Binkis Weblog

What would FreeDome Friday’s be without one of the most powerful groups ever to be exposed? Well, it would still be FreeDome Friday’s(HAAAAAA!!) but still… X Clan was and still is a mighty force in Hip-Hop. What they brought may have been a little over most people’s heads but they were dropping some heavy science. I’m just catching on to the meanings of some of there lyrics in the deep sense. Very articulate as well as well versed in the knowledge they were expressing. They are still out spreading the message and touring. Professor X passed away sometime in March 2006. He was Co-founder of X Clan as well as the son of Sonny Carson(The Education of Sonny Carson Movie). Brother J has reformed the group and has released an album since his death. Here’s the Bio and Website:

X Clan:

In 1990, the Hip-Hop generation was introduced to a new era of music. The sound of funk, culture and Brooklyn-style lyrics would open attention spans for a message of social justice and enlightenment. The messenger group X Clan entered the music mainstream at the beginning of the decade in a timely fashion. With a unique sound, image, and concept, X Clan paid dues as pioneers rubbing against the grain of negative lyrics and ego tripping poetics. In allegiance with the Blackwatch Movement, (a Brooklyn based organization that informed youth of worldwide issues and injustices), X Clan stayed focused in it’s mission of freedom and upliftment in the face of racial tension and indigenous genocide.

After two successful albums with Island Records (“To the East Blackwards, and “Xodus“), the X Clan disbanded in the mid 90’s. Brother J, the voice of the X Clan, continued to produce and preserve his name and art form throughout the mainstream and underground markets of Hip-Hop. In 1996, the first generation of Dark Sun Riders released a project called the “Seeds of Evolution” also withIsland Records.

Present day, Brother J has reassembled the X Clan. The new album entitled “Return from Mecca” is scheduled for release in 2006. The anticipation of the return of Brother J and X Clan has opened the door for consistent tours, spot dates and special appearances such as Def Poetry Jam (2005) ,Legends of Hip Hop Concert (2005) and The Damian Marley Jamrock Tour (2005). Currently in alliance with Suburban Noize Records ,Brother J has been given the green light to expose the next wave of conscious artists and street knowledge music.

Brother J and the X Clan will continue the tradition of displaying ancestral wisdom, culture, and signature lyrical style that appeals to all generations of Hip-Hop.

Ok, for the last week or so I have been posting these very informative e-mails from a “Cathy Harris”. Come to find out she has an entire website devoted to things of “that” nature. What is “that” you might ask? That is Information pertaining to that of the black community or anybody who is strugglin in this society to their rights and freedoms. She has “The Recession Survival Guide”, “Discrimination 101″, Her autobiography, “How to Interact Safely with Law Enforcement Officers” and many more. So I just wanted to take time out to give respect to this woman(Thank You Cathy) and ask my peoples to check for her if you are interested. BLAMMMMM!!!! See Cathy Here, Here, and Here!

Cathy Harris Bio:

Most of us youngins may only know of Kool and them from there hits of the eighties but I’m here to tell you… that ain’t it. These brothers have been putting in major work since the late 60’s. That’s Right!! Not to mention they are from Jersey(Shout to Goldie Gold)!!!! They have put together some of the illist musical arrangements ever, From Summer Madness, The Fruitman(one of my favorites), Hollywood Swinging and Winter Sadness, you’ll find pleasure in all that is Kool! I’m not gonna do much talking so here is the bio I found. BLAMMMMM!!!:

History:

Kool & The Gang has sold over 70 million albums worldwide and influenced the music of three

generations. Thanks to songs like Celebration, Cherish, Jungle Boogie, Summer Madness and

Open Sesame, they’ve earned two Grammy Awards, seven American Music Awards, 25 Top Ten

R&B hits, nine Top Ten Pop hits, and 31 gold and platinum albums. Kool & The Gang has

performed continuously for the past 35 years, longer than any R&B group in history. Their

bulletproof funk and tough, jazzy arrangements have also made them the most sampled band of

all time.

