Troy Davis Execution Stayed

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Supreme Court Grants Davis Temporary Plea

Five minutes after Davis was scheduled for execution, the Supreme Court granted a temporary reprieve.

The Supreme Court delayed Troy Davis’ execution to review arguments by Davis’ legal team and the State of Georgia as to whether he deserves a stay. The decision came at 7:05 p.m. tonight, five minutes after his scheduled death was to occur.

Davis protestors across the street from the jail

Davis’ supporters erupted in cheers, hugs, and tears outside the Jackson, Georgia, jail. The Supreme court could reverse the decision any time tonight or over the next seven days. His execution has been stayed four times over his 22-year stay on death row: multiple legal appeals failed to prove his innocence.

Based on the recanted testimony of seven witness during his most recent trial, public support grew for Davis. There is another possible suspect who may have committed Officer MacPhail’s murder. The defense team claims the witnesses’ changed testimony and potentially new evidence casts too much doubt on Davis’ guilt to execute hum.

A growing number of celebrities, politicians, and social media users called for delay of the execution because of “too much doubt.” Supporters include Lupe Fiascom, Sean Diddy Combs, Gabrielle Union, Kimora Lee Simmons, Questlove of the Roots, and reality stars Toya Wright and Kim Kardashian. Combs has asked his 4 million Twitter followers followers to call Attorney General Eric Holder and urge him to intercede on Troy Davis’s behalf.

Other celebrity supporters include Katy Perry, Kanye West, Sandra Bernhard, The Indigo Girls, and Russell Simmons.

Big Boi of Outkast tweeted to his followers that they go to the Georgia state prison in Jackson to protest the decision. The Roots’ Questlove tweeted a similar message.

The NAACP and the Revs. Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson held a news conference today calling for the execution to be halted. Others who voiced support for Davis include former president Jimmy Carter, Pope Bendict, and a former FBI director.

At a protest in front of the White House today at least 12 Howard University students were arrested for failing to move off the White House sidewalk, according to ABC News affiliate WJLA. The protest there is expected to last until 7 p.m.

A flurry of messages on Twitter using the hashtags #TroyDavis and #TooMuchDoubt showed thousands of Davis’ supporters flooded the Jackson Distirct Attorney’s office, Georgia Judge Penny Freezeman, and the U.S. Attorney General’s office with phone calls and emails to beg for a stay on the execution.

A representative denied that some users accused Twitter of blocking the topic from trending on Tuesday. Hashtags were trended today in U.S. cities, Germany, the UK, Sweden, France, and many other nations. Many Tweets said case symbolized the return to Jim Crow laws and racial inequalities in the justice system.

Amnesty International encouraged supporters to attend a vigil at the church across the street from the prison at 5:30 p.m. and protest the execution at 6:00 p.m., asking participants to wear a black armband bearing the words, “Not in my name!” An spokesperson for the organization, Wendy Gozen Brown, said Troy Davis asks that the protests remain peaceful. In this type of situation, there’s always the potential for it to go awry, with certain groups, angry rhetoric. But Troy Davis would want people to keep fighting peacefully, for him and for, as he would put it, all of the other Troy Davis’ out there.

The Supreme Court overturned the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles, which rejected Davis’s plea for clemency on Tuesday.


Mad Mike’s America thanks The Washington Post, ABC, and CNN.


What do you think the outcome will be for Troy Davis?

About Post Author

Dorothy Anderson

I want to know what you think and why, especially if we disagree. Civil discourse is free speech: practice daily. Always question your perspective.
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Barry West
12 years ago

I think you’re mistaken. The execution wasn’t stayed. The court agreed to look at the pleading, which they did, and rejected it almost immediately. The law was followed and the rest is history.

Reply to  Barry West
12 years ago

Hi Barry. Thanks for your comment. I’ll be interested to know if you agree with this comment.

I double checked to make sure I had the correct terminology. Most of the media reported the “Supreme Court stayed the execution,” so I dug further.

The legal definition of “stay” is The act of temporarily stopping a judicial proceeding through the order of a court… [and] may also refer to a halt in the execution of a death penalty. This kind of stay of execution normally is granted when a court decides to allow an additional appeal by a condemned prisoner. Such stays of execution may be granted by executives, such as governors or the president of the United States, or by appeals courts.

If the Supreme Court granted a reprieve in order to halt Davis’ execution and review his petition, then “stay” is correct.

However, Fox news corrected itself “CORRECTION: TROY DAVIS EXECUTION DELAYED (not stayed, but merely delayed).”

Brenda LeBlanc
12 years ago

I am appalled
If this is justice God help us al

lazersedge
12 years ago

Never fear. The blood lust of the American people will not be thwarted for long. People of this country have long handed off their killing to third parties thus making it easier to call for the death of others. We have also make killing neat and clean. Henry Fielding noted in 1754 that hangings should not be made public because people would soon start to sympathize with those being executed. I agree that were we to make death sentences made public again and people had to face what they are really doing instead of just hearing a news blurb about it most would not want to be so personally involved. Perhaps then the idea of “killing people to show other people than killing people is wrong” is stupid and idiotic.

Bradley Scott
12 years ago

The problem, I believe, is that one’s innocence need ever be proven, only their guilt, and that beyond a reasonable doubt. Recanted testimonies+ evidence of another possible perpetrator= reasonable doubt. As we’ve all witnessed, courts are reluctant (to put it very mildly) to have any verdict overturned, any judgement vacated, any case disproved. However, a court’s pride must never be allowed to take pecedence over it’s integrity by requiring the accused to prove their innocence, especially when their guilt has been ‘proved’ by inadequate, inaccurate, or downright false evidence. Hang in there Troy Davis!

Bradley Scott
Reply to  Bradley Scott
12 years ago

ahem…’need never be proven’ -ed.

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