Death Penalty in Georgia One Year After Troy Davis Execution
Georgia Dept. of Corrections
A year ago today, Troy Davis was executed for the murder of Savannah police officer Mark McPhail.
Since Davis’s execution, the state has scheduled four other men to die, but each of those executions has been stopped by clemency for one and stays for three others.
Brian Robinson, spokesman for Governor Nathan Deal, says that doesn’t mean there’s been a move toward change in death penalty policy. “It’s gonna be a long time before this issue is even looked at in Georgia, because people believe in justice, and the majority of Georgians want the state to have this option,” said Robinson.
The case was controversial because there was no physical evidence tying Davis to the killing, and seven of nine eyewitnesses who put Davis at the scene later recanted their testimony.
Sara Totonchi leads the Southern Center for Human Rights, a group that fought the Davis execution. According to Totonchi, “Troy Davis and his story have headlined campaigns in CT and CA that are calling for the abolition of the death penalty. So even if we’re not seeing advancement here in GA legislatively, we know that the lessons from Georgia and the stories from Georgia are making a difference in abolishing the death penalty nationwide.”
Connecticut abolished the death penalty earlier this year. California voters will consider abolition in November.
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