In 1964 Khalis Bayyan (AKA Ronald Bell) and his brother, Robert “Kool” Bell, joined Jersey

City neighborhood friends Robert “Spike” Mickens, Dennis “Dee Tee” Thomas, Ricky Westfield,

George Brown, and Charles Smith to create a unique musical blend of jazz, soul and funk. At

first calling themselves the Jazziacs, they went through various names – The New Dimensions,

The Soul Town Band, Kool & The Flames – before settling on their moniker. Over the next

several years, they solidified their musical chemistry on the rough-and-tumble East Coast music

scene, supporting acts like Bill Cosby, Ritchie Havens and Richard Pryor. Their self-titled 1969

debut album introduced their signature instrumental sound and fierce horn arrangements, and

spawned their first Billboard R&B charted single, Kool and the Gang.

In 1969 Kool & The Gang released their self-titled debut album. It was the introduction to a

theme, music is the message, that Kool & The Gang stands by today. The instrumental album was

an expression of their deep love of music. It was also an introduction to their signature sound and

the fierce horn arrangements created by Khalis, Dee Tee, and Spike. Their debut album spawned

their first Billboard R&B charted single Kool and the Gang and later Let The Music Take Your

Mind.

In 1970, their audacious sophomore set Live At The Sex Machine peaked at #6 on Billboard’s

R&B chart and yielded three hit singles: Funky Man, Who’s Gonna Take The Weight and I

Want To Take You Higher. Next came The Best Of Kool & The Gang Featuring The Penguin,

Kool & The Gang Live at PJ’s, Music Is The Message, and Good Times, all of which helped

solidify a sound that wowed not only fans but such contemporaries as James Brown and Nina

Simone.

The band’s stellar reputation grew with each album, but 1973’s gold disc Wild & Peaceful took

Kool & The Gang to another level (#6 R&B, #33 Pop), spurred by the immortal party anthems

Funky Stuff, Hollywood Swinging and the platinum smash Jungle Boogie.

Hits like Higher Plane (#1 R&B), the classic Summer Madness (featured on the Grammywinning

movie soundtrack Rocky) and LPs Spirit of the Boogie, Love & Understanding and

Open Sesame followed. The latter’s title track was featured on the top-selling movie soundtrack

of all time, Saturday Night Fever, earning the group their second Grammy.

In 1979, Kool & The Gang unveiled a smooth new sound with Ladies Night. Produced by the

legendary Pop/Jazz musician Eumir Deodato, it became their first platinum album. The #1 R&B

title track also reached #8 at Pop. It was followed by Too Hot (#3 R&B, #5 Pop). The ’80s would

see them dominate the mainstream, starting with the double platinum-selling album Celebrate

(driven by the international monster hit Celebration, which spent six weeks atop the R&B chart

and became a #1 Pop single). Celebration, which played as the American hostages returned from

Iran, remains de rigueur at joyous occasions worldwide. The smashes Get Down On It, Take My

Heart, Let’s Go Dancing, Joanna, Tonight, Misled, the #1 R&B, #2 Pop giant Cherish and the

#1 R&B anthem Fresh (these last three from the multi-platinum LP Emergency) solidified the

group’s international superstardom. Kool & the Gang landed global commercial endorsements,

supported countless charitable causes and were the only American group to participate in Band

Aid’s 1984 Do They Know It’s Christmas project for famine victims in Africa.

With the explosion of hip-hop in the ’90s, Kool & the Gang’s incredible catalog of grooves made

them DJ favorites, and they were second only to R&B icon James Brown as sources of rap-music

samples.

2004’s The Hits Reloaded found the band collaborating with such acolytes as Lil’ Kim, Sean

Paul, Ashanti, and Blackstreet, among others. Kool & The Gang continues to perform to packed

audiences of new and old fans around the world. The band re-entered the Billboard R&B chart

with 2006’s Steppin’ Into Love. Get more info RIGHT HERE!!

Goldie Gold dropped this on me today. Now all you Obama supporters better listen close. Your svior might be in cahoots with the DEVIL!! HAAAAA! My thing is this… homie doesn’t even suspect this of the government in general. HAAA The nerve of some people. Well… judge for yourselves. BLAMMMM!!!

An E-mail I received this morning. It is concerning health. That’s right, HEALTH!! How’s yours?

Posted by: “Saleem Hasan” hasannatural@gmail.com

Thu Oct 16, 2008 11:24 am (PDT)
Dear Friends,

Most of us are going to be surprised to find out that there is an oncologist in Rome Italy, Dr. Tullio Simoncini, eliminating cancer tumors with sodium bicarbonate.

