Georgia killed Troy Davis

After a torturous delay of more than 4 hours, the State of Georgia killed Troy Anthony Davis on the 21st September 2011. Davis was pronounced dead at 23:08 (03:08 GMT Thursday), 15 minutes after the lethal injection began.

"I am innocent," Davis said moments before he was executed. "I did not have a gun. For those about to take my life, may God have mercy on your souls. May God bless your souls. All I can ask... is that you look deeper into this case so that you really can finally see the truth. I ask my family and friends to continue to fight this fight."



Like many across the world my heart is heavy. I am sad and angry. The state of Georgia has proven what we already know. Governments cannot be trusted with the awful power over life and death. Today, Georgia didn't just kill Troy Davis; they killed the faith and confidence that many Georgians, Americans and Troy Davis supporters worldwide used to have in the criminal justice system.

The state of Georgia has proven that the death penalty is too great a power to give to the government. Human institutions are prone to bias and error and cannot be entrusted with this God-like power. The death penalty is a human rights violation whether given to the guilty or the innocent, and it must be abolished. While many courts examined this case, the march to the death chamber only slowed, but never stopped. Justice may be blind; but in this case, the justice system was blind to the facts.



The case against him consisted entirely of witness testimony which contained inconsistencies even at the time of the trial. Since then, all but two of the state's non-police witnesses from the trial have recanted or contradicted their testimony. Many of these witnesses have stated in sworn affidavits that they were pressured or coerced by police into testifying or signing statements against Troy Davis. One of the two witnesses who has not recanted his testimony is Sylvester "Red" Coles — the principle alternative suspect, according to the defence, against whom there is new evidence implicating him as the gunman. Nine individuals have signed affidavits implicating Sylvester Coles.

Troy said the day before he was executed;

"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."

It is only perhaps in America with its addiction to violence, to guns and to retribution that killing a person who did not commit a crime makes sense and gives false closure to the family of the victim. It is only in American with its obsession with retribution and vengeance that the huge diversion of resources to maintaining a fallible and brutal death penalty and imprisoning 1 in 10 young black men that this makes sense. It is only in America does it make sense to station troops in 143 countries of the world, not ask what the motive was for the vicious attack on 9/11 and launch a murderous war on Iraq which had nothing to do with the events of 9/11 to keep America “safe.”



The vicious death penalty does nothing to keep Americans safe nor does the sad addiction to guns. Only in the Deep South does it make sense to keep a black man in prison for 22 years and then take him out and execute him when the case against him has fallen apart. This "Freedom Loving Democracy" which refuses to sign up to the International Criminal Court and kills innocents with "precision" drones well away from media coverage is in no position to lecture other brutal execution luvin' regimes in China, Russia, Iran, North Korea and Saudi Arabia (the place the 9/11 guys came from) on Human Rights.

Let's take a moment to honour the life of Troy Davis and Mark MacPhail. Then, let's take all of our difficult feelings and re-double our commitment to abolition of the death penalty.

I am Troy Davis. You are Troy Davis. We will not stop fighting for justice.




See also;

Don’t execute Troy Davis

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2010/09/dont-execute-troy-davis.html

The Troy Davis Campaign Website

http://www.troyanthonydavis.org

Georgia killed Troy Davis

After a torturous delay of more than 4 hours, the State of Georgia killed Troy Anthony Davis on the 21st September 2011. Davis was pronounced dead at 23:08 (03:08 GMT Thursday), 15 minutes after the lethal injection began.

"I am innocent," Davis said moments before he was executed. "I did not have a gun. For those about to take my life, may God have mercy on your souls. May God bless your souls. All I can ask... is that you look deeper into this case so that you really can finally see the truth. I ask my family and friends to continue to fight this fight."



Like many across the world my heart is heavy. I am sad and angry. The state of Georgia has proven what we already know. Governments cannot be trusted with the awful power over life and death. Today, Georgia didn't just kill Troy Davis; they killed the faith and confidence that many Georgians, Americans and Troy Davis supporters worldwide used to have in the criminal justice system.

The state of Georgia has proven that the death penalty is too great a power to give to the government. Human institutions are prone to bias and error and cannot be entrusted with this God-like power. The death penalty is a human rights violation whether given to the guilty or the innocent, and it must be abolished. While many courts examined this case, the march to the death chamber only slowed, but never stopped. Justice may be blind; but in this case, the justice system was blind to the facts.



The case against him consisted entirely of witness testimony which contained inconsistencies even at the time of the trial. Since then, all but two of the state's non-police witnesses from the trial have recanted or contradicted their testimony. Many of these witnesses have stated in sworn affidavits that they were pressured or coerced by police into testifying or signing statements against Troy Davis. One of the two witnesses who has not recanted his testimony is Sylvester "Red" Coles — the principle alternative suspect, according to the defence, against whom there is new evidence implicating him as the gunman. Nine individuals have signed affidavits implicating Sylvester Coles.

Troy said the day before he was executed;

"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."

It is only perhaps in America with its addiction to violence, to guns and to retribution that killing a person who did not commit a crime makes sense and gives false closure to the family of the victim. It is only in American with its obsession with retribution and vengeance that the huge diversion of resources to maintaining a fallible and brutal death penalty and imprisoning 1 in 10 young black men that this makes sense. It is only in America does it make sense to station troops in 143 countries of the world, not ask what the motive was for the vicious attack on 9/11 and launch a murderous war on Iraq which had nothing to do with the events of 9/11 to keep America “safe.”



