I write this today with a heavy heart, knowing that thousands of miles away, in a small hearing room, the fate of a likely innocent man is being decided. His appeals are all exhausted; his requests for a new trial have been denied. An evidentiary hearing, his best chance of getting his death sentence overturned, was held only to result in the judge upholding both the conviction and his sentence. We are at the end of the road now. In less than 48 hours, if all goes according to plan, the state of Georgia will kill Troy Davis.
Troy’s case is one I have struggled with. It hits very close to home for me, because of my experience with my own family- seeing my own loved one languish in prison, convicted of a crime he did not commit based on the thinnest of evidence. A case that is eerily similar to Troy's, and has been cited as a prime example of why we should not have the death penalty. Watching him be set free only to end up, in a stunning reversal of fortune, arrested once again and now facing another trial as he lies dying in a hospital bed. The “justice” system in this country is often cruel, no matter what side of the law you fall on. It is cruel to the living victims of crime- something I learned firsthand as I tried to bring the man who raped me when I was 17 to justice, only to be treated like I was the one on trial. It is cruel to the families of the deceased victims, as they are forced to live through years of appeals that force them to relive their nightmare, year after year, often making a sense of closure all but impossible. And yes, it is cruel to the guilty, although many find it harder to sympathize, they are often treated in the most inhumane of ways.
But it is perhaps most cruel of all to the wrongfully incarcerated, who are forced to deal with a post-conviction system that is rigged with impossible hurdles and faced with the daunting task of getting a DA and officers of the law to admit that they made a mistake- when that admission may well end their careers. The wrongfully convicted are the most inconvenient of victims, and we often turn a deaf ear to their pleas. They are often not the most sympathetic characters, and have checkered pasts. It is hard to distinguish the truly innocent when, as the saying goes "every inmate is innocent, just ask them"
But it goes deeper than that. The wrongfully convicted are a painful reminder of the tragic fallibility of our system. They offer the chilling thought that we ourselves are not immune. That we may live our lives as upstanding citizens, only to find ourselves, one day, sitting in a jail cell waiting for a handful of strangers to decide our fate. It goes against that most human drive to control ones own destiny. To write our own story. To be wrongfully convicted takes the narrative out of your hands. To be wrongfully executed writes your very own tragic ending. Right now, the final chapters of Troy Davis’s life are being decided- and there is not all that much we can do about it anymore. But I want to tell Troy’s story- the part of it that hasn’t been told all that much, or that hasn’t been well understood, because Troy Davis matters. Because his story needs to be told, and never forgotten.
All American Boy
Troy Anthony Davis was born on October 9, 1968. His father, a Korean War veteran, was a Sherriff’s Deputy. His mother was a hospital worker. He grew up in a middle class black neighborhood with all of the trappings of the American Dream- a nice new house, 2 cars, a boat, dogs, and even the white picket fence. Troy's father left when he was very young, so Troy grew up very protective of his mother and his younger sisters. He took his role as the man of the house seriously.
When Troy was a teenager, his sister came down with a rare illness that left her paralyzed from the neck down. Troy dropped out of high school to take care of her. He bathed her, brushed her hair, catheterized her, and took her to all of her physical therapy and doctors appointments. When her doctors told her she would never walk, Troy refused to believe it. He would take her outside in her manual wheelchair, and tell her that if she wanted to go back home, she had to walk. He was beside her for each shaky, tentative step. On graduation day, she made her way across the stage with a walker as he watched, beaming with pride. Later on, Troy would walk across a stage too, with his cap and gown- he graduated from night school with honors.
As he grew into a young man, Troy struggled to find his place in life. Like many young men growing up without their father, he had a hard time finding a sense of direction. He found work as a drill technician but his attendance was sporadic. He hung out with a wild crowd at times, and was arrested for carrying a concealed weapon. He was not a bad guy though. His neighbors remember him fondly as a "big brother" to children in his neighborhood who coached local sports. He remained incredibly close to his family, especially his mother. Everyone who knew Troy had no doubt he would get back on track, he just needed to grow up a little. In the days leading up to August 19th, he often talked with his sister, an Army officer, about joining the Marines. He also talked about moving to Atlanta and getting a steady job.
Then came the night that changed everything.