Sodium bicarbonate is safe, extremely inexpensive and unstopably effective when it comes to cancerous tissues. Its an irresistible chemical, cyanide to cancerous cells for it hits the cancerous cells with a shock wave of alkalinity, which allows much more oxygen into the cancer cells than they can tolerate.

Cancerous cells cannot survive in the presence of high levels of oxygen. Sodium bicarbonate is, for all intent and purposes, an instant eliminator of tumor formations. Full treatment takes only days, as does another cancer treatment that heats the cancer cells with laser generated heat.

The extracellular (interstitial) pH (pHe) of solid tumors is significantly more acidic comp ared to normal tissues.

Case one: A patient diagnosed with pulmonary neoplasm of the lung, underwent treatment with sodium bicarbonate, before submitting to surgery to remove part of the lung. Treatment consisted of sodium bicarbonate administered orally, by aerosol, and IV. After first treatment reduction of nodules and absorption was evident, and after 8 months was no longer visible at all. Treatments also reduced size of the liver and results were confirmed by both X-ray and CAT scan.

Studies have shown how manipulation of tumor pH with sodium bicarbonate enhances some forms of chemotherapy. Proteins can be modified both in vivo and in vitro by increases in acidity. In fact pH is the regulatory authority that controls most cellular processes.

The pH balance of the human bloodstream is recognized by medical physiology texts as one of the most important biochemical balances in all of human body chemistry. pH is the acronym for “Potential Hydrogen”. In definition, it is the degree of concentration of hydrogen ions in a substance or solution. It is measured on a logarithmic scale from 0 to 14. Higher numbers mean a substance is more alkaline in nature and there is a greater potential for absorbing more hydrogen ions. Lower numbers indicate more acidity with less potential for absorbing hydrogen ions.

Our body pH is very important because pH controls the speed of our body’s biochemical reactions. It does this by controlling the speed of electrical activity as well as the speed that electricity moves through our body. The higher (more alkaline) the pH of a substance or solution, the more electrical resistance that substance or solution holds. Therefore, electricity travels slower with higher pH. If we say something has an acid pH, we are saying it is hot and fast. Ân alkaline pH on the other hand, biochemically speaking, is slow and cool. Cancer tissues have a much higher concentration of toxic acidic chemicals, pesticides, etc then do healthy tissues.

In 1973, a study conducted by the Department of Occupational Health at Hebrew University-Hadassah Medical School in Jerusalem found that when cancerous breast tissue is compared with non-cancerous tissue from elsewhere in the same woman’s body, the concentration of toxic acidic chemicals such as DDT and PCBs was “much increased in the malignant tissue compared to the normal breast and adjacent adipose tissue.” This should say something to the
oncologists of the world about chemical etiologies that are going undiagnosed and untreated.

Part of any successful cancerous protocol includes chelation and detoxification of heavy metals and a host of toxic chemicals, which are all invading our bodies everyday. It is literally raining mercury, uranium contamination is increasing, lead we are discovering is even more toxic than anyone ever believed and is even in the bread that we eat arsenic is in our chicken, the government still wants you to get your yearly mercury flu shot, dentists of course are still using hundreds of tons of mercury exposing patients to internalized toxic waste dumps (mercury vapors), and fluoride is still put in the water. This just covers a small slice of the toxic acidic disaster that is the hallmark of life in the 21st century. But oncologists have just not been able to understand that patients with a cancerous condition are suffering from acid poisoning on a massive scale with all the chemicals scientists have already established that cause a cancerous condition in the first place. (To be continued here)

One of the best! You know it. Nice and Smooth will probably never get a Hip-Hop Honor Award but shit… Fuck it. This group has made numerous classics. From “Funky for You” to “Sometimes I Rhyme Slow…”, you can get consistent enjoyment from the braddah’s. They been in the game for years. Greg Nice use to Beat Box for T La Rock and Teddy Ted(Awsome Two) has been putting major work on the Dj scene since the early eighties. Whether it’s making you laugh, dance or smack the cake out your girls mouth, you can depend on great music in a classic original Hip-Hop Style. BLAMMMMMM!!!

