether it will hear Davis' appeal Monday, six days after his planned execution. The court
usually declines to hear such cases.

Davis' case has attracted national attention because seven of the nine witnesses who testified against him in his 1991
murder trial have since recanted, several of them saying they felt pressured by police to lie on the stand and implicate
Davis. There was no physical evidence tying Davis to the murder of Officer Mark MacPhail and several new witnesses
have come forward to implicate another man in the crime, Davis' lawyers say.

Former President Carter, former Georgia Congressman Bob Barr and Pope Benedict XVI, among others, have called on
the state parole board to reduce Davis' sentence to life in prison. The board earlier this month rejected Davis'
clemency petition after what it called an exhaustive review of the evidence in his case.

Stephen Bright, a professor at Yale Law School and director of the Southern Center for Human Rights, called the
timing of Davis' execution "unseemly."
"All across the spectrum of people's views on criminal justice, there's near unanimity that this trial was not reliable," he
said. "We can't say with certainty that this man is guilty of this crime. In fact the probability is he is not guilty."
A spokesman for the Georgia Attorney General's Office declined to comment on pending litigation. In court papers,
the state has asked the Supreme Court not to stay the execution and has argued that the recantations are not enough
to grant Davis a new trial.

Several courts have agreed, saying there was not enough evidence that Davis received a constitutionally unfair trial. By
a 4-3 decision, the state Supreme Court in March found that the new evidence probably would not have produced a
different verdict at trial.

MacPhail, a father of two, was murdered Aug. 19, 1989, after responding to a fight outside a Burger King. Davis
testified that he was nearby but was not involved in MacPhail's death.

The next day, a witness told police that Davis had killed MacPhail. Davis had left town and surrendered to police a few
days later, according to the Attorney General's Office.

Witnesses at the trial said Davis pistol-whipped a homeless man then shot MacPhail when he intervened.

"My son didn't have a chance," said MacPhail's mother, Anneliese MacPhail, who added that she was "disgusted" by
the attention being paid to Davis.
"I feel disgusted about the whole case," she said. "I lost my son, my grandchildren lost their father. No one thinks
about all the tragic things that we are going through and then they are making a circus about someone who is guilty
as can be."

Seven witnesses have since changed their testimony. Darrell Collins, a friend of Davis', said in an affidavit that he
initially denied that Davis was involved in the murder, but "after a couple 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."
Another witness said she was on parole and feared she would be sent back to prison if she did not tell police that
Davis killed MacPhail.

"We need to have a day in court where a judge hears the evidence and explanation showing why that person likely
did testify falsely," said Jason Ewart, Davis' lawyer at Arnold and Porter in Washington, D.C.

Davis is now focused on his family and friends, said his sister Martina Correia who visited him Monday.

"He's more concerned about us than he is for himself," she said. "He says God has given him peace. If his life is given,
it's not given in vain because people will make a stand against what's happening in Georgia."

Copyright © 2008 ABC News Internet Ventures


www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-execution_tue.1sep23,0,4255684.story

chicagotribune.com

Execution is set, but questions linger

Pope, Carter, Tutu have made pleas on inmate's behalf
By Dahleen Glanton
Chicago Tribune correspondent
September 23, 2008
ATLANTA — Barring a last-minute stay, Troy Anthony Davis will be executed by lethal injection Tuesday for the murder
of a Savannah, Ga., police officer. But nearly two decades after the killing, questions linger over whether Davis is
guilty.
A campaign spearheaded by Davis' relatives and Amnesty International has brought worldwide attention to the case,
prompting well-known figures to speak out. Rallies have been held from Paris to Savannah.
Former President Jimmy Carter issued a statement last week urging the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles to
reverse its decision to deny clemency, saying that the case "illustrates the deep flaws in the application of the death
penalty in this country."
Pope Benedict XVI requested that Davis be re-sentenced, to life without parole. Nobel Peace Prize winner Desmond
Tutu of South Africa also wrote a letter.
On Monday, supporters asked those involved in the execution — doctors, the warden and other prison officials—to
make a personal decision not to perform their duties.
"We are appealing to the humanity of those individuals that have direct responsibility for carrying out the execution to
dig into their conscience and go with their morals," said Daryl Graham, spokesman for the Georgia NAACP.
In 1989, Savannah Officer Mark Allen MacPhail had responded to a report of a man who was being pistol-whipped,
but MacPhail was shot multiple times before he could draw his gun. The 27-year-old officer was married and had two
small children. His family has said they remain convinced that the right man was convicted.
Davis, 39, was convicted in 1991 largely on testimony from eyewitnesses, seven of whom have since recanted. His
attorneys said new witnesses have come forth attesting to Davis' innocence. The attorneys filed an emergency appeal
to the U.S. Supreme Court after the state high court rejected his stay request by a 6-1 vote Monday.
In an unusual move, the Georgia Parole Board, which stopped Davis' scheduled education at the last minute last year,
issued a statement Monday reiterating its recent decision to deny clemency.
"After an exhaustive review of all available information ... the board has determined that clemency is not warranted,"
the statement said.
dglanton@tribune.com

Copyright © 2008, Chicago Tribune
__________________________________________________________

The Associated Press: Georgia death row inmate presses innocence
Georgia death row inmate presses innocence

By SHANNON McCAFFREY – 5 hours ago

ATLANTA (AP) — One by one, nine witnesses took the stand against Troy Davis to say he was the man who gunned
down an off-duty Savannah police officer.

In 1991, their testimony helped send the Georgia man to death row. However, in the years since, seven of the nine
have recanted their testimony and his attorneys claim others say another man pulled the trigger.

A roster of big-name supporters, including former President Jimmy Carter and South Africa Archbishop Desmond Tutu,
have taken up his cause. They insist that the 39-year-old Davis, who is set to be executed Tuesday night, deserves a
new trial.

Last-minute appeals from condemned inmates are nothing unusual. However, experts say so much attention is being
lavished on Davis because the case hinges on the most fundamental question in the criminal justice system: "Did he
do it?"

Appeals usually try to expose legal technicalities, not actual claims of innocence, said Richard Dieter, executive
director of the Washington D.C.-based Death Penalty Information Center, which opposes capital punishment.

"To say 'I didn't do it' is an unusual claim at this late hour, especially when it's supported by evidence," Dieter said.

Davis' only hope for a reprieve lies with the U.S. Supreme Court after the state high court by a 6-1 vote rejected his
stay request Monday.

Supporters say the doubts merit a new trial. The courts have consistently disagreed.

A divided Georgia Supreme Court has already rejected his request for a new trial by a 4-3 vote. The Georgia Board of
Pardons and Paroles has turned down his bid for clemency.

In a sign of the intense publicity surrounding the case, the normally reticent parole board said in a statement Monday
that the five-member panel has spent more than a year studying the voluminous trial record after temporarily halting
Davis' execution last year.

"After an exhaustive review of all available information ... the Board has determined that clemency is not warranted,"
the statement said.

Twenty-two inmates have been executed — an average of about one a week — since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled
in April that lethal injection was constitutional. That decision ended a seven-month de facto moratorium on executions
throughout the country.

None of the other cases have attracted this kind of international attention.

Besides Carter and Tutu, Libertarian presidential candidate Bob Barr and Pope Benedict XVI also have urged officials to
reconsider. The Rev. Al Sharpton prayed with Davis Saturday night.

Amnesty International has taken up the cause, helping organize rallies as far away as Paris.

