By Rachael Bentley
Central Connecticut State University students in the NAACP arranged a rally in Semesters on Thursday, to raise awareness on the execution of Troy Davis. Students and faculty from around the campus came to take part in the event.
Troy Davis was executed at 11:08 p.m. Wednesday night, September 21, after being tried and found guilty of the murder of police officer Mark MacPhail in 1989.
McPhail was working as a night security guard when he ran to help a homeless man who was the victim of an assault. During the assault MacPhail was shot three times, and police never found the murder weapon. Several witnesses claimed that Davis was the shooter.
The Davis trial drew a lot of attention because much of the evidence that had convicted him was witness testimony, and 7 of those witnesses recanted. Two of the officers involved claimed to have been pressured by officials to convict Davis.
The CCSU rally started with a video titled “Grass Roots International to stop the Execution of Troy Davis,” in which dozens of people stood firm and said “I Am Troy Davis”.
Some students believe that Davis was denied due process and a fair trial. Alyssa McDermott, a senior at CCSU, expressed her thoughts on the situation.
“I am Pro-Death Penalty, but I feel that in this particular case injustice occurred. This man should not have been put to death because of the lack of physical evidence.”
During the rally, there was a poem reading and student Ashley Hunter sang, “The struggle is not over.” Even when the microphone went dead, she continued to sing and a clear message was sent to the audience.
Troy Davis’s last words before being executed were “I ask my family and friends to continue to fight this fight”
CCSU Student Andrew Nave, was a speaker at the rally, and stated his father knew Davis personally. He explained that Davis was a leading figure in the Anti-Death Penalty movement in Georgia, and that his own father was the same in Connecticut. Both the men had exchanged letters in the past.
“We have blood on our hands…who is going to kill the judge, prosecutors and corrupt police officers?” They were the real murderers, said Nave.
He also asked the crowd “Where was Obama during this matter? He turned his back on the nation and on Troy.” This got a handful of shouts and cheers from students who agreed.
At the end of his speech, he asked students to take part in an outdoor rally that was going to be held after the event in Semesters was over. There was also a banner that read “We Are Troy Davis”, and Nave asked students to sign their name on a paper cut out of their own hands, and join him outside.
Other students involved in the rally spoke to the crowd, explaining that even though Davis’s struggle is now over, the struggle is not over for the people of the U.S., and that turning a blind eye on situations like this one will only hurt the nation in the future.
