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 May 19 Rally for Troy Davis at Concord State HouseMay 13, 2009 On Tuesday, May 19th the New Hampshire Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty and Amnesty International will co-sponsor a rally at the State House in Concord from 5-6PM. This rally is one of hundreds of events around the country and the world being held as part of Global Day of Action for Troy Davis. Troy Davis was convicted and sentenced to death in Georgia for the 1989 murder of Officer Mark MacPhail. Since his trial. seven out of the nine witnesses against him have recanted their testimony, and someone else has confessed to being the shooter. Troy Davis has been trying for years to get a court to hear his claim of innocence. His latest request has been denied by the Georgia Supreme Court and an execution date will be scheduled soon. The New Hampshire Coaltion to Abolish the Death Penalty does not know whether Troy Davis is innocent, but there is compelling evidence that he may be. At the very least, we believe, a court ought to hear his claim of actual innocence before he is executed. More than 300,000 people in the USA and around the world have appealed for executive clemency for Troy Davis. Among them are former US President Jimmy Carter, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Pope Benedict XVI; the European Union, the European Parliament, and the Secretary General of the Council of Europe; former FBI Director William Sessions, and former and current members of US Congress Bob Barr, Carol Moseley Baun and John Lewis. Since the USA resumed executions in 1977, over 1200 prisoners have been put to death, 43 of them in Georgia. In the same period, more than 100 people have been released from death rows around the country on the grounds of innocence, many of them in cases in which witness testimony has been shown to have been unreliable. Several prisoners have gon the their deaths despite lingering doubts about their guilt. Barbara Keshen Back to Granite State Progress  |