Davis was convicted of the 1989 murder of 27-year-old officer Mark MacPhail, who was working off-duty as a security
guard at a bus station.

MacPhail had rushed to help a homeless man who had been pistol-whipped at a nearby parking lot, and when he
approached Davis and two other men, he was shot in the face and the chest.

Witnesses identified Davis as the shooter, and at the trial, prosecutors said he wore a "smirk on his face" as he fired
the gun, according to records. Jurors convicted and sentenced him.

But Davis' lawyers say new evidence could exonerate their client and prove that he was a victim of mistaken identity.

Besides those who have recanted their testimony, three others who did not testify have said another man, Sylvester
"Red" Coles confessed to the killing.

Coles testified against Davis at his trial. He refused to talk about the case when contacted by The Associated Press
during a 2007 Chatham County court appearance on an unrelated traffic charge, and he has no listed phone number.

Prosecutors have labeled the witness statements "suspect," and say the case is closed.

In April, the state high court said the evidence was not enough to force a new trial. The court cannot disregard the
jury's original verdict, Justice Harold Melton wrote for the majority.

On Monday, with Davis' execution about 36 hours away, protesters gathered outside the state Capitol in Atlanta. They
called on prison guards and medical personnel to refuse to participate in the execution.

Three protesters camped out in the office of Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue on Monday, although he was not in the state
Capitol and has no power to commute Davis' sentence,

"This man is innocent," said Marvin Morgan, a minister at the First Congregational United Church in Atlanta. "We're
seeking to have the governor do something extraordinary to save this man's life."
Hosted by Copyright © 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved
__________________________________________________________
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/sep/23/usa

US state of Georgia urged to halt Troy Davis execution
Mark Tran
guardian.co.uk,
Tuesday September 23 2008 12:46 BST
Article history
Amnesty International today urged the US state of Georgia to stop the execution of Troy Davis, who faces death by
lethal injection tonight despite doubts over his conviction.

Las July, the state's board of pardons and paroles stopped the execution less than 24 hours before it was to be carried
out.

However, it yesterday rejected pleas to reconsider its recent decision to deny clemency on the grounds that so much
uncertainly exists over whether Davis shot and killed a Savannah police officer.

Georgia's supreme court also denied Davis's request for a stay of execution, and his last hope of avoiding execution at
7pm local time (midnight BST) now appears to rest with the US supreme court, where his lawyers have asked for a
stay of execution.

In a case that has attracted international attention, Pope Benedict XVI and the former US president Jimmy Carter have
asked for the sentence to be commuted to life in prison without parole.

Davis, a 39-year-old African-American, is on death row for the murder of officer Mark MacPhail in 1989, but seven key
prosecution witnesses have recanted their testimonies since his 1991 trial and post-trial testimony implicating another
man as the gunman has emerged.

A "jailhouse informant" retracted his incriminating account of Davis' supposed confession, while several other
supposed eyewitnesses later took back their trial evidence while insisting they had been under "a lot of pressure" from
police to provide signed statements.

One witness, Antoine Williams, a Burger King employee who identified Davis as the gunman at the trial, later said:
"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."

Chatham County prosecutors, however, are sure that Davis killed MacPhail, who rushed to a Savannah Burger King car
park late at night after hearing the screams of a man who was being pistol-whipped.

Prosecutors say that MacPhail, a 27-year-old father of two, was shot down by Davis before he could draw his weapon.
They say Davis then stood over the fallen officer and fired again and again.

Davis has admitted being at the scene, but has always denied shooting MacPhail. No physical evidence against him
has ever been produced, the murder weapon has never been found and the case against him at trial consisted entirely
of witness testimony.

Georgia's board of pardons says it has extensively studied and considered the case, including hearing from every
witness presented by Davis's lawyers, retesting the state's evidence and interviewing Davis himself.

"After an exhaustive review of all available information regarding the Troy Davis case, and after considering all possible
reasons for granting clemency, the board has determined that clemency is not warranted," a board spokeswoman told
the Atlanta Journal-Constitution newspaper.

Since its resumption of executions in 1977, the US has executed 1,118 prisoners, 42 of them in Georgia.

Meanwhile, more than 100 people have been released from death rows around the country, many in cases in which
witness testimony has been exposed as unreliable.
__________________________________________________________
Sharpton seeks clemency for Troy Anthony Davis

Civil rights activist takes up case of condemned killer

By JEFFRY SCOTT and MARCUS K. GARNER

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Saturday, September 20, 2008

New York civil rights activist Al Sharpton said condemned cop killer Troy Anthony Davis was "surprisingly upbeat"
Saturday night after the two prayed together on Georgia's death row.

"He was not overly optimistic or pessimistic," said the Rev. Sharpton, who visited Davis on death row at Georgia
Diagnostic and Classification Prison in Jackson at the request of Davis' family. "He was suprisingly upbeat. He seemed
like he was depending on his faith to see him through."
Recent headlines:

Sharpton seeks clemency for Troy Anthony Davis
Forsyth residents try to bar building of jail
Video game programming a hot college program in Georgia
• Metro and state news

Sharpton has joined a growing chorus of prominent figures calling for Georgia to spare the life of the 39-year-old,
who is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection Tuesday night for the 1989 murder of Savannah police Officer
Mark Allen MacPhail.

"If you have this kind of wide array of people who don't agree on much, but who believe that clemency is needed in
this case, that should impress upon [the Georgia State Pardons and Parole Board] to give him another opportunity to
show that there is not reasonable doubt," Sharpton said.

But Scheree Lipscomb, a spokeswoman for the Pardons and Parole Board, said Saturday night there would be no last-
minute clemency.

"The board members have considered clemency on two occasions," Lipscomb said. "They stand firm in the decision
that they have made."

Both former President Jimmy Carter and Bob Barr, a Libertarian Party presidential candidate and former Georgia
congressman, on Friday asked the board to grant Davis a stay of execution.

Barr wrote a letter to the parole board last week asking it to reconsider the Davis case because, he wrote, "the doubts
about the Davis case have not been resolved, and fears that Georgia might execute an innocent man have not been
allayed."

Carter issued a statement Friday asking the parole board to reconsider the case, saying it "illustrates the deep flaws in
the application of the death penalty in this country."

Carter wrote that "executing Troy Davis without a real examination of potentially exonerating evidence risks taking the
life of an innocent man and would be a grave miscarriage of justice."

Georgians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty and the NAACP said Saturday they are planning another rally at 11
a.m. Monday in front of the State Capitol to urge the parole board to reconsider or the state Supreme Court to stay
the execution of Davis while his case is appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Davis is convicted of killing MacPhail, on Aug. 19, 1989. Since Davis' 1991 trial, several key witnesses have recanted
their testimony. Witness testimony formed the core of the prosecution's case because physical evidence was scant: no
murder weapon, no fingerprints, no DNA.

The case has attracted worldwide attention, with calls to stop his execution from Pope Benedict XVI, Amnesty
International and Nobel Peace Prize-winner Desmond Tutu. Rallies have been held as far away as Paris.

Officer MacPhail's mother, Anneliese MacPhail, 74, of Columbus, said Saturday she is "disgusted" by the outpouring of
support for Davis. "It's tearing me apart to see my son's name dragged through the mud because of all of this."

She said she had no doubt Davis is guilty. "I hope this is over Tuesday and I can have some peace," she said.

She will not attend the scheduled execution, but "three of my children will be in Jackson," she said.

