Amnesty International, NAACP Rally for Troy Davis

Troy Davis

(Washington, DC) - This Thursday, September 11 at 6:00 pm, on the eve of Troy Anthony Davis' clemency hearing, Amnesty International, the NAACP and community leaders will rally at the state capitol to demand justice for Davis. Speakers will include Martina Correia, sister of Davis; Shujaa Graham, who was exonerated after eight years on California's death row; and Jennifer Thompson-Cannino, a rape survivor whose eyewitness testimony put the wrong man in prison for ten years, and who now advocates for practices and procedures to improve eyewitness identification.

A September 23 execution date has been set for Davis. Amnesty International and the NAACP maintain that carrying out the execution would be a permanent stain on Georgia's justice record, as well as the final, ultimate blow to a 19-year human and civil rights struggle.

Davis was convicted in 1991 of killing Savannah police officer Mark Allen MacPhail. Authorities failed to produce a murder weapon or any physical evidence tying Davis to the crime. In addition, seven of the nine original state witnesses have since recanted or changed their initial testimonies in sworn affidavits. In March 2008 the Georgia Supreme Court decided against a new evidentiary hearing for Davis in a narrow 4-3 ruling.

When the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles granted a stay of execution for Davis last summer, the Board stated that they "will not allow an execution to proceed in this state unless and until its members are convinced that there is no doubt as to the guilt of the accused."