[Peace] [today, 5:30, Alma Mater] Fwd: UIUC Protesting the Execution of Troy Davis, AN INNOCENT MAN

[Stuart Levy]

Date: Thu, 22 Sep 2011 13:29:16 -0500
From: Daniel Werst <danielwerst at gmail.com>
Subject: UIUC Protesting the Execution of Troy Davis, AN INNOCENT MAN
To: (many people...)

Hi,

Yesterday, the state of Georgia, with the acceptance of the US Supreme
Court, killed Troy Davis, a man against whom it had no physical evidence, in
a case where 7 of the 9 witnesses had admitted that all or part of their
trial testimony against him was false. That included 3 of 4 people who
admitted that they lied when they testified
that they witnessed Davis shoot a police officer.


We know that people on this campus, like reasonable and honest people across
this country saw that there was more than reasonable doubt in this case and
that Davis' execution was in fact a murder. We know because well over
650,000 signatures were collected demanding that Davis' execution be halted,
including over 700 from this campus.


Students who have been involved in protesting this execution will be meeting
by the Alma Mater at 5:30 today (and possibly then finding somewhere to talk
indoors). We will discuss how people of conscience on this campus can
organize to protest what amounted to a lynching by the state. We oppose the
death penalty in principle and we are most outraged when this unjustifiable
penalty is applied to a man against whom there was simply NO CREDIBLE
EVIDENCE OF GUILT.


We know that there was in fact intense doubt over who actually committed the
murder for which Davis died because there was a last minute postponement of
the execution when Justice Clarence Thomas, one of the Supreme Court's most
right wing judges required a halt in order to press for an official stay.
The full court however did not have enough support to actually stop the
execution.


Please come stand with us as we stand against this injustice and stand for
Troy Davis.


Daniel Werst
847-809-1433
International Socialist Organization