GFADP also plans a vigil outside the Jackson jail, as well as a protest on the Capitol steps, both to begin at 6:30 p.m.
Tuesday.

Sharpton spent about 35 minutes with Davis on Saturday night, and said by phone that the death-row inmate
reflected on how he became a murder suspect.

"He said he got in with the wrong crowd and thought one of the guys he was hanging with killed [MacPhail],"
Sharpton said. "He said young people should be careful who they hang around."
__________________________________________________________

BET NEWS

http://www.bet.com/News/NewsArticleExecutionTroyDavisWorldLeaders.htm?
wbc_purpose=Basic&WBCMODE=PresentationUnpublished&Referrer=%7B0471DDF0-D0D8-48A8-9E30-
ADD40CBE0269%7D

HALT THE EXECUTION

By Ed Wiley III, BET.com Staff Writer

World Leaders Urge Georgia To Halt the Execution of Troy Davis
Posted Sept. 22, 2008 – The fact that Troy Anthony Davis is about to be executed for murder even though there’s no
weapon, no fingerprints and not a single drop of DNA shows just how unfair the American system of justice is, says a
growing number of high-profile leaders.

The 39-year-old Georgia man is scheduled to die by lethal injection Tuesday night after being convicted of killing
Savannah Police Officer Mark Allen MacPhail in 1989. But Davis’ case has drawn worldwide attention because of how
skimpy the evidence is that sent him to the death chamber.

Not only have international celebrity human rights activists – such as South African Nobel Peace Prize-winner
Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Pope Benedict XVI and officials at Amnesty International – chimed in, but conservative
Republican congressman-turned Libertarian presidential candidate Bob Barr and former President Jimmy Carter have
called the state’s push for death a travesty.
“Executing Troy Davis without a real examination of potentially exonerating evidence risks taking the life of an
innocent man and would be a grave miscarriage of justice,” Carter said in a statement Friday, adding that the parole
board’s failure to reconsider the case would show “the deep flaws in the application of the death penalty in this
country.”

A day later, the Pardons and Parole Board announced that it would not be granting last-minute clemency. “The board
members have considered clemency on two occasions,” said board spokeswoman Scheree Lipscomb. “They stand firm
in the decision that they have made.”

A fellow Georgian, Barr wrote the Parole Board that “the doubts about the Davis case have not been resolved, and
fears that Georgia might execute an innocent man have not been allayed.” This weekend, the Rev. Al Sharpton, who
heads the Harlem-based National Action Network, met with Davis on Georgia’s death row at Georgia Diagnostic and
Classification Prison in Jackson and prayed with him. Sharpton reported that the condemned man was “surprisingly
upbeat. “He was not overly optimistic or pessimistic. He seemed like he was depending on his faith to see him
through.”

Others, including the NAACP and Georgians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, are planning rallies between today
and Tuesday afternoon. Although several witnesses, on whom the prosecution based most of its case, have recanted
their testimony, the slain officer’s mother called the support for Davis “disgusting.”

Said she: “It’s tearing me apart to see my son’s name dragged through the mud because of all of this. I hope this is
over Tuesday and I can have some peace.”
Does Troy Anthony Davis deserve another trial, or has he had his day in court? Click "Discuss Now," on the upper
right, to post your comment.

__________________________________________________________

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/anthony-papa/susan-sarandon-stop-the-e_b_128086.html
Susan Sarandon: "Stop the Execution of Troy Davis <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/anthony-papa/susan-sarandon-
stop-the-e_b_128086.html>
Georgians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty <http://www.gfadp.org/TakingAction/TroyDavis/tabid/68/
Default.aspx> and the NAACP said they are planning a rally at 11 a.m. on September 22nd in front of the State
Capitol to urge the parole board to reconsider or the state Supreme Court to stay the execution of Davis. What might
be too little too late, the United States Supreme Court will hear an appeal on September 29th.

Actor/Activist Susan Sarandon in a recent letter she wrote to the Georgia State Board of Pardon and Parole stated

"Despite mounting evidence that Davis may be in fact be innocent of the crime, appeals to the courts to consider this
evidence have been repeatedly denied for procedural reasons. Instead, the prosecution based its case on the
testimony of purported "witnesses," many of who allege police coercion and most of whom have since recanted their
testimony. One witness signed a police statement declaring that Davis was the assailant 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 sixteen and was so scared of going to jail." There are also several witnesses who have
implicated another man in the crime but the police focused their efforts on convicting Troy.
It is deeply troubling that Georgia might proceed with this execution given the strong claims of innocence in this
case. It has been repeatedly demonstrated that our criminal justice system is not devoid of error and we now know
that since 1973, 129 individuals have been released from death rows across the United States due to wrongful
conviction. We must confront the unalterable fact that the system of capital punishment is fallible, given that it is
administered to demonstrate your strong commitment to fairness and justice and commute the death sentence of Troy
Anthony Davis."
Thank you for your consideration.
Sincerely, Susan Sarandon

Even family members of those who were violently murdered speak out against the execution of Troy Davis. Derrel
Myers <http://www.alternet.org/story/32974/> , a bereaved father who lost Jojo, his 23 year old son, speaks
eloquently about his son's death and how he came to terms with it in a interview <http://www.radio4all.net:8080/
files/sgalleymore@hotmail.com/3035-1-darrel_myers_mix.mp3> on Raising Sand Radio o.org/>

You can protest this travesty of justice by calling the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles to reconsider its clemency
decision, telephone board chair Gale Buckner at 404-657-9350, or Georgia Attorney General Thurbert E.
Baker at 404-656-3300.

More information on the case can be found at www.gfadp.org and www.troyanthonydavis.org. Please support the
Campaign to End the Death Penalty <http://www.evite.com/pages/invite/viewInvite.jsp?
inviteId=FKAIPAMVZSYDFZHSZWBZ&amp;li=iq&amp;src=email&amp;trk=aei2> Martina Correia org/National_Weekend_of_Faith_in_Action/Activist_in_Action_Martina_Correia/page.do?
id=1104341&n1=3&n2=28&n3=81> , sister and advocate of Troy Davis will be speaking at the
Critical Resistance Conference <http://www.criticalresistance.org/article.php?id=207> in Oakland on September 27,
2008

__________________________________________________________
------ Forwarded Message
From: Martina Correia <martina.correia@gmail.com>

Hi,

A lot of activity and dedication at Newsvine. When you go, be sure to vote the story up. It's now on the front page
<http://www.newsvine.com/> .

http://vas.newsvine.com/_news/2008/09/19/1880351-we-are-all-troy-anthony-davis

http://homelessokc.newsvine.com/_news/2008/09/18/1883009-innocence-matters-my-attempt-to-help-save-troy-davis

http://iarnuocon.newsvine.com/_news/2008/09/17/1878570-georgia-prepares-to-execute-man-who-is-probably-
innocent-with-updates?groupId=1528

Be sure to check out the comments. A wonderful person, Vas, started this movement in which everyone changed
their profile photos to a photo of Troy, so when you see a diagram of who's engaged in the stories, it's all photos of
Troy. Mine, too. People are also doing it on Facebook. It's a beautiful thing.

So many people are engaged and VERY committed to this. There is nothing but enormous support. It's very
encouraging.

