US death row inmate Troy Davis issues parting cry

This is a very disturbing case. With 6 out of 7 of the original witnesses subsequently recanting, there is no way this man can he held to be guilty beyond reasonable doubt. And the witness who has not recanted could be the one who actually fired the shots

CONVICTED US murderer Troy Davis has issued a parting cry to death penalty abolitionists urging them to continue the battle after he is executed tomorrow, Amnesty International says.

"The struggle for justice doesn't end with me," Davis said in a letter to supporters released to the public via Amnesty International USA, which posted it on Facebook and on its website.

"This struggle is for all the Troy Davis who came before me and all the ones who will come after me," he said.

"I'm in good spirits and I'm prayerful and at peace. But I will not stop fighting until I've taken my last breath."

A US parole board denied clemency today to Davis, clearing the way for his execution tomorrow in a racially charged case that has become an international cause celebre for death penalty opponents.

Davis, who is black, was convicted 20 years ago of the fatal 1989 shooting of 27-year-old white police officer Mark MacPhail, a married father of a two-year-old girl and an infant boy.

MacPhail had been working nights as a security guard when he intervened in a brawl in a Burger King parking lot in Savannah, Georgia and was shot in the heart and the head at point-blank range.

There was no physical evidence tying Davis, who was 20 at the time of the murder, to the crime and several witnesses at his original trial later recanted their testimony.

During two decades of legal jousting, the campaign to spare his life drew high-profile support from former US president Jimmy Carter and Pope Benedict XVI, helping Davis escape three previous dates with death.

Some 2000 protesters gathered, at Amnesty's urging, at the Georgia state capitol today, 24 hours before Davis is due to become the 34th person executed in the United States this year.

The family of the victim have insisted the execution go ahead with MacPhail's daughter telling journalists emotionally how Davis had robbed her of a life with her father.

Original report here




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