[From Emily L. Hauser: Please sign this petition asking the DA to withdraw the death warrant and share it with your friends. -ABLxx]
I’m thrilled to report that earlier today, the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles was “swamped with Troy Davis petitions.” More than 650,000 signatures! (And I know one of the people who helped count!)
It’s not too late to add your name to the list (click here), and even if your name is already in the Board of Pardon’s offices, I have another petition for you to sign: This one is via Change.org and Mr. Davis’s younger sister Kimberly, and directed to Chatham Count DA Larry Chisholm. As District Attorney, Chisholm is in a position to request that the court withdraw the death warrant against Mr. Davis, which would of course be a very good thing. So far the petition has very few signatures (it was just put up this afternoon) — please swell those numbers, by signing (click here) and asking others to do the same.
celticragonchick
Signed and sent.
JC
Done.
SiubhanDuinne
Signed and sent. Thanks again to ABL and Emily Hauser for keeping the pressure on. I heard the 650,000+ number on local ATC this evening and am very encouraged that this case has attracted such a lot of attention
KatinPhilly
Thank you for being on this, ABL, and to those who sign. Our members (all exonerated death row prisoners) are delivering a letter signed by 26 of them to the GA Board of Pardons tomorrow, and a few of them will be heading up the big march in Atlanta, too. You can read the letter here: http://www.witnesstoinnocence.org
Texas just executed someone yesterday because of the “Law of Parties.” People should google this. He did not commit the murders, but because he was there, he was executed, while the killer got life in prison. Please explain to me how this is justice.
Slowbama
I do hope the petitions spelled the DA’s name right. It’s actually Chisolm, not Chisholm. Oh well, not like you’re trying to save someone’s life or anything like that…
CynDee
I went on Amnesty International and entered info but there was no place to click to complete the process. I sent them an e-mail. Anyone else with this problem?
I had this happen before today, with another organization.
metricpenny
Signed. Thank you Emily and ABL for your advocacy on this matter.
Blahblah
Pretty sure he did it. Hope he fries.
Linda Featheringill
Signed.
And congratulations to all involved for accomplishing so much. Do we have any idea when we’ll find out if this has been effective?
Linda Featheringill
@Blahblah:
Do you know what karma is?
Blahblah
@Linda Featheringill: If I’m ever on death row you don’t have to sign my stupid internet petition either.
Slowbama
@Linda Featheringill: He might not, but I think Troy Davis will know here in a few days.
Villago Delenda Est
@KatinPhilly:
It gives teabaggers warm and fuzzies.
bystander
Done, and passed on…
Scott Alloway
Done. As the son of a 40-year veteran cop who opposes the death penalty.
Jebediah
@Blahblah:
You got some evidence no-one else does? Glad you’re ok with execution based on “pretty sure.” You’re either a lazy troll or a rancid shit-stain.
Svensker
So glad there is some hope. I’m praying here.
And for blahblah, wishing for anyone’s death is neither funny nor sophisticated. I’ll add a prayer that your heart will be softened and that you feel shame and turn away from such foulness in the future.
rikyrah
praying for Mr. Davis. thank you for this news.
Menzies
Signing and sending right now. Thanks for letting us all know.
Menzies
@Slowbama:
Click through to the petition. It spells his name correctly.
life is absurd
Delurking to say as someone who’d describe himself as a white leftist, I just wanted to thank you, ABL, for opening my eyes to a lot of things to which my relatively privileged upbringing had allowed me to ignore. The Anne Laurie thing the other day and the Michael Moore thing today really forced me to take a look at my own reflexes and to recognize that sometimes I would ‘instinctively’ feel the urge to come to the defense of someone I knew on an intellectual level was dead wrong. I like to think of a human brain as containing a number of different advocates that can conflict with and confuse each other, and I feel like my linguistic/logical brain is finally beginning to understand and describe the part of my brain responsible for the emotion-driven tribalist/racial urges well enough to bring it to conscious attention. Which isn’t to say those urges don’t remain; I don’t know if it’d be possible to excise them short of physically removing them. But all I can do is try.
Anyway, far more than enough about me: thank you, and I sincerely hope you succeed in your quest for justice for Troy Davis.
Calming Influence
Blahblah is just a weak minded Rick Perry cheerleader, and my prayer is that Rick & Blah spend an eternity in hell getting Deliverance-style ass-fuckings from their pasty white inbred peers. (unless they like that sort of thing, in which case they’re ordered to squeal, but then DON’T get their ass-fucking – Psych!)
Ruckus
@Jebediah:
Probably both. People who want to see others dead? Not worth the time of day.
