Troy Davis Story: Letter to Supporters Written Just Before Death Revealed
A public defender has posted one of Troy Davis’ last letters on her Facebook page, in which Davis maintains his innocence and encourages people to keep fighting for justice after his death.
Jen Fitzgerald, a public defender in Rhode Island, had been leading efforts to rally to save Davis from execution, before posting the letter in her Facebook notes.
In the letter, Davis expressed his gratitude for the outpouring of support he received before his death.
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“As I look at my mail from across the globe, from places I have never ever dreamed I would know about and people speaking languages and expressing cultures and religions I could only hope to one day see firsthand,” Davis wrote. “I am humbled by the emotion that fills my heart with overwhelming, overflowing Joy.”
The now deceased Davis mentioned that the support was bigger than just his particular case.
“I can’t even explain the insurgence of emotion I feel when I try to express the strength I draw from you all, it compounds my faith and it shows me yet again that this is not a case about the death penalty, this is not a case about Troy Davis, this is a case about Justice and the Human Spirit to see Justice prevail,” the letter reads.
Despite the controversy and his pending death, Davis’ said he was at peace.
“Remember I am in a place where execution can only destroy your physical form but because of my faith in God, my family and all of you I have been spiritually free for some time and no matter what happens in the days, weeks to come, this Movement to end the death penalty, to seek true justice, to expose a system that fails to protect the innocent must be accelerated,” Davis said.
The State of Georgia executed Troy Davis on Wednesday night despite a last ditch attempt by his defense team before the U.S. Supreme Court.
As he faced the execution Davis remained resolute to the last, maintaining that he was innocent. As he was given a lethal injection, he reportedly lifted his head and said he did not kill police officer Mark MacPhail.
As he lay strapped to a gurney in the death chamber, Davis wanted to tell the MacPhail family once again that he was innocent.
"I want to talk to the MacPhail family," he said, according to The Guardian. "I was not responsible for what happened that night. I did not have a gun. I was not the one who took the life of your father, son, brother.”
More than 500 demonstrators were crying, praying and holding candles outside the prison while thousands of supporters around the world were left mourning and maintaining their conviction that Davis was innocent.
Twenty years since his original death sentence was imposed, Davis’ death was scheduled to be at 7 p.m. EST. However, even though two decades had passed for the case to be resolved, a final hour plea to the U.S. Supreme Court delayed the execution by more than three hours. More than three hours later, the high court announced it wouldn’t intervene.
When the rejection finally came, Davis’ supporters at the Jackson prison and outside the Supreme Court were stunned and emotionally exhausted.
He urged his family and friends to “keep the faith” and said to the medical personnel who were about to kill him, “For those about to take my life, may God have mercy on your souls, may God bless your souls."
Despite the hope that he could be saved at the last moment, Davis was administered with a triple lethal injection of pentobarbital, pancuronium bromide and potassium chloride.
Davis was declared dead at 11:08 p.m.
