Troy Davis, a Few More Hours

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Troy Davis at his graduation.

“The struggle for justice doesn’t end with me. This struggle is for all the Troy Davises who came before me and all the ones who will come after me. 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.” — Troy Davis		 From Equal Justice USA:

Troy Davis is scheduled for execution tonight at 7pm EST in Atlanta – despite the heavy cloud of doubt around his guilt.

Even after yesterday’s decision by the Georgia parole board to deny clemency, thousands more citizens joined the three-quarters of a million who had already signed petitions, called, faxed, and emailed the board members asking them to stop this execution.

Now there are only a few hours left. It is, however, enough time for the parole board to change their minds. There is also still time for courts to intervene. Davis’ lawyers have filed a last ditch appeal today.

You can help keep the pressure on by e-mailing the parole board members or faxing their office at (404) 651-8502 – even if you have already – to ask them to reconsider their decision to deny clemency to Troy Davis.

TROY DAVIS HAS BEEN DENIED CLEMENCY!

TODAY SEPT. 21 at 6pm EDT (New York, New York)
WE COME TOGETHER FOR A SILENT CANDLE LIGHT MARCH TO ST MARY’s Church (521 west 126th Street — btwn broadway and amsterdam)

Meeting place is 6:00pm at Harlem State Office Building (125th Street & Adam Clayton Powell Blvd)

A message from Troy Davis: I am Troy Davis and I am Free

I am Troy Davis and I am Free

To All:

I want to thank all of you for your efforts and dedication to Human Rights and Human Kindness, in the past year I have experienced such emotion, joy, sadness and never ending faith.

It is because of all of you that I am alive today, as I look at my sister Martina I am marveled by the love she has for me and of course I worry about her and her health, but as she tells me she is the eldest and she will not back down from this fight to save my life and prove to the world that I am innocent of this terrible crime.

As I look at my mail from across the globe, from places I have never ever dreamed I would know about and people speaking languages and expressing cultures and religions I could only hope to one day see first hand. I am humbled by the emotion that fills my heart with overwhelming, overflowing Joy. I can’t even explain the insurgence of emotion I feel when I try to express the strength I draw from you all, it compounds my faith and it shows me yet again that this is not a case about the death penalty, this is not a case about Troy Davis, this is a case about Justice and the Human Spirit to see Justice prevail.

I cannot answer all of your letters but I do read them all, I cannot see you all but I can imagine your faces, I cannot hear you speak but your letters take me to the far reaches of the world, I cannot touch you physically but I feel your warmth everyday I exist.

So Thank you and remember I am in a place where execution can only destroy your physical form but because of my faith in God, my family and all of you I have been spiritually free for some time and no matter what happens in the days, weeks to come, this Movement to end the death penalty, to seek true justice, to expose a system that fails to protect the innocent must be accelerated.

There are so many more Troy Davis’.

This fight to end the death penalty is not won or lost through me but through our strength to move forward and save every innocent person in captivity around the globe. We need to dismantle this Unjust system city by city, state by state and country by country.

I can’t wait to Stand with you, no matter if that is in physical or spiritual form, I will one day be announcing,

“I AM TROY DAVIS, and I AM FREE!”

Never Stop Fighting for Justice and We will Win!

(8)

  • Anonymous

    I just heard on the news that the Supreme Court refused to grant relief for Troy Davis and that he will be executed within the next 1/2 hour. What a horrible, horrible world we live in. I wrote elsewhere that the only thing that helped this at all is knowing that there are people with gentle hearts that care about this man and those like him.

     

  • Anonymous

    Listening live to Amy Goodman from Democracy Now. It looks like SCOTUS issued an emergency stay!

    • Yes — saw that when the crowd cheered — hopefully, this will be confirmed!

  • Kay W

    My emails to the clemency board just bounced.  They are refusing to even hear from us any more. 

    • Princss and others said they are now having the same problem. :(

  • Anonymous

    So wrong on so many levels.  I’m just disgusted.

    • It is a deeply and profoundly saddening day indeed.  My heart breaks for him and his family — and the many other faceless young black men  wrongfully incarcerated and/or sitting on death row. 

      I have to believe something good will come out of this. 

  • I tried contacting the Governor.  Email bounced and phone number is disconnected.  I did send an email via EqualJustice.

    • I wonder if that might be a good thing? People must be slamming them with emails. 

      We’ve gotta do better than this though.  Wouldn’t it be something if busloads of people all over the country showed up in Atlanta to halt this execution?  That’s the kind of organizing I’d eventually like to see to take stand against white supremacist state violence.

      I hope the right thing is inevitably done tonight. 

  • Anonymous

    I lived in GA for 11 years.  That is all I can say.

    • Troy Davis represents all those faceless young black men swept up in the white supremacist, for-profit prison system.  This is a profoundly saddening day for many reasons.  Yes, there is still some hope that the right thing will be done.  But I wish we, as in the collective USA, would have organized bodies to go down to Atlanta to halt this thing.   Disturbing, just disturbing.  It sounds like Troy is mentally/emotionally/spiritually at a place of peace — I hope his family finds some as well.  We’ve got a long ways to go.

  • dirkster42

    Thanks for keeping up the drumbeat against the odds, Seeta.  

    • We are all keeping up the drumbeat dirkster.  Kay sent this to me from Equal Justice this morning and I spruced it up with some additional info. 

      But, as I just told princss, we have all got to do better than this — organize bodies to take a literal stand against state violence in all of its forms.

      I feel as though the entire country is sitting by tonight as we watch white supremacist state violence in one of its most vile forms. 

      Which is more sickening?