Barring an 11th hour intervention from President Obama, Troy Davis will be executed by the State of Georgia tonight at 7pm.
Some 20 years ago, Davis was convicted of killing off-duty Savannah police officer Mark MacPhail, who was shot while breaking up a fight in a fast-food parking lot. A case built on a small amount of physical evidence and fluctuating witness testimony was enough to convict Davis in 1991. But new evidence and new statements from witnesses, who say they were coerced by Savannah police into making convicting statements, has brought into question the possibility that Davis could very well be an innocent man.
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| Mark MacPhail |
A former juror, former President Carter, several members of congress, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, and even the Pope have called on Georgia to spare Davis’ life, at least until all of the new evidence has been sifted through and the state is certain Davis was the killer. But for as long as there is even just a hint of possibility that Davis could be innocent, people from all over the world have been telling Georgia they MUST spare Davis’ life.
Hundreds of thousands of petitions from all over the world flooded the governor’s office, begging for clemency and postponement of an execution. But in the State of Georgia, the governor does not have the power to pardon Davis or postpone an execution. That decision is left up to a pardons board, which decided Tuesday that the execution of Davis will proceed as planned.
Race has been a major factor in the case against Davis, an African-American whose victim was white. Supporters say the Savannah police engaged in a frantic rush to judgment after MacPhail’s slaying, intimidating African-American witnesses to testify against Davis. The thought of a black man killing a white man in the south is reminiscent of the days of slavery, when black men were killed at the very suggestion of their guilt. It is this old wound that has ignited the belief that the African-American Davis is being lynched by a white pardons board, despite the possibility of his innocence.
“To execute a man with this much doubt does not bode well for any of us, and, quite frankly, it harkens back to some ugly days in the history of this state,” said Raphael Warnock, who is senior pastor at Atlanta’s Ebenezer Baptist Church. “This is Jim Crow in a new era. There’s just too much doubt for this execution to continue.”
But the family of the slain officer, including his widow, Joan MacPhail-Harris, say that the jury was correct in convicting Davis in 1991, and that Georgia is correct in proceeding with his execution tonight.
“For someone to ludicrously say that [Davis] was a victim — we are the victims,” MacPhail-Harris said Monday night after addressing the parole board.
I'm so mad about this I don't know what to do. Anytime theres a shred of evidence saying somebody could be innnocent you don't kill them anyway. What harm is it to wait a month and look over all the facts again. Death is irrevesible. It makes it seem like the whole thing is about race.