Author
Dori Smith, Talk Nation Radio
Troy Anthony Davis V the State of Georgia on the matter of his innocence
October 15th, 2008
Talk Nation Radio airs at WHUS FM 91.7 at 5:00 PM EST at WHUS www.whus.org
This week’s Sprouts:
Troy Anthony Davis V the State of Georgia on the matter of his innocence
Produced by: Dori Smith, WHUS, Storrs, CT
Left KU Channel
Thursday, October 16, 2008 3PM EST
TRT: 28:18
This week’s stories: The U.S. Supreme Court refuses to grant Troy Anthony Davis another chance at life. Attorneys for the defense must now make their final attempts at getting the Georgia Board of Pardons and Parole to grant him clemency.There could also be last minute legal efforts on Davis’s behalf.
As an immediate reaction to the Supreme Court decision, Attorney Deirdre O’Connor who has been working on the case at Innocence Matters suggests hundreds of thousands of supporters all over the world can help by urging doctors working for the State of Georgia to refuse to participate in the execution, thus denying them an opportunity to execute an innocent man.
http://www.gfadp.org for Georgians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty and see links.
Guests include:
1.) Martina Correia, Troy Davis on her inspirational life story of advocacy for the brother she loves. She discusses the problems created for her brother when the 1996 Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996. The 11th Circuit Court in Georgia refused to hear new evidence in the case due to a procedural problem created by this Act which was retroactively applied to Troy Davis and other death row prisoners. The Act set tight limits on the number and timing of appeals.
2.) Attorney Deirdre O’Connor, an attorney licensed in California and Georgia, and director of Innocence Matters. She wrote an amicus brief in support of Troy Davis’s Petition for Certiorari and was Attorney of Record on an amicas brief for Troy Davis to the Georgia Supreme Court. We reached Attorney Deirdre O’Conner shortly after she and Troy Davis learned of the Supreme Court’s decision. See more here.
3.) Laura Tate Kagel, Amnesty International’s Georgia Death Penalty Abolition group describes the massive quantities of email, letters, and calls her office receives about Troy Davis.
Troy Davis and various attorneys representing him over the years have been denied the opportunity to have the evidence in the case reviewed by a court or judge at every turn after his 1991 conviction for the murder of Atlanta police officer Mark Allen MacPhail. Davis and his family, attorney’s and many friends, were hopeful, that the high court would finally offer an opportunity for new evidence to be heard. Seven of nine witnesses who originally testified against Davis have recanted their testimony.
Davis has been on death row in Georgia for 17 years, for a total of 19 years in jail. His case represents the latest example of failures within state and federal courts that have been asked to review complex challenges to verdicts in capital murder cases. There have been 130 people liberated from death row because attorneys were able to get the judicial system to review evidence. Today on Sprouts we look at the origins of Davis V Georgia and the international outpouring of support for the movement to give Troy Davis a new trial.
On September 23rd Troy Davis came within 90 minutes of being executed when the US Supreme Court issued a last minute stay of execution to study his executive petition to review evidence in a twenty year old murder case. On October 14th the Court refused to grant the petition. They did not review any of the compelling evidence. They met in closed session to review a petition for certiorari addressing problems with a Georgia Supreme Court decision not to grant Davis an evidentiary hearing. The high court was also asked to review constitutional questions, does the U.S. Constitution prohibit the execution of an innocent man?
As thousands began new attempts to save Troy Davis, the State of Georgia lost no time in seeking a new death warrant. They could schedule an execution as early as October 27th 2008. The death warrant will expire on November 3rd.
http://www.freetroydavis.com/page1.aspx
Sprouts is a weekly program that features production at independent radio stations and other grassroots media groups. It is produced collaboratively between Pacifica and community radio stations across the country. The program is offered free of charge to all radio stations and welcomes submissions from producers in independent media. For information or to submit work, contact Ursula Ruedenberg at:ursula@pacifica.org.
Contact Dori Smith at talknationradio@gmail.com
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