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Tomorrow, Georgia Murders Troy Davis
It’s with shock that I report that the George Board of Pardons and Paroles on Tuesday denied clemency for Troy Anthony Davis. The 42-year-old Davis is now due to be executed tomorrow, Wednesday September 21, at 7 pm. For those unfamiliar with the case, let’s be clear: Davis’s execution is little more than a legal lynching. This is a demonstrably innocent man that the state is about to execute in the premeditated manner of a murder.
Take Action. Click the image to sign the Amnesty International petition.
The facts speak for themselves. Back in 1989, nine people testified that they saw Troy Davis kill Officer Mark MacPhail. Since that time, seven have recanted their testimony. Please allow me to repeat: of the nine people who testified that Troy killed Officer Mark MacPhail, seven have recanted their testimony. Beyond the eyewitnesses, there was no physical evidence linking Troy to Officer MacPhail’s murder. None. Three jurors have signed affidavits saying that if they had all the information about Troy, they would not have voted to convict. One juror even arrived in person to the Board of Pardons and Paroles to say to their faces that she would not have voted to convict if she’d had the facts. Another woman has even come forward to say that a different man on the scene that night, Sylvester “Redd” Coles, bragged afterward about doing the shooting. Of the two witnesses who still maintain that Troy was the triggerman, one is Sylvester “Redd” Coles.
From day one, Troy has maintained his innocence. But he was the wrong color, in the wrong place, at the wrong time, with the wrong bank account and the wrong legal team, so he was thrown into the death house with little fanfare. Yet the tireless work of Troy’s family, particularly his sister Martina, brought international attention to the case. From former President Jimmy Carter, to Archbishop Desmond Tutu, to Georgia Supreme Court Chief Justice Norman Fletcher, to Pope Benedict XVI, to Reagan’s former FBI Director, William Sessions, to the more than one million people who signed petitions, the call has gone out to spare Troy’s life. But the Board of Pardons and Paroles didn’t care. Previously the Board issued a statement that they would only allow the execution to go through, if there was “no doubt” as to his guilt. They lied.
As Brian Kammer, one of Davis’s attorneys, said Tuesday after the decision was announced, “I am utterly shocked and disappointed at the failure of our justice system at all levels to correct a miscarriage of justice.” He’s correct. Demonstrations have been planned for today in cities around the country. I know that Washington, DC, will see people come out at 6 pm at 14th and Park Rd. NW. I know the Supreme Court could still intervene or the board could withdraw its death warrant. These are slim options, but I also know that this isn’t over until they send the poison into Troy’s veins. Troy himself has refused a “last meal,” choosing to fight until his last breath. We owe him nothing less.
Please take a moment and call District Attorney Larry Chisolm at 912-652-7308 and ask that he withdraw the death warrant.
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Show AllTed it was just reported that Lawrence Russell Brewer was just successfully executed for his role in the dragging death of James Byrd Jr.
Billy Rowles, the retired Jasper County sheriff, said the following on Lawrence Russell Brewer's execution:
"One down and one to go. That's kind of cruel but that's reality."
James Byrd Jr.'s sister, Clara Taylor said:
"Hopefully, today's execution of Brewer can remind all of us that racial hatred and prejudice leads to terrible consequence for the victim, the victim's family, for the perpetrator and for the perpetrator's family,".
She also called the punishment "a step in the right direction."
"We're making progress," Taylor said. "I know he was guilty so I have no qualms about the death penalty."
Ms. Taylor, unlike her mother who appealed for the convicted murderers not to be executed, has a perverted sense of justice.
The great Greek philosopher Socrates said famously that:
"Wrongdoing harms the doer."
Just as Lawrence Russell Brewer was harmed when he participated in the brutal killing of James Byrd Jr., American society is harmed when the state is empowered with the right to execute its citizenry.
Dave Zirin writes about sports and I thank him for this piece against the murder of Troy Davis. I would ask you Mr. Zirin to please write about the shameless cowardice of today's multi-millionaire athletes, many of them black and many who play in Atlanta (the Braves, the Falcons, the Hawks) and not one of them has spoken out to try to save Mr. Davis.
Muhammad Ali spoke against war, but today's athletes care about nothing except their lavish life styles and beating up their girlfriends.