"Officer Down"
Although many details of that night are unknown, there is one thing that is without doubt- the crime that took the life of Mark MacPhail, an off-duty police officer moonlighting as a security guard- was as brutal as it was senseless. He was shot twice as he rushed to the aid of a homeless man, Larry Young, who was being harassed and beaten. One bullet entered the corner of his cheekbone on the left side and exited the back of his neck, blowing away his teeth and impaling his tongue. The second bullet passed through the armhole of McPhail’s bullet-proof vest, and entered his chest on the left side. This bullet pierced the lung and the aorta, and lodged in the opposite side between the third and fourth vertebrae, at the back of the chest cavity near the spinal column. Witnesses described the shooter as a black man, in his early 20’s, last seen fleeing the scene as Mark MacPhail- a young father of two children, age 2 and 6 weeks, lay bleeding to death on the black pavement, choking on his own blood and broken teeth.
officer Mark MacPhail
As soon as the call went out across all of Savannah's police and emergency response frequencies that one of their own had been shot, the scene became flooded with police officers and emergency personnel from all over the county. Dozens of officers combed the scene, searching for evidence that remained elusive. No murder weapon. No DNA. Just a .38 caliber bullet casing, and vague descriptions of a young black man in a white t-shirt who nobody recognized.
The only solid lead was those .38 caliber casings- they were the same caliber as casings found at the scene of another shooting that same night, only blocks away. The victim, Michael Cooper, was shot in the face while leaving a party but he was too drunk to recognize who shot him, and the other witnesses in the car with him didn’t know either (later, their stories would change)
Later on that day, Sylvester "Red" Coles turned up at the police station with his attorney. As it turned out, he claimed, he was part of the altercation that took place before the MacPhail shooting, and he wanted the chance to tell his story. He was there, he said, but he wasn't the shooter. He had a .38 caliber revolver, this was true, but he had given it away earlier that evening. Yes, he had been involved in the altercation with Larry Young- as a matter of fact, he was the one who started it. Yes, it was true he had walked up to Larry Young and told him not to turn around, “cause you don’t know me, I’ll shoot you,” But, he insisted, he was not the man who attacked Larry Young with a pistol. And he was not the man who shot Officer MacPhail. That man was Troy Davis.
"Shoot on Sight"
Almost instantaneously, "Wanted" posters went up all over Savannah, portraying Troy Davis as a "cop killer". There were already tensions between the police and the black community- the slaying of one of their own pushed them over the boiling point. Troy Davis was seen by many as a dead man walking. Troy learned of these developments 4 hours away in Atlanta, where he was staying with his sister and her husband looking for a job. He was scared for his life, and with good reason-he was told by a friend of the family, a police officer, that an order had been given to “shoot on sight”. It took a trusted family pastor to coax Troy to come home- That pastor, Derrick Johnson, ultimately drove to Atlanta to pick up Troy himself, and drove him all the way home. A 4 hour drive. Yet Pastor Johnson was never interviewed by the police. In fact, neither was Troy Davis- other than one simple question. "Where is your gun?" a detective asked as soon as Troy was in custody. Troy said he didn't have a gun. That was the only question he was ever asked by the Savannah Police. He was charged with First Degree murder.
The Trial
At trial, Harriet Murray, Redd Coles, Dorothy Ferrell and Antoine Williams testified that Davis, wearing a white shirt, had struck Young and then shot MacPhail. A fellow inmate of Troy's testified that Troy had confessed to the shooting of officer MacPhail, stating that he had done so to avoid being tied to the shooting of Cooper earlier that evening. However, Davis was never linked to the shooting- Cooper himself testified that he was inebriated on the night of the shooting, and that Davis "don't know me well enough to shoot me". A friend of Cooper's, Benjamin Gordon, stated that the man who shot Cooper was wearing a white T-shirt, though on cross-examination he admitted he did not know Davis and had not seen the person who shot Cooper. Darrell Collins, who had made an August 1989 police statement that he had seen Davis shoot at people in a car in Cloverdale and approaching MacPhail, recanted his statement under cross-examination by the defense, saying that he made the statement after threats by police with prison if he did not cooperate. He said in court that he had not seen Troy Anthony Davis in possession of a gun or fire one.
Troy Davis took the stand in his own defense. He denied shooting MacPhail, saying he had observed his acquaintance "Red" Coles striking Young after a quarrel about beer, but that he had fled before any shots were fired and did not know who had shot the officer. He also denied shooting Cooper
Troy Davis, testifying at his trial
On August 28, 1991, a jury composed of seven blacks and five whites, took under two hours to find Davis guilty on one count of murder and the other offenses. Troy Davis and three of his family members testified during the sentencing phase. In a final address to the jury, Davis pleaded, "Spare my life. Just give me a second chance. That's all I ask." He told jurors he was convicted for "offenses I didn't commit." His pleas were in vain. On August 30, 1991, after seven hours of deliberation, the jury recommended the death penalty, and Troy Davis was sentenced to die in the electric chair.
He was 23 years old.
The Case Unravels
Over the years, 7 out of the 9 witnesses have come forward to recant the statements they made about Troy Davis, and 9 have stepped forward to implicate another man as the shooter. The following are excerpts from their statements (From: Amnesty International, ‘Where is the justice for me?’: The case of Troy Davis, facing execution in Georgia , Feb. 1, 2007(PDF))
Kevin McQueen
Affidavit, 5 December 1996
In September and October 1989, Kevin McQueen was detained in the same jail as Troy Davis. McQueen told the police that during this time Troy Davis had confessed to shooting Officer Mark McPhail. In his 1996 affidavit, he 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 allegedly had.