THIS IS THE DOCTOR WHO WILL PERFORM TROYS EXECUTION


Info from Abolish :

THIS IS THE DOCTOR WHO WILL PERFORM TROYS EXECUTION

THE CORRECT SPELLING IS MUSSO NOT MUSTO

Dr. Carlo Musto is a graduate of LSU School of Medicine. He also happens to be the doctor who will perform the execution this evening at 7 pm. In an effort to create more angles for dissent, we should spend the next hour having as many people call and email the Dean of LSU Medical School and inform him that a graduate of his university is not only about to break his Hippocratic Oath, but he is also slated to murder a man who is innocent. Can we get the various networks to relay this message...

"Dr. Carlo Musto is a 1986 graduate of LSU School of Medicine and like all doctors he has taken an oath not to do no harm. Tonight, this graduate of LSU School of Medicine will break his oath when he participates in the execution of Troy Anthony Davis in Georgia, a man who is innocent of the charges against him. We urge you to condemn Dr. Carlo Musto for breaking the sacred oath he took to protect, not take life, and urge you to make your objections to his actions publicly known to the Governor of the State of Georgia and to the Georgia Board of Pardon of Parole. We also urge you to lobby the American Medical Association to strip Dr. Carlo Musto of his license to practice medicine. Call Dr. Steve Nelson, Dean of LSU School of Medicine at 504-568-4007 or email at: snelso1@lsuhsc.edu. Also email Dr. Janis Letourneau the Associate Dean of the LSU School of Medicine at jletou@lsuhsu.edu"

Thank you all again for your help,

Sunday 21 September 2008

What`s the Rush?


In the New York Times....

September 20, 2008
Op-Ed Columnist

What*s the Rush?

By BOB HERBERT

Troy Davis, who was convicted of shooting a police officer to death in the parking lot of a Burger King in Savannah, Ga., is scheduled to be executed on Tuesday.

There is some question as to his guilt (even the pope has weighed in on this case), but the odds of Mr. Davis escaping the death penalty are very slim. Putting someone to death whose guilt is uncertain is always perverted, but there*s an extra dose of perversion in this case.

The United States Supreme Court is scheduled to make a decision on whether to hear a last-ditch appeal by Mr. Davis on Sept. 29. That's six days after the state of Georgia plans to kill him.

Mr. Davis's lawyers have tried desperately to have the execution postponed for those few days, but so far to no avail. Georgia is among the most cold-blooded of states when it comes to dispatching prisoners into eternity.

So the lawyers are now trying to get the Supreme Court to issue a stay, or decide before Tuesday on whether it will consider the appeal.

No one anywhere would benefit from killing Mr. Davis on Tuesday, as opposed to waiting a week to see how the Supreme Court rules. So why the rush? The murder happened in 1989, and Mr. Davis has been on death row for 17 years. Six or seven more days will hardly matter.

Most of the time, the court declines to hear such cases.

If that's the decision this time, Georgia can get on with the dirty business of taking a human life. If the court agrees to hear the appeal, it would have an opportunity to get a little closer to the truth of what actually happened on the terrible night of Aug. 19, 1989, when Officer Mark Allen MacPhail was murdered.

He was shot as he went to the aid of a homeless man who was being pistol-whipped in the parking lot.

Nine witnesses testified against Mr. Davis at his trial in 1991, but seven of the nine have since changed their stories. One of the recanting witnesses, Dorothy Ferrell, said she was on parole when she testified and was afraid that she*d be sent back to prison if she didn*t agree to finger Mr. Davis.

She said in an affidavit: "I told the detective that Troy Davis was the shooter, even though the truth was that I didn't know who shot the officer."

Another witness, Darrell Collins, a teenager at the time of the murder, said the police had 'scared' him into falsely testifying by threatening to charge him as an accessory to the crime. He said they told him that he might never get out of prison.

"I didn't want to go to jail because I didn't do nothing wrong," he said.

At least three witnesses who testified against Mr. Davis (and a number of others who were not part of the trial) have since said that a man named Sylvester "Redd" Coles admitted that he was the one who had killed the officer.

Mr. Coles, who was at the scene, and who, according to authorities, later ditched a gun of the same caliber as the murder weapon, is one of the two witnesses who have not recanted.

The other is a man who initially told investigators that he could not identify the killer. Nearly two years later, at the trial, he testified that the killer was Mr. Davis.

So we have here a mess that is difficult, perhaps impossible, to sort through in a way that will yield reliable answers. (The jury also convicted Mr. Davis of a nonfatal shooting earlier that same evening on testimony that was even more dubious.)

There was no physical evidence against Mr. Davis, and the murder weapon was never found. As for the witnesses, their testimony was obviously shaky in the extreme * not the sort of evidence you want to rely upon when putting someone to death.

In March, the State Supreme Court in Georgia, in a 4-to-3 decision, denied Mr. Davis*s request for a new trial. The chief justice, Leah Ward Sears, writing for the minority, said: "In this case, nearly every witness who identified Davis as the shooter at trial has now disclaimed his or her ability to do so reliably."

Amnesty International conducted an extensive examination of the case, documenting the many recantations, inconsistencies, contradictions and unanswered questions. Its report on the case drew widespread attention, both in the U.S. and overseas.

William Sessions, a former director of the F.B.I., has said that a closer look at the case is warranted. And Pope Benedict XVI has urged authorities in Georgia to re-sentence Mr. Davis to life in prison.

Rushing to execute Mr. Davis on Tuesday makes no sense at all.

Stay application to USSC for Richard Henyard

No. 08A248


Title: Richard Henyard, Applicant
v.
Florida

Docketed:
Lower Ct: Supreme Court of Florida
Case Nos.: (08-222, 08-1544, 08-1653)

~~~Date~~~ ~~~~~~~Proceedings and Orders~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Sep 19 2008 Application (08A248) for stay of execution of sentence of death, submitted to Justice Thomas.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

~~Name~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~Address~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~Phone~~~
Attorneys for Petitioner:
Mark S. Gruber 3801 Corporex Park Drive (813) 740-3544
Suite 210
Tampa, FL 33619-1136
Party name: Richard Henyard
Attorneys for Respondent:
Stephen D. Ake Assistant Attorney General (813) 287-7910
Office of Attorney General
3507 E. Frontage Rd., Suite 200
Tampa, FL 33607-7013
Party name: Florida

Petition to USSC for writ of certiorari - Richard Henyard

No. 08-6392 *** CAPITAL CASE ***
Title:
Richard Henyard, Petitioner
v.
Florida
Docketed: September 18, 2008
Lower Ct: Supreme Court of Florida
Case Nos.: (08-222, 08-1544, 08-1653)
Decision Date: September 10, 2008

~~~Date~~~ ~~~~~~~Proceedings and Orders~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Sep 18 2008 Petition for a writ of certiorari and motion for leave to proceed in forma pauperis filed. (Response due October 20, 2008)
Sep 19 2008 Application (08A248) for stay of execution of sentence of death, submitted to Justice Thomas.



~~Name~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~Address~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~Phone~~~
Attorneys for Petitioner:

Mark S. Gruber 3801 Corporex Park Drive (813) 740-3544

Suite 210

Tampa, FL 33619-1136
Party name: Richard Henyard
Attorneys for Respondent:

Stephen D. Ake Assistant Attorney General (813) 287-7910

Office of Attorney General

3507 E. Frontage Rd., Suite 200

Tampa, FL 33607-7013
Party name: Florida

"It won't bring back my girls," she said recently.

COMMENTARY

Killer's execution would close chapter on mom's nightmare

Dorothy Lewis likely will be at her Umatilla home cooking dinner by 6 p.m. Tuesday when the man who killed her two babies is to draw his last breath.

