UPDATE 12.22pm: US Supreme Court rejects appeal against Davis execution. His execution is now go ahead soon.

Earlier: Tension is mounting outside a US jail amid a massive police presence after a stunning last-minute intervention by the US Supreme Court delayed the execution of convicted killer Troy Davis.

Davis was to die by a lethal injection in a Georgia prison at 7pm local time but as the hour came news filtered out the execution had been delayed at the last moment.

A crowd of drumming and chanting Davis backers and praying anti-clemency supporters outside the prison has been joined by hundreds of police, witnesses report. At one point, dozens of local police cars arrived, circling threateningly under lights and sirens.

The Supreme Court is deliberating on another appeal for a stay. US journalists reported judges would make another ruling at 8.30pm, but that time passed with no further news.

Davis was to die by lethal injection in the Jackson prison at 7PM

CONTINUED..

Troy Davis enters the courtroom on September 20, 2011- photographer unknown

This is the first installment of a two-part post regarding the death penalty in the united States. The first installment will focus on the problem of wrongly convicted Americans being sentenced to death; the second, on undoubtably guilty ones, convicted of heinous crimes.

Today, at 7 p.m., Troy Davis was slated to be murdered by the state of Georgia for his alleged shooting of a (white) police officer, Mark MacPhail, in 1989.  Since his 1991 conviction, seven of the original nine eyewitnesses who testified against him have recanted, saying that they were coerced or threatened by the police into giving false testimony; and one of the two unrepentant witnesses was a fellow suspect in the shooting.  There is no physical evidence against Davis-  none.  No gun residue, no DNA, no fingerprints.  Nothing.   He is an innocent man, and his life is fodder for the careers and racial prejudice of Georgia officials.

I wish I had gotten involved in the fight for Troy Davis’ life earlier, but I have only become active in the past few days.  I have always opposed the death penalty in any case, but Davis’ story struck me as particularly heartbreaking because of his obvious innocence.  The death penalty always makes me think of Jesus Christ, in that Christ himself was a victim of capital punishment.  Jesus Christ=Criminal Sentenced to Die=Troy Davis. Jesus Christ=Troy Davis?  Personally, I believe that Christ is in all of us.

This summer, I read Sister Helen Prejean’s gutwrenching books on her personal experience working as an anti-death-penalty activist and as a spiritual adviser to condemned men- “Dead Man Walking” and “The Death of Innocents.”  They describe in detail the racially prejudiced and socioeconomically motivated world of capital punishment.  She vividly recounts the last day in the life of a “Dead Man Walking-” the hours locked in the Death House in the heart of the prison, the last phone call to family, the last meal, the diaper, the last words, the family of the victim there to watch the death of the man who took their child, spouse, parent, friend away.  Think of it- the guard who serves you your last meal is the same person to inject poisonous fluids into your veins!  The Death Penalty is surreal- because it’s supposed to be surreal.  That way, people living outside the world of the penitentiary are free to disassociate themselves from the murder their tax dollars are facilitating, to normalize barbarism.  It becomes acceptable because it is not designed to be seen as functioning as a part of the everyday world.  We make the whole thing so bizarre that civilians do not see it as part of our essential culture- even though it is.  We can go about our daily life without ever having to come to grips with the fact that at that moment Troy Davis is sweating out his final moments, breathing his last deep breaths of stale prison air, refusing the customary last meal, because he’s already had four “last meals” and he refuses to play games anymore.

Two days ago I found myself doodling this portrait of Troy Davis in my art history notebook:

I realized that I couldn’t get him out of my head.  Ever since an incident in my formative years- which I will discuss on this blog in the near future- I have held as essential belief that a person who sees evil, acknowledges it, recognizes that they have the ability to fight that evil, and then willfully does nothing, is as guilty as the evildoer.  I had knowledge that Troy Davis’ innocent life was in imminent danger; therefore, I had to do everything in my power to lessen that threat.  I made dozens of little handwritten notes with the URL of the Amnesty International Save Troy Davis petition, with the phone numbers of Georgia’s governor, Pardon Board, and the District Attorney in charge of prosecuting Davis. I gave those out to friends, acquaintances, and passerby today.  Then I made myself this sign and pinned it to my shirt:

Photograph by my friend Chaz Aracil

Never underestimate the power of the visual (I guess that’s the M.O. of this blog, isn’t it?).  For years, Davis’ supporters have been gathering under the slogan “I Am Troy Davis,” using the striking imagery of Davis’ photograph held over their faces:

One thing that always come across to me when reading about the condemned and the people around them is the lesson of intense humanity this heinous institution teaches- moments of incredible love and incredible hate, faults and perfections, the hurt that one person can lavish on another and the healing we can likewise bestow.  There’s a moment in “The Death of Innocents” when the convicted man, Joseph O’Dell, and his legal aid representative, fall in love and marry on the day of his execution.  They aren’t allowed to touch each other, so in lieu of a kiss to seal the ceremony, they breathe into each others’ mouths and “so exchange the breath of their bodies as communion.”  The passage resonated with me and I later illustrated it:

At 7 o’clock today, at the scheduled time of Troy Davis’ murder (I refuse to call it a sanitized name like “execution”), I went to a nearby chapel, and prayed for Davis’ family, and for the family of Mark MacPhail, and for all the people who have given them aid, and for all the people who have failed them (I believe that I fall into both of the last two categories).  At 7:20, I left the chapel and went to the library to look up the news and find out what Davis’ last words had been.  Instead, I found an altogether different news bulletin: “BREAKING: TROY DAVIS GRANTED A REPRIEVE.”  I don’t think I’ve ever gone so fast from a state of total sorrow to a state of total elation.  True, it’s not a pardon or a release, but it’s another chance for justice to be served.

EDIT:  The reprieve was a sham.  Troy Davis was murdered by the State of Georgia at 11:08 p.m.  His last words asked God to have mercy on the souls of his killers.   THIS is the crime.  THIS is the atrocity.

Now we have to work like we never have before to make sure that he will not have died in vain.

At 7:05 p.m., five minutes after his scheduled death, Davis’ supporters erupted in cheers, hugs and tears outside the jail in Jackson, Ga., as supporters believed Davis had been saved from the death penalty. But Davis was granted only a temporary reprieve as the Supreme Court considers the decision.

The warrant for Davis’ execution is valid until Sept. 28. The Georgia Resource Center, part of Davis’ legal defense team, said it was unsure how long the delay would last.

Davis was convicted of the 1989 murder of Savannah, Ga., policeman Mark MacPhail, and had his execution stayed four times over the course of his 22 years on death row, but multiple legal appeals during that time failed to prove his innocence.

Public support grew for Davis based on the recanted testimony of seven witnesses from his trial and the possible confession of another suspect, which his defense team claimed cast too much doubt on Davis’ guilt to follow through with an execution.

Several witnesses recanted their testimony that Davis fired the shot that killed MacPhail. His impending execution has brought those efforts to a head.

Troy Davis Backers in Frantic Last Minute Efforts to Stop Execution

A growing tide of celebrities, politicians, and social media users called for the execution to be delayed because of “too much doubt” present in his case.

Troy Davis’ execution was delayed tonight as the Supreme Court weighed arguments by Davis’ legal team and the state of Georgia over whether he deserves a stay.

At 7:05 p.m., five minutes after his scheduled death, Davis’ supporters erupted in cheers, hugs and tears outside the jail in Jackson, Ga., as supporters believed Davis had been saved from the death penalty. But Davis was granted only a temporary reprieve as the Supreme Court considers the decision.

The warrant for Davis’ execution is valid until Sept. 28. The Georgia Resource Center, part of Davis’ legal defense team, said it was unsure how long the delay would last.

Davis was convicted of the 1989 murder of Savannah, Ga., policeman Mark MacPhail, and had his execution stayed four times over the course of his 22 years on death row, but multiple legal appeals during that time failed to prove his innocence.

Public support grew for Davis based on the recanted testimony of seven witnesses from his trial and the possible confession of another suspect, which his defense team claimed cast too much doubt on Davis’ guilt to follow through with an execution.

Several witnesses recanted their testimony that Davis fired the shot that killed MacPhail. His impending execution has brought those efforts to a head.

Troy Davis Backers in Frantic Last Minute Efforts to Stop Execution

A growing tide of celebrities, politicians, and social media users called for the execution to be delayed because of “too much doubt” present in his case.

At a protest in front of the White House today at least 12 Howard University students were arrested for failing to move off the White House sidewalk, according to ABC News affiliate WJLA. The protest there was expected to last until 7 p.m.

A flurry of messages on Twitter using the hashtags #TroyDavis and #TooMuchDoubt showed thousands of supporters of Davis were intent on flooding the Jackson Distirct Attorney’s Office, Georgia Judge Penny Freezeman’s office, and the U.S. Attorney General’s Office with phone calls and emails to beg for a stay on the execution.

Some users accused Twitter of blocking the topic from trending on Tuesday, though a representative from Twitter told ABC News there was no such action taken. The hashtags were trending today in cities around the U.S. as well as Germany, the U.K., Sweden, and France. Many tweets called the case a symbol of a return to Jim Crow laws and racial inequalities in the justice system.