“The truth is that Troy never confessed to me or talked to me about the shooting of the police officer. I made up the confession from information I had heard on T.V. and from other inmates about the crimes. Troy did not tell me any of this… I have now realized what I did to Troy so I have decided to tell the truth… I need to set the record straight”.
Monty Holmes
Affidavit, 17 August 2001
Monty Holmes testified against Troy Davis in a preliminary pre-trial hearing, but did not
testify at the trial, as he explains in an affidavit signed in August 2001:
“In August of 1989, the police came to talk to me about the officer who was killed in Savannah. They wanted to know if Troy Davis was involved in the shooting and
whether he had said anything to me about being involved with the shooting… By the
way the police were talking, I thought I was going to be in trouble. I told them I didn’t
know anything about who shot the officer, but they kept questioning me. I was real
young at that time and here they were questioning me about the murder of a police
officer like I was in trouble or something. I was scared… [I]t seemed like they
wouldn’t stop questioning me until I told them what they wanted to hear. So I did. I
signed a statement saying that Troy told me that he shot the cop.”
"When I had to go to court that first time, I felt like I had to say what was in that
statement or I’d be in trouble, so that’s what I did. When it came to the trial though, I
didn’t want to go because I knew that the truth was that Troy never told me anything
about shooting [the police officer]. I heard the police were coming by to give me a
subpoena for trial. I dodged the subpoena but they still left it with my mother. I still
didn’t feel like I could walk in a court and say those things so I didn’t go to the trial”.
Monty Holmes’ pre-trial testimony was admitted at the trial without crossexamination
possible due to his absence. Article 14.3(e) of the International Covenant on
Civil and Political Rights provides that any criminal defendant must be allowed, “in full
equality”, to be able “to examine, or have examined, the witnesses against him and to obtain the attendance and examination of witnesses on his behalf under the same conditions as witnesses against him”. While Monty Holmes knowingly avoided testifying at the trial, if his pre-trial testimony and his absence from the trial were influenced by coercive tactics allegedly employed by the police, the state played a role in undermining the right of Troy Davis to a fair trial.
Jeffrey Sapp
Affidavit, 9 February 2003
Jeffrey Sapp testified that Troy Davis had told him that he had shot the officer in self-defense. In his affidavit, he stated:
“I remember when the officer got shot down at Burger King… The police came and
talked to me and put a lot of pressure on me to say, ‘Troy said this’ or ‘Troy said
that’. They wanted me to tell them that Troy confessed to me about killing that officer.
The thing is, Troy never told me anything about it. I got tired of them harassing me,
and they made it clear that the only way they would leave me alone is if I told them
what they wanted to hear. I told them that Troy told me he did it, but it wasn’t true.
Troy never said that or anything like it. When it came time for Troy’s trial, the police
made it clear to me that I needed to stick to my original statement; that is, what they
wanted me to say. I didn’t want to have any more problems with the cops, so I
testified against Troy”.
Dorothy Ferrell
Affidavit, 29 November 2000
At the trial, Dorothy Ferrell, who was staying at a hotel near the Burger King at the time of the crime, identified Troy Davis as the person who had shot Officer McPhail, emphasising “I’m real sure, that that is him and, you know, it’s not a mistaken identity”.
After the guilt/innocence phase of the trial had ended, the wife of Troy Davis’
defense lawyer received a telephone call from a woman who identified herself as Dorothy Ferrell, and stated that she had lied on the witness stand. The prosecution then revealed that Dorothy Ferrell had written a letter to District Attorney Spencer Lawton requesting “a favour” and his “help” with her own difficulties with the law. She was on parole at the time. Shewrote in the letter: “Mr Lawton if you would please help me, I promise you, you won’t be making a mistake” [emphasis in original].
After this revelation, Dorothy Ferrell was recalled to the witness stand, outside of the
presence of the jury. She denied having made the telephone call, but admitted to having written the letter. The judge then offered the defence the opportunity to cross-examine Dorothy Ferrell in the presence of the jury, but they did not do so, instead calling for a mistrial on the grounds that the prosecution had withheld information from the defence. The trial judge denied their motion for a new trial.
In her affidavit signed in November 2000, Dorothy Ferrell recalled that she had been
staying in a hotel opposite the Burger King restaurant on the night of the shooting. She said that she heard a woman scream and gunshots. In her affidavit, she recalls seeing “more than two guys running away”, but states that she did not see who the gunman was. After the crime, she was asked to go down to the police station, where she was made to wait until she gave a statement. The affidavit continues:
“I was real tired because it was the middle of the night and I was pregnant too… I
was scared that if I didn’t do what the police wanted me to do, then they would try to
lock me up again. I was on parole at the time and I had just gotten home from being
locked up earlier that year.