The vicious death penalty does nothing to keep Americans safe nor does the sad addiction to guns. Only in the Deep South does it make sense to keep a black man in prison for 22 years and then take him out and execute him when the case against him has fallen apart. This "Freedom Loving Democracy" which refuses to sign up to the International Criminal Court and kills innocents with "precision" drones well away from media coverage is in no position to lecture other brutal execution luvin' regimes in China, Russia, Iran, North Korea and Saudi Arabia (the place the 9/11 guys came from) on Human Rights.

Let's take a moment to honour the life of Troy Davis and Mark MacPhail. Then, let's take all of our difficult feelings and re-double our commitment to abolition of the death penalty.

I am Troy Davis. You are Troy Davis. We will not stop fighting for justice.




See also;

Don’t execute Troy Davis

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2010/09/dont-execute-troy-davis.html

The Troy Davis Campaign Website

http://www.troyanthonydavis.org

State of Georgia set to execute an innocent man

Southern trees still bear bitter fruit, nowhere it seems more so than in the State of Georgia, USA. It is with a very heavy heart and a deep sense of outrage that I let you know that the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles voted to deny clemency to Troy Davis. This means that very little is now standing in the way of the state of Georgia executing a potentially innocent man this Wednesday, September 21 st at 7pm.

The actions of the Board are astounding in the face of so much doubt in the case against Troy Davis. However, we should not be prepared to accept the decision and let anyone with the power to stop the execution off the hook. Join Amnesty in calling on the Board to reconsider its decision, and on the Chatham County (Savannah) District Attorney Larry Chisolm to do the right thing. They have until the final moments before Troy's scheduled execution to put the brakes on this runaway justice system.



“I am writing to urge you to seek a withdrawal of the death warrant against Troy Davis. He has been denied clemency by the Georgia State Board of Pardons and Paroles despite the fact that significant doubts continue to plague his conviction. Executions when there are still substantial doubts about guilt should never be permitted to proceed, and the responsibility rests with you to ensure that does not happen in this case.

It would significantly undermine the credibility of the Georgia system of justice if an execution were carried out under such a persistent cloud of doubts about guilt. It would show a callous disregard for the very real possibility of putting an innocent person to death, and public faith in Georgia’s commitment to a fair justice system would be shattered.



You have it in your power to prevent this affront to justice from happening. I urge you to call for a withdrawal of Troy Davis’ death warrant without delay.”

Send on this link;

http://takeaction.amnestyusa.org/siteapps/advocacy/ActionItem.aspx?c=6oJCLQPAJiJUG&b=6645049&aid=516533&msource=W1109EADP04D&tr=y&auid=9522344

Troy Davis was convicted on the basis of witness testimony – seven of the nine original witnesses have since recanted or changed their testimony. He has survived three previous execution dates, because people like you kept the justice system in check! Let Georgia authorities know you oppose the death penalty for Troy Davis!

NOTE: Due to high volume of supporters, please keep trying to sign this petition if your initial attempt does not succeed.

Or try contacting the Chatham County's District Attorney's office by phone/fax: Telephone: 912-652-7308 Fax: 912-652-7328.



Davis was given the death sentence for the August 1989 murder of Mark MacPhail, a police officer from Savannah who was shot and killed while trying to help a homeless man who was being beaten up in a restaurant car park. Davis was present at the scene, but has always insisted that another man, Sylvester Coles, attacked the homeless man and shot MacPhail when he intervened.

Davis was convicted at a 1991 trial almost exclusively on the basis of nine witnesses – including Coles himself – who all said they had seen him carry out the shooting. The murder weapon was never found, and there was no DNA or other forensic evidence. In the years since the trial, seven of the nine witnesses have come forward and recanted their evidence, saying they were put under pressure to implicate Davis by the investigating police. Other witnesses have come forward to say that they had heard Coles confess to killing the police officer.



The parole board heard from one of the jurors who originally recommended the death penalty for Davis. Brenda Forrest told the panel that she no longer trusted the verdict or sentence: "I feel, emphatically, that Mr Davis cannot be executed under these circumstances," she said, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

The execution of Troy Davis, a Georgia death row inmate scheduled to die in less than a week, should be halted because of "pervasive, persistent doubts" about his guilt, said William S. Sessions, a former federal district judge in Texas and FBI director under Presidents Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton, in a sharply-worded editorial on Thursday.

"Serious questions about Mr. Davis' guilt, highlighted by witness recantations, allegations of police coercion, and a lack of relevant physical evidence, continue to plague his conviction," Sessions wrote. He urged a state pardons board to commute the sentence to life in prison.

Bob Barr, a former federal prosecutor and four-term Republican congressman from Georgia, urged the board to grant clemency for Davis in an editorial published in the Savannah Morning News on Wednesday. In 2007, the five-member board pledged that "it will not allow an execution to proceed in this state unless and until its members are convinced there is no doubt as to the guilt of the accused," Barr noted in the editorial.



"I am a longtime supporter of the death penalty. I make no judgment as to whether Davis is guilty or innocent. And surely the citizens of Savannah and the state of Georgia want justice served on behalf of Officer MacPhail," Barr wrote. "But imposing an irreversible sentence of death on the skimpiest of evidence will not serve the interest of justice."

Troy Davis has three major strikes against him. First, he is an African American man. Second, he was charged with killing a white police officer. And third, he is in Georgia.

