By: Marc H. Morial
President and CEO
National Urban League
Back in July, not too long after Mychal Bell, a member of the Jena 6, was tried wrongly as an adult for aggravated battery in the alleged attack of a white classmate, there was another case of southern justice gone awry percolating under the radar in Savannah, Ga.
It was that of 39-year-old Troy Anthony Davis, a death row prisoner for the past 16 years, who was convicted of murdering a white police officer — his case built entirely upon what was most likely coerced eyewitness testimony with no physical or DNA evidence or a murder weapon.
He was just 24 hours away from a lethal injection when the state's Board of Pardons and Paroles granted him a temporary stay in light of seven of nine non-police witnesses recanting their original testimony.
Next month, the state's Supreme Court will decide whether to grant Davis a new trial in light of these new developments. Martina Davis-Correia, his sister, and representatives of Amnesty International, recently met with me at the National Urban League's headquarters in New York City. Her brother's story made me realize just how imperfect our nation's justice system
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