J. James E. Donald
Chairman, State Board of Pardons and Paroles
2 Martin Luther King, Jr. Drive, SE
Suite 458, Balcony Level, East Tower
Atlanta, Georgia 30334-4909, USA
Clemency_Information@pap.state.ga.us
Webmaster@pap.state.ga.us
Fax: 001 404 651 8502
September 19th, 2011
Dear Mr Donald,
I respectfully appeal to you to exercise your constitutional authority with regard to the clemency process for Troy Davis, who is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection in Georgia at 7pm on 21 September, 2011. Executive clemency is meant to be a failsafe where the courts have been unwilling, or unable to act.
In this case the US judicial system has failed to establish Mr Davis's guilt beyond reasonable doubt. To execute him under these circumstances would be an appalling miscarriage of justice.
I urge you to take the opportunity of the clemency hearing today, the 19th of September, to grant clemency to Troy Davis and halt a wrongful execution.
Troy Davis was sentenced to death in 1991 for the murder of off-duty police officer Mark Allen MacPhail, who was shot dead outside a Burger King in Savannah, Georgia in 1989. Officer MacPhail was intervening on behalf of Larry Young, a homeless man, who was being harassed in the parking lot of the Burger King.
Troy Davis's case presents disturbing facts that should not be disregarded.
The dubious nature of the evidence in this case is cause for grave concern. The Board of Pardons and Paroles has recognised this in the past: In 2007 Troy Davis was less than 24 hours from execution when the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles issued a stay. The Board said that it would not allow an execution to go ahead "unless and until its members are convinced that there is no doubt as to the guilt of the accused". Since then Troy Davis has faced two more execution dates, both in 2008, which were stayed by the courts. The doubt surrounding his guilt has yet to be lifted.
According to Amnesty International, "one of the two witnesses who has not recanted his testimony is Sylvester "Red" Coles -- the principle alternative suspect, according to the defense, against whom there is new evidence implicating him as the gunman. Nine individuals have signed affidavits implicating Sylvester Coles."
One of the witnesses who appeared at a June 2010 evidentiary hearing was Benjamin Gordon, who, at the 2008 hearing, had signed a statement that an alternative suspect had told him that he had shot Officer MacPhail. At the hearing, Benjamin Gordon asserted for the first time that he had actually seen this individual shoot the police officer. Benjamin Gordon, who had just turned 16 at the time of the crime, again alleged that he had been coerced by police into signing a statement implicating Davis. He said that he had not come forward sooner with the assertion about seeing who shot the officer out of fear, and that he had decided to "come in today and just let the truth be known." Judge Moore, however, concluded that Benjamin Gordon was "not a credible witness."
Troy Davis's case has been through the appeals process, and serious doubt over his guilt remains. Much of the evidence has been recanted, and it is far from conclusive.
As you know the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments require proof "beyond a reasonable doubt of every fact necessary to constitute the crime with which he is charged." This conditions have not been met in the case of Troy Davis. To execute him under these circumstances would be a travesty. The many doubts surrounding his guilt make Mr Davis the ideal candidate for clemency.
The US judicial system has failed to establish Mr Davis's guilt. There are serious questions as to Troy Davis's criminal liability. I appeal to you, as the official charged with the task of acting as Georgia's final legal failsafe, to grant clemency to Troy Davis before a wrongful execution takes place.
Officer Mark Allen MacPhail was killed while off duty, during an act of bravery, while trying to keep the peace. His murder was a terrible crime and a tragedy. His family and friends have my deepest sympathy. The murderer of Officer MacPhail must be brought to justice. However, justice will not be served by executing Troy Davis.
Whether one supports or opposes the death penalty, a central tenet of the American justice system is that those who receive the government's harshest punishment, the death penalty, must have been proved guilty beyond reasonable doubt. Too many troubling doubts remain in the case of Troy Davis.
I respectfully appeal to you to use the opportunity of the clemency hearing today, Monday the 19th of September to grant clemency to Troy Davis and halt this wrongful execution, once and for all.
