The Last Supper: Troy Davis
Troy Davis was convicted of the August 19, 1989, murder of a police officer during a late-night altercation in a Burger King parking lot. The jury took less than 2 hours of deliberation to render a guilty verdict. The case against Davis rested primarily on eyewitness testimony — there was no forensic evidence whatsoever linking Davis to the crime. Of the 9 witnesses who implicated Troy Davis, a total of 7 have since recanted their testimonies. (Of the remaining 2 witnesses one, Redd Coles, is considered particularly problematic by many and arguably should have been treated as a suspect in the murder.) Many of the witnesses who initially testified against Davis have since described being coerced and manipulated into providing false testimony by overzealous police officers who were eager to solve a case involving the murder of one of their own.
According to Davis’ sister, Troy forgave those witnesses who testified against him. “My brother said before he died that he forgave those who testified against him. He said he held no animosity in his heart. He knew that going out and spreading the word was a far more effective weapon than shouting out in anger.”
Troy Davis was executed by lethal injection on September 21, 2011. In his final statement he maintained his innocence and expressed condolences to the family of the slain police officer.
Davis declined a last meal request. He was offered the institution’s standard meal tray consisting of hamburgers, potatoes, coleslaw, and baked beans.
In this still life arrangement cabbage, carrots, and lemons stand in for Davis’ coleslaw. The desiccated carrots twist on themselves like broken fingers, the lemons spill green mould onto the tablecloth, the cabbage is brown and withered. Paired with the bouquet of dying flowers, these items are intended as reminders of mortality and transience. The single pink Gerber daisy at the centre of the bouquet adds a splash of colour and is placed in memory of Davis himself, who was in all likelihood murdered by the state for no reason. Davis’ baked beans and potato guide the eye downwards, towards the trinity of burgers, arranged flaccidly in a kind of parody of the presentation we’re all accustomed to from fast food advertising. Finally, the eye moves to the tipped cup — a reminder of how fragile our grasp on life can become — and then finally onto the darkness beyond.
On Wrongful Convictions
A study led by Prof. Samuel Gross and published the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences estimated that roughly 4% of death row inmates are likely innocent. (This estimate is considered to be conservative and, in fact, the true number of wrongfully convicted people on death row might be much higher.) To put this number into perspective: the probability of finding an innocent person on death row is roughly comparable to the chance of the being dealt two pairs in a hand of poker.
The study estimate that 36% of prisoners sentenced to death from 1973-2004 were moved from death row due to serious doubts about their convictions, mostly given life in prison without parole. Gross et al. conclude: “The great majority of innocent defendants who are convicted of capital murder in the United States are neither executed nor exonerated. They are sentenced, or resentenced to prison for life, and then forgotten.”