OMG! TROY DAVIS HAS 1 WEEK AND HALF TO LIVE…THE END IS NEAR
Georgia corrections officials Wednesday set a Sept. 21 date for the execution of Troy Anthony Davis for the 1989 slaying of Savannah police officer Mark Allen MacPhail.
Department of Corrections Commissioner Brian Owens set a 7 p.m. time at the Georgia Diagnositc and Classification Prison at Jackson where the state’s execution chamber is located.
Chatham County Superior Court Judge Penny Haas Freesemann signed the death warrant for Davis on Tuesday, marking the fourth time since 2007 the state has scheduled an execution for Davis.
It set the execution date as between Sept. 21 and Sept. 28 but did not set the specific date. Executions usually are scheduled for the first day in the seven-day window.
Meanwhile, the state Board of Pardons and Paroles has scheduled a 9 a.m. Sept. 19 clemency appointment in Atlanta for Davis, board spokesman Steven Hayes said Wednesday.
That will give Davis’ legal team a last chance for delay of execution or clemency.
Davis remains at Jackson where he has eluded three earlier execution dates while his case meandered through the appellate court system.
U.S. District Court Judge William T. Moore Jr. heard two days of evidence in June 2010 at the U.S. Supreme Court direction to take evidence and determine if any new evidence existed that would clearly prove Davis’ claims of innocence.
It was the first time in at least 50 years that the court had granted an American death row inmate such an innocence hearing.
Moore ruled in August 2010 that evidence presented before him was “largely smoke and mirrors” and not nearly strong enough to prove Davis’ innocence.
“Mr. Davis is not innocent,” Moore ruled.
The U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way for the execution in March by rejecting dual appeals by Davis.
Davis has exhausted his appeals, but his Washington, D.C.-based attorney Jason Ewart has said they plan to ask the parole board for clemency. The five-member panel has the power to commute or postpone executions, but rarely does so.
Meanwhile, The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People Wednesday strongly condemned the scheduled execution of Davis, citing what it called too much doubt surrounding the case.
“After reviewing the evidence, I am convinced that Troy Davis is an innocent man,” said NAACP President/CEO Benjamin Todd Jealous. “It is appalling to me that with so much doubt surrounding the case, Mr. Davis is set to be executed in 14 days. Justice will never be served by the state-sanctioned murder of an innocent man.”
He joined Amnesty International USA in opposing the execution. The amnesty group has urged the parole board to commute Davis’ sentence.
Davis’ case has become a focal point for the international anti-death penalty movement. The NAACP, Amnesty International and dignitaries such as former President Jimmy Carter and Pope Benedict XVI have all urged Georgia officials to spare Davis.
MacPhail, 27, was shot twice with a a .38-caliber pistol and slain Aug. 19, 1989, as he rushed to assist Michael Young, a homeless man under attack over some beer in the parking lot of the Greyhound Bus Terminal/Burger King Restaurant at Oglethorpe Avenue.
A Chatham County Superior Court jury took two hours to convict Davis of murder on April 28, 1991. It recommended the death penalty…..
THIS IS A TRAGEDY. PLEASE PRAY FOR THIS MAN AND HIS FAMILY!
No comments:
Post a Comment