WHEREAS, Troy Anthony Davis is on death row in Georgia and is scheduled to be executed for a crime that he may not have committed,
WHEREAS, the Georgia State Board of Pardons and Paroles has issued a temporary stay of Mr. Davis’s scheduled execution and is currently considering Mr. Davis’s request for clemency,
WHEREAS, procedural defaults have prevented Mr. Davis from presenting compelling evidence of his innocence,
WHEREAS, the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers is aware of the grave deficiencies in the State of Georgia’s system of capital punishment as outlined by the American Bar Association’s report, Evaluating Fairness and Accuracy in State Death Penalty Systems: The Georgia Death Penalty Assessment Report,
WHEREAS due to his indigence, Mr. Davis has repeatedly suffered from deficient legal representation, particularly during the appeals phase,
WHEREAS, the death penalty is a permanent solution and mistakes cannot be undone,
WHEREAS over 120 people have been wrongfully convicted in capital cases since 1976, including six from Georgia,
WHEREAS, there is no physical evidence connecting Mr. Davis to the murder and no murder weapon was ever recovered,
WHEREAS, the case against Mr. Davis entirely consisted of eyewitness testimony,
WHEREAS, substantial research has shown that eyewitness identification is flawed and has contributed to the wrongful conviction of numerous innocent defendants,
WHEREAS, seven of the nine witnesses who testified against Mr. Davis at trial have stated they were coerced into signing statements written for them by police, due to intense pressure and fear and have now signed sworn affidavits recanting their testimony,
WHEREAS, nine witnesses have implicated another person in the murder of Officer McPhail,
NOW THEREFORE BE IT
RESOLVED, that the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, reiterating and reinforcing its vigorous opposition to the infliction of death as punishment for crime, condemns the imposition of the death penalty in a case involving a claim of innocence and where substantial issues have not been reviewed by any court because of procedural default.
RESOLVED, that National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers urges the Georgia State Board of Pardons and Parole to grant clemency to Mr. Troy Anthony Davis.
San Francisco, California
