TheLoop21.com

By: Michael E. Ross (Add to your loop)
Thu, 06/18/2009 - 00:00

A protest for Troy Davis. The court is still debating his future.

It’s come to this: Just days before the expiration of its current term, the U.S. Supreme Court is expected to review the original habeas corpus petition of Georgia inmate Troy Anthony Davis on June 25 and issue an order concerning his death-penalty case on either Friday, June 26, or Monday, June 29, according to a joint statement from Amnesty International and the NAACP. 

The country’s accustomed to getting big, sometimes momentous decisions from the Supremes in the run-up to their summer vacation; we’re equally accustomed to seeing wide-scale media coverage on those decisions (and sometimes hearing little or nothing about them before they’re announced). But despite a relative absence of coverage in mainstream media, critical mass of awareness of the Davis case may be about to explode.

Some background: Davis sits on death row in Jackson, Ga., awaiting either his execution, or his exoneration, for the murder of Savannah police officer Mark MacPhail in August 1989. He was tried and convicted in 1991, with no physical evidence, fingerprints or DNA linking him to the crime. And since that trial, seven out of nine key prosecution witnesses have recanted their testimony. Some said they were pressured by police officers to testify against Davis.

The legal back and forth has persisted, with appeals requested, won and denied. The U.S. Supreme Court had the case before but last Oct. 14, in a one-line decision presented with no elaboration, declined to hear Davis' case. The state of Georgia set a new execution date for Oct. 27; Davis’ lawyers won an emergency stay of execution.

On April 16, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals rejected Davis' bid for a new trial. In a 2-1 vote, the court cited technicalities as reasons for the rejection and extended Davis' stay of execution for 30 days to give him more time to file a petition with the U.S. Supreme Court. That stay ended on May 15. Before a new execution date could be set, Davis filed a petition for habeas corpus with the U.S. Supreme Court on May 19, asking the court to remand the case back to a federal judge for a hearing on his claims of innocence.

Now, Amnesty International, in partnership with the NAACP, is sponsoring a “Week of Witness,” beginning Friday, hoping to build awareness and public reaction in the run-up to the court’s habeus review.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported May 29 that Georgia Rep. John Lewis, an icon of the Civil Rights Movement, “has considered asking for a presidential pardon for Davis, but has not yet spoken to President Barack Obama about intervening in the case.” Lewis also said he planned to speak with House Judiciary Chairman Rep. John Conyers Jr. and Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy to discuss possible Davis-related legislation.

And the AJC reported that on May 22, two dozen congressmen sent a letter to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder about Davis’ case, asking him to “take any action, open any investigation or simply use the persuasion of your office to ensure that a grave injustice is not done in Georgia.”

What happens next?

The latest actions follow a May 19 Day of Global Action for Troy Davis. Activists and everyday people around the world texted, held rallies  and demonstrated on Davis’ behalf. Those efforts to exonerate him are gathering steam in high places. Noted professors Howard Zinn, Angela Davis and Noam Chomsky recently formed Concerned Professors for Troy Davis, the Atlanta Progressive News reported.

They join a roll call of celebrities, thought leaders and international figures, including former president Jimmy Carter; Nobel Laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu; Bob Barr, 2008 Libertarian presidential candidate; Reps. Jesse Jackson Jr. and Sheila Jackson Lee; actor-activist Mike Farrell; former FBI director William Sessions; and Pope Benedict XVI.

They’ve all made statements supporting Davis’ cause. Maybe the Rev. Raphael Warnock, pastor of the church that may be the cradle of the Civil Rights Movement, got it right.

“If you were to write a Hollywood script on Troy Davis, no one would believe it,” Warnock, of Atlanta’s Ebenezer Baptist Church, told Atlanta Progressive News. “Somebody ought to hit pause, rewind, and say 'let’s see the evidence.’”

That’s one way of calling for an end to the Troy Davis railroad to the death house that’s been building for years. There’s another, one that calls on the nation’s top law enforcement officer to speak truth to power.

We need to hear from the Justice Department on this matter. Conclusively and emphatically. We need to see the new attorney general — who very recently condemned the United States as “a nation of cowards” on matters vis-à-vis race — manifest his own display of courage in the Davis case. With both the principles of American justice and a life on the line, Holder is bound by the responsibilities of his office to make the position of his department known, and quickly.

For about 20 years, the matter of Georgia Department of Corrections inmate No. 657378 has waxed and waned in the public eye, subject to the whims of the media, the ebb and flow of state politics and the distractions of everyday life. Now, literally days from the Supreme Court’s review, what faces this nation, its judiciary and its image around the world is nothing less than a chance to bear witness, a gut check, a forthright assessment of this nation’s willingness to stand on the principles that make the United States what it’s always claimed to be: a beacon among nations.

We may be days from discovering whether the light in that beacon’s gone out. 

Veteran journalist Michael E. Ross has worked at The New York Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, the San Jose Mercury News, msnbc.com and elsewhere; and was formerly an adjunct professor at the Columbia University School of Journalism. His reviews, fiction, essays and criticism have also appeared in The Times Book Review, Essence, Wired, Entertainment Weekly, Konch, Salon, the San Francisco Chronicle, The Root, PopMatters and other publications. Author of the novel Flagpole Days (2003), and the essay collection Interesting Times (2004), he contributed to the anthologies MultiAmerica (1997), and Soul Food (2000). His newest collection of Weblogs and essays, American Bandwidth, will be published in the summer of 2009.

 (Photo by javacolleen at flickr.)

Has mainstream media given too much coverage to the murder of Annie Le?

Yes, way too much

Yes, a little too much

No, the right amount

No, not enough

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