Prominent Death Penalty Case of Troy Davis Topic of November 10 Program at Rutgers–Newark Law School
EDITOR’S NOTE:
Assignment Editors: If you plan to send a representative to cover this program, please notify Janet Donohue at 973-353-5553 or jdonohue@andromeda.rutgers.edu.
Newark, NJ – On Tuesday, November 10, 2009, Rutgers School of Law–Newark will present a program on the Troy Davis case, the death-row inmate who will receive a new evidentiary hearing in federal district court as a result of this summer’s remand order by the U.S. Supreme Court. The Georgia inmate was convicted in 1991 solely on witness testimony and with no physical evidence of killing an off-duty police officer. Seven of the nine witnesses against Davis have recanted or contradicted their testimony, and several people have implicated the prosecution’s main witness as the actual killer of the officer.
Until the Supreme Court action on August 17, the courts have denied Davis the right to present the new evidence because of the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act, which limits death penalty appeals. The Supreme Court ruling, signed by only three justices, raises important questions about the judicial process and capital punishment.
The program is sponsored by the law school’s Eric R. Neisser Public Interest Program and Human Rights Forum. Co-sponsors include Amnesty International, the Association of Black Law Students, Association of Latin-American Law Students, Asian/Pacific-American Law Students Association, the Criminal Law Society, and the International Law Society.
| What: | “The Troy Davis Case: An Argument Against Executing the Innocent” |
| Who: | Dean John J. Farmer, Jr., on the procedural hurdles of the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act and the possible legal implications of the Troy Davis Case. Martina Correia, Troy Davis’s sister Lawrence Hayes, former New York death row inmate and member of the Campaign to End the Death Penalty Amnesty International representative TBA |
| When: | 6 pm, Tuesday, November 10, 2009 |
| Where: | Baker Trial Courtroom, Rutgers School of Law–Newark |
Janet Donohue 973-353-5553