Big Boi, a member of the group Outkast, tweeted to his followers to go to the Georgia state prison in Jackson to protest the decision. The Roots’ Questlove tweeted a similar message.

The NAACP and the Revs. Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson held a news conference today calling for the execution to be halted.

Amnesty International, which has been fighting on behalf of Davis, encouraged supporters to attend a vigil at the church across the street from the prison at 5:30 p.m. and a protest at 6 p.m., and asked participants to wear a black armband and write on it, “Not in my name!”

Wendy Gozen Brown, a spokeswoman for Amnesty International, said that Troy Davis would want the protests to remain peaceful.

“In this type of situation, there’s always the potential for it to go awry, with certain groups, angry rhetoric,” Brown said. “But Troy Davis would want people to keep fighting peacefully, for him and for, as he would put it, all of the other Troy Davises out there.”

Others who have voiced support for Davis include former President Jimmy Carter, the pope and a former FBI director.

Davis’s execution has been stayed four times for appeals since his conviction in 1989, and the Supreme Court gave him a rare chance to prove his innocence last year, but rejected his plea.

A Georgia board of pardons and paroles rejected Davis’s plea for clemency on Tuesday.

Related articles

• New Yorkers To Rally Against Execution Of Georgia Death Row Inmate Troy Davis (newyork.cbslocal.com)
• Controversial Troy Davis execution to proceed (cbc.ca)
• Troy Davis clemency bid denied on execution eve in Georgia (cbsnews.com)
• Troy Davis protest outside the White House (whitehouse.blogs.cnn.com)
• Late appeal before Troy Davis execution (independent.co.uk)

As we mentioned in our previous post, Davis has maintained his innocence in the 1991 murder of officer Mark MacPhail, and seven of the nine witnesses have recanted their previous testimonies. In addition, numerous individuals, including international figures such as Pope Benedict XVI, Bishop Desmond Tutu and former President Jimmy Carter, have pursued exoneration for Davis.

But millions of petitions were not enough for the parole board who issued a statement Tuesday announcing it had “met on Monday to consider a clemency request from attorneys representing condemned inmate Troy Anthony Davis. After considering the request, the Board has voted to deny clemency.“

Amnesty International issued a statement following the Board’s:

>It is unconscionable that the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles has denied relief to Troy Davis. Allowing a man to be sent to death under an enormous cloud of doubt about his guilt is an outrageous affront to justice. Should Troy Davis be executed, Georgia may well have executed an innocent man and in doing so discredited the justice system.

Supporters of Troy Davis have planned vigils around the country and around the world ahead of his scheduled evening execution.

Davis was convicted of the 1989 killing of Savannah, Georgia police officer Mark MacPhail.

On August 19, 1989, MacPhail was working security at a bus station and rushed to the aid of Larry Young, a homeless man who prosecutors say Davis was bashing with a handgun after asking him for a beer.

When MacPhail got there, they say Davis had a smirk on his face as he shot the officer to death in a Burger King parking lot. Others have claimed the man with Davis that night has told people he actually shot the officer.

No gun was ever found, but shell casings were linked, prosecutors say, to an earlier shooting for which Davis was convicted. Witnesses placed Davis at the crime scene and identified him as the shooter. However, no other physical evidence was found, including blood or DNA, that tied Davis to the crime.

But since Davis’ conviction in 1991, several witnesses have recanted their testimony and some jurors have said they’ve changed their minds about his guilt.

Still, prosecutors and MacPhail’s family have staunchly backed the verdict and state and federal courts have repeatedly upheld his conviction.

Davis has received multiple stays of execution over the years and his case has even gone to the U.S. Supreme Court.

As his execution looms, there are at least two vigils planned in New York City calling for clemency in the case.

In Brooklyn, the group Progressive New Yorkers for Troy Davis is holding a rally and vigil at 6 p.m. on Atlantic Avenue between Nevins and Bond streets in Brooklyn.

The group says there will be several speakers at the event.

Amnesty International USA is also holding vigil Wednesday evening in Harlem. Its event also begins at 6p.m. on 125th Street and Adam Clayton Powell Boulevard.

“It is unconscionable that the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles has denied relief to Troy Davis. Allowing a man to be sent to death under an enormous cloud of doubt about his guilt is an outrageous affront to justice,” Larry Cox, executive director of AIUSA said in a statement. “Should Troy Davis be executed, Georgia may well have executed an innocent man and in so doing discredited the justice system.”

As time ticks toward the execution, Davis has turned down an offer for a special last meal and planned to spend his final hours meeting with friends, family and supporters.