More than a century ago, the legendary muckraking journalist Ida B Wells risked her life when she began reporting on the epidemic of lynching in the Deep South. She published Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All its Phases in 1892 and followed up with The Red Record in 1895, detailing hundreds of lynchings. She wrote:

"In Brooks County, Georgia, 23 December, while this Christian country was preparing for Christmas celebration, seven Negroes were lynched in 24 hours because they refused, or were unable to tell the whereabouts of a coloured man named Pike, who killed a white man … Georgia heads the list of lynching states."



The planned execution of Davis will not be at the hands of an unruly mob, but in the sterile, fluorescently lit confines of Georgia diagnostic and classification prison in Butts County, near the town of Jackson. The state doesn't intend to hang Troy Davis from a tree with a rope or a chain – to hang, as Billie Holiday sang, like a strange fruit:

>"Southern trees bear a strange fruit
Blood on the leaves and blood at the root
Black body swinging in the Southern breeze
Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees."

See also;

Don’t execute Troy Davis

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2010/09/dont-execute-troy-davis.html

The Troy Davis Campaign Website

http://www.troyanthonydavis.org

State of Georgia set to execute an innocent man

Southern trees still bear bitter fruit, nowhere it seems more so than in the State of Georgia, USA. It is with a very heavy heart and a deep sense of outrage that I let you know that the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles voted to deny clemency to Troy Davis. This means that very little is now standing in the way of the state of Georgia executing a potentially innocent man this Wednesday, September 21 st at 7pm.

The actions of the Board are astounding in the face of so much doubt in the case against Troy Davis. However, we should not be prepared to accept the decision and let anyone with the power to stop the execution off the hook. Join Amnesty in calling on the Board to reconsider its decision, and on the Chatham County (Savannah) District Attorney Larry Chisolm to do the right thing. They have until the final moments before Troy's scheduled execution to put the brakes on this runaway justice system.



“I am writing to urge you to seek a withdrawal of the death warrant against Troy Davis. He has been denied clemency by the Georgia State Board of Pardons and Paroles despite the fact that significant doubts continue to plague his conviction. Executions when there are still substantial doubts about guilt should never be permitted to proceed, and the responsibility rests with you to ensure that does not happen in this case.

It would significantly undermine the credibility of the Georgia system of justice if an execution were carried out under such a persistent cloud of doubts about guilt. It would show a callous disregard for the very real possibility of putting an innocent person to death, and public faith in Georgia’s commitment to a fair justice system would be shattered.



You have it in your power to prevent this affront to justice from happening. I urge you to call for a withdrawal of Troy Davis’ death warrant without delay.”

Send on this link;

http://takeaction.amnestyusa.org/siteapps/advocacy/ActionItem.aspx?c=6oJCLQPAJiJUG&b=6645049&aid=516533&msource=W1109EADP04D&tr=y&auid=9522344

Troy Davis was convicted on the basis of witness testimony – seven of the nine original witnesses have since recanted or changed their testimony. He has survived three previous execution dates, because people like you kept the justice system in check! Let Georgia authorities know you oppose the death penalty for Troy Davis!

NOTE: Due to high volume of supporters, please keep trying to sign this petition if your initial attempt does not succeed.

Or try contacting the Chatham County's District Attorney's office by phone/fax: Telephone: 912-652-7308 Fax: 912-652-7328.



Davis was given the death sentence for the August 1989 murder of Mark MacPhail, a police officer from Savannah who was shot and killed while trying to help a homeless man who was being beaten up in a restaurant car park. Davis was present at the scene, but has always insisted that another man, Sylvester Coles, attacked the homeless man and shot MacPhail when he intervened.

Davis was convicted at a 1991 trial almost exclusively on the basis of nine witnesses – including Coles himself – who all said they had seen him carry out the shooting. The murder weapon was never found, and there was no DNA or other forensic evidence. In the years since the trial, seven of the nine witnesses have come forward and recanted their evidence, saying they were put under pressure to implicate Davis by the investigating police. Other witnesses have come forward to say that they had heard Coles confess to killing the police officer.



The parole board heard from one of the jurors who originally recommended the death penalty for Davis. Brenda Forrest told the panel that she no longer trusted the verdict or sentence: "I feel, emphatically, that Mr Davis cannot be executed under these circumstances," she said, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

The execution of Troy Davis, a Georgia death row inmate scheduled to die in less than a week, should be halted because of "pervasive, persistent doubts" about his guilt, said William S. Sessions, a former federal district judge in Texas and FBI director under Presidents Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton, in a sharply-worded editorial on Thursday.

"Serious questions about Mr. Davis' guilt, highlighted by witness recantations, allegations of police coercion, and a lack of relevant physical evidence, continue to plague his conviction," Sessions wrote. He urged a state pardons board to commute the sentence to life in prison.

Bob Barr, a former federal prosecutor and four-term Republican congressman from Georgia, urged the board to grant clemency for Davis in an editorial published in the Savannah Morning News on Wednesday. In 2007, the five-member board pledged that "it will not allow an execution to proceed in this state unless and until its members are convinced there is no doubt as to the guilt of the accused," Barr noted in the editorial.



"I am a longtime supporter of the death penalty. I make no judgment as to whether Davis is guilty or innocent. And surely the citizens of Savannah and the state of Georgia want justice served on behalf of Officer MacPhail," Barr wrote. "But imposing an irreversible sentence of death on the skimpiest of evidence will not serve the interest of justice."

Troy Davis has three major strikes against him. First, he is an African American man. Second, he was charged with killing a white police officer. And third, he is in Georgia.

