AN INNOCENT man was tortured for hours and then murdered in cold blood. That's the only way to describe the execution of Troy Davis in Georgia last night.

For over two decades, Troy endured a nightmare at the hands of police, prosecutors and the court system at every level--from his arrest during a frenzied hunt to arrest a Black man for the murder of a white Savannah, Ga., police officer; to the travesty of a trial in which he was found guilty and sentenced to death; to the years he spent pleading for one judge after another to consider the evidence that proves he's innocent.

But the American system of injustice had a final sickening twist in store for Troy.

Shortly before his scheduled execution, the U.S. Supreme Court took up his lawyers' last-minute appeal for a stay of execution. The 7 p.m. deadline came and went, and Georgia officials announced they would delay the execution until the justices finished their review.

Troy's family and supporters--gathered outside the prison in Georgia, and at meetings, protests and vigils around the country--celebrated what seemed to be a reprieve, until it sank in that the delay was temporary, and could end at any moment with a decision from the high court. Thousands of people who desperately wanted Troy to live spent the next three hours in agony.

Then came the decision--a one-sentence order that the Supreme Court would not grant a stay.

The state of Georgia moved ahead with its murder quickly. It happened fast because, according to reports, Troy had remained strapped to the execution gurney the entire time.

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THROUGHOUT THE night, Troy's supporters kept up the fight, with hundreds of people holding vigil on the grounds of the Jackson prison that houses Georgia's death row, as police dressed in riot gear looked on and helicopters flew overhead.

In Washington, D.C., protesters marched from the White House, where they had gathered to call on Barack Obama to speak out, to the Supreme Court building--the spirited protest drew hundreds. Their vigil was matched around the U.S. and internationally--in France, Britain and Hong Kong, to name just a few countries.

Read the rest of the article at: http://socialistworker.org/2011/09/22/murdered-by-the-injustice-system