The family and friends of a murdered Savannah police officer tried Thursday to shift the focus of the death penalty debate onto the victim and away from the Death Row inmate who has been at the center of international debate of capital punishment, Troy Anthony Davis.
“The name Mark Allen MacPhail is getting lost in all this madness,” said Dawn Dalton, a childhood friend of the police officer who was shot and killed while he was working a second job 20 years ago.
"He is the victim," not Davis, Dalton said. "We have waited patiently for a [death] sentence to be carried out that never seems to come. [So] we are putting the victim in the spotlight."
Davis’ case has been the one anti-death penalty activists have used to support their fears that an innocent person could be executed.
Seven of the nine witnesses against Davis now say Savannah police detectives coerced their testimony at the trial 19 years ago or they are no longer certain of what they saw in a Burger King parking lot around 1 a.m. on Aug. 19, 1989.
Former President Jimmy Carter and Pope Benedict XVI are among the well-known who have lobbied for a hearing for Davis. And last May, 27 former justices, judges and prosecutors filed a legal brief asking the U.S. Supreme Court to order a hearing on those claims.
The U.S. Supreme Court last month ordered a federal trial judge to hold a hearing. Nothing has been scheduled.
“This trial’s been twisted,” said Mark MacPhail Jr., who was a newborn when his father was killed. “It’s foolish for a judge or any court to hear that [argument] and think it to be true.”
Officer MacPhail was answering cries for help from a homeless man who was being beaten because he refused to give up his beer. According to trial testimony, Davis shot MacPhail once, hitting him under his arm and then returned to the place where the 27-year-old father lay and shot him again.
“There are a lot of celebrities getting involved,” Annelie Reaves, Officer MacPhail’s older sister, said at a rally at the state Capitol.
Thursday’s gathering to call for Davis' execution drew about 16 people, including the speakers. It was much smaller than dozens of rallies held for the convicted killer since the issue of witness testimony was raised four years ago.
In that time, Davis' appeals have been heard multiple times by state and federal courts.
“Enough is enough,” said Mark MacPhail Jr.
Three times Davis has been scheduled to be executed but was spared by a court stay hours before he was to die.
“Troy Davis got a fair trial … He was convicted by a fair jury,” Reaves said. "We do know justice will be served. Justice for Mark MacPhail will be served.”
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