Bio:

ice N Smooth Coming out of New York City, Nice and Smooth had several rap hits in the late ’80s and early ’90s, all with their trademark lightly distinctive vocals. Childhood friends Gregg Nyce (who started as a human beat-box for T-La Rock and was b. Greg Mays) and Smooth B. (b. Daryl Barnes) originally formed the group with John “June Love” Butter in 1987, but Butter was murdered later that year. Nice and Smooth pushed on, however, cutting singles on their own label, Strange Family Records. They gained some airplay, and Smooth B was even hired to pen rhymes for Bobby Brown’s Don’t Be Cruel. The duo was signed to Sleeping Bag/Fresh Records and released their eponymous debut album in 1989, which contained the hit single “Funky for You.” After the label went bankrupt, Nice and Smooth moved to Def Jam/RAL and released their seminal album, 1991’s Ain’t a Damn Thing Changed. With its sobering title track and the infectious Tracy Chapman-sampling “Sometimes I Rhyme Slow,” the record became a huge hit. Their appearance on Gang Starr’s “Dwyck,” in 1992, solidified them as underground favorites with an equally pop-feel-appeal. Their third full-length release, Jewel of the Nile, appeared in 1994. The group split, each releasing a small amount of material on the independent tip, before getting back together and releasing their latest, Blazing Hot, in 1997. Unfortunately, it received lukewarm attention. RollingStone.com

I received this in an e-mail this morning. Check out some important info for those who respect and support the braddah. BLAMMMMM!!!!

Legal Update

Date: October 18, 2008

From: Robert R. Bryan, lead counsel, San Francisco

Subject: U.S. Supreme Court developments concerning Mumia Abu-Jamal, death row

U.S. Supreme Court There are new developments in the case of my client, Mumia Abu-Jamal, who is on Pennsylvania’s death row, that are the most significant and deadly since his 1981 arrest. The prosecution has advised the Supreme Court that it is seeking reversal of the federal decision which ordered a new jury trial on the question of the death penalty. Earlier I made an appearance in the court on our ongoing effort to win an entirely new jury trial on the issue of innocence, so that Mumia can be freed.

We are now at the crossroads of the case. This is a life and death struggle in the fight for Mumia’s freedom. His life hangs in the balance. The following are details as to what has been occurring in the Supreme Court.

Abu-Jamal v. Beard, U.S. Sup. Ct. No. 08A299 On October 3, I filed in the Supreme Court a Motion for Extension of Time To File Petition for Writ of Certiorari. Justice David H. Souter granted the motion on October 9. The Petition is now due on December 19, 2008.

The issues I will be presenting on behalf of Mumia include racism in jury selection and the prosecutor’s misrepresentations to the jury during the guilt phase of the 1982 trial. These were denied last spring by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, Philadelphia. Abu-Jamal v. Horn, 520 F.3d 272 (3rd Cir. 2008). The court was split 2-1 on the racism question.

The prosecution’s use of racism in selecting the jury is a strong issue because of the powerful dissenting opinion by Judge Thomas L. Ambro. In voting that relief should be granted, he wrote that “[e]xcluding even a single person from a jury because of race violates the Equal Protection Clause of our Constitution” and concluded that “everyone is entitled to a fair and impartial trial by a jury of his or her peers.”

A major problem we have encountered is that Mumia’s previous lawyers neither developed essential evidence nor raised some issues of constitutional significance. Such failings are inexcusable. For example his attorneys during the period 1994-2001, failed to even get the racial composition of the panel from which the jury was selected. They had the jurors’ names and addresses, and could have gone out and obtained this information in a day. Once the case went up on appeal it was too late to introduce this crucial evidence which would have established beyond question that African-Americans were underrepresented on the jury panel and that the prosecution used discriminatory racial practices in jury selection. Justice Ambro pointed out in his dissent that this deficiency should not serve as a basis to deny relief in view of the other evidence we have of prosecutorial racism. Another issue concerning the judg e’s racism and prejudice at trial was doomed from the start because it was not even presented by the previous lawyers. Rather, they only argued that the judge was unfair 13 years later at a 1995 evidentiary hearing. It was an incompetent mistake that waived this strong issue. Sadly, Mumia is bound by the errors of those lawyers.

