Friday June 12, 2009, 1:57 am
NAACP Launches Campaign To Save Innocent Man From Execution

TROY DAVIS COULD DIE WITHIN WEEKS

http://www.naacp.org/news/press/2009-06-10/

Visit this new website by the NAACP which allows people to send an email directly to the Governor and the DA:

www.IAMTROY.com

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MARY’S COMMENTARY

A PRESIDENTIAL PARDON WOULD BE IN ORDER for Troy Davis and would be in keeping with the Obama administration's commitment to equal justice and open disclosure. Troy Davis is an African American man who was tried by an all-white Southern jury for the 1989 murder of a white police officer. The State of Georgia paid a pitiful amount for his defense on the capital murder charge – less than $2,000. Some of the prosecution’s witnesses later withdrew their testimony against Davis and revealed that police coerced them into making false statements against him. Despite three stays of execution, Davis has repeatedly been denied a new trial, and he now lives under a gag order that prevents him from speaking to press about his new evidence. Neither “equal justice” nor “open disclosure” can be terms used to describe Troy Davis’ case.

Hundreds of thousands of people across the globe agree that it would be wrong to execute Troy Davis, whose guilt is not proved. The world has witnessed enough prisoner torture and deaths at the hands of America’s justice system. There is reason for concern about domestic peace if Troy Davis is executed without the benefit of a new trial. I urge President Obama to exercise his presidential power to pardon this likely innocent man if the U.S. Supreme Court does not move for a new trial and Governor Purdue refuses to pardon Davis.

Friday June 12, 2009, 2:43 am
See more photographs and read NAACP's announcement at this NowPublic link:

http://my.nowpublic.com/world/naacp-launches-campaign-save-troy-davis-address-dp-prejudice

Select the "Visit Site" button above to get the article.

DOES ANYONE ELSE THINK THAT PRESIDENT OBAMA SHOULD PARDON TROY DAVIS IF THE SUPREME COURT REFUSES HIM AN EVIDENTIARY HEARING ON THE NEW EVIDENCE AND GOVERNOR PURDUE REFUSES TO PARDON HIM?

WHO DID PRESIDENT CLINTON PARDON?

WHO DID GEORGE BUSH PARDON?

Avoiding the type of backlash that could come as a result of executing a likely innocent man whose guilt is not proved is a good reason for a presidential pardon.

Many people are sick of seeing prisoners abused and killed in this "justice" system - at home and in offshore prison camps.

Friday June 12, 2009, 2:57 am
Care2 members, may I count on you to help promote this article? I will need your help. I put the article in my Care2 Sharebook. When you click the title of the article there, you bypass Care2 news and are taken directly to the article at NowPublic.com.

I want people to come to this page and share their views and note the article. Therefore, I have put the URL to this page TWICE on that Share, but the cyberstalker removes it each time. I will try once more. Since I am having this trouble, I know there will be other attempts to sabotage this news.

Please let your friends know about this new effort for Troy, and ask them to support the NAACP's efforts in his behalf. Thank you in advance.

Friday June 12, 2009, 3:13 am
Posting at AI, DUO, People Helping People, Human Rights Network, AIMI, Minority News Network, Mother Jones, and email to my Care2 friends. Thanks.

Friday June 12, 2009, 5:05 am
I posted at the groups named above and to all my friends.

Request: If any of my friends sees this article but did not get a copy of it in your inbox, please write that in the comments here. I saved picture copies of the emails I sent with your photos on it from my outbox. I will be happy to email same to you as an attachment. The emails later disappeared from my email folder for sevearl groups of friends, so I take it that your copies also disappeared from your inboxes without your seeing them. I don't know of any way to "UNSEND" an email at Care2, so I hope the cyberstalker allows you to receive the post. Thanks.

Friday June 12, 2009, 5:07 am
Thank you for the info Mary. This is horrifying.

Friday June 12, 2009, 5:31 am
Thank you, Sarah.

Looks like prisoner torture and death is the name of the game in 21st century America.

Friday June 12, 2009, 12:32 pm
The United States needs to do the right thing for a 'change', and give Troy Davis an Evidentiary Hearing by the U.S. Supreme Court!!!

Friday June 12, 2009, 3:50 pm
Thanks for your notes, everyone. Thank you for your comments, also. Robert, the NAACP brought the case before the Supreme Court this time.

If you read their email at the article site, you will note that the NAACP reports it is not hopeful of a positive decision from the High Court. We can always hope, but if the lawyers themselves don't feel good about Troy's chances with the Supreme Ct., it is hard for me to anticipate a good result, also.

I think sometimes with lawyers - and all judges are - there is much ego. I think lots of people who have dealt with this case would just like to see Troy dead and be done with it - guilt or innocence be damened.

Friday June 12, 2009, 5:37 pm
NAACP ANNOUNCEMENT
6/12/09

Director Benjamin Jealous Is Appearing on HBO Tonight, June 12, to Discuss the Troy Davis Case

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Dear Mary,

Tonight I will be on HBO's Real Time with Bill Maher talking about the most compelling case of innocence in several decades. I just met with Troy Anthony Davis, an African-American man in Georgia facing execution for a murder that all the evidence says he didn't commit.

I need your help to save Troy's life. Please visit our new campaign site, www.IAmTroy.com, to take action to stop his execution, which could be scheduled as soon as next month.