More than a century ago, the legendary muckraking journalist Ida B Wells risked her life when she began reporting on the epidemic of lynching in the Deep South. She published Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All its Phases in 1892 and followed up with The Red Record in 1895, detailing hundreds of lynchings. She wrote:

"In Brooks County, Georgia, 23 December, while this Christian country was preparing for Christmas celebration, seven Negroes were lynched in 24 hours because they refused, or were unable to tell the whereabouts of a coloured man named Pike, who killed a white man … Georgia heads the list of lynching states."



The planned execution of Davis will not be at the hands of an unruly mob, but in the sterile, fluorescently lit confines of Georgia diagnostic and classification prison in Butts County, near the town of Jackson. The state doesn't intend to hang Troy Davis from a tree with a rope or a chain – to hang, as Billie Holiday sang, like a strange fruit:

>"Southern trees bear a strange fruit
Blood on the leaves and blood at the root
Black body swinging in the Southern breeze
Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees."

See also;

Don’t execute Troy Davis

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2010/09/dont-execute-troy-davis.html

The Troy Davis Campaign Website

http://www.troyanthonydavis.org

Save Troy Davis

I stand with Amnesty and their Death Penalty Abolition Campaign to fight for the life of Troy Davis, who within weeks could be executed for a crime he may not have committed. There remain serious doubts of his guilt. His death sentence defies all logic and morality.

The day is now here - the state of Georgia has set Troy Davis' execution date for September 21st, just 10 days from today. The U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear his final appeal earlier this year. But the story remains the same - Troy Davis could very well be innocent.

Troy Davis and his mother

However, in the state of Georgia, the Board of Pardons & Paroles holds the keys to Troy's fate. In the days before Davis' execution, this Board will hold a final clemency hearing - a final chance to prevent Troy Davis from being executed. Davis was convicted on the basis of witness testimony - seven of the nine original witnesses have since recanted or changed their testimony.


Martina Correia, sister of Troy Anthony Davis, in front of the O'Connell Monument in Dublin, Ireland with supporters. She received The Sean McBride Award for Outstanding Contribution to Human Rights 2010.

One witness said in a CNN news interview "If I knew then, what I know now, Troy Davis would not be on death row." I know it's difficult to believe that a system of justice could be so terribly flawed, but keep in mind that Troy has survived three previous execution dates, because people like you kept the justice system in check!
We've been bracing for this moment and the time for action is now! Here's what you can do to join the fight:

Sign Amnesty’s petition to the Board of Pardons & Paroles urging them to grant clemency! They'll deliver your signatures next week.
http://takeaction.amnestyusa.org/siteapps/advocacy/ActionItem.aspx?c=6oJCLQPAJiJUG&b=6645049&aid=12970&msource=W1109EADP01&tr=y&auid=9445274

Organise locally for Troy: Take to the streets with us. Soon we'll be announcing the date for the official Troy Davis Day of Action. Sign up now to rally in the coming days to stop the execution of Troy Davis.

Tell everyone you know! Spread the word about this injustice on Twitter by using the hashtag #TooMuchDoubt. Be sure to tell your Facebook friends Troy's story too!
https://www.facebook.com/sharer/sharer.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2Fo93bAE



The death penalty is costly, arbitrary, and ineffective. Yet one of the great disappointments for those of us who supported Barack Obama is that the US Justice system is still heavily focused towards revenge not rehabilitation, criminalises a huge proportion of young black men and in a number of states despite the evidence of legal shabbiness, miscarriages and innocents being killed by the state a huge amount of penal resources are devoted to putting people to death. In this the United States is right up with those other Great Democracies, China, Iran, Russia and Saudi Arabia. Who says you can’t judge a country by the friends it keeps?

Whilst the situation is complicated by the separation of powers in the United States between the Federal and State Governments for many the bell weather case of whether Obama’s American is any different is the case of Troy Davis. Troy Anthony Davis, who is African American, was convicted in 1991 of murdering Mark McPhail, a white police officer. Davis' conviction was not based on any physical evidence, and the murder weapon was never found.

The prosecution based its case on the testimony of purported "witnesses," many of whom allege police coercion. Seven of the nine non-police witnesses for the prosecution have recanted their testimony in sworn affidavits. One witness signed a police statement declaring that Davis was the assailant, and 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 16 and was so scared of going to jail."



There are also several witnesses who have implicated another man in the murder. According to one woman, "People on the streets were talking about Sylvester Coles being involved with killing the police officer, so one day I asked him ... Sylvester told me that he did shoot the officer."

Troy's case is so powerful because it has inspired:

A majority of witnesses to admit that they lied 19 years ago

Four witnesses to finally testify against the person whom they suspect to be the real killer of police officer Mark MacPhail

Pope Benedict XVI, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and former U.S. President Jimmy Carter to all call for clemency

A movement of human rights supporters to unite and pass Troy's story along from one person to the next to the next...

Nearly two decades later, Davis remains on death row with an execution date in 10 days time– even though the case against him has completely fallen apart. Don’t let the state of Georgia put finality before Justice.

See also;

Don’t execute Troy Davis

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2010/09/dont-execute-troy-davis.html

The Troy Davis Campaign Website

http://www.troyanthonydavis.org/



Audio recording from Troy Davis, who faces execution despite the fact that there was no physical evidence and 7 out of 9 non-police witnesses have recanted or contradicted their testimony.

Save Troy Davis

I stand with Amnesty and their Death Penalty Abolition Campaign to fight for the life of Troy Davis, who within weeks could be executed for a crime he may not have committed. There remain serious doubts of his guilt. His death sentence defies all logic and morality.