Meanwhile, two attempts to prove his innocence were rejected: a polygraph test and another hearing before the pardons board.

His attorney Stephen Marsh said Davis would only submit to a polygraph test if pardons officials would take it seriously.

“He doesn’t want to spend three hours away from his family on what could be the last day of his life if it won’t make any difference,” Marsh said.

His lawyers, meanwhile, are trying the legal avenues left to them, filing a motion in a county court challenging the ballistics evidence and eyewitness testimony. A judge could at least delay the execution, which has happened three times before.

As for the new and changed accounts by some witnesses, an unmoved federal judge dismissed them during a hearing set up by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2010. He said while the “new evidence casts some additional, minimal doubt on his conviction, it is largely smoke and mirrors.”

It was the first time in 50 years that justices had considered a request to grant a new trial for a death row inmate. It set a tough standard for Davis to exonerate himself, ruling his attorneys must “clearly establish” Davis’ innocence, a higher bar to meet than prosecutors having to prove guilt.

Prosecutors say they have no doubt they charged the right person, and MacPhail’s family lobbied the pardons board Monday to reject Davis’ clemency appeal. The board refused to stop the execution a day later.

“He has had ample time to prove his innocence,” said MacPhail’s widow, Joan MacPhail-Harris. “And he is not innocent.”

Davis’ supporters include former President Jimmy Carter, Pope Benedict XVI and a former FBI director, the NAACP, as well as conservative figures.

What do you think? Share your thoughts below…

(TM and Copyright 2011 CBS Radio Inc. and its relevant subsidiaries. CBS RADIO and EYE Logo TM and Copyright 2011 CBS Broadcasting Inc. Used under license. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)

Although the board chose to deny clemency to Davis in spite of the fact that numerous witnesses and even one of the original jury members, has expressed more than reasonable doubt about Davis’ conviction; God will not turn his back on injustice. His personality and DNA will not allow the wicked to escape from justice. Additionally, the word of God stresses that He will deal with all evil and that no one escapes.

John’s understanding and his foreseeability offers us great hope:

· God will grab hold of evil and throw it into a pit that has no end (Rev. 20:2-3

· He will place a seal on the source of evil (Rev. 20:3)

· He will administer judgment and restore believers who have been killed unjustly (Rev. 20:4)

· He will once and for all tackle Satan after allowing him one last attempt to deceive (Rev. 20:7-9); the evil one punishment will include torment that will last forever (Rev. 20:10, 4)

John’s account provides great security, hope and promise to all who are so very tired of the injustices in our world today. As we work to spread righteous, peace and justice to our fellow-man, we can take comfort in knowing that no matter the corruption, God has the final say. And in the end justice will be handed out by the One who can be trusted and counted upon, He Christ Jesus.

Please continue to pray for our justice system and all of the families impacted by this case, especially on September 21, 2011 at 7pm (est) as the execution of Troy Davis is scheduled to take place.

For more information about Dr. Tracy Scott, visit www.soulfeed.org.

Lawyers for Troy Davis, scheduled to die by lethal injection at 7 p.m. local time, requested a polygraph for their client but prison officials turned them down, the lawyers were quoted by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution newspaper as saying.

Davis’ case has attracted international attention and an online protest that has accumulated nearly one million signatures because of doubts expressed in some quarters over whether he killed police officer Mark MacPhail in 1989.

Davis’ best hope of avoiding execution lay with the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles but on Tuesday it denied him clemency following a one-day hearing.

“Troy is so insistent of his innocence that he is willing to take a polygraph. I think it’s a bit of a risky strategy. Polygraph tests are not the most solid type of evidence,” said Laura Moye, a spokeswoman for Amnesty.

“There are a number of legal filings at a number of different courts that they [his lawyers] are trying to see what they might be able to do to try and stop this execution,” Moye said.

Davis was convicted of murdering MacPhail outside a Burger King restaurant in Savannah, Georgia. MacPhail’s family say Davis is guilty and should be executed.

Since his conviction, seven of nine witnesses have changed or recanted their testimony, some have said they were coerced by police to testify against Davis and some say another man committed the crime.

No physical evidence linked Davis to the killing.

Amnesty and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People plan a protest outside Georgia’s Diagnostic and Classification Prison on Wednesday.

© Thomson Reuters 2011

Troy Davis was left with little to do Tuesday but wait to be executed for a murder he insists he did not commit after Georgia’s pardons board rejected his appeal for clemency. As his scheduled 7 p.m. Wednesday execution neared, his backers resorted to far-fetched measures. They asked prisons officials to let him take a polygraph test; urged prison workers to strike or call in sick; asked prosecutors to block the execution and they even considered a desperate appeal for White House intervention. Read the entire story here.

