USA: Bianca Jagger to take message to US Embassy appealing for Troy Davis execution to be halted

BIANCA JAGGER TO TAKE MESSAGE TO US EMBASSY APPEALING FOR TROY DAVIS EXECUTION TO BE HALTED

* Bianca Jagger and Amnesty chief to deliver message on Friday 16th ahead of 21 September execution date
* Hand-in is part of ‘Too Much Doubt’ campaign

 

On Friday 16 September at 5pm, Bianca Jagger, Council of Europe’s Goodwill Ambassador and the director of Amnesty International UK Kate Allen will deliver a message to the US embassy in London to raise their concern at the imminent execution of Troy Davis in the USA.

 

Troy Davis, 42, is facing execution next Wednesday (21 September) in the state of Georgia despite longstanding doubts about the safety of his conviction. He has been on death row since being convicted in 1991 of the killing of a policeman Mark Allen MacPhail, who was shot in Savannah, Georgia in 1989.

 

Davis has always protested his innocence and there is no physical evidence linking him to the crime. Since his trial seven out of nine prosecution witnesses later recanted or changed their initial testimonies in sworn affidavits.

This event is part of Amnesty’s 16 September “day of action” on Troy Davis being organised under the slogan “Too Much Doubt”. 

Meanwhile, more than 660,000 people worldwide have signed an Amnesty petition calling for the authorities to ensure that Davis is not executed, and nearly 30,000 people in the UK, including Bianca Jagger have emailed Georgia’s Board of Pardons and Parole urging it to grant clemency to Davis when it meets early next week (19 September).

Who: Bianca Jagger, Council of Europe’s Goodwill Ambassador
Kate Allen, Amnesty International UK Director

What: letter hand-on and opportunity for interviews and photographs; anti-death penalty campaigner with large “Too Much Doubt” banners

When: 5pm, Friday 16 September

Where: Embassy of the United States, 24 Grosvenor Square, London W1A 2LQ

Note to editors:
* In 2007 Amnesty published a report detailing a pattern of police coercion of witnesses ahead of Davis’ trial.
* Troy Davis’ execution is opposed by Nobel laureates Jimmy Carter, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Jose Ramos Horta, and the former FBI director William Sessions has also made clear his opposition to the execution.
* Last year the USA executed 46 death row inmates, a lower figure than in recent years, but still the fifth highest number of any country in the world
* Since 1973, 138 death row inmates have been released from death rows in the USA on the grounds of innocence