When the police were talking to me, it was like they wanted me to say I saw the
shooting and to sign a statement. I wanted to be able to leave and so I just said what
they wanted me to say. I thought that would be the end of it, but it turned out not to be the end.”
Some time later, a police detective visited Dorothy Ferrell and showed her a
photograph of Troy Davis, and told her that other witnesses had identified him as the gunman:
“From the way the officer was talking, he gave me the impression that I should say that Troy Davis was the one who shot the officer like the other witness [sic] had… I felt like I was just following the rest of the witnesses. I also felt like I had to cooperate with the officer because of my being on parole…I told the detective that Troy Davis was the shooter, even though the truth was that I didn’t see who shot the officer.”
In her affidavit, Dorothy Ferrell recalls her fear that if she did not repeat her statement
at the trial, she would be charged with perjury and “sent back to jail”. She says that she spoke to two lawyers who said that she could be so charged and could be sentenced to up to 10 years in prison.
“I had four children at that time, and I was taking care of them myself. I couldn’t go back to jail. I felt like I didn’t have any choice but to get up there and testify to what Isaid in my earlier statements. So that’s what I did.”
On the question of the telephone call made to Troy Davis’ defence counsel at the time
of the trial, Dorothy Ferrell’s affidavit adds that:“I didn’t make that call to the house of the attorney but my friend made the call after she and I had talked. I told my friend about how I had testified to things that weren’t the truth and I was feeling bad about it. That’s why she made the call.”
Darrell “D.D.” Collins
Affidavit, 11 July 2002
Darrell Collins was a friend of Troy Davis who was with him on the night of the crime. At the time, he was 16 years old. In his affidavit he said that the day after the shooting, 15 or 20 police officers came to his house, “a lot of them had their guns drawn”. They took him in for questioning, and the affidavit continues:
“When I got to the barracks, the police put me in a small room and some detectivescame in and started yelling at me, telling me that I knew that Troy Davis…killed that officer by the Burger King. I told them that… I didn’t see Troy do nothing. They got real mad when I said this and started getting in my face. They were telling me that I was an accessory to murder and that I would pay like Troy was gonna pay if I didn’t tell them what they wanted to hear. They told me that I would go to jail for a long time and I would be lucky if I ever got out, especially because a police officer got
killed… I didn’t want to go to jail because I didn’t do nothing wrong. I was only
sixteen and was so scared of going to jail. They kept saying that…[Troy] had messed
with that man up at Burger King and killed that officer. I told them that it was Red
and not Troy who was messing with that man, but they didn’t want to hear that…
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.”
Darrell Collins said that he signed a typed statement without reading it, and was then
allowed to go home. According to his affidavit, he was questioned again about a week later by the police who gave him another typed statement to sign. He said he again signed the statement without reading it. The affidavit continues:
“I testified against Troy at his trial. I remember that I told the jury that Troy hit the man that Red was arguing with. That is not true. I never saw Troy do anything to the man. I said this at the 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…
It is time that I told the truth about what happened that night, and what is written
here is the truth. I am not proud for lying at Troy’s trial, but the police had me so
messed up that I felt that’s all I could do or else I would go to jail.”
Larry Young
Affidavit, 11 October 2002
Larry Young was the homeless man who was accosted and then struck in the face, and whose shouts drew the attention of Officer McPhail. At the trial, he implicated Troy Davis as theman who had assaulted him, but only identifying him by his clothing. His affidavit, signed in 2002, offers further evidence of a coercive police investigation into the murder of their fellow officer, and states that he “couldn’t honestly remember what anyone looked like or what different people were wearing”.
“After I was assaulted that night, I went into the bathroom at the bus station and tried
to wash the blood off my face. I had a big gash on my face and there was blood
everywhere. I was in a lot of pain. When I left the bathroom, 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. Even though
I was homeless at that time and drinking and drugging, I didn’t have nothing to do
with killing the officer. I told the officers that, but they just locked me in the back of
the police car for the next hour or so. I kept yelling that I needed to be treated but
they didn’t pay me no mind. They then took me to the police station and interrogated
me for three hours. I kept asking them to treat my head, but they wouldn’t.
They kept asking me what had happened at the bus station, and I kept telling them
that I didn’t know. Everything happened so fast down there. I couldn’t honestly
remember what anyone looked like or what different people were wearing. Plus, I had
been drinking that day, so I just couldn’t tell who did what. The cops didn’t want to
hear that and kept pressing me to give them answers. 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.
I never have been able to make sense of what happened that night. It’s as much a blur
now as it was then.”
Antoine Williams
Affidavit, 12 October 2002
Antoine Williams, an employee of Burger King, 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.