Beard v. Abu-Jamal, U.S. Sup. Ct. No. 08A315 The Philadelphia District Attorney is seeking reversal of the federal court decision which granted a new jury trial on the question of the death penalty. Their intent is to see Mumia executed. That was announced in an extension motion filed in the Supreme Court. The court ordered on October 14 that the government petition must be filed by November 19, 2008. We will then submit briefing in opposition to the death penalty arguments.

Abu-Jamal v. Pennsylvania, U.S. Sup. Ct. No. 08-5456 In a ruling not related to the present litigation, the Supreme Court on October 6 issued an order denying the petition we had filed seeking review of a decision by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. That concerned the denial of a new trial based upon the fact that the prosecution persuaded witnesses to lie in order to obtain a conviction and death judgment against my client. This arises from adverse rulings by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court and the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas. The District Attorney successfully argued that Mumia’s previous lawyers had failed to raise the misconduct issues in a timely manner. Even though this evidence of fraud is not before the Supreme Court, I will certainly be able to use it at a new jury trial.

Donations for Mumia’s Legal Defense Due to the developments in the Supreme Court, the legal defense for Mumia is in dire need of funds. The legal costs will likely reach $100,000. To help, please make your checks payable to the “National Lawyers Guild Foundation” (indicate “Mumia” on the bottom left). These donations to Mumia’s defense are tax deductible, and should be mailed to:

Committee To Save Mumia Abu-Jamal

P.O. Box 2012

New York, NY 10159-2012

Conclusion More activism and support is needed in the campaign to free Mumia from the death penalty and prison. It is an affront to civilized standards and international law that he remains in prison and on death row. We must have hope and fight for justice.

Yours very truly,

Robert R. Bryan

Law Offices of Robert R. Bryan

2088 Union Street, Suite 4

San Francisco, California 94123-4117

Lead counsel for Mumia Abu-Jamal

RobertRBryan@aol.com

FBI says body found is that of Hudson’s nephew, 7

CHICAGO — A top FBI official said Monday that a body found in an SUV is believed to be that of Jennifer Hudson’s missing 7-year-old nephew, the focus of a desperate search since the Oscar winner’s mother and brother were found shot to death in their home three days earlier.

While the body has not been positively identified, FBI Deputy Director John S. Pistole said authorities believe it to be that of Julian King, who also lived in the home.

Chicago police said the body of a black male child was found shortly after 7 a.m. in the rear seat of an SUV. An autopsy was planned for Tuesday.

The SUV was found parked on the street in a neighborhood of brownstone homes and apartment buildings, and matched the one sought in an Amber Alert issued after Hudson’s mother and brother were found slain Friday, police Cmdr. Wayne Gulliford said.

In Washington, Pistole said at a news conference on child exploitation that authorities found a body “who we believe to be the missing victim in Chicago, the nephew of Jennifer Hudson. We are working with Chicago police to get a positive identification of the victim.”

Hudson had offered $100,000 Sunday for information leading to Julian’s safe return. He is the son of Jennifer Hudson’s sister, Julia Hudson. Telephone and e-mail messages left Monday for Hudson’s publicist, who had been releasing statements on behalf of the family, were not answered.

Chicago police have characterized the killings as “domestic related” and have been questioning William Balfour, who is the estranged husband of Julia Hudson and is being held in state custody on a parole violation. Balfour is not the boy’s father and has not been charged in the slayings.

Balfour, 27, was taken into custody Friday by Chicago police for questioning in the killings. On Sunday, he was transferred to the Illinois Department of Corrections “based on his active parole violation unrelated to this investigation.”

Records from the Corrections Department show Balfour is on parole and spent nearly seven years in prison for attempted murder, vehicular hijacking and possessing a stolen vehicle.

Balfour’s mother, Michele Balfour, has said Hudson’s mother kicked Balfour out of the family home last winter. She denied her son had anything to do with the killings.

Corrections spokeswoman Januari Smith said Balfour would probably remain in state custody until the Illinois Prisoner Review Board looked at his case. She would not say where Balfour was being held, and it was unclear whether Balfour had an attorney.

