Racist Supreme Court rejects Troy Davis’ death sentence appeal

On Oct. 14, the U.S. Supreme Court reaffirmed its role as a pillar of reaction and declined to hear the case of death row inmate Troy Davis.

Only intensified struggle can help Troy Davis following the Supreme Court’s decision to let an innocent man be executed.

Davis is an innocent African American man condemned to die for the 1989 shooting of a Savannah police officer solely on inconsistent witness testimony. There is no physical evidence linking Davis to the shooting, nor was the weapon ever found. Seven of the nine key witnesses have recanted their testimony since the trial.

Davis was scheduled to be executed twice before. On Sept. 23, the date of the previous scheduled execution, thousands around the world demanded that the U.S. Supreme Court hear his case. The court granted a stay of execution less than two hours before the execution.

Rather than giving Davis a shot at justice, the Supreme Court refused to hear his case outright. A Chatham County judge signed the execution warrant the next day; Davis is scheduled to be executed on Oct. 27.

The outcome is no surprise given the Supreme Court’s record. In 1993, in Herrera v. Collins, the court ruled 6-to-3 not to grant relief when new evidence emerged proving the innocence of death row inmate Leonel Torres Herrera. Proof of innocence was essentially dismissed as grounds to reconsider the execution of a prisoner.

Davis’s struggle against the U.S. justice system exposes the racist application of the death penalty. The death penalty is most often used against working class and poor people, but its disproportional application is most evident in cases involving Black defendants and a white victim. It is an instrument of terror against African American communities, the modern-day version of the lynchings that terrorized Black people from the Reconstruction to the 1960s civil rights movements.

Cases like Davis’s are shifting public opinion with regard to the death penalty. Fewer and fewer people are buying into the racist stereotypes perpetuated by the corporate media and politicians.

The Party for Socialism and Liberation’s La Riva/Puryear presidential campaign issued a statement, which read in part:

“Thousands of people around the world have participated in the campaign to save Davis. The people won the stay that forced the Supreme Court to contemplate hearing his case. Despite the Court’s criminal act, the struggle is not over yet. We must not give up. …

“The La Riva/Puryear campaign calls on all progressive people to intensify the struggle to save Davis’s life. Justice must be served before it is too late.”

To read the full statement of the La Riva/Puryear campaign, click here.