Albany Vigil for Troy Davis, Georgia Death Row Inmate

ALBANY, NY (05/18/2009)(readMedia)-- New Yorkers for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, Amnesty International Albany Chapter 361, and the New York State Defenders Justice Fund are co-sponsoring a vigil on May 19 for Georgia Death Row inmate Troy Davis as part of an international day of protest to mark the end of Mr. Davis' stay of execution. Hundreds of similar events are occurring simultaneously across America in an effort to focus attention on Mr. Davis' plight.

New York State Senator Bill Perkins, Democrat of New York City, will speak at the vigil.

Troy Davis, who was convicted more than 20 years ago of murdering a Savannah police officer, has always proclaimed his innocence. No physical evidence was ever found linking Davis to the crime, and the murder weapon was never recovered. Davis' conviction was based entirely on eyewitness testimony. Yet seven of nine eyewitnesses who implicated Davis at trial have since recanted, claiming they were coerced by overzealous investigators determined to build a case against Davis. Of the two remaining witnesses, one - Sylvester Coles - has himself surfaced as a suspect in the crime for which Mr. Davis awaits execution.

Davis - whose appeal has never been heard in open court - has exhausted all legal options short of a possible grant of executive clemency by Georgia's governor, Sonny Perdue.

"This is a case of finality over fairness," said David Kaczynski, executive director of New Yorkers for Alternatives to the Death Penalty. "It's outrageous to think that we can execute someone in the United States of America after most of the evidence used to convict him has evaporated. But unfortunately that's the way the system works. The death penalty is a system that tends to bury its worst mistakes."

Notable leaders including Bishop Desmond Tutu, former President Jimmy Carter, and former FBI director and federal judge William Sessions have all urged that Troy Davis be spared based on strong doubts about the evidence in the case.

Since the 1970's, more than 130 death row inmates in the US have been released from prison after DNA or other compelling evidence was found to overturn their convictions. Yet the Innocence Project estimates that DNA evidence is available in less than 15% of murder cases.

"The only finality that means anything is the truth," Kaczynski stated. "If the state of Georgia kills Troy Davis on flimsy evidence, then all it has given us is finality without truth or justice."

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Posted Monday May 18, 2009 at 05:18 pm by Committee for an Independent Public Defense Commission