Public Enemy

Racism and the Death Penalty / You Tube Video, Current Cases & Readings

(Electric Chair at Sing Sing)

Bryan Stevenson - Racism and the Death Penalty

To Learn More on Racism and The Death Pentalty See:

The Death Penalty in Black and White: Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Decides

by Richard C. Dieter, Esq.
Executive Director, Death Penalty Information Center
June 1998

It is tempting to pretend that minorities on death row share a fate in no way connected to our own, that our treatment of them sounds no echoes beyond the chambers in which they die. Such an illusion is ultimately corrosive, for the reverberations of injustice are not so easily confined.
-Justice William Brennan (1987)...

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An Innocent Man on Death Row in Georgia? British Journalist David Rose on the Case of Carlton Gary and the "Stocking Stranglings"

In 1986 Gary was convicted and sentenced to death for three murders despite no physical evidence that tied him to the crimes. Last week a federal judge upheld his conviction despite new evidence that casts doubt on his conviction. David Rose examines Gary's case in his new book "The Big Eddy Club: The Stocking Stranglings and Southern Justice."

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RECENT HISTORY OF THE CASE

Is Georgia about to Execute an Innocent Man?

The Story of Troy Davis

Outcry is growing over the scheduled execution of Troy Davis. He is set to be killed at 7 p.m. on Tuesday for murdering a white police officer. The murder weapon was never found. There's no DNA evidence or other physical evidence. Seven of the nine non-police witnesses said they were coerced by police and have since recanted their testimony. We speak to Troy's sister Martina Correia and Amnesty International's Jared Feuer...View the DN stream

Less than 24 Hours Before his Scheduled Execution, Troy Davis is Granted 90-Day Stay of Execution by Georgia Parole Board The 38-year-old African American from Savannah, Georgia has been on death row for more than fifteen years for a murder he says he did not commit. With no physical evidence or murder weapon, the prosecution's case rested entirely on witness testimony. But seven of the nine non-police witnesses said they were coerced by police and have since recanted their testimony.
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The Execution Tapes: Georgia's Secret Audio Recordings of Two Executions

In 2001, radio producer Dave Isay released "The Execution Tapes," 19 recordings of electrocutions carried out by the state of Georgia since 1984. They remain the only recordings of executions in the United States. They were recorded internally by the Georgia Department of Corrections as a secret official record of the executions.

(Georgia's Historical Electric Chair)

See: SENTENCED TO DEATH for some history

Published in slightly different form in The Athens Observer, p. 1 (June 30-July 6, 1994). Some of the statistics have been corrected or updated. See also McLaughlin and Blackman, Mass Legal Executions in Georgia, 88 Ga. Hist. Q. 66 (2004).