In a late development,  Davis’ attorneys lost a bid to give him a polygraph test to prove his innocence but planned another late appeal, this one aimed at blocking the execution by convincing a judge that some of the original evidence was questionable.

Defense lawyer Stephen Marsh told The Associated Press that the Georgia Department of Corrections denied his request to allow Davis to take a polygraph test. Marsh had said he hoped the polygraph would convince the state pardons board to reconsider a decision against clemency.

Civil rights activists plan to spend the day outside of the  Georgia Diagnostic and Classification prison in Jackson, Georgia to protest the execution.  Busses will take supporters to the Jackson prison to participate in the protests.

While supporters of Troy Davis continue to try all methods to hold off the execution the family of officer Mark MacPhail who was killed in 1989 say they are ready for the execution of Davis so they will have closure. Members of Mark MacPhail’s family will be at the prison in Jackson to witness the execution tonight.

One of the most important anniversaries in sports was Tuesday, Sept. 20.
It’s an anniversary I feel particularly strongly about, because I have met the woman involved several times and found her to be one of the classiest, most heartfelt people I’ve ever met.
On Sept. 20, 1973, Billie Jean King defeated Bobby Riggs in a tennis match that was kind of like a day at the circus. It was played at the Houston Astrodome, where 45,000 people attended, and to say it was a hugely important day for women’s rights, and women’s athletes, is an understatement.
It’s easy to look back now and marvel at how it was such a big deal that 29-year-old woman in her athletic prime could whip a 55-year-old man on the court. (And I love the cheesy commercial above, which I found randomly on YouTube. God bless the Internet).
But it was a big deal. There were plenty of people back then who didn’t think King would win. But she did, easily.
Like I said, I’ve had the privilege of interviewing King a few times over the years, and she was nothing but gracious, eloquent, and kind. I would make the argument that she was the most influential female athlete/leader of the 20th century, and thanks to her millions more women were treated as serious athletes as the 20th century’s final decades rolled on.
So 38 years later, every female athlete playing today owes a small debt to Billie Jean King, truly a legend of our time.

**Here’s what can happen when you’re on the field at an NFL game. This poor intern for the New York Giants, Ryan Brown, was standing behind the end zone, minding his own business Monday night, when Giant Michael Boley scored a TD and tried to throw the ball over the cameraman. And he, eh, showed why he’s not a QB: (Boley later apologized to the kid).

**Maybe you’re familiar with the case of Troy Davis, a Georgia man sentenced to the death penalty and scheduled to be executed on Wednesday.

Despite there being literally NO physical evidence, despite seven of nine eyewitnesses re-canting their testimony against him, despite there being NO evidence of any crime being committed against police officer Mark MacPhail in Savannah, Ga., in 1989, the state parole board denied Mr. Davis clemency on Tuesday.

This is the country we live in. This is what happens when you have an irreversible act like the death penalty as an option.

The state of Georgia is about to execute a man who is very likely innocent. And the blood on the hands of everyone involved should leave a permanent stain.
Meanwhile, Rick Perry and his “fans” are probably standing and cheering right now.

A while back, I posted a “Decent People Action Alert” about Troy Davis, the African American man who was convicted back in 1991 for killing a White police officer, Mark MacPhail

I meant to post again a couple of weeks ago about Mr. Davis and urge folks to take action about his case–and you can still do that by clicking here and please, please take action. But I told myself I was really too busy to post.

That isn’t the truth. The truth is, I stayed silent because I just didn’t want to think about Troy Davis; I knew it would bring me down real low. But I’m already there: I woke up this morning to the news in The New York Times that Troy Davis had been rejected clemency by the Georgia Board of Pardons, which means he will be executed tomorrow, barring a legal miracle.

I don’t mean to be defeatist, but it’s hard not to be because I’m from Georgia and I know the ways of that state. Along with my summer memories of crispy fried chicken, shamefully delicious peaches, beautiful landscapes, and traditional spirituals sung in clapboard churches, I remember the stories about the murders of Black folks told by the members of my African American Georgia family.

I hate to put this so bluntly and (perhaps) rudely, but White folks have been killing Black people for blood sport in Georgia for a very long time.

Take the lynching of Mary Turner in Valdosta, Georgia in 1918. Miss Mary was eight months pregnant when a mob seized and lynched her husband, Haynes. When Miss Mary threatened to call the Law, the mob turned on her. They hung her and cut the eight-month-old fetus from her womb. The baby cried out, and then, the mob took turns stomping the baby to death. There is now a full-length book about this event, Mary Turner and the Memory of Lynching by Julie Buckner Armstrong.

