"We Are Troy Davis": 10 Years After Georgia Execution That Galvanized Anti-Death Penalty Movement
Tuesday marks 10 years since the state of Georgia executed Troy Anthony Davis for a crime many believe he did not commit. He was put to death despite major doubts about evidence used to convict him of killing Savannah police officer Mark MacPhail, including the recantation of seven of the nine non-police witnesses at his trial. As the world watched to see whether Davis's final appeal for a stay of execution would be granted by the U.S. Supreme Court, Democracy Now! was the only news outlet to continuously broadcast live from the prison grounds in Jackson, Georgia. We revisit parts of our six-hour special report, featuring interviews with Davis's supporters and family members who held an all-day vigil and those who witnessed his death by lethal injection, and speak with two people who were there when Davis was executed: Kimberly Davis, Troy Davis's sister and an anti-death penalty activist, and Ben Jealous, president of People for the American Way and former president of the NAACP. We know that Troy Davis did make a mark on the world," says Kimberly Davis. We want to continue to fight until we demolish the death penalty, one state at a time."