Hudson, who won an Academy Award in 2007 for her role in “Dreamgirls,” was in Chicago during the weekend. The medical examiner’s office confirmed Hudson, 27, identified the bodies of her mother, Darnell Donerson, 57, and 29-year-old brother, Jason Hudson. The deaths were ruled homicides.

Neighbors and well-wishers brought stuffed animals and other items to a makeshift memorial outside Donerson’s two-story white clapboard home as news of Monday’s discovery spread.

“Everybody knows Jennifer Hudson, but I would be here even if it was little Suzy on the corner,” said Tacara Juarez, 26, who doesn’t know the family but lives in the neighborhood.

On Sunday, Hudson appealed to the public for help, offering the reward and asking any information be given to Chicago police.

“Jennifer and her family appreciate the enormous amount of love, support and prayers they have received while she and her family try to cope with this tragedy and continue the search for Julian,” said a statement from her publicist.

___

Associated Press writers Carla K. Johnson and Michael Tarm contributed to this report.

Jennifer Hudson’s mother and brother killed: reports

By Michael Conlon, Reuters
27 minutes ago 
Must Read?Yes     881

CHICAGO — The mother and brother of Academy Award-winning actress Jennifer Hudson were found shot to death in the mother’s Chicago home on Friday, media reported.

Police said they were searching for a suspect in the double homicide and also a seven-year-old boy, possibly Hudson’s nephew, who was missing from the house on Chicago’s South Side where the victims were found.

The Chicago Tribune said one of the victims was Hudson’s mother, Darnell Donnerson. The entertainment website TMZ, citing a neighbor, said Hudson’s brother Jason also was found dead.

Police said neighbors reported hearing shots in the area during the morning but the bodies were not found until mid-afternoon.

“A missing child was possibly abducted from the scene … and may be in the company of William Balfour, a suspect in the double homicide investigation,” police said in a statement, adding that the man was “considered armed and dangerous.”

The statement listed two vehicles Balfour may be driving. It did not say who Balfour was or whether he was related to the family.

Police said the child was identified as Julian King, adding they believed he was the grandson of the woman found slain.

The Tribune, quoting police, said the killings may be linked to a domestic disturbance.

Hudson gained notice as a contestant on No. 1-rated U.S. television talent show “American Idol” during its third season in 2005. She was one of 12 finalists but was voted off.

Still, her booming voice and popularity kept her touring in live shows and eventually she earned the role as Effie White in the 2006 film version of stage musical “Dreamgirls.”

The role of soulful singer White, who is kicked out of an all-girl 1960s singing group, earned Hudson the Oscar for best supporting actress and made her an instant star in Hollywood.

Since then Hudson has appeared in the movie version of “Sex and the City,” and is currently in “The Secret Life of Bees.”

Media reports said Hudson was in Florida when she was told of the shootings and was headed back to Chicago.

(Reporting by Michael Conlon in Chicago and Bob Tourtellotte in Los; Editing by Philip Barbara)

This is an E-mail I received today and it is definitely something to inspire. Whether it is anger, grief or just plain awareness. Check it out. BLAMMMM!!

My Visit With Troy Davis, a Man Facing Death on October 27th

 By Federica Valla, American Observer

Posted on October 23, 2008, Printed on October 23, 2008
http://www.alternet.org/story/104293/ 

October 23rd is a Global Day of Action for Troy Davis.

here for more information.

 They come out of the corridor all dressed up, with perfectly ironed white suits with blue collars and tennis shoes, a white smile upon their shaved faces. It is visiting day, and they have been waiting for it since last week.

 They lean in a line against the yellow painted gates with their arms straight out, waiting for the warden to release their handcuffs, and then they dissolve in the crowded room filled with kids and antsy wives who offer them prepackaged foods just purchased from the vending machines in the hall — their gourmet lunch for the day.

 But Troy Davis is not allowed in the visitation room with the rest of them because he is a death row inmate. Visitors see him in a separate room, two gates away from where others greet guests.

 Inside the prison, he is known by the number 657378, since the day he was confined to cell 79 on the top floor of the G-house in the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison in Jackson, Ga. He was convicted for the murder of a police officer when he was 20 years old. He has always said he is innocent.

