Lobby Day 2008
Thanks to everyone who came out for our annual lobby day. We met with legislators in the morning and then gathered in the rotunda for a press/rally event.
Our focus this year:-Provide adequate funding for indigent defense
(the Senate Appropriations Committee cut the Perdue-approved $3.6m to $0.5m in the supplemental budget. This will damage the states ability to provide indigent defense. The full amount must be restored.)
-Improve standards for use of eyewitness identification
(this is a leading cause of wrongful convictions. law enforcement backs the legislation: HB 997 and HR 1071)
-Enact a moratorium on executions while the state studies the well-documented, wide-ranging problems with the death penalty (SR 364, SB 255)
Stay tuned for action alerts - we need more folks to contact our legislators to press for progress this legislative session.
Supporters gathered in the capitol rotunda; Senator Nan Orrock speaking
Representative Stephanie Stuckey Benfield, sponsor of eyewitness identification standards legislation.
Laura Moye, Campaign Chair and Amnesty International Regional Deputy Director speaking; Senator Vincent Fort, sponsor of moratorium and study legislation to right; Rev. Canon Debbie Shew, Episcopal Diocese of Atlanta to his right; Rep. Morgan to left; Jim Powers of Catholic Archdiocese of Atlanta and members of Jubilee Partners behind.
Senator Fort speaks with GPB's "Lawmakers" show reporter.
Shareef Cousin, death row exoneree from Louisana and organizer at the Southern Center for Human Rights.
Martina Correia, sister of Troy Davis, on Georgia's death row despite strong innocence claim.
Rabbi Joshua Lesser, Congregation Bet Haverim.
Imam Yusef Muwwakkil, Atlanta Masjid of Al-Islam.
Rev. Ezekial Holley, Georgia NAACP Vice President.
Benetta Standly, Georgia ACLU State Organizer.
Lobby Day orientation session at Central Presbyterian Church.
Press Coverage
1) AJCLegislature 2008
LEGISLATIVE BRIEFS
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 02/27/08
Justice coalition pushes agenda
The Georgia Moratorium Campaign on Tuesday called for a halt in death-penalty executions, for further study of capital punishment, for improved eyewitness-identification standards in criminal cases and for increased indigent defense spending.
The coalition of religious and human rights leaders and organizations pushed its agenda during its annual lobbying efforts at the state Capitol.
It sought support of proposed state legislation and resolutions introduced in this year and last designed to fix what they consider a broken Georgia criminal justice system.
- Staff writers Ben Smith, D.L. Bennett, S.A. Reid and Andrea Jones contributed to this article.
Find this article
2) Rome News-Tribune
Groups rally to stop the death penalty
Morris News Service
02/27/08
The sister of a Savannah man hoping to get his death sentence overturned joined other speakers Tuesday at a Capitol rally urging the state to halt executions until uniform procedures for handling eye-witness evidence are adopted.
Martina Correia's brother, Troy Anthony Davis, is awaiting word on his appeal to the Georgia Supreme Court based on the recanted testimony of seven of the nine witnesses against him. Problem eye-witness identifications are one of the reasons she and others are calling for a moratorium on the death penalty and passage of House Bills 997 and 1071 to strengthen procedures for handling eye witnesses.
"People around the world can't believe that you can put someone to death without any evidence," she said, noting that prosecutors in Davis' trial never produced a gun, fingerprints or other physical evidence linking him to the murder of off-duty policeman Mark MacPhail.
An estimated 80 percent of Georgia law-enforcement agencies have no written procedures for eye witnesses, according to Rep. Stephanie Stuckey Benfield, D-Atlanta, the author of the two bills.
Because seven Georgians who have been saved from Death Row by DNA evidence were all convicted on the basis of eye-witness testimony, executions should be halted at least until her bipartisan bills and other safeguards can be put into place, she argued.
That message was echoed at the rally by Shareef Cousin, who had been sentenced to death in Louisiana when he was 16 and eventually won exoneration.
"I stand here as a representation of a broken system," he said.
Also at the rally were religious leaders from various faiths and representatives of organizations including Amnesty International, The American Civil Liberties Union and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
3) Lawmakers on GPB