Or, let’s take the story told in Fire in a Canebrake: The Last Mass Lynching in America by Laura Wexler, the story of the murder of two Black couples by a group of White men in Walton County, Georgia in 1946. It was discovered that one of the men was (possibly) having an affair with a young, White woman and the White outrage over this led to the killing. Though the FBI got involved, no one responsible was ever named or convicted. Incidentally, my mother was thirteen-years-old when this killing happened, and she vividly remembers the news of it.

And then, there are the stories that never made it into the History books, like that of one of my mother’s neighbors, a school janitor. He would stay late after school, ostensibly to clean, and a White lady schoolteacher would stay late, too, ostensibly to prepare her lessons. But everybody in the Black community knew the truth, that they were going together, and I guess one of them informed, because one day, a White man found the couple making love. So the lady schoolteacher accused my mother’s neighbor of rape, and eventually, he ended up in the electric chair.

This is Georgia. This is what we Black Georgians remember in the blood. And there are literally hundreds of these stories from back in the day. But now, in Georgia, they just murder Black men using the legal system; they don’t need to lynch in secret anymore.

When I heard about Troy Davis, I didn’t have a lot of hope that he would escape execution, and neither did my mother. After all, he’s Black, he was convicted of killing a White police officer, and he’s in a pro-death penalty state that has a long history of executing Black men, both legally and extra-legally. However, I signed a petition against the execution. But now, it seems that Mr. Davis is going to be murdered under the guise of “execution.”  I suspected it was going to happen; still, it hurts me just the same.

In The New York Times article today, Anneliese MacPhail, Mark MacPhail’s mother was quoted as saying, “I’m not for blood. I’m for justice. We have been through hell, my family.”

I feel badly for Mrs. MacPhail and I mean that sincerely. I can only imagine her pain. I’m not a mother, but I do know what it’s like to lose a family member, and I’ve lost friends to violence. I don’t want to seem unsympathetic, because every mother’s child is important to her; yet, when I focus on that word “justice,” something inside me shifts to irony .

Executing Troy Davis is about Mrs. MacPhail’s  wanting the person who killed her child to suffer. I understand that desire. And that’s why I believe in life incarceration for murderers, because I’m not one of these folks who think a Bible held in a killer’s hand and a quick “I’m sorry” is going to wipe away a crime and the need for a criminal to make amends. No matter how racist the American justice system is against Black men, I wholly support criminals “doing time.”

Mark MacPhail won’t be coming back, but his mother’s grief will return, even if a mother’s son won’t. And that’s why she wants justice–but her grief will be back whether Troy Davis is innocent or guilty of killing Mark MacPhail, and whether he is executed tomorrow at 7pm.

So really, is executing this man about justice?  Supposedly, justice was done when Troy Davis was found guilty of murder—if indeed, he was the actual culprit. (And frankly, there is a lot of doubt about that). What justice will be had by killing him, especially since there’s so much doubt lingering in this case?

And what if I decided I wanted Mrs. MacPhail’s kind of justice for what was done to Mary Turner, Haynes Turner, and Unnamed Turner Baby?

What if I wanted that kind of justice for those four young people lynched in the canebrake that day?

What if I wanted that kind of justice for my mother’s neighbor, electrocuted for falling in love with the wrong White lady?

Who dies because of them–who dies because of all those hundreds murdered in our Black past?

If we are all honest about the death penalty, it’s not about justice—it’s about retribution, a blood cost. An “eye for an eye.” But if the White citizens of Georgia are honest, there are plenty of us Black folks out here who could start tallying up our own blood cost—in the names of our own murdered dead—if we were so inclined. Fortunately, we are not. At least, not the sane Black folks among us.

When some of us African Americans ask for reparations for slavery, and reparations for the racial terror our ancestors endured in the aftermath of slavery in the South—the forced labor of Black men in the southern states, the lynchings, the rapes—make no mistake, it’s not money we really want. It’s remembrance. It’s justice for our dead.

We don’t want some Disney-Goes-to-Hollywood portrayal of our ancestors’ pain like we saw in The Help movie. But at the same time, if we Black folks start really remembering all that horror done to our kin in the past, it might drive us crazy. And we might seek our own retribution, but we know that’s not the way. That’s why we talk about reparations instead.

I think about Mrs. MacPhail. She’s been in pain for a long time, over twenty years. Her child is dead, and the man she believes—knows in her heart—killed him is still alive and walking around, even if he’s walking in prison. That’s not right to her. She wants her own justice.