Davis has been sitting on Georgia’s death row for 17 years, charged with the assault of Larry Young, a homeless man, and the murder of police officer Mark Allen MacPhail in the parking lot of a Burger King in Savannah, Ga. on August 19, 1989. Seven of the nine eyewitnesses who testified that Davis was present at the shooting have recanted their testimony, saying police pressured them into making false statements. Their recantations have never been heard in court. No weapon has ever been found, and no physical evidence connects Davis to the crime.

 After years of litigation, Davis exhausted his appeals to the Georgia Supreme Court in March 2008 when the court denied him an evidentiary hearing. He was denied clemency from the Georgia Pardons and Paroles Board on Sept. 8, 2008. His appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court was not considered until Sept. 23, when the court convened an emergency session and gave Davis a stay less than two hours before his scheduled execution, due to the abundance of incongruent evidence in favor of his innocence.

The stay gave Davis and his many supporters new hope. But on Oct. 14, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to give Davis’s case a full hearing, leaving the lower court verdict intact. A new death warrant was issued few days later and a third execution date is scheduled for Oct. 27 at 7pm.

 I met Davis inside the walls of the prison for the first time, when, after a two-month correspondence, I decided to fly to Jackson to talk to him in person. I wanted to know for myself how someone could sleep at night, knowing that death might soon be whispering in his ears for a crime he says he did not commit.

The answer was more powerful than I had expected.

 ”My faith has taught me that if you give all your worries to God he will carry your burdens,” Davis wrote in a letter to me sent the day after my visit. “It’s God that carried me through death’s valley and took my worries away.”

 For Davis, faith is the door to freedom. Having faith makes you stronger than your family and able to support them more than they are supporting you, he said, because they are the ones who will be left behind once you are gone and you have to show them you are not afraid to die.

 ”Sometimes all of this seems like it’s happening to someone else. I sometimes dream to be free, but in each dream my family is 18-and-a-half years younger, and my father is still alive,” said Davis during an in-person interview in April 2008. “I am disappointed at the system, but refuse to become bitter and angry, because I still have a lot of fight left in me … I have too much to live for to give up, to give up on myself means I have given up on my family as well, but we are in this together and I cannot give up now.”

Meeting Davis not only changed the person I am today, it changed the way I perceived death, and prison, and the smell of prepackaged food.

 Walking though the prison’s metal gates in the early hours of that April day, I felt sick to my stomach. Standing in line with mothers, daughters and wives of inmates, I felt out of place and inappropriate. I had not lost anyone dear to the prison’s walls; I was just a cocky journalist in search of a scoop. But my feeling of regret soon vanished once I saw the smile on Davis’s face, and perceived how much my interest in his case changed his day.

 I was not allowed to bring a recorder in to my interview with Davis. I wasn’t even allowed pen and paper. Eight hours after I sat down with him, my head filled with interesting thoughts and minus $10 in prepackaged food later, I left his cell to pour my thoughts on paper.

 Six months have passed since that day. I’ve tried to start writing this article ten times, trying different structures and voices and perspectives. I’m finally ready to explore my chat with Davis that foggy afternoon of late April.

 Why now? Because much has changed since that weekend when I talked to him in person. I think it is time for others to know what I found in that cell that so captured my attention, especially now that Davis is facing his third and final execution date on Oct 27.

 Before prison, Davis was a big brother to his siblings. He took night classes to get his high school diploma so he would have time to take care of his younger sister Kimberly when she became paralyzed. He would drop her off and pick her up from school since their parents were separated, their oldest sister Martina was in the army, and their mom worked the day shift, he said. After he graduated from high school, Davis worked in his father’s construction company. Every week, he took $50 from his paycheck and snuck the cash into his mother’s room to help her pay the bills, he said.

 It never crossed his mind that hanging out with the wrong people on a summer night in 1989 could have cost him his life as a free man, or that an innocent man — which he insists he is — could be slated to die under the American justice system.

 ”For an innocent man like me the justice system continues to fail me. Why is that so hard to admit they made a mistake? What kind of person knows he coerced false evidence to convict an innocent man and still refuses to right the wrong? Who is more barbaric then, them or the people they put in prison?” he asked in a letter dated April 27. “I would like to ask society how long would you remain quiet while innocent people suffer, while we remain on death row and unjustly get convicted? When is it that enough is enough? When will you speak up and fight to stop injustice everywhere? Or will you wait until someone you love becomes a victim to the system, too?”

