Between Life and Execution: The Troy Davis Story

I’m neither pro nor anti-death penalty. I believe it should be decided on the case by case basis. And this is one case where I believe that this man does not deserve to die.

His name is Troy Anthony Davis and he is a Black man from Savannah Georgia on death row for close to 20 years.

This is a story of what can possibly happen to you and me if we were to end up in the wrong place, at the wrong time. Add a screwed up legal system, and a dash of racism, and it could be a life in a maximum security prison, with years of no redemption.

But, don’t go by his name and the color of the skin. Read this story also because it could be that one time, your activism may be the difference between life and death.

Before their life began to unravel in 1989, the Davis family lived their American dream in a middle class neighborhood, in Savannah Georgia. Troy was a good student, a caring brother who nursed a paralyzed sister back to health after dropping out of day school but graduating with Honors after attending night school.

Troy was always the peace maker, says Martina his sister, the problem solver in a conflict when people were fighting.

19 August 1989-Bill Clinton was celebrating a birthday but that night, in Savannah, near the Greyhound Bus station, events were unfolding that would forever change the lives of two families.

The sequence of events remain murky and sticky like that night, and stories have changed several times since then, as years and continuous media reports add to new twists and turns. But what has not changed is the fact that a young 27 year old Police Officer, Mark Allen MacPhail, lost his life in a senseless, brutal murder and Troy Davis was the young man who supposedly did it.

Macphail’s senseless murder angered the police officers to such an extent that they had “Shoot to kill” orders as pictures of Troy, now rechristened the cop killer, and already condemned to being guilty even before he had been questioned flashed across the airwaves.

No murder weapon was found and there is no DNA or any other physical evidence linking Troy Davis to the murder or to an earlier shoot out that night which injured another young man Michael Cooper. Davis’s conviction came because of the testimony of nine so called eye witnesses. Leading the eye witness Parade was Sylvester “Redd” Coles. Coles has been described by many who know him as a fearsome neighborhood thug. Other eye witnesses were either those who claimed to be present at the shooting or near the crime scene and those who claimed Troy had confessed to them that he had killed Mark Macphail. What came to light soon after was the fact that Sylvester Coles supposedly had a similar .38 caliber gun, which had killed the police officer. Affidavits submitted much later from 3 people who did not testify at the Davis trial also claim that Coles, confessed to killing the officer after Davis was convicted.

Martina says she is convinced that the Police knew Troy was innocent, “but they had already turned the wheels in motion. Our family was never allowed inside the courtroom during the trial. They were able to be there only on the day he had been convicted and the prosecutors said they would seek the death penalty.” She also believes Coles is the one the Police should be questioning. “I talked to some body who knows Coles and who calls me to tell me where he is and I was told that when he is drunk he brags about the murder and no body does anything about it.”

Seven of the 9 eye witnesses have recanted their testimony since then citing police coercion. Several members of the jury who had sentenced Troy to death, have sent sworn statements saying the jury’s decision was based on incomplete and unreliable evidence. The murky timeline of the events of that night, the recanted eye witness statements, have ensured there is nothing black and white about this case. Add to that accusations of Police being blind sided by the intense pressure to find the killer of a fellow officer, and police coercion, and the plot thickens even more.

Martina says that there is no reason for these eye witnesses to come forward now. They are not related to each other, they don’t cross paths, and they don’t work together. Why would they stick their necks out now and deal with all the hassles that go with it?

By now most people would think that there was enough in the case for it to be granted a retrial, but Troy Davis’s life is caught up in legal knots that has many wondering about an urgent need for reforming Georgia’s judicial system.

This lack of diligence combined with the anti terrorism and death penalty act signed by Clinton in 1996, and the Georgia Resource center, (that provides lawyers to death row inmates) crumbling under massive budget cuts resulted in the inability to investigate Troy’s case until after the expiration of the statute of limitations on new evidence.

Most people who have followed the case, or researched it say the evidence, the way the case was handled, the recanting, and the legal jargon, makes it all very confusing and unclear

One thing however stands out very clearly for most people aware of the case. If Troy Davis is executed, the justice system would have failed.

Troy Davis will die on the 23rd of September if the Georgia State Parole Board does not change its mind and commute his sentence. They are the sole body vested with the powers to deny or decide to execute a death row inmate.

Martina thinks that the internet, the international interest and the intervention of Amnesty International has managed to make everyone take a second look at the case, or Troy would have been put to death long ago.

What has been interesting to see is that many prominent personalities who are pro death penalty have pleaded on Troy’s behalf. The reason for that is the question that every one has begun to ask-is the justice system in Georgia functioning as it should? This case has raised issues that affect far more people than Troy Davis.

The execution date has again been set for September 23rd.

There is a clemency hearing today, Sept 12 2008. Martina Correia, her family and Troy’s lawyers will stand before the Parole Board and plead for clemency for Troy. Macphail’s family will, the prosecutors will presumably plead to the contrary in a separate hearing, even though there has been no official comment from the Macphail family. No matter what the outcome we will never know how the Parole Board decided whatever they decide to do, because that is never made public.

Please go to HERE, and read the whole story. Please send emails to the Parole board. The information is given in the article.

Thanks.