Believe me, I know exactly how she feels. I want my own justice, too, for the hundreds of my Georgia Black folks who didn’t get their day in court, the way Mark MacPhail did. Who were murdered and dishonored. Sometimes, their blood cries out so loudly to me, it screams a song in the middle of the night. I’m not exaggerating here for the sake of my argument. I’m telling you the stone-cold truth.

So I just do the only thing I can: I think about a Black man who is probably going to die tomorrow, even though I hope he won’t. Then, I pray to a good God who has an infinite memory and who knows what really happened. After that, I forgive my own trespassers. Then, I write a blog post and hope it touches one person’s heart–just one. Then, I try to forgive again.

.

.

It’s amazing some in the black community will give cop killers a pass.  If these people will kill cops they’ll do anything with no regret or remorse.

How can we be expected to clean up the mess of the black community.  The black community needs to police and convict their own and not leave it up to us.  They really need to be harder on their own than we would be.  Clean up your streets and stop making excuses.

Mark MacPhail was afforded no jury, no trial, no mercy.  He was executed by Troy Davis.  No doubt Troy Davis and some in the black community are laughing about what Davis got away with just like they laughed about what OJ Simpson got away with.

If we can’t count on the police, courts, and parole system for justice men in the community will have to demand and exact justice.  Are we going back to the days of frontier justice?  Are we to live by the feud again?  Justice needs to be swift in these cases.  Davis should have been executed 20 years ago.

Please put him out of our misery and give the MacPhail family some justice.

This march brought various ages, nationalities, and religious groups together in an effort to bring a halt to the scheduled execution of Troy Davis on September 21, 2011. An estimated 5,000 supporters marched from Woodruff Park to Auburn Avenue as the crowd marched they yelled various chants such as, “No justice, no peace” and “Who are we? Troy Davis.”

The march was concluded with a prayer vigil at Ebenezer Baptist Church, which only half the crowd could fit in the building. This prayer vigil included great orators, singers, and social activist leaders, such as Rev. Al Sharpton, Comedian Dick Gregory, Ben Jealous, Rev. AL White, Indigo Girls and many more. The prayer vigil focused on the need to stop the execution of Troy Davis, to eliminate the death penalty and bring justice for the MacPhail family by finding his murderer. Various religious leaders and 2,500 plus supporters joined in an interfaith prayer for healing and justice for Davis and MacPhail families.

The Prayer vigil and march gave a voice to those falsely incarcerated and those on death row. Many speakers quoted one of the Ten Commandments in the Bible, “Thou shall not kill.” As mentioned at the prayer vigil by Roberta Abdul-Salem, Georgia State Representative, “this is not only about Troy Davis but for all the Troy Davis’s before and after him across America.”

Amnesty International and the NAACP are asking for you to support this effort by praying Monday during the appeal to Georgia pardons and paroles board, and gathering on Georgia state capital Tuesday, September 20, 2011 at 7:00 PM. We are our brother’s keeper.

Scripture: “36. I was in prison and you came to visit me…39.Then the righteous will answer him..’When did we see you sick or in prison and to visit you?’ 40. The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.” (Matthew 25:36,39,40 NIV)

Much has been made of the claims of innocence made by Troy Anthony Davis, the individual charged and convicted of killing Officer Mark Allen MacPhail. Over twenty years later, we are approaching another scheduled execution of Troy Anthony Davis. On Monday, September 19, 2011, the Georgia State Board of Pardons and Parole will again consider a clemency petition from Troy Anthony Davis. It is important to note the statements and opinions of the judges who have heard Troy Davis’ petitions and appeals over the past two decades.

When Troy Davis petitioned the United States Supreme Court for a hearing that would provide an opportunity for him present evidence of his innocence, the Court granted his request on August 17, 2009. The USSC sent the matter to the United States Federal District Court for the Southern District of Georgia in Savannah. On August 24, 2010, Federal District Court Judge William Moore issued a ruling.

Although the USSC sent the case to Judge Moore for a hearing, Justice Antonin Scalia dissented to this decision. In his dissent, he included a procedural history of this case including the number of courts and administrative reviews afforded Troy Anthony Davis and the truth about the “new evidence” Troy Anthony Davis claimed would prove his innocence. His summary and comments are as follows:

“Eighteen years ago, after a trial untainted by constitutional defect, a unanimous jury found petitioner Troy Anthony Davis guilty of the murder of Mark Allen MacPhail. The evidence showed that MacPhail, an off-duty police officer, was shot multiple times after responding to the beating of a homeless man in a restaurant parking lot. [Citation omitted] Davis admits that he was present during the beating of the homeless man, but he maintains that it was one of his companions who shot Officer MacPhail. It is this claim of “actual innocence”-the same defense Davis raised at trial but now allegedly supported by new corroborating affidavits-that Davis raises as grounds for relief. And (presumably) it is this claim that the Court wants the District Court to adjudicate once the petition is transferred.

