Message from Troy Davis and More Actions

by Steven Argue Thursday, Sep. 22, 2011 at 4:03 PM

Troy Davis was sentenced to death in 1991 for the killing of an off-duty Savannah policeman. Davis was found ?guilty? based on dubious accounts that he confessed to the killing and questionable ?eyewitness? identifications that included false eyewitness testimony coerced by the cops. Seven of the prosecution?s nine ?eyewitnesses? have since recanted. The only holdouts are one man who may be the actual killer and another who initially denied being able to identify the shooter only to pin it on Davis two years later. Three of the eyewitnesses say their testimony was coerced by the police. New eyewitnesses have come forth identifying another suspect. The news on Troy Davis is very bad. Despite being innocent, the Georgia Parole Board has OK'd his execution for 7 PM today (September 21st). Yet the fight to free Troy Davis isn?t over, and if that fails, the fight to overthrow the evil system that murders him will continue.

Message from Troy Da...
troy_davis_department_of_corrections.jpgpm8mc7.jpg, image/jpeg, 402x500

A message from Troy Davis as well as some actions people can take and analysis.

Message from Troy Davis:

"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."

For more on Troy Davis’s case and a look at what the ongoing struggle for justice looks like, please read:

“Free Troy Davis! There’s No Justice in the Capitalist Courts!” by Steven Argue

http://nyc.indymedia.org/en/2011/09/116146.html

Protests are to be held at U.S. embassies across Europe as well and vigil will take place outside Georgia’s death row prison in Jackson.

Petition from Troy Davis’s Sister: Stop my brother Troy Davis' Execution on Sep. 21.

http://www.change.org/petitions/stop-my-brother-troy-davis-execution-on-sep-21

Petition to Obama demanding a federal civil rights investigation that would stop the execution. Obama often lectures sovereign governments about how to conduct themselves in terms of civil and human rights, but he has been silent on human rights violations in his own country. He hasn't even said a word on Troy Davis. Tell him it is time now for him to act on Troy Davis.

https://secure2.convio.net/pep/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=335

Georgia Senator Vincent Fort Joins Southern Center for Human Rights (SCHR) to Urge Execution Staff to Strike & Refuse to Kill Troy Davis

http://www.schr.org/action/resources/georgia_senator_joins_schr_to_urge_execution_staff_to_strike_refuse_to_kill_troy_da

Here is a resolution passed by International Longshore and Warehouseman’s Union (ILWU) in favor of Troy Davis. It would be nice if they would act on this and shut down the ports to stop the execution. Having that kind of fighting labor movement would hit the capitalists who rule America much harder than strategies of petitions and protests. Building a stronger socialist movement that helps lead labor in that direction is essential.

2009 ILWU Convention Resolution on Racist Oppression and the Death Penalty

Whereas, the ILWU and the militant wing of the American labor movement, the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) grew out of the class struggles in the 1920’s and 1930’s mobilizing against anti-worker and racist oppression, notably the cases of San Francisco labor organizer Tom Mooney and the 9 black Scottsboro Boys of Alabama, falsely accused of rape, and

Whereas, police, courts and laws have historically been used against working people in our struggle to organize unions and fight back against racist oppression, and

Whereas, the ILWU has a long-standing principle of opposition to racism and to the death penalty, a vestige of slavery, which is the ultimate form of government oppression, and

Whereas, African Americans, Latin Americans and other people of color are disproportionately imprisoned on death row across the country facing execution, and

Whereas, Mumia Abu-Jamal, Troy Anthony Davis, Kevin Cooper, Leonard Peltier and the San Francisco 8 are some of the most prominent victims of these government frame-ups, Jamal and Davis accused of killing police and Peltier of FBI agents on an Indian reservation, and

Whereas, the U.S. Supreme Court recently denied the appeal of Jamal, while Davis and Cooper lost before federal appeals courts, and

Whereas, Martina Correia, sister of Troy Davis, spoke passionately this year at ILWU Local 10’s Black History month rally against racist repression and has now initiated a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of executing an innocent person,

Therefore Be It Resolved that the ILWU reaffirms our opposition to the death penalty, supports Martina Correia’s lawsuit and demands freedom for these victims of government repression, just as we did for Tom Mooney and the Scottsboro Boys in the wake of the Big Strike of ’34, on this the 75th anniversary of that momentous struggle.

******

Update by Liberation News, subscribe free:

https://lists.riseup.net/www/info/liberation_news

Original: Message from Troy Davis and More Actions