NATIONAL URBAN LEAGUE CALLS ON GEORGIA PARDONS BOARD TO RECONSIDER TROY DAVIS CASE
 
 NEW YORK (September 20, 2011) -- National Urban League President Marc H. Morial today said he is deeply disappointed in the Georgia State Board of Pardons’ decision to deny clemency to Troy Davis and asked the board to reconsider.
 
“People of conscience can disagree on the death penalty, but it’s unconscionable by every standard to execute someone who very well might be innocent,” Morial said. “Our hearts go out not only to Mr. Davis and his family, but also to the family of Mark MacPhail, who may never know for sure whether his killer was brought to justice.
 
“So many lives have been torn apart by this tragic murder, and the board of pardons’ decision will have even more devastating consequences,” Morial said. “It’s imperative they reconsider in light of the possibility that an innocent man will lose his life.”
 
 Morial noted that no physical evidence links Davis to the crime and since his conviction, seven of the nine witnesses have recanted their testimony. Several of them have implicated the prosecution’s lead witness, as the actual killer.  Furthermore, he said, the racial subtext of this case cannot be ignored. Davis, a black man, was convicted of killing MacPhail, a white police officer.  While African Americans make up only 13 percent of the population; more than 42 percent of death row inmates are Black. Over 75% of the murder victims in cases resulting in an execution were white, even though nationally only 50% of murder victims are white.
 
 Since 1973, a total of 138 men and women have been released from death row with evidence of their innocence – five of them in the state of Georgia.
 
 “Today is a sad day for the nation,” Morial said. “We can only pray for everyone involved, and work to prevent future miscarriages of justice.”