Congressional leaders say Troy Davis is innocent

U.S. Representatives John Lewis and Hank Johnson, accompanied by NAACP National President Ben Jealous, visited Georgia death row prisoner Troy Anthony Davis for close to two hours on May 29.

Troy Davis

Speaking to a crowd of Davis’ supporters outside the prison walls in Jackson, Ga., the three leaders, convinced of his innocence, pledged to pursue other means to bring justice in Davis’ case.

Davis was convicted in Chatham County in 1991 of killing off-duty policeman Mark Allen McPhail at a trial where the only evidence presented to the jury was eyewitness testimony. The state had no weapon, fingerprints or other physical evidence connecting Davis to the crime. Seven of the nine witnesses have since recanted their testimony, with several directly charging Savannah police with intimidating and threatening them into making false statements.

Additional witnesses never heard at the trial have claimed another man, Sylvester “Red” Coles, is the shooter. Coles, who originally went to the police and named Davis, is one of only two witnesses who have not recanted their testimony. The other initially told police at the scene he would not be able to identify the killer, yet two years later he pointed to Troy Davis in court.

After both the Georgia Supreme Court and the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals both narrowly turned down Davis’ motions for a court hearing on the new evidence, Davis’ lawyers have filed a last effort with the U.S. Supreme Court.

When asked what additional options Lewis and Johnson might pursue, they mentioned Congressional legislation or a presidential pardon. Jealous said that the case was a national priority for the NAACP, and would be a major item on the agenda of their upcoming convention.

A week earlier, two dozen members of Congress sent a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder asking him to “take any action, open any investigation or simply use the persuasion of your office to ensure that a grave injustice is not done in Georgia.” The letter referred to the ongoing legacy of segregation and Jim Crow ideology that persists in the South, as well as the heightened racism fed by media coverage of the police “manhunt” for the killer of a white police officer.

While more and more elected officials and legal experts, including judges and prosecutors, publicly call for a new trial for Davis, the grassroots movement that has worked tirelessly to bring national and international attention to the blatant injustice of Davis’ case is not resting. For several weekends, teams have been canvassing Savannah neighborhoods, collecting signatures on petitions directed to the Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue and the Pardons and Parole Board.

The International Action Center has set up an online petition that is being sent to media outlets as well as to the Obama administration. To add your support, go to www.iacenter.org. For more information on Davis’ case, see www.gfadp.org.