If a few black athletes had stood up for Mr. Davis, white people would have listened, because southerners love their football players more than Jesus H. Christ himself.
He's written a lot on that subject; it's his area. Even mild forms of political behavior *not* reinforcing the dominant narrative can get someone exiled for life from corporate sporting. And not everyone is cut from the same cloth as Ali, but the few who are have paid dearly for it.
In the end, there's no point in having them speak out, because they have absolutely no sway with fans; most of whom are rabidly right wing.
Drone, Maybe you are right in some ways, but no professional athlete -- except Ali -- has ever paid dearly for their opinions. Years ago, Chris Jackson, the third pick in the 1990 NBA draft, who changed his name to Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf, refused to stand for the national anthem because it symbolized oppression. The NBA suspended him for one game, and then they reached a compromise where he would stand for the anthem, but close his eyes and look down in prayer.
Few people have courage, even those who would suffer no real consequences.
More recently, Pittsburgh Steeler running back Rashard Mendenhall spoke out on the murder of Osama bin Laden (or some innocent dupe), “What kind of person celebrates death? It’s amazing how people can HATE a man they have never even heard speak. We’ve only heard one side…”.
He was universally condemned and not one other athlete stood up for him. The Rooney family, supposedly the "good guys," condemned him, too.
BUT he is still the first string running back for the Steelers. He suffered ZERO CONSEQUENCES. No NFL, NBA, or major league baseball player with the courage to stand up against the death penalty would suffer any consequences, because their owners care more about their cash values than their opinions.
This makes their lack of courage even more egregious and unforgivable.
Muhammad Ali's stand against the war was not in a vacuum. It was the era of Malcolm X [his first mentor], Rev Dr ML King, Tommie Smith & John Carlos [they got kicked out of sports but the US kept their medals], Jim Brown, Curt Flood [how many people even remember him], Kareem Abdul Jabaar, Bill Russell, etc... So Ali had a lot of peers who took a stand w him.
But in this post Michael Jordan Era [& I'm Chicago guy who was a big Mike fan] - it seems most athletes are all about getting paid by not just contracts but from Corp endorsements. So like Obama too many of them act like they don't want to seem to be 'Too Black'! In Ali's day many Black athletes [& other figures too] were more concerned about justice than being so-called 'main-stream'!
FarmerJohn, you've got it: The six biggest Fortune 500 companies headquartered in Georgia are Home Depot, UPS, Coke, Delta (no union), Aflac and Southern Co. Blog on RootsAction to start a nationwide boycott. Let the neo-confederacy know in the most effective way that they are Pariahs.
tigress is right: BOYCOTT GEORGIA companies, do not visit the state.
Thank you Mr. Zirin. And thank you "esabi" for posting a link to yet another one of this country's eternal embarrassments, Larry Chisolm. I'm betting the phone receiver is permanently off the hook until the execution is carried forth. I can't get through either due to a continual busy signal.
I will never understand the death penalty as long as I live. And a long time ago I believed in it for the small few who were proven guilty with facts and unreasonable doubt. I was wrong. Thanks to a dear friend and listening to my heart I changed my mind. I guess the courts, the MacPhails and D.A. Chisolm have no hearts. (the MacPhails astound me).
It is no wonder we are so loathed around the world. I am a natural born citizen and I admit, every day I become more horrified and embarrassed by who we have become. And our immoral behavior not only extends to our fellow human beings, it fails the earth, the animals and myriad other sentient beings.
Shame on us. Our so-called leaders are anything but what the word implies; they are pathetic cowards.
Hey y'all: according to Big Boi of the Georgia-based hip hop group OutKast, who's using his twitter page to update everyone on the Troy Davis case, minute by minute, District Attorney Larry Chisholm's direct email is: LChisolm@Chathamcounty.org
Here's the tweet: http://twitter.com/#!/BigBoi/status/116298365356085248
And, here's BigBoi's twitter page if you want more Troy Davis updates: http://twitter.com/#!/BigBoi
It's never too late to send an email.
The death penalty is premeditated murder carried out by the state. It is not justice, it is revenge. The probability of innocence in this case only highlights the absurdity of it all.
reading the statements by the slain policeman's family, the execution is a form of state-supported REVENGE.
What's really tragic is not that the family, and to a greater extent, our society, wants revenge, but that we no longer make any bones about it.
