[Ppnews] Jimmy Carter Calls for Clemency for Troy Davis

Tue Sep 23 13:47:55 EDT 2008

Jimmy Carter Calls for Clemency for Troy Davis

By Staff, AlterNet
Posted on September 20, 2008, Printed on September 23, 2008
http://www.alternet.org/bloggers/www.alternet.org/99578/

Editor's note: Above is a message from Troy 
Davis, who is on death row in Georgia, below is a 
press release from Jimmy Carter's press secretary

Atlanta -- Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter 
called today on the Georgia State Board of 
Pardons and Paroles to reverse its decision to 
deny clemency to Troy Anthony Davis, convicted 
for an alleged murder of a Savannah police 
officer in 1991. "This case illustrates the deep 
flaws in the application of the death penalty in 
this country," said former U.S. President Jimmy 
Carter. "Executing Troy Davis without a real 
examination of potentially exonerating evidence 
risks taking the life of an innocent man and 
would be a grave miscarriage of justice. The 
citizens of Georgia should demand the highest 
standards of proof when our legal system condemns 
on our behalf a man or woman to die."

Background

The Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles denied 
the clemency appeal despite serious new doubts 
about Mr. Davis' participation in the murder of 
which he was accused. Serious flaws during Davis' 
trial and post-conviction phases warrant 
reconsideration of his conviction and sentence. 
There was no physical evidence against Troy 
Davis, and the weapon used in the crime was never found.

The entire case against Davis was built on 
witness testimony, which contained 
inconsistencies at the time of the trial. 
Recently, seven of nine prosecution witnesses 
either recanted their stories or admitted to 
being pressured by police officers to testify 
against Mr. Davis. One of the other witnesses has 
been an alternate suspect for the murder.

Additionally, Davis' family members and close 
friends were not able to testify at his trial, 
preventing the jurors from hearing sympathetic 
facts, leaving them to rely only on the 
prosecutor's characterizations of Davis and his life.

Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110

415 863-9977

www.Freedomarchives.org  
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