In the wake of the execution of Troy Davis in Georgia, Rev. Al Sharpton is calling on the U.S. Justice Department to take the lead on death penalty cases, rather than states.
“We must not only mourn what happened to Troy Davis but take strong measures so that it does happen again,” Sharpton said in a statement released by the National Action Network.
“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 percent of the cases overturned by DNA evidence were cases that also had flawed eye witness testimony.”
Davis was executed Wednesday night amid worldwide protests. In his final statement, Davis continued to proclaim his innocence, saying he was not responsible for the 1989 shooting death of a police officer, Mark MacPhail. The Supreme Court on Wednesday refused to halt the execution.