The day is now here - the state of Georgia has set Troy Davis' execution date for September 21st, just 10 days from today. The U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear his final appeal earlier this year. But the story remains the same - Troy Davis could very well be innocent.

Troy Davis and his mother

However, in the state of Georgia, the Board of Pardons & Paroles holds the keys to Troy's fate. In the days before Davis' execution, this Board will hold a final clemency hearing - a final chance to prevent Troy Davis from being executed. Davis was convicted on the basis of witness testimony - seven of the nine original witnesses have since recanted or changed their testimony.


Martina Correia, sister of Troy Anthony Davis, in front of the O'Connell Monument in Dublin, Ireland with supporters. She received The Sean McBride Award for Outstanding Contribution to Human Rights 2010.

One witness said in a CNN news interview "If I knew then, what I know now, Troy Davis would not be on death row." I know it's difficult to believe that a system of justice could be so terribly flawed, but keep in mind that Troy has survived three previous execution dates, because people like you kept the justice system in check!
We've been bracing for this moment and the time for action is now! Here's what you can do to join the fight:

Sign Amnesty’s petition to the Board of Pardons & Paroles urging them to grant clemency! They'll deliver your signatures next week.
http://takeaction.amnestyusa.org/siteapps/advocacy/ActionItem.aspx?c=6oJCLQPAJiJUG&b=6645049&aid=12970&msource=W1109EADP01&tr=y&auid=9445274

Organise locally for Troy: Take to the streets with us. Soon we'll be announcing the date for the official Troy Davis Day of Action. Sign up now to rally in the coming days to stop the execution of Troy Davis.

Tell everyone you know! Spread the word about this injustice on Twitter by using the hashtag #TooMuchDoubt. Be sure to tell your Facebook friends Troy's story too!
https://www.facebook.com/sharer/sharer.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2Fo93bAE



The death penalty is costly, arbitrary, and ineffective. Yet one of the great disappointments for those of us who supported Barack Obama is that the US Justice system is still heavily focused towards revenge not rehabilitation, criminalises a huge proportion of young black men and in a number of states despite the evidence of legal shabbiness, miscarriages and innocents being killed by the state a huge amount of penal resources are devoted to putting people to death. In this the United States is right up with those other Great Democracies, China, Iran, Russia and Saudi Arabia. Who says you can’t judge a country by the friends it keeps?

Whilst the situation is complicated by the separation of powers in the United States between the Federal and State Governments for many the bell weather case of whether Obama’s American is any different is the case of Troy Davis. Troy Anthony Davis, who is African American, was convicted in 1991 of murdering Mark McPhail, a white police officer. Davis' conviction was not based on any physical evidence, and the murder weapon was never found.

The prosecution based its case on the testimony of purported "witnesses," many of whom allege police coercion. Seven of the nine non-police witnesses for the prosecution have recanted their testimony in sworn affidavits. One witness signed a police statement declaring that Davis was the assailant, and 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 16 and was so scared of going to jail."



There are also several witnesses who have implicated another man in the murder. According to one woman, "People on the streets were talking about Sylvester Coles being involved with killing the police officer, so one day I asked him ... Sylvester told me that he did shoot the officer."

Troy's case is so powerful because it has inspired:

A majority of witnesses to admit that they lied 19 years ago

Four witnesses to finally testify against the person whom they suspect to be the real killer of police officer Mark MacPhail

Pope Benedict XVI, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and former U.S. President Jimmy Carter to all call for clemency

A movement of human rights supporters to unite and pass Troy's story along from one person to the next to the next...

Nearly two decades later, Davis remains on death row with an execution date in 10 days time– even though the case against him has completely fallen apart. Don’t let the state of Georgia put finality before Justice.

See also;

Don’t execute Troy Davis

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2010/09/dont-execute-troy-davis.html

The Troy Davis Campaign Website

http://www.troyanthonydavis.org/



Audio recording from Troy Davis, who faces execution despite the fact that there was no physical evidence and 7 out of 9 non-police witnesses have recanted or contradicted their testimony.

THIS IS WHY I WRITE THIS BLOG

Quite frequently, I get comments from readers of this blog. Most are very supportive, some express disagreement, others are incredibly hostile. I publish them all -- unless I consider them a bit too profane -- because I believe in debate, free speech, and competing opinions. Last week, a young man sent a comment and I found myself answering at length. When I was done, I felt that the exchange said a lot about where I'm coming from and why I write this blog -- which is useful in that it gives a larger, yet personal, context to what I'm doing and trying to do. So I decided to publish the whole exchange. I've removed the chap's name in case he wouldn't want it used in this way.


THE COMMENT

[NAME REMOVED] has left a new comment on your post "GUNNING FOR NORTH KOREA":

I have noticed how fashionable it is to attribute atrocities to the United States, especially amongst your generation. The revisionist histories that purport to show America as the great monster of the Cold War -- in Korea, Vietnam, Latin America, Africa -- are all very troubling for their revelation of how undemocratic and hypocritical our foreign policy CAN be in times of national paranoia, but, while indeed I wholly approve of empirical criticism, I am troubled even more by your rhetoric, which seems actuated more by a desire to traduce America than to improve it. (It is also notable -- and provable with Google's Ngram -- that 'US,' the term for America that you use almost exclusively, became the more popular term for America in the late 60's or early 70's, at the height of exactly the sort of anti-Americanism you express. I can only conjecture that it is because 'US' reduces us to a political rather than cultural entity.)