“I couldn’t really tell what was going on because I had the darkest shades of tint you could possibly have on my windows of my car. As soon as I heard the shot and saw the officer go down, I ducked down under the dash of my car. I was scared for my life and I didn’t want to get shot myself…
Later that night, some cops asked me what had happened. I told them what is written
here [in the affidavit]. They asked me to describe the shooter and what he looked like
and what he was wearing. I kept telling them that I didn’t know. It was dark, my
windows were tinted, and I was scared. It all happened so fast. 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’ 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.”
Daniel Kinsman
Affidavit, 15 October 2002
Daniel Kinsman was with other Air Force personnel in a van in the Burger King car park at the time of the crime. He was interviewed by police. He describes himself as having been “relatively close to the scene” of the shooting, but remains confident that he would “not have been able to make any identification of the shooter due to the poor lighting and the chaotic nature of the scene”. In the affidavit, Daniel Kinsman recalls “two things that stand out to this day about what I witnessed at the Burger King”. First, as he told the police, “there was and is no doubt in my mind that the person who shot the officer had the gun in and was shooting with his left hand.” Second, the gun had a “shiny finish… not dull in any sense of the term.”
Troy Davis is right-handed.
Robert Grizzard
Affidavit, 23 March 2003
In 1989, Robert Grizzard was a Sergeant in the US Air Force, and was in Savannah for a
training exercise. He was in a van in the Burger King car park at the time of the shooting of Officer McPhail. In his affidavit, Robert Grizzard stated:
“I have reviewed the transcript of my testimony from the trial of Troy Davis… During my testimony I said that the person who shot the officer was wearing a light coloured shirt. The truth is that I don’t recall now and I didn’t recall then what the shooter was wearing, as I said in my initial statement [to the police]. My testimony to the contrary was an honest mistake on my part… As I said in my statement given on that night, I do not and did not remember what the shooter was wearing.”
Joseph Blige
Affidavit, 1 December 1995
Joseph Blige, who was 15 years old at the time of the crime, went to the Cloverdale party. He was in the car that was shot at, and in which Michael Cooper was wounded. His affidavit stated that neither he nor anyone he was with at the party “had any words or any problem with Troy Davis”.
“As we drove off Michael yelled something out the window and shooting started. Our
car was hit at least six times. I heard more than six shots. I head more than one
weapon being fired. At least one of the weapons being fired was an automatic. It
could not have been a revolver because the shots came too fast.
We drove Michael to the hospital. The police talked to us there in the hospital parking
lot. A sergeant picked up a bullet from behind the panelling in the door of the car.
There was [sic] different size bullet holes in the car. The sergeant saw all the bullet
holes. He saw the blood in the car. I do not know what he did with the bullet he
picked up. The police did not want to keep the car for evidence. We left in the car.
The next morning the police got me from Yamacraw and asked me lots of questions
about the shooting of the police officer that happened at the bus station. They even
tried telling me they knew I shot the officer.”
Michael Cooper
Affidavit, 10 February 2002
Michael Cooper was shot and wounded on leaving the Cloverdale party. Troy Davis was
convicted of the shooting at his trial for the murder of Officer McPhail which happened later the same night. In his affidavit, Michael Cooper states that:
“I have had a chance to review a statement which I supposedly gave to police officers on June 25, 1991. I remember that they asked a lot of questions and typed up a statement which they told me to sign. I did not read the statement before I signed. In fact, I have not seen it before today. In that statement, the police said that I told them that Mark [Wilds] told me that Troy shot me. I never told the police that. Mark neversaid that to me. What is written in that statement is a lie. I do not know who shot me that night. I do not know it now, and I did not know it then.”
Benjamin Gordon
Affidavit, 10 February 2003
Benjamin Gordon, who was 15 years old at the time of the crime, had been at the party in Cloverdale and was leaving in the car with Michael Cooper when the latter was shot and wounded. In his affidavit, he states that “the shooting came from the shadows next to the street”, and that “I never saw who did the shooting”. The affidavit continues:
“Later that night, police officers came and dragged me from my house in Yamacraw. There were police officers everywhere after the police officer was killed and it seemed like they were taking everyone in Yamacraw to the police barracks for
questioning. I was handcuffed and they put a nightstick under my neck. I had just
turned sixteen and was scared as hell. The police officers took me to the barracks and
put me in a small room. Over the next couple of hours, three or so officers questioned me – at first, they called me a motherfucker and told me that I had shot the
officer. They told me that I was going to the electric chair. They got in my face and
yelled at me a lot. The cops then told me that I did the shooting over in Cloverdale. I
just kept telling them that I didn’t do anything, but they weren’t hearing that. After
four or five hours, they told me to sign some papers. I just wanted to get the hell out
of there. I didn’t read what they told me to sign and they didn’t ask me to.
When it came time for trial, I was in jail, and the sheriff’s office transported me to the
courthouse. A person in a suit told me to say to the court what I had told the police. I
believe that person was with the District Attorney’s office.