Richard Henyard, 34, convicted of murdering Lewis' daughters and of raping and shooting the third-grade schoolteacher, is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection. It would be the first of a Lake County prisoner in 50 years.

Do we throw a party? Perhaps we should follow the lead of the victim. When Lewis learned two months ago that Gov. Charlie Crist had signed a death warrant, she cried.

Were they tears of joy that the criminal is finally being disposed of? Sorrow at the barbaric execution of a fellow human being? Or a simple emotional reaction to another wrenching upheaval in a life laced with trials? For sure, it wasn't the first option. Lewis never has advocated that Henyard be executed.

Lauren Ritchie Lauren Ritchie E-mail | Recent columns

"It won't bring back my girls," she said recently.


A horribly random crime

About a year after the 1993 crimes, Lewis remarked that if she demanded Henyard's execution, she'd be no better than the 18-year-old who raped her on the trunk of her car while her girls watched and whimpered for their mommy. Henyard and his buddy Alfonza Smalls, 14 at the time, shot Lewis in the mouth and face and left her for dead. She crawled along a rural Eustis road to the nearest house, a mile away. Investigators found the bodies of the girls, bullets in their heads, in nearby bushes.

Civilized societies don't get their jollies executing people, but also don't tolerate sickos marauding around town terrorizing and killing at random.

At random. . .

There's the first good reason for death in this case.

Lewis and her daughters, 3-year-old Jasmine and 7-year-old Jamilya, were at a now-closed Winn-Dixie supermarket in Eustis buying ingredients to make a salad for a church potluck supper when they were kidnapped.


Innocent victims

It could just as easily have been me. It could have been you. Anyone who shopped for groceries and looked vulnerable was a target for Henyard and Smalls. Because of his age at the time, Smalls cannot be executed. He is serving life in prison.

State Attorney Brad King remarked to a reporter that the innocence of the victims played a key role in the death sentence. It's hard to imagine more blameless victims than little girls with neatly braided hair and polite manners and their mother, who at 35 had begun to preach the word of the Lord at her church.

The girls had lost their daddy in 1989 to spinal meningitis, but Lewis' mother and sisters and aunts stepped forward and wrapped them in a cocoon of caring that protected them and reminded them that they were loved and would make it through tough times.

But the power of intense love cannot stop death when it is determined to visit. Henyard does not carry even that slim protection. Eternity will open to receive him on Tuesday, then close with barely a ripple.


Killer had no one to care

Henyard is not wanted in this world. He never was, from the moment of his birth. His young, unmarried mother was too busy drinking and doing drugs to take care of a squalling pimply infant who developed sores all over his body from a severe milk allergy and gave no one a moment's peace.

At 10 months, Henyard went to live with his godmother, who tried to provide a stable home. Between then and his 11th year, he bounced between his godmother and mother. Then -- fed up with his attitude and behavior -- his godmother took him to live with his father in South Florida, where he stayed until he was 16.

His mother and father made the same piteous plaint on the witness stand in 1994 when they pleaded for his life: They did the best they could do. Clearly, the best didn't involve putting themselves out to steer the boy toward becoming an even marginally decent member of society. By their own accounts, they brought this child into the world, then took almost no responsibility. He just came up on his own.

So, there is nothing to celebrate about Henyard's execution. It will mark a sickening failure. But the worst fell on Lewis, a random victim sentenced by a twisted soul to live out the consequences forever.

Fifteen years have passed. Jamilya probably would have graduated from college and be starting her life as a grown woman. Jasmine likely would be in her freshman year, a teenager sorting out her options for the future.

Understandably, Lewis doesn't want to talk about this anymore -- not the crimes, not the girls, not Henyard, not herself. She has replayed the scenes a million times in her head, where they bounce around the four plates and 24 screws that repaired her skull after Henyard put a bullet in her forehead.

The best that can be hoped for after 6 p.m. Tuesday is Lewis' release from a purgatory that has bound her to a horrific past. After Tuesday, no more death warrants to endure. No more calls from the press. No more reminders of what she can't forget.

For Dorothy, finally, a wide-open future.




Lauren Ritchie can be reached at Lritchie@orlandosentinel.com or 352-742-5918.

Saturday 20 September 2008

Lawyers for Richard Henyard of Eustis ask U.S. Supreme Court to stay execution

Lawyers for Richard Henyard of Eustis ask U.S. Supreme Court to stay execution

Richard Henyard

Richard Henyard, 34, is scheduled for execution this month for the murders of two Lake County girls. (ASSOCIATED PRESS / July 9, 2008)


Lawyers for Richard Henyard turned to the U.S. Supreme Court on Friday, hoping to stop the Eustis man's impending execution.

Henyard, 34, is scheduled to die Tuesday by lethal injection for the 1993 murders of two Lake County girls, Jamilya Lewis, 7, and her sister, Jasmine Lewis, 3.

They were carjacked with their mother from a Winn-Dixie parking lot. Their mother was raped in their presence and shot four times but survived.

Mark S. Gruber, who has handled Henyard's appeals, filed a petition with U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas asking for a stay of execution.



Gruber had asked the nation's highest court on Thursday to issue a writ of certiorari, an order that would require the court to schedule briefs and oral arguments but not necessarily halt the execution.

Gruber, who works in Tampa for the Capital Collateral Regional Counsel, argued that the Florida Supreme Court has violated Henyard's right to due process by prohibiting the condemned man's publicly funded lawyers from challenging the state's lethal-injection method of execution.

Four of the nine U.S. Supreme Court justices must agree to grant the review.

A review of Gruber's filings shows he would like to challenge the constitutionality of lethal injection, the confidentiality of the executioners and the Florida Supreme Court's interpretation of a law forbidding death-row lawyers from "engaging in civil litigation" on behalf of death-row inmates.

He pointed out that Florida suspended executions following the botched execution of Angel Diaz, 55, on Dec. 13, 2006.

After a governor's commission reviewed and revised the state's procedures, Florida resumed executions on July 1, 2008, with child-killer Mark Dean Schwab the first to be strapped to the gurney.

The U.S. Supreme Court did not immediately rule on Gruber's filing.

The high court grants fewer than 2 percent of such requests.


Stephen Hudak can be reached at shudak@orlandosentinel.com or 352-742-5930.

Bishops ask Gov. Crist to spare murderer’s life


Welcome to the Florida Catholic Online Edition



Bishops ask Gov. Crist to spare murderer’s life

Florida’s bishops asked Gov. Charlie Crist Sept. 17 to spare the life of a double

child murderer whose execution date is imminent, and repeated their ongoing

plea for an end to the use of the death penalty in the state.

“The Sept. 23 execution of Richard Henyard will be another example of our

failure to recognize the inherent dignity of every human being, even those

guilty of horrible crimes,” the bishops wrote in a letter delivered to the

governor’s office.

Henyard was sentenced to death in 1994 for the January 1993 murders of

7–year–old Jamilya Lewis and 3–year–old Jasmine Lewis, and the rape

and attempted murder of their mother, Dorothy Lewis. Henyard, who was

18 at the time, and a 14–year–old accomplice carjacked the Eustis family

from a neighborhood supermarket. Each of the girls was shot once in the

head at close range and the mother survived three close–range gunshot

wounds in the mouth, forehead and neck, according to media reports.

