Jimmy Carter Calls for Clemency for Troy Davis

Posted by Staff, AlterNet at 2:50 AM on September 20, 2008.

President Carter called today on the Georgia State Board of Pardons
and Paroles to reverse its decision to deny clemency to Troy Davis.

See Video: http://www.alternet.org/blogs/rights/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.