listener
9th July 2007, 22:41
http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGAMR511162007
USA: Death penalty / Legal concern: Troy Anthony Davis (m)
PUBLIC AI Index: AMR 51/116/2007
UA 170/07 Death penalty / Legal concern 03 July
2007
USA (Georgia) Troy Anthony Davis (m), black, aged 38
Troy Davis is scheduled to be executed in Georgia at 7pm local time on 17 July.
He has been on death row for more than 15 years for the murder of a police
officer which he maintains he did not commit. Many of the witnesses presented
by the prosecution at the trial have since recanted or contradicted their
testimony.
On 28 August 1991 Troy Davis was convicted of the murder of 27-year-old Officer
Mark Allen McPhail, white, who was shot and killed in the car park of a Burger
King fast food restaurant in Savannah, Georgia, in the early hours of 19 August
1989. Troy Davis was also convicted of assaulting Larry Young, a homeless man,
who was accosted and struck across the face with a pistol immediately before
Officer McPhail was shot. At the trial, Troy Davis admitted that he had been at
the scene of the shooting, but claimed that he had neither assaulted Larry
Young nor shot Officer McPhail.
There was no physical evidence against Troy Davis and the weapon used in the
crime was never found. The case against him consisted entirely of witness
testimony. In affidavits signed over the years since the trial, all but three
of the state’s non-police witnesses have recanted their testimony. One of the
three non-recanting witnesses is a man who has not been located for interview
by Davis’ appeal lawyers. Another, while not recanting, has contradicted her
trial testimony. The third non-police witness who has not recanted his
testimony is Sylvester Coles, who was the principle alternative suspect,
according to the defence at the trial, and against whom there is new witness
testimony implicating him as the gunman.
Others have recanted their testimony against Troy Davis. In 1989, Kevin McQueen
was detained in the same jail as Davis. McQueen told the police that during
this time Troy Davis had confessed to shooting Officer McPhail. In a 1996
affidavit, McQueen retracted this statement, saying that he had given it
because he wanted to "get even" with Davis following a confrontation he said
the two of them had had. Monty Holmes testified against Troy Davis in a
pre-trial hearing, but did not testify at the trial because, according to a
2001 affidavit, he did not want to repeat this false testimony. Jeffrey Sapp
testified that Troy Davis had told him that he had shot the officer. Recanting
his testimony in a 2003 affidavit, he stated that under "a lot of pressure"
from police, he had testified against Troy Davis.
At the trial, eyewitness Dorothy Ferrell identified Troy Davis as the person
who had shot Officer McPhail. In a 2000 affidavit, she stated that she had not
seen who the gunman was, but testified against Davis out of fear that if she
did not, because she was on parole at the time, she would be sent back to jail.
In a 2002 affidavit, Darrell Collins, 16 years old at the time of the crime,
said that the day after the shooting, 15 or 20 police officers came to his
house, and "a lot of them had their guns drawn". They took him in for
questioning, and "after a couple of hours of the detectives yelling at me and
threatening me, I finally broke down and told them what they wanted to hear.
They would tell me things that they said had happened and I would repeat
whatever they said…I testified against Troy at his trial… because I was still
scared that the police would throw me in jail for being an accessory to murder
if I told the truth about what happened…"
Larry Young, the homeless man who was accosted on the night of the murder,
implicated Troy Davis as the man who had assaulted him. His affidavit, signed
in 2002, offers further evidence of a coercive police investigation into the
murder of their fellow officer: "After I was assaulted that night … some police
officers grabbed me and threw me down on the hood of the police car and
handcuffed me. They treated me like a criminal; like I was the one who killed
the officer … They made it clear that we weren’t leaving until I told them what
they wanted to hear. They suggested answers and I would give them what they
wanted. They put typed papers in my face and told me to sign them. I did sign
them without reading them." In his 2002 affidavit he said that he "couldn’t
honestly remember what anyone looked like or what different people were
wearing."