There is no physical evidence linking him to the crime and seven of the nine eyewitnesses have recanted or contradicted their testimonies. Some say they were coerced to lie by Savannah police. He has been on death row 18 years.

This NAACP campaign is not just online. NAACP organizers are on the streets and in the churches in Savannah, Georgia, working to persuade the new Chatham County District Attorney, Larry Chisolm, to reopen the case. Sign the petition now and organizers will hand it to the DA and Georgia's governor as well. This campaign is part of a larger NAACP program to reform our criminal justice system and end the mass imprisonment of our young people.

I hope you will also pass this e-mail along to your friends and ask them to sign the petition or buy an "I Am Troy" t-shirt and wear it to let other people know how they can help save Troy from wrongful execution.

Please, visit www.IAmTroy.com today and take two minutes to sign the petition.

With your help, we can save this innocent man's life.

Benjamin Todd Jealous
President and CEO
NAACP

©2009 NAACP, 4805 Mt. Hope Drive, Baltimore, MD 21215

Friday June 12, 2009, 8:37 pm
I thank God for Care2 News Network - a place where regular people like Troy Davis and I can have a voice. Thank all my friends and the Care2 community for CARING so much about this Southern black man who is fighting for his life. We fight right along with him, don't we?

As you probably know, Troy is under a gag order, so it is more important than ever that we speak up for him and other prisoners who are deprived of new trials, like Troy, and others who are denied post-DNA testing that could prove their innocence.

Bless everyone who notes and comments on this important news. Special blessings for all who sign petitions, attend rallies, make phone calls, and post news to your friends in your email boxes so they will note it and show support for this man.

Thank you once again for showing our judiciary that UNTIED WE STAND FOR JUSTICE. We are NOT divided along racial lines.

That America is GONE forever!

Friday June 12, 2009, 8:42 pm
got through on another computer i don't give up i believe in his innocence

Friday June 12, 2009, 9:33 pm
I watched Real Time-but Ben got shut out pretty badly. Disappointing.

Friday June 12, 2009, 11:02 pm
Not sure if it's me or not but I could not find this website to sign the petition through firefox. Internet explorer found it though. Just a heads up for some like honeysucklebarb. This is BS. This man deserves more!!!

Saturday June 13, 2009, 9:21 am
Mary, I gladly signed and cross posted on Facebook. (((Hugs))) and try and have a nice weekend! Steph

Saturday June 13, 2009, 11:25 am
~NOTED~ Sending Positive Light.

Saturday June 13, 2009, 8:05 pm
this man needs a break.....I mean it!!!

Sunday June 14, 2009, 1:44 am
I agree, Phyllis, especially after reading about the case in Wikipedia. Here is a brief excerpt, but please go to Wikipedia and read the whole thing.

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ON AUGUST 19, 1989, MARK MacPHAIL, an off-duty policeman, was working as a security guard at a Burger King restaurant in Savannah, Georgia. The incident started when Sylvester “Redd” Coles began harassing a homeless man, Larry Young, for a beer while Troy Davis and others watched quietly from a distance.[4] Coles verbally harassed and chased the homeless man to a nearby parking lot where MacPhail was working. Coles threatened the retreating homeless man by exclaiming: “You don’t know me. Don’t walk away from me. I’ll shoot you.” Davis and others silently followed the scuffle.[4] The homeless man yelled for help and MacPhail responded and was shot dead with a .38 caliber weapon. The parking lot was dark and the scene was chaotic.

Coles initially lied about carrying the .38 caliber revolver, but later admitted to carrying it with him on the night of the murder. He claimed that it was lost when the police attempted to recover the gun for testing.[4]

After the police swarmed his neighborhood looking for suspects, Redd Coles and his attorney approached the police to exonerate Coles and implicate Troy Davis. Before the police discovered Coles' lies, however, the police had issued an arrest warrant for Davis without corroborating any part of Coles’ story.[4] After the warrant was issued, Davis’ picture was plastered on wanted posters and in the local Savannah media. Davis stated that Coles had shot MacPhail.[4]

The police search of Davis' house less than 24 hours after the shooting turned up no gun.[4]

The police never searched Coles’ house for the murder weapon, never included Coles’ picture in witness photo spreads, and paraded Coles in front of four State witnesses as a mere bystander in a crime scene “reenactment.”[4]

Sunday June 14, 2009, 10:58 pm
This sounds like so many cases I've been familiar with in the past in which innocent people get railroaded by the police and prosecutors. This is so wrong! I will do my best to get a letter about this case to President Obama in hope that he will intervene.

Wednesday July 8, 2009, 12:31 am
I sent a letter (via the website form provided)

Sunday August 9, 2009, 10:46 am
In this case we want a presidential pardon, but considering the issues facing Obama now, I don't think this is going to happen. If the NAACP is involved and can provide legal assistance, perhaps they can get find a way to get a new trial. There seems to be so many descrepencies in how the case was handled that finding something to at least declare a mistrial is plausible.
I am against the death penalty exactly because of cases like this. If you are poor and a person of color, you have little to no chance in the judicial system. Death penalty cases are high profile cases, and like this one receive some attention. But there are also many other cases where public defenders encourage plea bargains in cases where someone is innocent or perhaps mentally ill. Mental health courts are step in the right direction, but they are not standard because it's expensive and considering the overburdening of the county courts and diminishing funding sources, I don't see the situation getting any better.

I hope the NAACP can bring some justice for Troy Davis.