 It is no surprise that a man facing death would say he is innocent of the crime. But Davis is not alone in claiming his innocence.

 While investigating Davis’s story, I came across a similar case: the case of Rubin Cantu, a 22-year-old Hispanic man who was executed in Texas in 1993. As in Davis’s case, Cantu was convicted based solely on eyewitness identification. He was found to be innocent — after he was killed. Among the documents on file in Davis’s case was a letter from Samuel D. Millsap Jr., a former Texas District Attorney and the prosecutor in Cantu’s case. In the letter, Millsap said he has concerns about having convicted Rubin Cantu for a crime he might not have committed solely on the basis of one eyewitness’s testimony.

 Millsap said he thinks Troy Davis’s case is similar to Cantu’s.

 ”In the Davis case now, the question is if we are about to execute a man in circumstances in which it is likely or, at least, there is a substantial chance that he did not commit the crime that he was convicted for,” he said. “It seems to me that what courts have an obligation to do is try to make sure that justice is done and that the innocents are protected. Personally, what the Georgia Court has done by refusing to grant Troy Davis a hearing is really the ultimate in form over substance.”

 Millsap believes in Davis’s innocence. In 2007, he wrote a letter to the Pardons and Paroles Board advocating clemency for Davis. Amnesty International has also been active in Davis’s case, publishing a detailed report on his trial’s flaws and organizing weekly rallies in Atlanta.

 ”Being on death watch is something unimaginable. I did not realize the seriousness of it until it was all over,” Davis said when we talked in prison in April. “Imagine having to fill out paperwork on who will visit you on your last 24 hours alive. Imagine writing goodbye letters to your loved ones. Planning your last meal. Walking to each death row inmates’ cell, shaking their hands while they say ‘good luck,’ while I was responding ‘I will be back.’ Imagine seeing grownup men with tears rolling down their faced who you did not know they cared so much about you. Imagine filling out papers on who will receive your personal property and your dead body.”

 Davis will go through the motions of waiting for a police officer to come in to his cells to take all his measurements from shoe size to shoulder width. He has been through this twice before.

 ”They take your shoe size, they measure you up so they can find someone your size they can use to try out the scenario of the execution,” he said during our talk on April 27. “They make sure they choose the same size guards to attend the execution so they can deal with you if you resist them.”

 Then they will put him in a 35-foot-tall isolation cell with a steel toilet, a steel cart and a 24-hour camera monitoring him as if he were a “museum display,” he said. When he went through this process before, he was given a Bible, some sheets of paper a pen, envelopes and an old TV/radio. They gave him clothing that were two sizes too big, so that if he tried to fight the guards his pants would fall off and he would have to surrender because he would be stumbling all over his clothing.

 Besides his faith in God, Davis says one person has kept him sane through his years in prison — his “angel,” his older sister Martina Correia, a breast cancer survivor who has been by his side for all these years, even when the strength to fight seemed to fade away. He said without her he would have probably given up on life and freedom much earlier.

 ”Watching how Martina sacrificed her dreams to free her brother inspired me to fight harder and helped me to think about my family before I allowed myself to get into any trouble that would keep me from seeing them,” said Davis on a letter dated April 8. “I thank God for her daily. I want to build her a house, I want to put her son De Jaun through college so he can follow his dream to find a cure for Cancer, which is what she is fighting.”

 Correia splits her free time working as an executive director of the National Black Leadership Initiative on Cancer and as the National Steering Committee Chair for Amnesty International. She travels the world in the name of her brother, because innocence matters for everyone, she said.

 ”We are in this fight to win,” she said in an email exchange on Sept. 2. “I do it for the man he is. I will rest when he is free.”

 The “stay tough” attitude seems to run in the family. It comes through in a letter from Davis written right after the Georgia Supreme Court denied him a new trial. A new execution date was looming, but Davis was still sure justice would prevail.

 ”Personally I think things will work out before then,” he wrote in his last letter to me, dated Sept. 18, 2008. “I’ll be home living the life of a free man soon.”

© 2008 American Observer All rights reserved.
View this story online at: http://www.alternet.org/story/104293/

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