Happy birthday to John de Lancie, otherwise known as Q in the Star Trek universe. Cool fact: de Lancie was raised by secular parents and became a secular activist and Humanist. Rather than developing a religious outlook, he became fascinated by an ever-changing world.
On the morning of his scheduled execution, Troy Davis asked Wende Gozan-Brown of Amnesty International to share a message with the world. Davis said that,”The struggle for justice doesn’t end with me. This struggle is for all the Troy Davis’s who came before me and all the ones who will come after me.”
Troy Davis was executed on September 21, 2011.
In the months before Davis’s execution, people around the country urged Georgia to reconsider in light of the serious doubts about his guilt, including the fact that no physical evidence connected Davis to the crime, and seven out of nine witnesses recanted their testimony against him.
Davis’s last words were “I am innocent.”
The macabre truth is that Marcellus Williams’s final words will likely mirror that of Troy Davis’s in 2011.
According to data from the Innocence Project and the National Registry of Exonerations, a significant majority of people released from prison due to wrongful convictions are Black, with estimates around 57-61%of exonerated individuals identifying as Black.
This system is disproportionately targeted Black men, both on the streets, and in prisons as killable bodies and not human beings deserving of justice and the presumption of innocence.
Anti-Black Police Terrorism is not hyperbole. It is a fact. A fact that we are forced navigate every day.
BREAKING: Today, Marcellus Williams asked the United States Supreme Court to stay his execution based on newly disclosed admissions by the trial prosecutor that he removed at least one Black prospective juror based on his race.
https://t.co/2i8iuPYAIQ
Marcellus Williams' execution would be a travesty and a miscarriage of justice. His questionable conviction--including DNA evidence pointing to his innocence--makes a clear case that Gov. Parson must halt this execution. The state cannot--must not--take an innocent life.
https://t.co/6C66lpHTC9
Marcellus Williams is innocent. We placed this full-page ad in the Kansas City Star today, urging Missouri @GovParsonMO to halt the execution of an innocent man: https://t.co/5M1g5ZzpwN @innocence@The_MIP#SaveMarcellus
We wish we had better news. But as of now, #MarcellusWilliams is still scheduled to be executed by Missouri tonight at 6 p.m. central for a crime he is totally innocent of.
Don’t stop sharing his story. It’s not too late to save an innocent life. https://t.co/eofSDX66tC