There is even a new TV series about revenge, by name.
the death penalty in America has nothing to do with justice, public safety or even retribution. As the Eastwood character says in "Unforgiven". "Deserving's got nothing to do with it". The death penalty is a rightwing wedge issue, that allows the shallow, simple-minded self-serving hacks, who are the vast majority of politicians in America, to pose and look "tough". Covering their right flank with the bodies of the executed. We kill these people because our shameless, dishonest political culture requires it, not because of their crimes, no matter how horrific.
To young and impressionable death penalty supporters I'd say, spend a day in a max security prison full of double lifers and others with no hope and tell me that isn't hell on earth; tell me with a straight face that isn't worse than a peaceful death falling asleep under drugs. To the older hardened cranks I wouldn't say anything at all; they are beyond reason or feeling and anyway, they like the illusion of security they gain by having their favorite legislative punkass parade around in front of them, yapping stupidly about "deterrence","closure" and all the other baseless, vapid crap that gets thrown around in this excuse for a debate. We're Americans. We fucking love our illusions.
The death penalty is actually a Christian issue. Most devote Christians in the US strongly support the death penalty. Research shows it and good death penalty defense trainers always emphasis removing as many devote Christians from the jury as possible. This explains why the Bible Belt and the Death Penalty Belt are identical.
Yes, you're right. As a yank transplanted half my life to the bible Belt I'll vouch for it.
And every time they kill another prisoner it is the same as killing Jesus again, and again- according to his own statement in the Bible..the "what you do to the least" statement.
Pontius Pilate continues to wash his hands and blood remains...Wrong religion, wrong color, wrong sex, wrong place, wrong politics, poor and your is survival slim...1492 to the present, a nation without a soul...May we awake to the last days of an very sick nation. Lynchings equals crucifixions, collateral damage, racism, sexism, homophobic, etc, etc...
"May we awake to the last days of an very sick nation. Lynchings ..."
We will. When the noose is around our necks.
If states insist on proceeding with revenge executions, I think it would be more honest to perform them on television with the subject tied to an altar and the executioner armed with a ceremonial dagger. That's what's actually going on here, why pretend otherwise?
I live not in the south, but the Midwest.
I have only "antenna TV" and get stations mostly from KC and Topeka.
I pick up about thirteen channels here.
They include three PBS, and at least one of each of ABC, FOX, NBC, and CBS.
Tonight from about 6:45 (eastern) to 7:15 I listened (via broadband) to Democracy Now's live and free coverage broadcast from outside the prison.
Now, that was journalism.
During that half an hour I flipped through the TV channels constantly- understand, it was national news time here, between 5:30 and 6:30 Central time- searching in vain for even one mention of what was arguably the most newsworthy event in the whole country tonight, an event the whole world was watching.
The MSM ignored it entirely. Across the board, totally, completely, 100 percent.
Not a peep about it did I see on any of the networks. I can prove this, since I filmed it all, live, with my camcorder. Will try to sneak it on to YouTube tomorrow probably.
PBS tonight seemed to be mostly about Obama and Bibi apparently very happy to be playing kissy-face, and Ray Suave-ez looking pleased with himself, and quite well-fed.
So much for "public" television. It is an arm of the State, period.
But maybe you knew that.
The other stations were no better. Intense video segments of SWAT-type guys with machine guns- Americans- and other examples of spiritual darkenss like that.
I filmed the TV and plan to be able to prove the reality, the stark juxtaposition as a man is about to be executed amidst worldwide protest, the American MSM pretends it is not even happening! Doesn't cover it at ALL in real time.
But at least, tonight, Amy Goodman and all the others on that Democracy Now show put the MSM completely to shame, and showed what REAL journalism is.
A lot of voters depend on the MSM networks for their news. They are robbed and hurt, truly, by the MSM. They are told so many lies. Especially susceptible are older people who don't have cable or satellite as much.
on revenge:
"With people who know how to revenge themselves and to stand up for
themselves in general, how is it done? Why, when they are possessed, let
us suppose, by the feeling of revenge, then for the time there is nothing
else but that feeling left in their whole being. Such a gentleman simply
dashes straight for his object like an infuriated bull with its horns down,
and nothing but a wall will stop him."
Fyodor Dostoevsky, "Notes from Underground"