“While the untimely deaths of the two young victims and serious injury to

their mother cry out for justice, we are reminded that executions diminish

us as a civil society and perpetuate a culture of death instead of a

culture of life that acknowledges all are created in God’s image,”

the bishops wrote.

The bishops said the details of this crime, including the culpability

of the accomplice and the young age of Henyard at the time, are

enough reason to question the inconsistencies in sentencing in Florida,

a point made by the Florida Death Penalty Assessment Team in 2006.

“Life in prison without possibility of parole is severe punishment for

offenders. While the church acknowledges that society has a right to

execute violent transgressors, the ability of the modern penal system

to protect society makes the need for the death penalty very rare, if not

practically nonexistent,” the bishops wrote.

They added that they pray for and grieve with Lewis and cannot truly

comprehend the unimaginable loss of two young children.

Henyard’s would be the 66th execution in Florida since the death penalty

was reinstated in 1976 and the second since July, when executions

resumed after an 18–month hiatus for constitutional issues surrounding

the type of lethal injection Florida uses to be decided by the Supreme Court.

The bishops sent a similar letter to Crist before the July 1 execution of Mark

Dean Schwab, which spurred prayerful protests and vigils by Catholics

around the state.

Catholic Bishops of Florida Urge Mercy for Richard Henyard

http://www.flacathconf.org/Publications/pressreleases/Prsrel08/Henyard9-17-2008.htm

201 W. Park Avenue * Tallahassee, FL * 32301-7760 * www.flacathconf.org

For Immediate Release
Wednesday,
September 17, 2008

Contacts:

Michele M. Taylor

Sheila S. Hopkins

Associate for Communications

Associate Director for Social Concerns/Respect Life

(850) 205-6817

(850) 205-6826

mtaylor@flacathconf.org

shopkins@flacathconf.org

Catholic Bishops of Florida Urge Mercy for Richard Henyard
Implore Governor Crist to End Executions

Tallahassee - Governor Crist, the bishops of Florida continue to plead for an end to the use of the death penalty in our state. The September 23 execution of Richard Henyard will be another example of our failure to recognize the inherent dignity of every human being, even those guilty of horrible crimes.

While the untimely deaths of the two young victims and serious injury to their mother cry out for justice, we are reminded that executions diminish us as a civil society and perpetuate a culture of death instead of a culture of life that acknowledges all are created in God’s image. The details of this crime, including the culpability of the accomplice and the young age of Mr. Henyard at the time of the crime, are enough reason to question the inconsistencies in sentencing in Florida, a point made by the Florida Death Penalty Assessment Team in 2006.

Life in prison without possibility of parole is severe punishment for offenders. While the Church acknowledges that society has a right to execute violent transgressors, the ability of the modern penal system to protect society makes the need for the death penalty very rare, if not practically nonexistent.

We pray for and grieve with Dorothy Lewis who lost her daughters, Jasmine and Jamilya, as the result of this crime. No one can truly comprehend the unimaginable loss of two young children.

Governor Crist, we ask you to spare the life of Richard Henyard. Killing another human being perpetuates violence in our society. We must respect all life, even those who have done great wrong.

Archbishop John C. Favalora Bishop Victor Galeone Bishop Robert N. Lynch
Archdiocese of Miami Diocese of St. Augustine Diocese of St. Petersburg

Bishop Thomas G. Wenski Bishop John H. Ricard, SSJ Bishop Gerald M. Barbarito
Diocese of Orlando Diocese of Pensacola-Tallahassee Diocese of Palm Beach

Bishop Frank J. Dewane Auxiliary Bishop Felipe J. Estevez Auxiliary Bishop John G. Noonan

Diocese of Venice Archdiocese of Miami Archdiocese of Miami

# # #


The Florida Catholic Conference is an agency of the Catholic Bishops of Florida.
It speaks for the Church in matters of public policy
and serves as liaison to the executive, legislative and judicial branches
of government. The archbishop and bishops of the seven (arch)dioceses in Florida constitute its board of directors.

Wednesday 10 September 2008

FLORIDA - KILLING MENTALLY ILL IS NO SOLUTION



FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - SEPTEMBER 10, 2008

FLORIDA - KILLING MENTALLY ILL IS NO SOLUTION

The death penalty has one so called social purpose and that is to deter prospective offenders from commiting any future crimes. Though this is questionable in itself, and debatable in more ways than one, what is more frightening is when we impose a death sentence on an individual who is mentally ill and who has diminished capacities to understand and process information; an individual who is unable to communicate, to abstract from mistakes and learn from experience, to engage in logical reasoning, to control impulses, and to understand the reactions of others.


Richard Henyard, whose execution date has been set for September 23, 2008 falls into this category. Recent research concerning emotional development points to the fact that Mr Henyard's mental and emotional deficits have produced a disability within him which is identical to mental retardation in its disabling features. This was not been taken into account by the court when imposing a death sentence on this man. At the time of the murder of both Jamilya, 7, and Jasmine, 3, Lewis, and the rape of their mother, Dorothy Lewis, evidence points to the fact that Henyard was sufferring from a neurological impairment which rendered his social and cognitive skills impaired. Yet the trial court chose to put little weight on these mitigating circumstances, downplaying the fact that at the time of the murder, the defendant was functioning at the emotional level of a thirteen year old and was of low intelligence; ignoring that the defendant had an impoverished upbringing. Limited importance on the fact that the defendant was born into a dysfunctional family.


Mr. Henyard was abandoned by his mother from the age of two months. Although she was physically present at times, she did not bond with Mr. Henyard or demonstrate any emotional connection with her child. Mr. Henyard’s impaired caregiving at infancy produced avoidant/disorganized attachment, which compromised his emotional maturity. He suffered from attachment disorganization and was subject to severe and chronic trauma.


Research indicates that emotional development and the ability to make emotional and social judgments is a skill that begins developing very early, as an infant, and is shaped by both neuropsychological (brain-based) factors such as nonverbal abilities, as well as early emotional environmental influence such as a maternal bond. Mr. Henyard's inability to adapt lies at the core of his capacity to function and to embrace the moral accountabily which is necessary to face the reasons which have brought his actions to warrant the death penalty.


The Defendant’s mental condition at the time of the offense bars the adoption of the death penalty under the rationale of Atkins, 536 U.S. 304 and Roper v. Simmons, 543. In effect the execution of a mentally ill inmate is deemed unconstitutional. The Eighth Amendment prohibits "excessive" sanctions on people suffering from mental illness to the same degree as mr. Henyard, who have diminished capacities and personal culpablity. Why then is this man facing imminent execution?


At the time this crime was commited Henyard, who was just 18, was associating with Alfonza Smalls, his codefendant in this case, barely 14 years old. Tipically, Henyard's pattern seemed to be to seek out younger children as companions due to his lower IQ and "mental" age of 13/14 in order to avoid harassment from children his own age. He was functioning within a background which offered him no support, one in which he chose to be a follower rather than a leader. He displayed a very withdrawn character while growing up, and other than a neglectful mother who rarely accepted her responsibilities and who exposed him to her own petty theivery, there was no significant role model in this boy's life to give him guidance. His overwhelming need to be accepted by others, his emotional abandonment are critical factors in the way this man's life evolved and how it shaped his actions. Records indeed indicate a long pattern of biological-based learning problems in early childhood, traumatic neglect, and

emotional impoverishment which combined, impacted his character in a way which caused him to function at a substantially subnormal level. At the time of the crime, Mr. Henyard was acting with the mind of a 13 year old. How is it possible to justify the death sentence with such an individual? One must seriously question whether a man with this sort of disability is fully able to assess potential outcomes from different courses of action that present themselves to him.


