5-21-09, 9:01 am

Original source: The Atlanta Progressive News

(APN) ATLANTA – Citizens across the United States and around the world gathered for a Global Day of Action Tuesday, May 19, 2009, to bring attention to the case of Georgia death row inmate Troy Anthony Davis.

Atlanta Progressive News has published copious articles about the twist and turns of the Troy Davis case, which are all available on our news website at www.atlantaprogressivenews.com.

In Atlanta, hundreds gathered at the State Capitol to hear speakers denounce an upcoming execution of a man who may very well be innocent.

'If you were to write a Hollywood script on Troy Davis, no one would believe it,' the Rev. Dr. Raphael Warnock, pastor of Atlanta’s Ebenezer Baptist Church, said. 'Somebody ought to hit pause, rewind, and say 'let’s see the evidence.''

A jury sentenced Davis to death in 1991 for the murder of Savannah police officer Mark Allen MacPhail in a Burger King parking lot in 1989.

Chatham County prosecutors used only eyewitness testimony to obtain a conviction. Since that time, seven of nine original witnesses have either changed or recanted their testimonies in sworn affidavits.

The other two, Stephen Sanders and Sylvester 'Red' Coles, have not recanted.

Sanders was hanging with Air Force friends at the Burger King at the time of the incident. He told police two hours after the incident he could only recognize those at the scene by their clothes but implicated Davis two years later at trial.

Coles, who told police he possessed a .38 caliber revolver on the night of the murder and who was with Davis at the time of the shooting, always maintained Davis was the killer. Yet three of those who have changed or recanted testify in their affidavits that Coles confided to them on different occasions that he in fact pulled the trigger.

'They have nothing left,' Jared Feuer, Southern Regional Director of Amnesty International USA, said. 'And yet why are we at this point? Because we have a system that pushes forward like a runaway train.'

Davis has gone through a rigorous and unsuccessful appeals process. Since 2007, he has faced execution three times only to receive a stay at the last minute. On October 24, 2008, three days before his most recent scheduled execution date, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals issued a stay.

In December, a three-judge panel of the court listened to testimony from the defense and prosecution. The defense argued the recantations show Davis’s innocence and that his execution would violate the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution.

Prosecutors argued the new evidence is not admissible because defense attorneys did not submit the affidavits in the context of an innocence claim, but instead in the context of a procedural claim. They also argued the recantations are simply not trustworthy.

On April 16, 2009, in a 2-1 decision, the panel denied Davis’s request for an evidentiary hearing, arguing they were bound by the procedural requirements of the Effective Anti-terrorism and Death Penalty Act of 1996. Specifically, Davis's attorneys were not able to justify why they did not bring the evidence under innocence claims earlier.

Judge Rosemary Barkett, writing in dissent, said executing Davis in light of the recantations would be 'unconscionable and unconstitutional.'

'It was a simple request – can you hear the evidence,' Feuer said. 'What they do is pass the buck. Every court has passed the buck to someone else.'

The 30-day stay of execution the Eleventh Circuit put in place after issuing their decision expired Saturday.

Attorneys for Davis on Tuesday filed a writ of habeas corpus, a lawsuit that allows an inmate to bring a constitutional claim, with the Supreme Court of the US, APN has learned.

The suit asks the Court to send the case back to a federal judge for an evidentiary hearing on innocence claims.

'The reason we work on Troy’s case so much is because it shows everything that is wrong with the death penalty,' Feuer said.

On Tuesday, nearly all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and countries like Argentina, the United Kingdom, Mexico, France, and, Australia all held rallies and marches large and small to make their voices heard.

Attendees at the Atlanta rally enjoyed musical performances from The Atlanta Sedition Orchestra and hip-hop performers 'Killer' Mike and staHHr tha f.e.m.c.e.e.

Some speakers called on Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue to step up and help Davis.

'We must say to Perdue, we must say to the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles, we must say to the Attorney General, we must say to the Supreme Court of the United States that we want justice and we want it now,” the Rev. Charles White, National Field Director for the National Associated for the Advancement of Colored People, said.

While the governor does not have executive clemency power, Warnock said Perdue 'certainly has the influence' over the parole board.

'We say to the governor tonight you cannot wash your hands of this issue,' Warnock said. 'It’s time for you to speak up.'

'We who believe in freedom shall not rest until it comes,' State Sen. Nan Orrock (D-Atlanta) said Tuesday. 'We will not rest until justice comes.'

Due to groups like AIUSA and GFADP, the Davis case has attracted international attention. Former President Jimmy Carter, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, 2008 Libertarian presidential candidate Bob Barr, Pope Benedict XVI, and former FBI director William Sessions have all urged clemency.

Davis’s sister Martina Correia and mother Virginia, who turned 64 Tuesday, were both on hand to thank supporters for their work.

'Every time they smite Troy, you get stronger, you get louder,' Correia said. 'We have to start marching. We need to start telling people we’re not going to take this anymore.'

'I thank God for each and every one of you,' Virginia Davis said. 'This war will not be over until the walls of injustice come down.'

Recently, 11 members of the Congressional Black Caucus joined the exoneration effort. Noted professors Howard Zinn, Angela Davis, and Noam Chomsky recently formed Concerned Professors for Troy Davis.

'Facing life or death, we must always get it right,' a letter the group is circulating nationwide states. 'This case is filled with reasonable doubt and choosing finality over fairness is not justice.'

A spokesperson for the Chatham County district attorney’s office told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution Monday that DA Larry Chisolm would not 'take any action [move to set a new execution date] at all until all appeals are exhausted.'

--Jonathan Springston is a Senior Staff Writer for The Atlanta Progressive News and is reachable at jonathan@atlantaprogressivenews.com.