In any case, although your points are not particularly original, I still generally agree with your message: America is not perfect. What bothers me is that you should single America out. As a college student at least two generations your junior, I can say that your anti-American rhetoric peaked around a decade ago, and that the inheritors of America have not inherited your habit of seeing us as a villain. This, too, can be found by entering relevant terms into Ngram, such as 'multicultural' or 'international.' Now, I believe, younger people are realizing that, for all our faults, we still are better than filthy and essentially third-world countries like China that handle 21st-century technologies with 19th-century attitudes. With the fast approaching extinction of your rebellious and irreverent generation, America may at last realize that the narrow-minded self-loathing your generation embodies only blinds us to the even greater evils in Asia.


MY RESPONSE

Firstly, thanks for your comment, which obviously took time and effort, and for putting your name to it. I admire that.

Let me preface my response by saying that I do not single America out, "it" (the power-mongers) has singled itself out. I am only commenting on what I see; although I am not saying that the U.S. is the only tyranny on the planet. I've never said that. But the U.S. is the most powerful and influential tyranny by far. Nor am I limiting my observations to the Cold War, which, for some reason, you used for context.

I disagree with you completely and put it to you that you are arguing from a totally false premise: This is not a generational thing at all; it cuts across generations. In fact, I would assert that folks with your line of thinking, or thereabouts, are in the minority in your own generation. You only have to look at alternative media, visit college campuses, hear what people are saying on buses and trains, look at protest actions, read message boards on news websites, check out blogs, look at the activist non-profits powered largely by younger people, sniff around Facebook, and on and on, and you can see that, if anything, society in general has become much more radical in its thinking. Not progressive, radical. In the sixties, you could argue, there was much more of a generational divide. But there isn’t now. And to suggest that the younger generations are somehow conservative and waiting for the old "hippies" to die off and let them be, just flies in the face of all logic and observation. Unless a person glues their eyes to Fox and CNN 24 hours a day, they simply MUST know that the tide has turned in favor of social change.

There is nothing at all fashionable about attributing atrocities to the United States. As a former right winger who would have made you shudder, (I was about as far from being a "flower child lefty" as one could get), I can tell you that people like me do things from conscience and observation. That is why I have come to the path I’m on. And that is why I talk about U.S. atrocities: because they happened and are documented, and because the U.S. is the most powerful nation on earth and has interfered in more countries than any other nation-state in history -- by far.

But of these atrocities, which of them do you want to erase to prop up your world view and give the U.S. a pass mark as a not-so-bad bully? The massive bombings of Germany when WWII was already won, which slaughtered countless civilians? The bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki when the Japanese wanted to surrender, and then were actually in the process of surrendering? Nixon’s savagery from the air in Vietnam? Our support of sadistic regimes throughout Latin America? Our invasion of Cuba? Our pathetic bravado in Grenada? Our torturing of all manner of people in any number of places? We could talk about Iraq, Afghanistan, the Balkans, the conquering of the Philippines and Hawaii, COINTELPRO, supporting Indonesia while it carried out genocide, etc etc… how many examples does one need? War crime after war crime. Plunder after plunder. Cruelty piled on cruelty.

My father fought in WWII (and was in the peacekeeping forces in Hiroshima where he saw a city that was “completely flat”) and Korea (where he earned the Purple Heart). I was a good listener. I followed up on that by reading, asking questions, being skeptical. I grew up with the Vietnam War on television EVERY NIGHT. So I read about that, and asked questions, and was skeptical. I also grew up in a part of my city that took thousands of Vietnamese refugees into urban camps after the Vietnam War then integrated them into our neighborhoods at a time when there was no abundance of jobs and not enough hospital beds. I questioned this vehemently. But in time I learned the truth and why these people had “moved in.”

It is not a crime that you are young. It’s not even a misdemeanor that you are ignorant. At your age I was very ignorant and very angry. Much worse than you. But there is little excuse, in this day and age, when enough of the truth has made its way into the public realm, that you have not educated yourself better. That is your responsibility. You have a good brain. The world needs it. But it needs it thinking compassionately and clearly, not flexing itself with juvenile pontifications like you just swallowed a dictionary and it went down the wrong way.

On another note, if my “points are not very original,” there is a good reason for that: most of my points are truisms that bear repeating, not the shining revelations of a latter-day prophet. I never claimed to be such. I do not create American history, I just help amplify it -- as it really is. There are things that many of us feel compelled to repeat, to re-express, to keep in the arena of public discourse. Is this irksome to you? Why? I’ll bet your own life is riddled with repetitions much more frivolous than the recounting of crimes against humanity. Consider what you are about to say before you say it, my friend.

As for the Ngram thing, there are many variables in play there. For one example: If the Establishment decides it needs to make a word “dirty” because it’s too close to the truth and threatens their charade of truth, then there’s a good chance a lot of people will stop using that word because the perception of it has changed in the public arena. That’s what our mass media gives us: A glorious propaganda machine that shapes the discourse. Ngram may be a tool of some use in some ways, but don’t lean too heavily on any one lever. Context, patterns, trends: that is where knowledge really exists. And in solid, primary references – documents – of which there is no shortage, supporting the stuff I say in this blog.

When you say that I have a desire to “traduce America more than improve it,” which “America” are you speaking of? If you mean the corporate and political elites who are ruining life for the vast majority, hell, I don’t wish to traduce, I wish to throw them out of their ivory towers! But if you mean the land, the people, and the potential and beauty of America (and don’t get hung up on the U.S. thing, for goodness sakes), then I love this country as much as anyone. This is the country my 8-year-old son and HIS generation will inherit, IF it’s still here. And THAT is a VERY serious thing to me and nothing to do with rhetoric or games. I have hobbies and interests I would much rather spend my time on than typing up a blog after working as a professional writer/editor 10 or 11 hours a day.

