Press Releases

In Light of the Execution of Troy Davis

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE—

Contact:
Rachel Noerdlinger

IN LIGHT OF THE EXECUTION OF TROY DAVIS REV. AL SHARPTON WILL CALL ON THE U.S. JUSTICE DEPARTMENT TO ESTABLISH FEDERAL LAWS TO PREVENT STATES FROM PROSECUTING CAPITAL PUNISHMENT CASES UNLESS SCIENTIFIC OR PHYSICAL EVIDENCE HAS BEEN PRESENTED”

NEW YORK, NY (September 22, 2011)-Reverend Al Sharpton, President of National Action Network (NAN) and one of the country’s foremost civil rights leaders, will travel to Washington, DC, Friday, September 23 to call upon the U.S. Justice Department to move for federal laws to prevent states from prosecuting capital cases unless scientific or physical evidence is part of the case.

Rev. Sharpton who appeared on the Today Show to kick off the campaign for new laws after leading vigils outside of the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison Death Row in Jackson, Georgia, where Troy Davis was on Death Row said:  “We must not only mourn what happened to Troy Davis but take strong measures so that it does happen again. I promised Troy when I got involved in this case in 2007 that NAN and I no matter what the outcome would fight to change the law.  We are calling upon the federal government to supercede and set boundaries before any State can move forward with capital punishment prosecution. We must not forget that Troy Davis was executed by the eye witness testimony of nine people with no physical evidence, no DNA, and no scientific evidence. Seven of those eyewitnesses recanted. Under the law, we are proposing that the Troy Davis case would never have been tried as a capital case in the first place. Multiple studies have established how flawed eyewitness testimony is and 75% of the cases overturned by DNA evidence were cases that also had flawed eye witness testimony.”