Cynthia McKinney’s letter to Chatham County District Attorney for Troy Davis:


Mr. Larry Chisolm
District Attorney
133 Montgomery Street
Savannah, Georgia   31401

Dear District Attorney Chisolm:

I am a daughter of Georgia and I want the best for the people of my state.  Therefore, because you are a Georgia man of the law, please answer one question for me:  What can one do to save life when innocence is not enough?  

I write this letter to plead that you not allow Savannah, Georgia to reenter the annals of ignominious injustice.  There was a time when the mere mention of our State would engender howls of disdain from a community of peace and justice people inside the United States because, among other reasons, Georgia was the site of so many lynchings–both political and physical.  Additionally, as you no doubt also know, Georgia is very well known, and earned a reputation due to its resistance to the notion that the United States, and Georgia itself, could be a place where former slave owners and former slaves and their descendants could sit down together at the table of community.  Unfortunately, the United States Department of Justice is very familiar with the Georgia brief.

That is why I appeal to you to do all within your power to save the life of a potentially innocent man.  Do you want to live with the knowledge that you sanctioned the killing of an innocent man?  Do you not hear the testimonies of the recanting witnesses?  Have you not read the words of jurors who question their own judgment in the Troy Davis case?  If they have doubt, it is possible that you have doubt, too.

To ignore any shadow of doubt that you might harbor will definitely cost a young man his life and Georgia will reenter the annals of a history that we all have worked so hard to reconstruct.  I request that you do all within your power to vacate the penalty of death and commute the sentence of Troy Davis.

Sincerely,

Cynthia McKinney