Beginning at 1 p.m. Wednesday, dozens of ASU students filled the sidewalks outside the Memorial Union to show support for Troy Davis, the 42-year-old Georgia man who was to be executed at 7 p.m. for a crime he said he did not commit.
At 11:08 p.m., after a four-hour legal delay, Davis was pronounced dead by lethal injection. The state of Georgia executed the inmate after the U.S. Supreme Court denied his last-minute stay of execution. He had been on death row for 22 years, according to the Associated Press.
As he was strapped to the gurney, Davis declared his innocence one final time in the 1989 murder of off-duty Savannah police officer Mark MacPhail.
According to the Associated Press, Davis addressed family members of the victim in his final statement: "I'm not the one who personally killed your son, your father, your brother. I am innocent.”
Throughout the years, Davis had gained immense public support, including that of ASU students. Support grew even more in the media after the recanted testimony of seven of the nine witnesses that testified during the trial.
English literature and African American studies sophomore Kaari Aubrey was one of the leading protesters outside of the Memorial Union Wednesday.
“Troy Davis was denied the human right to live,” Aubrey said. “There was little to no evidence convicting him. There were millions of signatures on his petition and he was still executed. We were protesting because we felt like our voices were not heard.”
Fellow ASU students Silas Freeman, Shadae Bowen, Terrisa Mays and Caprice Howard helped Aubrey lead the student protest.
“Troy Davis could be our brother, our father, our significant other,” Aubrey said. “When there is such little evidence, we don’t believe the death penalty should apply to these cases.”
Danny Englese, president of the Young Democrats, called Davis’ execution a “black eye for justice.”
“What has always been most troubling to me about capital punishment is not necessarily the idea of execution itself, but that there is such great potential for innocent men to lose their lives,” he said.
Davis’ defense team has saved him from three prior executions in the past four years.
“Though we may never know whether Davis was truly innocent, the fact that there existed any shadow of a doubt should have been enough to prolong his life,” Englese said. “I am angered, ashamed and confused by this tragic oversight.”
The Davis case has given many students a cause to unite. The protesters are encouraging ASU students to show their support by wearing black on Friday.
Political Science sophomore Silas Freeman summed the somber mood surrounding the case, quoting Martin Luther King, Jr.
“‘Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere … Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.’ Troy Davis' case, unfortunately, is not uncommon,” Freeman said. “The unfair treatment Davis suffered can happen to anyone. No matter race, creed or background.”
Reach the reporter at april.fischer@asu.edu
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