If the death sentence is carried out in this questionable case, it will be an egregious miscarriage of justice, which will shame both Georgia and the US legal system. Troy Davis's execution would only serve to complete the cycle of violence. By commuting his sentence, the state of Georgia will demonstrate her unwavering commitment to upholding the law, and the principles of fairness and justice.
Yours faithfully,
BIANCA JAGGER
Council of Europe Goodwill Ambassador
Founder and Chair, Bianca Jagger Human Rights Foundation
Member of the Executive Director's Leadership Council, Amnesty International USA
Follow Bianca Jagger on Twitter: www.twitter.com/BiancaJagger
Mother of slain cop says execution of Troy Davis will give her peace
Atlanta Prep Pupils Say "I am Troy Davis," Too
Protesters approach governor on Troy Davis
Attorneys for Troy Davis appeal to US Supreme Court
Sad day for the US if there is any doubt why Kill him?
I am very sad that we the people could possibly kill an innocent man
If he is innocent God will save his soul
If he is innocent God wont save ours.
Wednesday September 21st is marked as the INTERNATIONAL DAY OF PEACE
Currently, Troy Davis' execution is set for Wednesday September 21st.
NO JUSTICE- NO PEACE!
Call or fax: The Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles! Tell them- There's Too Much Doubt! Stop the Execution of Troy Davis!
Thank you for speaking truth to power Bianca!
Please do not let another innocent man die. Ten years in jail for something you didn't do, think about it.
Did you like NOTICE that the words "first try" in my response were surrounded by QUOTATION MARKS. I did not SAY that this was Troy Davis' FIRST time. Also, if you re-READ my comment, you will see that I SUGGESTED that if the wrong person is EXECUTED on the "first try," they shouldn't be allowed to execute anyone else. I didn't explain this totally and ad infinitum and in excruciating detail because I'm under the impression that MOST people understand nuance and punctuation.
I wrote just five little lines! Why would you just grab on to two words and use them to interpret my ENTIRE statement?! And how could you misinterpret TWO words that were between QUOTATION MARKS.
And here's a little FYI for you: There is no law that says a prisoner is entitled to only ONE appeal. Because many things can contribute to an unfair legal process (racism, sexism, politics, lying witnesses, etc.), our system allows for more than one appeal. Once someone has exhausted their appeals in the lower courts, they are free to appeal to a higher court.
Appealing more than one time does not mean that a person is GUILTY, as you seem to imply. Many death row prisoners have exhausted multiple appeals only to be exonerated 20 years later because DNA testing was so much less sophisticated than now, or a witness who lied, later recanted their lying testimony years later.
The problem is that there was no direct evidence of Davis' guilt, so the prosecution built an entirely circumstantial case. When you consider that 7 of 9 (Star Trek shoutout!) witnesses have recanted or significantly changed their testimony, some of whom have alleged coercion by police, it seriously undermines the determination that Davis was guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. Now that we have additional facts that erode confidence in that determination, maybe we shouldn't be killing someone on such a flimsy case?
Look, I'm not a death penalty proponent to begin with, but can't we find the following common ground: if capital punishment must exist, we should at least save such an ultimate penalty for the rock solid cases?
The 7 of 9 recantations/changes of testimony, refer to the 9 "key witnesses" who implicated Davis as guilty, not the remaining 14 witnesses who likely testified on collateral matters. Like I said in another post, there'd be no point in calling Coles (1 of those 9) to testify at Davis's hearing, since he was the main alternative suspect. Any questioning would be virtually certain to result in his claiming the 5th Amendment, accomplishing nothing.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but my understanding of the ballistics evidence is that they found shell casings at the scene and some other place and claimed that Davis was the only person at both places. Sounds circumstantial, and certainly not "damning" as you say. There weren't any fingerprints or DNA on the casings at the scene, proving that Davis actually used them. No gun was found. Did they ever prove that Davis had even fired any gun around the time (i.e. with gunpowder residue)? That wouldn't prove guilt either, but is better than nothing.
I've never read of any direct physical evidence of guilt. Everything's circumstantial and the 9 key witnesses were the lynchpin. The recantations of 7 of them seem to at least mean that this just isn't a rock solid case, by any reasonable estimation, IMHO.