Atlanta, GA — Today, at 11:08 PM EDT, the state of Georgia executed Troy Anthony Davis by lethal injection. The execution took place after the Georgia Board of Pardons and Parole rejected a request from Troy Davis’ attorneys to reconsider their decision to deny him clemency.

The execution also came despite hundreds of thousands of people across America, including more than 100,000 ColorOfChange members, calling for clemency using petitions, faxes, letters, social media, and phone calls.

“We’re deeply saddened that two lives have now been lost instead of one,” said Rashad Robinson, Executive Director of ColorOfChange.org, “that both the MacPhails and the Davises now grieve for their lost sons.”

“And we are outraged,” he continued, “that in the state of Georgia tonight, the search for finality trumped any question of fairness. Make no mistake, the State of Georgia stands tonight on the wrong side of history. With such powerful doubts about Troy Davis’ guilt, with allegations that witness testimony was coerced by Savannah police all those years ago, it is unconscionable that the state would allow this execution to proceed.

“But we also understand that the Georgia Pardon Board’s decision today is just the last in a long string of institutional failures that led to this day. From the beginning, shoddy testimony was accepted by prosecutors, police allegedly coerced witnesses, and the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 limited Troy’s appeals. Today’s execution serves as a stark and painful reminder that even in the age of Barack Obama, poor Black people shouldn’t expect any justice from the criminal justice system. What’s worse, we also know that if this happened to Troy Davis, it will happen again.”

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With more than 800,000 members, ColorOfChange.org is the nation’s largest Black online political organization.