No one working on Troy’s case even came to speak to me before trial. If they would
have, I would have talked to them and told them what is contained in this affidavit.”
Affidavits Implicating Sylvester "Redd" Coles
Joseph Washington
“I saw Sylvester Coles – I know him by the name Red – shoot the police officer. I am positive that it was Red who shot the police officer…”
Tonya Johnson
Red then took both guns next door to an empty house and put them inside the screen door and shut the door … he threatened me after this happened. He told me that he wanted to make sure that I did not tell the police about the guns he hid in the screen door that morning. This is why I did not testify about the guns at Troy’s trial because I was afraid of what Red would do to me if I did. I have not told anyone about this until now because I was still scared… But I have decided that I must tell the truth."
Anthony Hargrove
I know a guy named Red, from Savannah. His real name is Sylvester Coles. I’ve known Red for years and we used to hang out together. Red once told me that he shot a police officer and that a guy named Davis took the fall for it. He told me this about a year or so after the officer was killed…”
Gary Hargrove
“I am sure that Red was facing in the officer’s direction when I heard the shooting. … I was never talked to by the police or any attorneys or investigators representing Troy Davis before his trial. I didn’t go up to talk to
the police that night because I was on parole at the time and was out past my curfew so I didn’t want my parole officer to find out about that.”
Shirley Riley
“People on the streets were talking about Sylvester Coles being involved with killing the police officer so one
day I asked him if he was involved… Sylvester told me he did shoot the officer …”
Darold Taylor
I remember reading in the paper once about how a guy named Troy Davis got sentenced to the electric chair… One day when I was in the parking lot of Yamacraw drinking beers with Red. I told him about how I’d heard that he was the one who killed the officer. Red told me to stay out of his business. I asked him again if he killed the officer and Red admitted to me that he was the one who killed the officer, but then Red told me again to stay out of his business.”
April Hester Hutchinson
Red turned to me and asked me if I would walk with him up to the Burger King so ‘they won’t think that I had nothing to do with it’. That’s exactly what he said… I told [the police] that I saw Red talking to my cousin Tonya and that Red was real nervous. I did not tell them about what Red had said to me because I was scared he would hurt me. I was thinking that if he did that to a police officer, what would he do to me? I didn’t want to die like that officer, so I kept my mouth shut.”
Anita Saddler
When I saw Red and Terry, they were jumpy and couldn’t stand still. Their eyes were shifting around and they were looking everywhere. They walked up to us and Red asked us to go up to Burger King and see what happened. Like I said, they were real nervous and fidgety. Red had a gun which was stuck into his shorts. I saw the outline of his gun through his white shirt. I had seen him with a gun many times before.”
Peggie Grant
(mother of April Hester Hutchinson)
“A few hours later, April called me on the phone. She told me that she had had a conversation with Red where he asked her to walk up with him to where the officer was shot so that the police would think that he was with her and not think he did anything.”
Trials and Tribulations
Although most people are only now learning of Troy Davis, his tragic case is far from new. Here is a synopsis of how his legal battle has played out over the years
- March 1992- Troy Davis's first request for a new trial is denied
- March 1993, the Georgia Supreme Court upholds Davis' conviction and sentence, ruling that the judge had correctly refused to change trial site and that the racial composition of the jury did not deny his rights
- November 1993- US Supreme Court declines request to hear an appeal
- March 1994- Judge signs an order for Troy Davis's execution, Davis began habeas corpus appeals when he made a petition in state court, stating that he was the victim of miscarriage of justice and wrongful conviction
- 1995-Federal funding for the Georgia Resource Center, which had helped represent Davis, is cut by 70%, leading to the departures of most of the center's lawyers and investigators. According to an affidavit later filed by the Executive Director the "work conducted on Mr. Davis' case was akin to triage... There were numerous witnesses that we knew should have been interviewed, but lacked the resources to do so". The appeal states that the testimony of the prosecution witnesses had been coerced by law enforcement personnel
- September 1997-Troy's appeal is denied, with the court ruling that claims of improper law enforcement approaches should have been raised earlier in the appeal process
- November 13, 2000 Georgia Supreme Court affirmed the denial of state habeas corpus relief
- July 2000- Davis challenges the use of the electric chair during executions in Georgia, arguing that it constituted cruel and unusual punishment. His challenge is rejected by a 4-3 margin.
- December 2001- Davis files a habeas corpus writ in the United States District Court. He submits exculpatory affidavits that contain recantations of testimony of prosecution eyewitnesses, the testimony of a previously undiscovered eyewitness and others with information bearing on the crime. From 1996 onwards, seven of the nine prosecution witnesses have recanted all or part of their trial testimony. Dorothy Ferrell, for example, stated in a 2000 affidavit that she felt under pressure from police to identify Davis as the shooter because she was on parole for a shoplifting conviction. In her affidavit, she writes: "I told the detective that Troy Davis was the shooter, even though the truth was that I didn't know who shot the officer."