Antoine Williams, a Burger King employee, had just driven into the restaurant’s
car park at the time the shooting occurred. At the trial, he identified Troy
Davis as the person who had shot Officer McPhail. In 2002 he stated that this
was false, and that he had signed a statement for the police which he could not
and did not read: "Even today, I know that I could not honestly identify with
any certainty who shot the officer that night. I couldn’t then either. After
the officers talked to me, they gave me a statement and told me to sign it. I
signed it. I did not read it because I cannot read. At Troy Davis’s trial, I
identified him as the person who shot the officer. Even when I said that, I was
totally unsure whether he was the person who shot the officer. I felt pressured
to point at him because he was the one who was sitting in the courtroom. I have
no idea what the person who shot the officer looks like."
Due to the procedural obstacles facing a death row inmate seeking a hearing on
post-conviction evidence, Troy Davis has had no such hearing on the current
state of the witness testimony. At oral arguments in front of a three-judge
panel of the federal 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in September 2005, one of
the judges expressed concern that Troy Davis had not been granted a federal
hearing to present the post-conviction evidence. She asked, "If these people
say, ‘I was coerced by the police,’ how could [the lower federal judge] reject
that without a hearing?" She reportedly suggested that without the testimony
of the various trial witnesses who had now recanted, the state appeared to have
no case. However, in September 2006, the 11th Circuit Court upheld the federal
judge’s ruling, and on 25 June 2007 the US Supreme court refused to intervene.
For a full report on this case, see USA: ‘Where is the justice for me?’ The
case of Troy Davis, facing execution in Georgia, February 2007,
http://web.amnesty.org/library/index/engamr510232007.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Since the USA resumed executions in 1977, 1,086 prisoners have been put to
death, 40 of them in Georgia. Since the US Supreme Court approved new death
penalty laws in 1976, more than 100 people have been released from death rows
around the country on grounds of innocence, many of them in cases in which
witness testimony has been shown to have been unreliable. This rate of error is
one factor that has contributed to a waning in public support for the death
penalty in the USA, with some opinion polls now registering majority support
for a moratorium on executions.
Amnesty International opposes the death penalty regardless of the guilt or
innocence of the prisoner. At the same time, it also seeks to ensure that
international standards are at least adhered to in those countries which still
resort to judicial killing. As the case against Troy Davis now stands, Georgia’
s pursuit of the death penalty contravenes international safeguards which
prohibit the execution of anyone whose guilt is not based on "clear and
convincing evidence leaving no room for an alternative explanation of the
facts".
USA: Death penalty / Legal concern: Troy Anthony Davis (m)
PUBLIC AI Index: AMR 51/116/2007
UA 170/07 Death penalty / Legal concern 03 July
2007
USA (Georgia) Troy Anthony Davis (m), black, aged 38
Troy Davis is scheduled to be executed in Georgia at 7pm local time on 17 July.
He has been on death row for more than 15 years for the murder of a police
officer which he maintains he did not commit. Many of the witnesses presented
by the prosecution at the trial have since recanted or contradicted their
testimony.
On 28 August 1991 Troy Davis was convicted of the murder of 27-year-old Officer
Mark Allen McPhail, white, who was shot and killed in the car park of a Burger
King fast food restaurant in Savannah, Georgia, in the early hours of 19 August
1989. Troy Davis was also convicted of assaulting Larry Young, a homeless man,
who was accosted and struck across the face with a pistol immediately before
Officer McPhail was shot. At the trial, Troy Davis admitted that he had been at
the scene of the shooting, but claimed that he had neither assaulted Larry
Young nor shot Officer McPhail.
There was no physical evidence against Troy Davis and the weapon used in the
crime was never found. The case against him consisted entirely of witness
testimony. In affidavits signed over the years since the trial, all but three
of the state’s non-police witnesses have recanted their testimony. One of the
three non-recanting witnesses is a man who has not been located for interview
by Davis’ appeal lawyers. Another, while not recanting, has contradicted her
trial testimony. The third non-police witness who has not recanted his
testimony is Sylvester Coles, who was the principle alternative suspect,
according to the defence at the trial, and against whom there is new witness
testimony implicating him as the gunman.
Others have recanted their testimony against Troy Davis. In 1989, Kevin McQueen
was detained in the same jail as Davis. McQueen told the police that during
this time Troy Davis had confessed to shooting Officer McPhail. In a 1996
affidavit, McQueen retracted this statement, saying that he had given it
because he wanted to "get even" with Davis following a confrontation he said
the two of them had had. Monty Holmes testified against Troy Davis in a
pre-trial hearing, but did not testify at the trial because, according to a
2001 affidavit, he did not want to repeat this false testimony. Jeffrey Sapp
testified that Troy Davis had told him that he had shot the officer. Recanting
his testimony in a 2003 affidavit, he stated that under "a lot of pressure"
from police, he had testified against Troy Davis.
