Davis's case is such an injustice. This is the essay Mumia wrote last year about him:

Troy Anthony Davis: When Witnesses Lie

(col. writ. 7/29/07)
(c) '07 Mumia Abu-Jamal

In many ways, the trial, conviction and subsequent death sentence of Troy Anthony Davis was, in a sense, as common as chopsticks in China.

Its elements, false testimony, police pressure, and prosecutorial blindness aren't problems unique to Georgia -- it's an American problem.

Troy Davis is perhaps days away from death for a conviction based on testimony which, if called 'weak', would be a massive understatement.

Of the 9 prosecution witnesses who testified at his 1999 trial, 6 have recanted their statements, swearing it was police threats and pressure that made them give statements. While all are remarkable, perhaps none is more remarkable than the recantation of Antoine Williams, who said:

"After the officers talked to me, they gave me a statement and told me to sign it. I signed it.
I did not read it because I cannot read... I felt pressured to point at his.....

The worldwide human rights group, Amnesty International, has released an extraordinary report on Davis's case. The 35-page document shows how almost everything that could go wrong, did go wrong.

False testimony was sufficient to put him on Georgia's Death Row, but now, to those same judicial forces, the truth seems irrelevant.

Amnesty International is trying to get Georgia's Board of Pardons and Parole to grant clemency, and is bringing its global membership to bear to save the lfie of Troy Anthony Davis.

The problem though is Davis is a Georgian who was convicted of killing a white cop in Savannah.

Oh, incidentally, Mr. Davis is Black.

Another witness who has since recanted was Darrel "D.D." Collins, who was 16 years old the night of the crime. Years later, he would file a signed affadavit explaining why he testified against Davis:

"They (the police) were telling me that I was an accessory to murder and that I would pay like
Troy was gonna pay if I didn't tell them what they wanted to hear. They told me that I would
go to jail for a long time and I would be lucky if I ever got out, especially because a police
officer got killed.....I didn't want to go to jail because I didn't do nothing wrong. I was only sixteen
and was so scared of going to jail....."

More info on the case is available from Amnesty Int'l, including the witness statements and the AI report, "Where is the Justice for Me?", at www.amnesty.org.

----(c) '07 maj