“The execution of an innocent man is not unconstitutional,” said attorney Jason Ewart, attorney for Georgia death row inmate Troy Davis.
This sad, but very real irony correctly characterizes the racist death penalty in the United States. Facing execution on
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Davis, a 38-year-old African American, was convicted in 1991 of killing a police officer in Savannah, Ga. Since then, he has suffered on death row.
The guilty verdict was premised entirely on witness testimony. Nine witnesses initially said Davis shot Mark Allen MacPhail, a white cop, twice outside a Greyhound bus station on August 19, 1989. No weapon was found.
Davis has always professed his innocence. Now, seven of the nine original witnesses who implicated Davis have recounted or contradicted their testimony. Many have said that the police forced them to testify against Davis.
One of the two remaining witnesses is a principal suspect. Sylvester “Red” Coles was the first witness to go to police after the shooting and finger Davis. But nine witnesses have implicated Coles as MacPhail’s shooter.
At Davis’s trial, the prosecution vigorously pursued the death penalty despite the mountain of evidence contradicting its case. In a posting on his defense committee’s official website, Davis described the government’s mindset: “The prosecutor has always said he would accept nothing less than “death” for me, and even when a witness came forward during trial and admitted perjury, she was detained and threatened, and therefore the jury never heard her true testimony until years after my conviction and she was a key eye witness.” (TroyAnthonyDavis.org)
Legalized lynching
Davis’s innocence should be easy to prove or at least discuss in a court hearing, right? Not in the deeply unequal U.S. criminal “justice” system.
In Georgia, death row inmates must overcome more legal hurdles than in other states. Georgia, like its Deep South neighbor Alabama, does not guarantee death row prisoners counsel for appeals.
Because Davis lacked the resources to hire a private attorney, his initial appeals’ representation was insufficient. The Georgia Resource Center handled his first state habeas corpus petition. The center’s budget was slashed in 1995 by the federal government. One of Davis’s former attorneys said, “The lack of adequate resources and the numerous intervening crises” made effective representation impossible.
After that, courts denied Davis’s appeals on purely procedural grounds, saying that evidence of police coercion of witnesses should have been raised earlier.
The legal system does not want to get to the truth. It is stacked against Davis and all working-class people, especially African Americans. Institutional racism is part and parcel of the death penalty in the United States.
Advocates of “law and order” excessively cite capital punishment as a crime deterrent. But, in essence, the death
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Lynching—including the torture, killing and mutilation of Black people—was common especially in the post-Reconstruction South following the Civil War and right up through the mass civil rights movement of the 1950s and 60s as a method of terrorizing the population and quelling agitation for equality.
A 2006 report sponsored by the American Bar Association cited racism in capital sentencing as one reason to impose a moratorium on Georgia executions. People in Georgia are 4.5 times more likely to be sentenced to death for killing whites as those convicted of killing Black people.
Moreover, high costs and labyrinthine tunnels of legal bureaucracy make navigating the system nearly impossible for the working class. Further obstacles have been codified by states and the federal government in recent decades.
The 1996 Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act, signed by then-president Bill Clinton has given Davis and thousands of others fewer chances to appeal their convictions and present evidence that could prove them innocent. The repressive law allows appeals only in very narrow circumstances.
‘He doesn’t deserve to die’
Davis’s conviction has taken an unbelievable toll on his family and friends, although they also have fought hard against his unjust imprisonment and built a movement to free him.
Martina Correia, Davis’s sister and a long-time advocate for his freedom, told PSLweb.org, “With Troy there, it is like our entire family has been on death row for years. Nobody understands the hurt that we feel. The authorities want to kill our brother out of vengeance. But people need to take an objective look at his case.
She continued, “Troy is an amazing person. You can ask anybody questions about him in our neighborhood and nobody will say anything negative. He’s been on death row for nearly 17 years and even the prisons can’t tell you anything negative. Troy is a good man. He doesn’t deserve to die.”
Georgia’s state parole board will hear an appeal for clemency from Davis’s lawyers on July 16, the day before his scheduled execution.
Led by Davis’s mother, activists recently delivered to the parole board more than 4,000 letters supporting her son. Singer Harry Belafonte, South African former anti-apartheid activist Rev. Desmond Tutu, Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX) and music producer Russell Simmons are among those who favor a rehearing.
The struggle to free Davis has reached a critical moment. Activists and all progressives should demand an immediate reprieve for Davis and, ultimately, his unconditional freedom. His case is part of the overall struggle against the racist death penalty. Abolishing the death penalty would take away one of the main tools of terror used to hold down African Americans and the working class as a whole under capitalism.
Corriera said to PSLweb.org, “I’m truly optimistic about Troy’s case. I’ve been doing this since Troy was convicted and even before. We just want to have the truth told and have justice for Troy.”
Take action to save Troy Davis at http://www.troyanthonydavis.org/.