In 2008 Jason Nawara who was housed in the same jail as Henyard's codefendant, sumitted an affadevit in which he testified that Smalls boasted more than once to having himself commited the killings, never implicating Henyard. Such testimony submitted during the penalty phase of the trial would in itself establish statutory mitigation that Mr. Smalls is more culpable than Mr. Henyard and/or that Mr. Henyard’s involvement was relatively minor in comparison to Mr. Smalls. This evidence could establish mitigation and confirm that Mr. Henyard was infact not the actual person who shot Jasmine and Jamilya. This alone merits consideration by the court. It again places doubt on how guilty Mr. Henyard truly is.


While Henyard's deficiencies do not warrant his exemption from criminal sanctions, Florida Support believes that killing this individual is not the solution. What needs to be emphasized is how important it is to take into account the whole framework of Richard`s upbringing, at both a social and psychological level together with the factors which lead this then child to participate in actions which required a level of moral understanding and social responsability well out of his reach. We are now equipped with more options to help individuals like this to coup and function. Killing Richard Henyard is not an option. He can be provided with the tools to live a fruitful life , one in which he can contribute positively to this society, and be of support to other victims. He can be equipped with a new found social consciouns and encouraged by the support of qualified people, step beyond the traumas of his past. With God's forgiveness, we can save a neglected life and help a lost soul to find his way back into the fold.


Today, Richard has a good rapport with Florida Support . He should be given the chance he has never had and recognition that he can function effectively if allowed to understand and deal with his own limitations. What purpose would there be in destroying another life when there is so much to show that Henyard was acting with deminished responsability at that time? Can we even really be sure that he ever committed the crimes he is accused of? There is doubt there too as to the part he played that night. With support and with guidance, the ghosts of his misgiven youth can be chased away. The imposition of the death penalty on a measurably severe mentally ill person, is nothing more than the purposeless and needless imposition of pain and suffering. We cannot allow that to happen.

For information

FLORIDA SUPPORT

info@floridasupport.us

Dianne Abshire - afua@woh.rr.com

Giuseppina Branca - giusi@floridasupport.us

Carie Mendyk - m.cirene@gmail.com

Serena Hill - serena@floridasupport.us

Sissel Egeland - sissel@floridasupport.us

Tuesday 9 September 2008

Troy Davis: Finality over Fairness



Troy Davis: Finality over Fairness

UPDATE: AN EXECUTION DATE HAS BEEN SET FOR SEPTEMBER 23 AT 7 p.m.


Troy Davis, a man who may well be innocent, faces execution following a trial with no physical evidence. Further, 7 out of 9 state witnesses have since recanted or altered their testimony. Photo: Troy at graduation. © Private

On March 17, 2008 the Georgia Supreme Court decided 4-3 to deny a new trial for Troy Anthony Davis, despite significant concerns regarding his innocence. This stunning decision by the Georgia Supreme Court to let Mr. Davis' death sentence stand means that the state of Georgia might soon execute a man who well may be innocent.

Act today to commute Troy's death sentence
http://takeaction.amnestyusa.org/siteapps/advocacy/index.aspx?c=jhKPIXPCIoE&b=2590179&template=x.ascx&action=11223

Listen to Troy in his own words
http://stream.luxmedia.com/?file=clients/amnesty/TroyDavis_edit_4.mp3&method=dl

Finality over Fairness: the Case of Troy Davis
http://www.amnestyusa.org/page.do?n=1412

URGENT ACTION APPEAL - Troy Davis


URGENT ACTION APPEAL - From Amnesty International USA


09 September 2008

UA 250/08 Death penalty / Legal concern

USA (Georgia) Troy Anthony Davis (m), black, aged 40

Troy Davis is scheduled to be executed in Georgia at 7pm local time on 23
September. He has been on death row for 17 years for a murder he maintains
he did not commit. He has a clemency hearing before the state Board of
Pardons and Paroles on 12 September. It is not known when the Board will
make its decision.

On 28 August 1991 Troy Davis was convicted of the murder of 27-year-old
Officer Mark Allen MacPhail, white, who was shot and killed in the car
park of a Burger King restaurant in Savannah, Georgia, in the early hours
of 19 August 1989. Davis was also convicted of assaulting Larry Young, a
homeless man, who was accosted immediately before Officer MacPhail was
shot. At the trial, Troy Davis admitted that he had been at the scene of
the shooting, but claimed that he had neither assaulted Larry Young nor
shot Officer MacPhail.

There was no physical evidence against Troy Davis and the weapon used in
the crime was never found. The case against him consisted entirely of
witness testimony. In affidavits signed over the years since the trial, a
majority of the state's witnesses have recanted or contradicted their
testimony. In addition, there is post-trial testimony implicating another
man, Sylvester Coles, as the gunman.

In 1989, Kevin McQueen was detained in the same jail as Davis. McQueen
told the police that during this time Troy Davis had confessed to shooting
Officer MacPhail. In a 1996 affidavit, McQueen retracted this statement,
saying that he had given it because he wanted to "get even" with Davis
following a confrontation he said the 2 of them had had.

Monty Holmes testified against Troy Davis in a pre-trial hearing, but did
not testify at the trial because, according to a 2001 affidavit, he did
not want to repeat this false testimony. Jeffrey Sapp testified that Troy
Davis had told him that he had shot the officer. Recanting his testimony
in a 2003 affidavit, he stated that under "a lot of pressure" from police,
he had testified against Troy Davis.

At the trial, eyewitness Dorothy Ferrell identified Troy Davis as the
person who had shot Officer MacPhail. In a 2000 affidavit, she stated that
she had not seen who the gunman was, but testified against Davis out of
fear that if she did not, because she was on parole at the time, she would
be sent back to jail. In a 2002 affidavit, Darrell Collins, 16 years old
at the time of the crime, said that the day after the shooting, 15 or 20
police officers came to his house, and "a lot of them had their guns
drawn." They took him in for questioning, and "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 -- I testified
against Troy at his trial -- because I was still scared that the police
would throw me in jail for being an accessory to murder if I told the
truth aboutwhat happened."

Larry Young, the man who was accosted on the night of the murder,
implicated Troy Davis as the man who had assaulted him. His 2002 affidavit
offers further evidence of a coercive police investigation into the murder
of a fellow officer: "After I was assaulted that night, some police
officers grabbed me and threw me down on the hood of the police car and
handcuffed me. They treated me like a criminal; like I was the one who
killed the officer. 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."

In his 2002 affidavit he said that he "couldn't honestly remember what
anyone looked like or what different people were wearing."

Antoine Williams, a Burger King employee, had just driven into the
restaurant's car park at the time the shooting occurred. At the trial, he
identified Troy Davis as the person who had shot Officer MacPhail. In 2002
he stated that this was false, and that he had signed a statement for the
police which he could not and did not read: "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. At Troy Davis's trial, I identified him as the
person who shot the officer. Even when I said that, I was totally unsure
whether he was the person who shot the officer. I felt pressured to point
at him because he was the one who was sitting in the courtroom. I have no
idea what the person who shot the officer looks like."