- March 2002- in a sworn affidavit, Darrell Collins writes that the police had scared him into falsely testifying by threatening to charge him as an accessory to the crime, and asserts that "I never saw Troy do anything to the man". Antoine Williams, Larry Young and Monty Holmes also state in sworn affidavits that their earlier testimony implicating Davis had been coerced by strong-arm police tactics. In addition, three witnesses sign affidavits stating that Redd Coles had confessed to the murder to them
- May 2004-State of Georgia argues that the evidence had been procedurally defaulted since it should have been introduced earlier, and this position is accepted by the judge. He also rejects other defense claims about unfair jury selection, ineffective defense counsel and prosecutorial misconduct.This ruling is appealed and on...
- September 2005- oral arguments are heard.
- September 26, 2006-the court affirms the denial of federal habeas corpus relief, and determines that Davis has not made "a substantive claim of actual innocence" or shown that his trial was constitutionally unfair; in addition, neither prosecutors nor defense counsel is found to have acted improperly or incompetently
- December 2006-A petition for panel rehearing is denied
Note- Legal experts argued that a major obstacle to granting Davis a new trial was the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996, passed after the Oklahoma City bombing, which restrained federal courts from overturning death penalty convictions, and ordering new trials. Legal authorities have criticized the restricting effect of the 1996 Act on the ability of wrongfully convicted persons to prove their innocence
- June 25, 2007- Davis' first Certiorari petition to the US Supreme Court is denied, (#1)Troy's execution is set for July 17, 2007.
- July 16, 2007- the Georgia State Board of Pardons and Paroles grants a ninety-day stay of execution in order to allow the evaluation of evidence presented, including the doubts about Troy's guilt.
- August 7th, 2007-The stay is superseded by the decision of the Georgia Supreme Court to grant Troy's application for discretionary appeal from the denial of his Extraordinary Motion for a New Trial. Defense lawyers request a new trial based on the statements of mistaken identity
- March 17, 2008-Georgia Supreme Court denies appeal by a 4–3 majority. The majority writes that the recanting witnesses "have merely stated they now do not feel able to identify the shooter", that the trial testimony could not be ignored, and that they "in fact, favor[ed] that original testimony over the new."In dissent, the Chief Justice writes
- July 2008- Davis' lawyers file a petition for a writ of certiorari in the US Supreme Court, appealing the Georgia Supreme Court decisio, arguing that the Eighth Amendment creates a substantive right of the innocent not to be executed. However...
- September 3, 2008- (#2)Execution date is set for September 23, 2008 before the United States Supreme Court has a chance to decide whether to take up Davis' case. The Georgia Supreme Court refuses to grant a stay of execution and the Board of Pardons and Paroles denied clemency without giving a reason for their decision.
- September 23, 2008- A last minute emergency stay issued by the Supreme Court less than two hours before Davis is scheduled to be put to death, halts the execution. Lawyers for Davis argued that lower courts had failed to permit a hearing to carefully examine the recanted testimony and four eyewitnesses who implicated Coles. Lawyers for the Georgia attorney general's office argued that most of the affidavits had already been presented and reviewed, and that questions about the quality and credibility of the witnesses were raised at the initial trial
- October 14, 2008- the Supreme Court declines to hear Davis' petition, and (#3) a new execution date is set for October 27, 2008.
- October 21, 2008- Davis' lawyers request an emergency stay of execution, and three days later the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals issued a stay of execution to consider a newly-filed federal habeas petition.Davis' supporters continued their appeals and actions; these included such as rallies held worldwide, a petition with 140,000 signatures presented to the state Board of Pardons and Paroles, and an appeal from the European Union calling for the death sentence to be commuted. In contrast, the Chatham County prosecutors asserted that Davis was guilty and deserved the death penalty.
- April 16, 2009- Panel denies Davis' application by a 2–1 majority. Judges Dubina and Marcus rejects the petition stating that Davis' claims having been reviewed and rejected in the past, and that the recantations are not persuasive.