Yes, I slam the elites of the U.S., and yes, I am angry about the injustices that I see them inflict both here and abroad. Guilty as charged and proud of it. You should be angry too, if you really love America. The true America.

And I feel pretty sure you do.

Take care,
Adrian

IF YOU FOUND THIS BLOG POST INTERESTING you might like to take a look at A DIFFERENT KIND OF CANDIDATE...REALLY!

Suze Rotolo

I was saddened to hear of the premature death from Lung Cancer at the age of 67 of Suze Rotolo (1943-2011) in NYC. The principled daughter of two American Communists she inspired Bob Dylan’s radicalism and worked for Civil Rights during the period they were together. She appeared with him on the cover of his breakthrough album “Freewheelin' Bob Dylan” walking down a snowy Jones Street in Greenwich village and he wrote "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right" and "Tomorrow Is a Long Time." about her.


A CD of the music inspired by Greenwich Village featuring a picture of Washington Square Park with liner notes by Suze Rotolo

She was a 17-year-old art- and poetry-loving civil rights activist from Queens when she met the 20-year-old folk singer from Minnesota at an all-day folk concert at Riverside Church in Manhattan in the summer of 1961. "Right from the start, I couldn't take my eyes off her," Dylan wrote in "Chronicles: Volume One," his 2004 memoir. "She was the most erotic thing I'd ever seen." Dylan later wrote that meeting her "was like stepping into the tales of 1,001 Arabian nights", adding: "She had a smile that could light up a street full of people... a Rodin sculpture come to life."



After the sudden death of Rotolo's father in 1958, her mother took to drinking. The teenage Suze began to take Sunday trips to Washington Square in the Village, joining the folk musicians, poets and political activists who took on the establishment in verse and propaganda. At 17, she caught the subway from Queens to the Village for a final time, "without looking back".

While still in high school, Rotolo volunteered for the Congress of Racial Equality, marching on Washington for civil rights and desegregation. At the age of 20, she made national news when she and four other students stood up for the "free travel of free Americans" by, in defiance of the government travel ban, heading over to Cuba. The group spent two months touring factories and schools and met Fidel Castro and Che Guevara. It was an incredibly brave thing to do.



Rotolo later wrote that Dylan "made me think of Harpo Marx, impish and approachable, but there was something about him that broadcast an intensity that was not to be taken lightly." So began a four-year relationship that was immortalised on a wintery day in 1963 when photographer Don Hunstein captured the young couple walking down a snowy Greenwich Village street, Dylan's hands thrust in his pockets and Rotolo's hands wrapped snugly around his arm.

"It was freezing out," she recalled in a 2008 interview with the New York Times. "He wore a very thin jacket, because image was all. Our apartment was always cold, so I had a sweater on, plus I borrowed one of his big, bulky sweaters. On top of that I put a coat. So I felt like an Italian sausage."

The photo became the cover of Dylan's breakthrough second album, which includes the songs "Blowin' in the Wind," "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall," "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right" and "Masters of War."


A Book Art piece by Suze Rotolo


Rotolo was born in Queens, N.Y., on Nov. 20, 1943, a so-called red-diaper baby whose parents were members of the American Communist Party. Her father died when she was a teenager, and she traded Queens for Greenwich Village after graduating from high school. She was working in the office of the Congress of Racial Equality — and had seen Dylan perform at a small club in the Village — when she met him at the folk festival. Rotolo, who moved into a tiny apartment on West Fourth Street in the Village with Dylan when she was 18, is credited with introducing him to modern art and poetry, avant-garde theatre and civil rights politics.


Suze Rotolo in 2007

She worked on the production staff at a local Greenwich Village theatre and when Dylan visited there to pick her up one day, he was introduced to the theatre work of Bertolt Brecht, the German poet, playwright and theatre director. In his memoir, Chronicles, Dylan recalled Brecht on Brecht, a musical revue he saw there. He said Brecht had an enormous impact on his development as an artist. "My little shack in the universe was about to expand into some glorious cathedral, at least in songwriting terms," Dylan wrote, describing his reaction to the music. "They were like folk songs in nature, but unlike folk songs, too, because they were sophisticated." Dylan was struck in particular by Pirate Jenny from The Threepenny Opera.

Rotolo married Italian Enzo Bartoccioli, a film editor who works for the United Nations, in 1970. Together they had one son, Luca, who is a guitarist in New York. In New York, Rotolo worked as an illustrator and painter, before concentrating on creating book art, making book-like objects which incorporated found art. Remaining politically active, Rotolo joined the street-theatre group Billionaires for Bush and protested at the 2004 Republican National Convention in Manhattan. Her friend and Village Voice critic Jim Hoberman wrote that she died in her New York apartment "and the arms of her husband of 40 years, Enzo Bartoccioli".

Rotolo appears in Martin Scorsese's film No Direction Home: Bob Dylan, a documentary focusing on Dylan's early career from 1961 to 1966. She was also interviewed nationally in 2008 by Terry Gross on NPR's Fresh Air to promote her book, A Freewheelin' Time: A Memoir of Greenwich Village in the Sixties.



Rotolo's book was published by Broadway Books on 13 May 2008. Rotolo recounted her attempts not to be overshadowed by her relationship with Dylan. She discussed her need to pursue her artistic creativity and to retain her political integrity, concluding: "The sixties were an era that spoke a language of inquiry and curiosity and rebelliousness against the stifling and repressive political and social culture of the decade that preceded it. The new generation causing all the fuss was not driven by the market: we had something to say, not something to sell."

