Friday, September 16, 2011

#Toomuchdoubt

troy-davis.jpg

The state of Georgia has set next Wednesday, September 21 as the execution date for Troy Davis. Davis denies committing the murder 20 years ago for which he was convicted. Most of the people who testified at the trial have now recanted their testimony. The leading witness who still says Davis was the killer is the person who nine people have charged was the actual shooter. As Amnesty International maintains, this is a case with "too much doubt."

USA Today marvels at the scale of the grassroots campaign to encourage the Georgia State Board of Pardons and Paroles to choose clemency. Over 600000 people across the globe have signed petitions.

The case has attracted attention for years. Former president Jimmy Carter, Pope Benedict XVI and Nobel laureate Desmond Tutu are among the prominent figures who have urged that Davis' life be spared.

...The latest effort, triggered when a new execution date was set last week, includes celebrities John Legend, Mia Farrow and the Indigo Girls. All are tweeting under #TooMuchDoubt, a search term or hash tag devised by Amnesty International and the NAACP. Davis supporters also have created Facebook pages.

"In the moment, when our nation stumbles toward complete failure of its justice system, we have to give every citizen the opportunity to express their outrage and their intention that the state not do this in their name," NAACP President Benjamin Todd Jealous says. "When the state executes an innocent person, every citizen is implicated in that act."

In San Francisco, people concerned about the Davis case will be collecting signatures in Union Square today, Friday September 16. You too can sign a clemency petition; click this link.

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