On 17 July 2007, the state Board of Pardons and Paroles stayed Davis's
execution less than 24 hours before it was to be carried out. The Georgia
Supreme Court then considered whether a trial-level judge had been wrong
to dismiss Davis's appeal for a new trial in 2007 without conducting a
hearing. On 17 March 2008, in a 4-3 ruling, the state supreme court ruled
that the lower court had not abused its discretion. The Chief Justice
authored the dissenting opinion. She wrote that "this case illustrates
that this Court's approach in extraordinary motions for new trials based
on new evidence is overly rigid and fails to allow an adequate inquiry
into the fundamental question, which is whether or not an innocent person
might have been convicted or even, as in this case, might be put to
death." "In this case,"she wrote, "nearly every witness who identified
Davis as the shooter at trial has now disclaimed his or her ability to do
so reliably. Three persons have stated that Sylvester Coles confessed to
being the shooter. Two witnesses have stated that Sylvester Coles,
contrary to his trial testimony, possessed a handgun immediately after the
murder. Another witness has provided a description of the crimes that
might indicate that Sylvester Coles was the shooter." While she said that
such testimony might be discovered to lack credibility if heard at an
evidentiary hearing, "the collective effect of all of Davis's new
testimony, if it were to be found credible by the trial court in a
hearing, would show the probability that a new jury would find reasonable
doubt of Davis's guilt or a least sufficient residual doubt to decline to
impose the death penalty." The dissenters argued that the trial court
should be ordered to conduct the evidentiary hearing it denied in 2007.

Amnesty International opposes Troy Davis's death sentence unconditionally,
as it does all use of the death penalty. For a full report on this case,
see USA: 'Where is the justice for me?' The case of Troy Davis, facing
execution in Georgia, February 2007,
http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/AMR51/023/2007.

Since the USA resumed executions in 1977, 1,118 prisoners have been put to
death, 42 of them in Georgia. More than 100 people have been released from
death rows around the country on grounds of innocence, many of them in
cases in which witness testimony has been shown to have been unreliable.

RECOMMENDED ACTION: Please send appeals to arrive as quickly as possible:

- explaining that you are not seeking to condone the murder of Officer
Mark Allen MacPhail, or to downplay the seriousness of the crime or the
suffering caused;

- noting that most of the witnesses whose testimony was used against Troy
Davis at his trial have since recanted or contradicted their testimony,
and that there is new evidence against another suspect in the case;

- noting that three members of the Georgia Supreme Court, including the
Chief Justice, dissented against the court's refusal earlier this year to
order a hearing on the post- conviction evidence of innocence;

- noting the large number of wrongful convictions in capital cases in the
USA since 1976, and noting that unreliability of witness testimony has
been a contributing factor in many of these cases;

- noting that the power of clemency in capital cases exists as a failsafe
against irreversible error that the courts have been unable or unwilling
to remedy;

- calling on the Board to commute the death sentence of Troy Davis.

APPEALS TO:

State Board of Pardons and Paroles
2 Martin Luther King
Jr. Drive, SE, Suite 458, Balcony Level, East Tower
Atlanta, Georgia 30334-4909
Fax: 1 404 651 8502
Email: Webmaster@pap.state.ga.us

Salutation: Dear Board members

PLEASE SEND APPEALS IMMEDIATELY.

Please send as many appeals as possible before 12 September, but appeals
may continue until 23 September.

----------------------------------

Tip of the Month:

Write as soon as you can. Try to write as close as possible to the date a
case is issued.

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Amnesty International is a worldwide grassroots movement that promotes and
defends human rights.

This Urgent Action may be reposted if kept intact, including contact
information and stop action date (if applicable). Thank you for your help
with this appeal.

Urgent Action Network
Amnesty International USA
600 Pennsylvania Ave SE 5th fl
Washington DC 20003
Email: uan@aiusa.org
http://www.amnestyusa.org/urgent/
Phone: 202.544.0200
Fax: 202.675.8566

----------------------------------

END OF URGENT ACTION APPEAL

----------------------------------

Friday 5 September 2008

Doctors at Angel Diaz execution


Testimony regarding Physician Assistant William Matthews role during the Diaz execution was conflicting: was he an observer or part of the team?

The FDLE observer saw two medical people behind the executioners during Diaz. According to Matthews, he was there with two other medical people.

Dr. Elio Madan, the medical director at Florida State Prison, claimed he remained in the cell nearest the chamber alone and then only pronounced death. He denied watching the heart monitors.

Dr. Selyutin's testimony conflicted with Dr. Madan's in that he said that he waited in the same cell during the execution in case he was needed. He reported that Dr. Madan was not there.

Dr. Selyutin, who has pronounced death in the past, readily admitted that part of his role was to watch the heart monitors and that he never understood why "Tallahassee rules" required him to wear a disguise. 25

the State sought to exclude the testimony of Dr. Selyutin representing that there was "nothing to suggest" that he was present at the Diaz execution. (R. 1205).

At the hearing, Dr. Selyutin testified that he was present at the execution at the express request of Dr. Madan, and that DOC rules (which Mr. Lightbourne has never seen) require the presence of two doctors.

FL: Trial begins on gassing mentally ill inmates


FL: Trial begins on gassing mentally ill inmates

September 3, 2008

Trial begins on gassing mentally ill inmates

By Paul Pinkham,
The Times-Union

A Jacksonville judge begins hearing evidence today about the use of pepper spray, tear gas and other chemical agents on mentally ill inmates by guards at Florida State Prison.

U.S. District Judge Timothy Corrigan is being asked to decide whether the practice is constitutional.

Lawyers for the inmates plan to argue that gassing confined mentally ill inmates for behavior caused by their illness is cruel and unusual punishment. They are asking Corrigan to halt the practice and require the state Department of Corrections to videotape gassing incidents and provide soap to gassed inmates.

Prison system lawyers maintain the practice is appropriate in some circumstances and that each gassing incident is unique. They’ve asked Corrigan to give the department latitude in maintaining order in one of Florida’s toughest prisons.

Corrigan said he expects the non-jury trial to take a week and that he would rule as soon as possible after that. Constitutionality is the only issue he has to decide; individual claims by the inmates were settled previously.

The lawsuit was filed in 2004 on behalf of seven inmates at the Starke prison, only one of whom remains incarcerated there. The case was delayed by appeals and the unrelated criminal convictions of several high-ranking prison officials, including former department Secretary James Crosby, for taking kickbacks.

Attorney Buddy Schulz, representing the inmates, said gassing incidents rose dramatically after the beating death of Death Row inmate Frank Valdes by prison guards in 1999 when Crosby was the prison’s warden. Gassing increased 50 percent the year after Valdes died, records show.

But Corrigan said he’s less concerned about past abuses than current policies.

“I don’t think my opinion would start with the checkered history of the Department of Corrections,” the judge said during a pretrial hearing last week. “I would think it would start with this policy and whether it was constitutional or not.”

Among the witnesses Schulz plans to call on the inmates’ behalf is Elio Madan, former chief health officer at the prison. Department of Corrections attorney William Martin argued that Madan shouldn’t be permitted to testify because he held an administrative position and spoke with prison lawyers specifically about the gassing lawsuit before leaving that post a year ago.

Corrigan allowed Martin to depose Madan.

Schulz also has listed several prisoners as witnesses, but said last week he probably won’t call them depending on how the evidence goes.

“We just want the option,” he said.

Corrigan said most of the evidence will be from medical, legal and corrections experts.

paul.pinkham@jacksonville.com, (904) 359-4107

This story can be found on Jacksonville.com at http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/090308/met_326878580.shtml.