Most Popular This Week
Popular content
Today's Top News
Time Is Running Out for Brother and Sister
Troy Anthony Davis and his sister, Martina Correia, are fighting for their lives. Troy faces death by lethal injection at the hands of the state of Georgia, and Martina has breast cancer. Their parallel battles against insuperable odds will remain an inspiring story-provided they live. Time is running out.
Troy Davis turned 39 years old behind bars on Oct. 9. He was accused of the shooting death of off-duty police officer Mark Allen McPhail in a Burger King parking lot in Savannah, Ga., late one August night in 1989. A homeless man was being beaten over a can of beer. Davis intervened, but fled when the assailant threatened him with a gun. McPhail, working that night as a security guard at the Greyhound bus station, intervened next and was killed. Davis has maintained his innocence throughout.
The state of Georgia presented 15 witnesses in its prosecution of Davis, an African-American. He was found guilty and sentenced to death. Since his conviction, seven of the nine non-police witnesses have recanted their testimony, alleging police coercion in gaining their testimony. One of those who has not recanted is Sylvester Coles, whom others identified as the shooter. Despite these witness recantations, the courts have refused to reopen the case. Davis faces execution by lethal injection, a method several states have moratoriums against. Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear arguments on the constitutionality of lethal injection.
Throughout Davis' ordeal, his sister, Martina Correia, has fought for his release. She spoke before the Georgia State Board of Pardons and Paroles the day before Davis was to be executed last July. The board granted a stay of execution. Correia described the hearing: "Troy's clemency hearing was the longest clemency hearing in the history of Georgia. And they came back and decided to give Troy an up-to-90-day stay.
"But what took place was, five of the seven witnesses who recanted came forward, including the man who was being attacked that night, and said, 'I never saw Troy Davis in the parking lot.' One gentleman said he was a police snitch, and the police had paid him several times to lie on people, and that he just went by the headlines, and the police gave him everything else. Another witness stated he couldn't read and write. The police officer was giving them pre-typed statements. So nobody knew what was going on, but they were threatened and intimidated. And they came before the Georgia Parole Board, and they said that under oath."
Congressman John Lewis spoke on behalf of Davis. He told me: "Troy Davis is innocent, and that's why I testified before the parole board. No person, when you have all these questions, should be put to death."
While Martina battles for her brother's life, she is fighting for her own: "I've been battling metastatic breast cancer for six and a half years. In 2001, I was told that I had six months to live, and I asked God to just give me the strength to see my son grow up and watch my brother Troy walk free. And I've dedicated my life-even though I have not worked in almost seven years due to constant chemotherapy and treatment, I volunteer in my community, and I work and do human-rights work to not only help Troy but to help other people who are facing the same situation. So my battle is more than just for Troy. My battle is for everyone to fight injustice."
Davis' case is a textbook example of the racial disparity in the U.S., principally the Deep South, in the imposition of the death penalty. The American Bar Association has singled out Georgia's racial disparities in capital-offense sentencing, saying it has allowed inadequate defense counsel and been "virtually alone in not providing indigent defendants sentenced to death with counsel for state habeas proceedings."
The Georgia Supreme Court has agreed to hear Davis' motion for a new trial, scheduled for Nov. 13. In a new trial, the prosecution could face the bulk of its witnesses recanting their earlier testimonies. This month, on Oct. 13, there will be a major march on Davis' behalf in Savannah, a city familiar with Martina's face: Her picture adorns the side of the mammography van that serves indigent women.
Three million women in the U.S. have breast cancer. African-American women have an overall lower survival rate than white women. The coming months will tell whether Martina and Troy can defy the odds.
Amy Goodman is the host of "Democracy Now!," a daily international TV/radio news hour airing on 500 stations in North America.
© 2007 Amy Goodman
Comments
Note: Disqus 2012 is best viewed on an up to date browser. Click here for information. Instructions for how to sign up to comment can be viewed here. Our Comment Policy can be viewed here. Please follow the guidelines. Note to Readers: Spam Filter May Capture Legitimate Comments...
13 Comments so far
Show AllA century and a half of the same old story proves that allowing the South to secede is the only solution.