At the trial, eyewitness Dorothy Ferrell identified Troy Davis as the person
who had shot Officer McPhail. In a 2000 affidavit, she stated that she had not
seen who the gunman was, but testified against Davis out of fear that if she
did not, because she was on parole at the time, she would be sent back to jail.
In a 2002 affidavit, Darrell Collins, 16 years old at the time of the crime,
said that the day after the shooting, 15 or 20 police officers came to his
house, and "a lot of them had their guns drawn". They took him in for
questioning, and "after a couple of hours of the detectives yelling at me and
threatening me, I finally broke down and told them what they wanted to hear.
They would tell me things that they said had happened and I would repeat
whatever they said…I testified against Troy at his trial… because I was still
scared that the police would throw me in jail for being an accessory to murder
if I told the truth about what happened…"
Larry Young, the homeless man who was accosted on the night of the murder,
implicated Troy Davis as the man who had assaulted him. His affidavit, signed
in 2002, offers further evidence of a coercive police investigation into the
murder of their fellow officer: "After I was assaulted that night … some police
officers grabbed me and threw me down on the hood of the police car and
handcuffed me. They treated me like a criminal; like I was the one who killed
the officer … They made it clear that we weren’t leaving until I told them what
they wanted to hear. They suggested answers and I would give them what they
wanted. They put typed papers in my face and told me to sign them. I did sign
them without reading them." In his 2002 affidavit he said that he "couldn’t
honestly remember what anyone looked like or what different people were
wearing."
Antoine Williams, a Burger King employee, had just driven into the restaurant’s
car park at the time the shooting occurred. At the trial, he identified Troy
Davis as the person who had shot Officer McPhail. In 2002 he stated that this
was false, and that he had signed a statement for the police which he could not
and did not read: "Even today, I know that I could not honestly identify with
any certainty who shot the officer that night. I couldn’t then either. After
the officers talked to me, they gave me a statement and told me to sign it. I
signed it. I did not read it because I cannot read. At Troy Davis’s trial, I
identified him as the person who shot the officer. Even when I said that, I was
totally unsure whether he was the person who shot the officer. I felt pressured
to point at him because he was the one who was sitting in the courtroom. I have
no idea what the person who shot the officer looks like."
Due to the procedural obstacles facing a death row inmate seeking a hearing on
post-conviction evidence, Troy Davis has had no such hearing on the current
state of the witness testimony. At oral arguments in front of a three-judge
panel of the federal 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in September 2005, one of
the judges expressed concern that Troy Davis had not been granted a federal
hearing to present the post-conviction evidence. She asked, "If these people
say, ‘I was coerced by the police,’ how could [the lower federal judge] reject
that without a hearing?" She reportedly suggested that without the testimony
of the various trial witnesses who had now recanted, the state appeared to have
no case. However, in September 2006, the 11th Circuit Court upheld the federal
judge’s ruling, and on 25 June 2007 the US Supreme court refused to intervene.
For a full report on this case, see USA: ‘Where is the justice for me?’ The
case of Troy Davis, facing execution in Georgia, February 2007,
http://web.amnesty.org/library/index/engamr510232007.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Since the USA resumed executions in 1977, 1,086 prisoners have been put to
death, 40 of them in Georgia. Since the US Supreme Court approved new death
penalty laws in 1976, more than 100 people have been released from death rows
around the country on grounds of innocence, many of them in cases in which
witness testimony has been shown to have been unreliable. This rate of error is
one factor that has contributed to a waning in public support for the death
penalty in the USA, with some opinion polls now registering majority support
for a moratorium on executions.
Amnesty International opposes the death penalty regardless of the guilt or
innocence of the prisoner. At the same time, it also seeks to ensure that
international standards are at least adhered to in those countries which still
resort to judicial killing. As the case against Troy Davis now stands, Georgia’
s pursuit of the death penalty contravenes international safeguards which
prohibit the execution of anyone whose guilt is not based on "clear and
convincing evidence leaving no room for an alternative explanation of the
facts".