- August 17, 2009-Supreme Court orders the Savannah federal district court to "receive testimony and make findings of fact as to whether evidence that could not have been obtained at the time of trial clearly establishes [Davis'] innocence." Justice John Paul Stevens, joined by Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer write that "[t]he substantial risk of putting an innocent man to death clearly provides an adequate justification for holding an evidentiary hearing." Justice Antonin Scalia dissented, stating the a new hearing would be "fool's errand" because Davis' claim of innocence was "a sure loser." He is joined by Justice Clarence Thomas
- June 2010- In response to the Supreme Court order, a two-day hearing is held in a federal district court in Savannah in front of Judge William Moore. Former prosecution witness Antoine Williams states he did not know who had shot MacPhail, and that because he was illiterate he could not read the police statements he had signed in 1989. Other prosecution witnesses, Jeffrey Sapp and Kevin MacQueen testify that Davis had not confessed to them as they had stated at the initial trial. Darrell Collins also recants his previous evidence that he had seen Davis shoot Cooper and MacPhail.The witnesses variously described their previous testimony against Davis as being the result of feeling scared, of feeling frightened and pressured by police or to get revenge in a conflict with Davis. Anthony Hargrove testified that Redd Coles had admitted the killing to him. The state's lawyers describe Hargrove's testimony as hearsay evidence; Judge William T. Moore permits the evidence but states that unless Coles appeared, he might give the evidence "no weight whatsoever. Another witness making a similar statement is heard, but a third was rejected by Judge Moore as the claims were inadmissible hearsay because Coles was not called as a witness and given the opportunity for rebuttal. Moore criticizes the decision not to call Coles, saying that he was "one of the most critical witnesses to Davis' defense". One of Davis' lawyers states that the day before they had been unsuccessful in serving a subpoena to Coles; Moore responded that the attempt had been made too late, given that the hearing had been set for months. State attorneys called current and former police officers and the two lead prosecutors, who testified that the investigation had been careful, and that no witnesses had been coerced or threatened. A state attorney asserts that the testimony of at least five prosecution witnesses remained unchallenged, and the evidence of Davis' guilt is overwhelming.
- July 2010, Davis' lawyers filed a motion asking Moore to reconsider his decision to exclude testimony from a witness to a confession by Coles
- August 2010, Moore stands by his initial decision, stating that in not calling Coles, Davis' lawyers were seeking to have only part of the evidence on the matter. Moore rules that executing an innocent person would violate the Eighth Amendment, but that Davis and his legal team had failed to demonstrate his innocence. In his decision, Moore wrote: "while Mr. Davis's new evidence casts some additional, minimal doubt on his conviction, it is largely smoke and mirrors."Of the seven recantations, Moore found that only one was wholly credible and two who were partly credible. He does not consider Coles' alleged confessions because of the failure of Davis' lawyers to subpoena Coles, and suggested that Davis should appeal directly to the Supreme Court.
- November 2010-Federal appeal is dismissed by appeals panel without ruling on its merits. They state that Davis should appeal the case directly U.S. Supreme Court "because he had exhausted his other avenues of relief." Rosemary Barkett, one of the panel judges, later releases a statement saying that though she agreed with decision, she still believed that Davis should be given a new trial.
- January 2011, Davis' legal team files a new appeal with the United States Supreme Court, alleging that the 11th Circuit appellate panel had "evinced a clear hostility" during his August 2010 appeal, and again asking for a new trial.
- March 2011-The appeal is rejected without comment by the Supreme Court, setting the stage for a new execution date.
- May 2011, Amnesty International and People of Faith Against the Death Penalty ask religious leaders to sign a letter to the Georgia State Board of Pardons and Paroles calling for the commutation of Davis' death sentence. As of May 5, 2011, more than 1,600 people had signed the letter.
- September 7, 2011, (#4) Georgia set Davis's execution date for September 21, 2011.
A word on "Closure"
I will never have closure," said Anneliese MacPhail. "But I may have some peace when he is executed."
I want to make this clear- I have the utmost sympathy for Mrs. MacPhail and her family. As a mother I cannot even imagine what it is like to lose your child. But I struggle to come to terms with the thought that taking Troy's life will give her any closure. Many family members who have witnessed executions have come forward and said that it did not, and in fact only served to deepen their pain.
I would just ask Mrs. MacPhail, how is taking another son away from his mother going to help you find peace?
As this is Troy's story, I will give him the last word:
I die a little each day, behind these walls, mentally, emotionally and physically. It is like I have a deadly disease and the government refuses to approve the cure, that my doctors (lawyers) have discovered. Sometimes I don’t feel like a "Dead Man Walking", I feel like "The Walking Dead." I refuse to be bitter or angry because I have faith in God, that he will soften the hearts of my oppressors, to do what is right.
When I’m finally released from this Death Camp, my path will remain Righteous as I help bring an END to the DEATH PENALTY.
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Troy A. Davis
Action Items
Help keep Troy Davis a trending topic on Twitter by using the share button at the top of this Diary, or use #TooMuchDoubt as a hashtag
Call (404.656.5651), e-mail (Webmaster@pap.state.ga.us), and fax
(404.651.8502) the Board of Pardons and Paroles and voice your support for Troy.
Amnesty International Petition
Color of Change Campaign
My other diary, with action items, letter templates, etc.
NAACP Petition
Send a message to Troy
***BREAKING***
The parole board has denied Troy's request for clemency. Please read the Diaries by
PsychoDrew and
Davidseth for more information.