Signed
aangus
BREAKING: U.S. Supreme Court Grants Stay of Execution To Duane Edward Buck.
http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2011/09/15/320763/breaking-supreme-court-grants-stay-of-execution-to-duane-edward-buck/
Jebediah
@Ruckus:
You’re right, of course, and I should know better than to pay any attention. But that got my goat.
Blahblah
@Jebediah: The five witnesses who haven’t recanted are good enough for me. Sign your little petition though, I bet that helps!
ruemara
Good god. Seriously, you two have to show up to troll in this thread too? I really hope there is not such a thing as karmic justice. I don’t think even you deserve to be treated the way you treat ABL, the concept of equal justice under the law and activism.
Anya
Signed and sent to all my FB friends and contacts. Thank you Emily L. Hauser for championing this worthy cause.
celticragonchick
@Blahblah:
I’ll go with the word of Bob Barr and William Sessions, who know a little more about this then you.
Back to the Freeper cage for you, now. Run along, there’s a good boy.
Debbie(aussie)
Done. So hope it makes a difference. Has the Amnesty US petition been handed over yet? I signed that one too.
Ruckus
@Blahblah:
I see that you can’t read either.
Seven out of nine witnesses have recanted. Seven out of nine. Not five remaining.
And one of the two remaining is considered by some to be the shooter. Great witness. No self interest at all.
Because you probably won’t understand, I hope you never find yourself falsely accused of a major crime with the only evidence being eye witness testimony. Don’t want you to find out how unreliable eye witness testimony can be.
Moron. Done feeding the troll anything but pie.
Ruckus
@Jebediah:
Mine too.
Ms.B
Signed–with a lot of gratitude for ABL and Emily and folks on other sites who are committed to stop this ludicrous betrayal of justice.
Odie Hugh Manatee
@Blahblah:
You’re “Pretty sure he did it” and should fry for it? “Pretty Sure”?! I hope to fuck you are never called for jury duty with an attitude like that.
You are one stupid fuck.
Thanks for banging the drum on this ABL and Emily H. You are both angels of hope for Troy.
CarolDuhart
“Pretty Sure He Did it” is not enough for such an irrevocable sentence. If a person is locked up, you can always review the evidence – there’s a margin of error and time to correct mistakes. It’s too late after the death penalty is administered to find out it was mistaken identity or outright lying. Which is why I’ve evolved into the Clintonesque position I now take on the Death Penalty. “Safe, legal, and extremely rare”. What I mean is that I would retain the death penalty, but save it for the absolute worst of the worst-serial killers, killers for hire, terrorists, and those sick souls who torture and kill. But that means in certain Southern states the “scary black killer” meme would be extinguished, and the waves of executions simply wouldn’t happen anymore with the political benefits of being “tough on crime” that go with it.
I’d like to see a judge say to someone-“you aren’t bad enough to kill”-life w/o parole is good enough for you.
Ruckus
@CarolDuhart:
Easier, safer, cheaper and far more humane?
NO Death Penalty.
It really is that easy an idea. Lots of countries do not have a death penalty. It is not a deterrent. It is a cruel punishment. And it should be completely unusual as well.
To implement? Going to be pretty hard in the current political climate.
CarolDuhart
@Ruckus: I agree it would be pretty hard to implement in the current environment-so I favor the retention, but it should be so exceptional that it would be rare to have more than 2 on death row at one time.
I never believed in the deterrence theory. The kinds of people who I would reserve it for aren’t likely to be deterred, and in the case of terrorists, it may even be desired from time to time. We should be frank: it’s punishment, period, and a punishment meant for those who are simply too dangerous and whose behavior is so heinous that it requires an extreme response. And how many people are there that reach the heights of a John Wayne Gacy or a Tim McVeigh? Not more than a dozen in a very bad year. I refuse to believe that Texas is far more filled with psychopaths than dozens of other states, and clearly it isn’t.
Indeed, in my system, the deterrence would be enhanced for without such a irrevocable penalty for most, more could be simply incarcerated instead of either walking totally, more resources could be given to an adequate defense or prosecution. Money and resources spent could be used to upgrade the judicial system. Sureness would be substituted for drama in such a system.
Ruckus
@CarolDuhart:
My concept of no death penalty is pretty simple and life in anything but simple so many, like you, will say we need to keep the death penalty for the worst of the offenders. But I go back to the simple answer. What is gained by having the death penalty that is not covered by life without parole?
Nothing other than if you consider that the death penalty is retribution, nothing more, at which time I say, I’d like to think we can be better than that. Others are.