UPDATE: 8:00 p.m. EST Just minutes ago, the Georgia state parole board issued a 90-day stay of execution for Troy Anthony Davis.
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Troy Anthony Davis, 38, is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection tomorrow, Tuesday, July 17, at 7:00 p.m. for the murder of Savannah, Georgia police officer, Mark Allen MacPhail.
Lawyers, family members and a representative from Amnesty International, in a last ditch effort to save Davis' life, today spent nearly five hours pleading for clemency before the Georgia parole board.
Davis has been on death row for over 15 years. He has maintained his innocence from the start. Seven of the nine witnesses who helped implicate Davis in the murder of MacPhail have recanted their testimony. There is evidence to corroborate that some of the witnesses had been intimidated or coerced into fingering Davis as the shooter. No murder weapon was found. And yet, a jury found him guilty and sentenced him to death in 1991.
A few weeks ago, Libya sentenced six medics to death. In recent statements, President George Bush made it clear to the Libyan government that he believes that the five Bulgarian nurses and one Palestinian doctor found guilty of deliberately infecting over 400 children with HIV tainted blood, should be released.
The U.S. "strongly supports the release of the Bulgarian nurses in Libya," Bush said, adding that their release is a "high priority" for the United States.
Bush's vehement response to the Libyan government is unwavering conviction that he believes the lives of the six medics should be spared from a firing squad, although they were sentenced in a court of law. Evidently, the lives of 426 innocent children, knowingly infected with tainted blood carrying the deadly HIV virus, was not a strong enough case to send these medics before a firing squad.
As Bush is a man of God, and has been known to proselytize, his mission is to spread peace and freedom around the globe.
For Bush and his clan, the sanctity of life is above all else. Even embryonic stem cell research is not morally sound, as it is the taking of precious life -- God-given life.
However, in the United States of America, or Confederacy of Hypocrites, the life of Troy Anthony Davis, somehow, is not as precious or valuable as embryonic stem cells or the six medical professionals who determined that the lives of 426 children were expendable.
If the Georgia parole board refuses Mr. Davis' plea for clemency, denies life to a man quite possibly innocent of the crime of which he was convicted, he will be given a lethal injection at 7:00 p.m. tomorrow. The clock is ticking.
He will will be strapped to a gurney, like a caught animal in a steel trap, as a cold needle tears through his veins. Onlookers will witness the death of a young man. They will witness the death of a son and a brother and a friend. And more importantly, of a fellow human being who may or may not have taken the life of officer Mark Allen MacPhail.
As Davis takes in his last breath at the hands of his executioners, Mr. Bush will be protecting his precious embryonic stem cells in research labs across the nation. He will continue to condemn Libya for their barbaric decision to put to death medics who may have possibly killed over 400 children, 56 already dead. He will continue to send young American men and women into battle for a war that had nothing to do with terrorism in the United States of America. He will be responsible for the deaths of hundreds more, thousands of innocent human beings.
Life is precious. Just ask Bush.