Had Lincoln allowed the South to secede in 1861, the South would have emerged as a third world nation. Lincoln however, had well founded fears that California would join the South and proceeded to fight a civil war to keep them from seceding.
The only problem the US would have had with the South after secession would be keeping illegal immigrants out since the border would be longer than the US-Mexican border. History has shown that the South has been a problem child for nearly a century and a half. Its gotten so bad that the South determines who gets elected president.
In 2007 it is unlikely that California will join them if they are allowed to secede. What are ya'll waiting for.
andersdl: exactly how is allowing the South to cecede from the Union going to save the lives of Troy and Martina Davis?
The stuff Martina Davis is made of CAN never die. I will pray for her recovery; but should she pass over, her altruistic fight for a loved one is something time can never negate. That is LOVE, the eternal fabric of this universe, the thing this planet struggles to embrace,; but so often falters and instead cleaves to hatred, violence, prejudice, ignorance, divisiveness, and the result: media awash in bull shit and a president who wreaks of it.
As Texas Governor Dubya approved record numbers of executions. Other Southern states are not much better. Demographic data show higher illness and death rates in the South than the rest of the nation. These conditions assure that the status quo will make things worse, not better.
Secession would allow people who want to live in the South under a Dubya Constitution to do so. Those who want to live under a pre-Dubya Constitution could move to the other states. Secession will reduce the number of Troy and Martina cases. That will be a whole lot better than the inevitable increase in the number of Troy and Martina cases that the status quo will produce.
andersdl - Is your head so far up you ass that you can see daylight out your big mouth?
andersdi- Don't get me wrong I'd gladly discuss secession in another forum ,but a state in our country is about to wrongfully cause and allow the dead of 2 fellow citizans.You are way off base here.As is the State.
The Beauty of the human spirit is truly shocking and awesome. Blessings to the Davis family. Thank you Amy and Siouxrose.
If there's one thing that rubs me the wrong way more than any other it's politically correct terminology. Like Amy Goodman saying 'African-American'.
Daniel Shays, You don't say ? Politically correct speech is worse than institutional racism or a justice system that threatens to put innocent people to death, this is quite interesting. I guess I could ask the same question of you that I asked of andersdl above.
BTW Amy Goodman is one of my hero's. She regularly reports on stories like this one, and while I do not always agree with the positions of her guests, I am in awe of her relentless approach to reporting real news that you can not get anywhere else. She is a tireless advocate for peace and justice in our warped culture.
Ditto, metroeloise. ;)
1. The Bankers of Europe wanted to balkanize.
2. The US it was too big to invade.
3. I know I'll get them to fight each other
4. Then I can put Central Banks in every "Country" and fund both sides of conflicts.
5. Only A SAP Would actually believe the "South" wanting to secede was not done in the best of interests of Mother England
and the Bankers of Europe.
6. Russia the only Country not under the thumb of the Bankers sent their Navy with newly freed Serfs as part of every vessel
that SUCCESSFULLY Blockaded the ships ( ie Bankers wanting deseperately to breakup the Young country)
7.Funny thing is riddle me this who got their freedom first the Serfs of Russia or the Slaves of the USA...... by the way slavery is always bad AND I DO NOT CARE IF ITS IN THE F###king Bible....
Thank you Amy Goodman. It's brief, but packed to provide this very important news in an excellently concise manner that provides a good idea of the whole story. It bears elements that ANGER me, while thankfully bearing light of real HOPE.
Martina Correia is a GREAT and certainly inspirational example of real and profound, thorough LOVE. And I hope that Troy Anthony Davis will finally be provided with FULL JUSTICE and will soon RELEASED to live his life like it should have never been interrupted for longer than it would have taken for the truth to be told at the very start; that he was and is not guilty of killing the police officer, having only intervened as a conscientious citizen coming to the aid of an innocent citizen being assaulted.
They are as all citizens should be, and people who disagree should feel nothing but SHAME.
I hope the BEST for both of them, Martina and Troy.
And I doubt very much that G.W. Bush as president has really made the southern U.S. worse than it already was. I might be mistaken about this, but the U.S. has violent racism all over the country; much of the racism not being in the news media, so many citizens and other residents not being aware of how much violent and disgusting racism exists in the country.
Troy Davis and Martina Correia are in our prayers as are you Ms Goodman.