“[T]he allegedly new evidence we shunt off to be examined by the District Court has already been considered (and rejected) multiple times. Davis’s postconviction “actual-innocence” claim is not new. Most of the evidence on which it is based is almost a decade old. A State Supreme Court, a State Board of Pardons and Paroles, and a Federal Court of Appeals have all considered the evidence Davis now presents and found it lacking. (I do not rely upon the similar conclusion of the Georgia trial court, since unlike the others that court relied substantially upon Georgia evidentiary rules rather than the unpersuasiveness of the evidence Davis brought forward. [Citation omitted]

 The Georgia Supreme Court “look[ed] beyond bare legal principles that might otherwise be controlling to the core question of whether a jury presented with Davis’s allegedly-new testimony would probably find him not guilty or give him a sentence other than death.” [Citation omitted] After analyzing each of Davis’s proffered affidavits and comparing them with the evidence adduced at trial, it concluded that it was not probable that they would produce a different result. [Citation omitted]

 When Davis sought clemency before the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles, that tribunal stayed his execution and “spent more than a year studying and considering [his] case.” [Citation omitted] It “gave Davis’ attorneys an opportunity to present every witness they desired to support their allegation that there is doubt as to Davis’ guilt”; it “heard each of these witnesses and questioned them closely.” [Citation omitted] It “studied the voluminous trial transcript, the police investigation report and the initial statements of the witnesses,” and “had certain physical evidence retested and Davis interviewed.” [Citation omitted] “After an exhaustive review of all available information regarding the Troy Davis case and after considering all possible reasons for granting clemency, the Board … determined that clemency is not warranted.” [Citation omitted]

After reviewing the record, the Eleventh Circuit came to a conclusion “wholly consonant with the repeated conclusions of the state courts and the State Board of Pardons and Paroles.” [Citation omitted] “When we view all of this evidence as a whole, we cannot honestly say that Davis can establish by clear and convincing evidence that a jury would not have found him guilty of Officer MacPhail’s murder.” [Citation omitted]

 Today, without explanation and without any meaningful guidance, this Court sends the District Court for the Southern District of Georgia on a fool’s errand. That court is directed to consider evidence of actual innocence which has been reviewed and rejected at least three times, and which, even if adequate to persuade the District Court, cannot (as far as anyone knows) form the basis for any relief. I truly do not see how the District Court can discern what is expected of it. If this Court thinks it possible that capital convictions obtained in full compliance with law can never be final, but are always subject to being set aside by federal courts for the reason of “actual innocence,” it should set this case on our own docket so that we can (if necessary) resolve that question. Sending it to a district court that “might” be authorized to provide relief, but then again “might” be reversed if it did so, is not a sensible way to proceed.”

Judge Moore heard testimony after providing Troy Anthony Davis’ counsel months of preparation. He issued a ruling that includes this statement:

“Before the Court is Petitioner Troy Anthony Davis’s Petition for a Writ of Habeas Corpus. [Citation omitted] Pursuant to the order of the Supreme Court, this Court has held a hearing and now determines this petition. [Citation omitted] For the above stated reasons, this Court concludes that executing an innocent person would violate the Eighth Amendment of the United States Constitution. However, Mr. Davis is not innocent: the evidence produced at the hearing on the merits of Mr. Davis’s claim of actual innocence and a complete review of the record in this case does not require the reversal of the jury’s judgment that Troy Anthony Davis murdered City of Savannah Police Officer Mark Allen MacPhail on August 19, 1989. Accordingly, the petition is DENIED.”

When Officer MacPhail chose to act in accordance with his oath of office on August 19, 1989, he carried on his uniform and badge of office the authority of the law, the power of our courts and the commitment of his community. To walk away would have been to betray the trust placed in him. So Officer MacPhail placed his life in danger to intervene in an altercation to protect the rights and safety of a stranger. He took a risk that his family would lose him and that he would give his life in the performance of his duty. When Troy Anthony Davis shot and killed Officer MacPhail, he pointed a gun at the representations of law and order in our society and pulled the trigger on the principles upon which we stand.

Officer MacPhail lost his life that day, but the principles that drove him to protect a homeless stranger survived him. Those same principles afforded Troy Anthony Davis a trial, appeals and unprecedented reviews of the evidence against him. Troy Anthony Davis received due process and equal justice under law. The time has come to honor the principles upon which we stand and give Officer MacPhail the justice he deserves.

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL:
www.amnesty.org
MOVE ON:
www.front.moveon.org