Here is her website which features her artworks;

http://www.suzerotolo.com


Requiescat in pace.

Suze Rotolo

I was saddened to hear of the premature death from Lung Cancer at the age of 67 of Suze Rotolo (1943-2011) in NYC. The principled daughter of two American Communists she inspired Bob Dylan’s radicalism and worked for Civil Rights during the period they were together. She appeared with him on the cover of his breakthrough album “Freewheelin' Bob Dylan” walking down a snowy Jones Street in Greenwich village and he wrote "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right" and "Tomorrow Is a Long Time." about her.


A CD of the music inspired by Greenwich Village featuring a picture of Washington Square Park with liner notes by Suze Rotolo

She was a 17-year-old art- and poetry-loving civil rights activist from Queens when she met the 20-year-old folk singer from Minnesota at an all-day folk concert at Riverside Church in Manhattan in the summer of 1961. "Right from the start, I couldn't take my eyes off her," Dylan wrote in "Chronicles: Volume One," his 2004 memoir. "She was the most erotic thing I'd ever seen." Dylan later wrote that meeting her "was like stepping into the tales of 1,001 Arabian nights", adding: "She had a smile that could light up a street full of people... a Rodin sculpture come to life."



After the sudden death of Rotolo's father in 1958, her mother took to drinking. The teenage Suze began to take Sunday trips to Washington Square in the Village, joining the folk musicians, poets and political activists who took on the establishment in verse and propaganda. At 17, she caught the subway from Queens to the Village for a final time, "without looking back".

While still in high school, Rotolo volunteered for the Congress of Racial Equality, marching on Washington for civil rights and desegregation. At the age of 20, she made national news when she and four other students stood up for the "free travel of free Americans" by, in defiance of the government travel ban, heading over to Cuba. The group spent two months touring factories and schools and met Fidel Castro and Che Guevara. It was an incredibly brave thing to do.



Rotolo later wrote that Dylan "made me think of Harpo Marx, impish and approachable, but there was something about him that broadcast an intensity that was not to be taken lightly." So began a four-year relationship that was immortalised on a wintery day in 1963 when photographer Don Hunstein captured the young couple walking down a snowy Greenwich Village street, Dylan's hands thrust in his pockets and Rotolo's hands wrapped snugly around his arm.

"It was freezing out," she recalled in a 2008 interview with the New York Times. "He wore a very thin jacket, because image was all. Our apartment was always cold, so I had a sweater on, plus I borrowed one of his big, bulky sweaters. On top of that I put a coat. So I felt like an Italian sausage."

The photo became the cover of Dylan's breakthrough second album, which includes the songs "Blowin' in the Wind," "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall," "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right" and "Masters of War."


A Book Art piece by Suze Rotolo


Rotolo was born in Queens, N.Y., on Nov. 20, 1943, a so-called red-diaper baby whose parents were members of the American Communist Party. Her father died when she was a teenager, and she traded Queens for Greenwich Village after graduating from high school. She was working in the office of the Congress of Racial Equality — and had seen Dylan perform at a small club in the Village — when she met him at the folk festival. Rotolo, who moved into a tiny apartment on West Fourth Street in the Village with Dylan when she was 18, is credited with introducing him to modern art and poetry, avant-garde theatre and civil rights politics.


Suze Rotolo in 2007

She worked on the production staff at a local Greenwich Village theatre and when Dylan visited there to pick her up one day, he was introduced to the theatre work of Bertolt Brecht, the German poet, playwright and theatre director. In his memoir, Chronicles, Dylan recalled Brecht on Brecht, a musical revue he saw there. He said Brecht had an enormous impact on his development as an artist. "My little shack in the universe was about to expand into some glorious cathedral, at least in songwriting terms," Dylan wrote, describing his reaction to the music. "They were like folk songs in nature, but unlike folk songs, too, because they were sophisticated." Dylan was struck in particular by Pirate Jenny from The Threepenny Opera.

Rotolo married Italian Enzo Bartoccioli, a film editor who works for the United Nations, in 1970. Together they had one son, Luca, who is a guitarist in New York. In New York, Rotolo worked as an illustrator and painter, before concentrating on creating book art, making book-like objects which incorporated found art. Remaining politically active, Rotolo joined the street-theatre group Billionaires for Bush and protested at the 2004 Republican National Convention in Manhattan. Her friend and Village Voice critic Jim Hoberman wrote that she died in her New York apartment "and the arms of her husband of 40 years, Enzo Bartoccioli".

Rotolo appears in Martin Scorsese's film No Direction Home: Bob Dylan, a documentary focusing on Dylan's early career from 1961 to 1966. She was also interviewed nationally in 2008 by Terry Gross on NPR's Fresh Air to promote her book, A Freewheelin' Time: A Memoir of Greenwich Village in the Sixties.



Rotolo's book was published by Broadway Books on 13 May 2008. Rotolo recounted her attempts not to be overshadowed by her relationship with Dylan. She discussed her need to pursue her artistic creativity and to retain her political integrity, concluding: "The sixties were an era that spoke a language of inquiry and curiosity and rebelliousness against the stifling and repressive political and social culture of the decade that preceded it. The new generation causing all the fuss was not driven by the market: we had something to say, not something to sell."

Here is her website which features her artworks;

http://www.suzerotolo.com


Requiescat in pace.