Thousands of people packed a church in the US state of Georgia on Saturday for the funeral of Troy Davis, who was executed for the murder of a police officer in a case that drew international attention because of claims by his advocates that he was innocent.
The service at Jonesville Baptist Church in the coastal city of Savannah reflected a determination by his family, civil rights leaders and activists to turn his execution last week into a renewed campaign against the death penalty. "Troy ... told us to keep on fighting until his name is finally cleared and Georgia admits what Georgia has done," Benjamin Jealous, president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, said at the service. "Troy's last words were to keep on fighting until the death penalty is abolished and this (the execution) can never be done to anyone else," Jealous said.
Many in the church wore "I am Troy Davis" T-shirts and speakers praised Davis as being an inspiration to his family, friends and other death row inmates. Davis, 42, was put to death by lethal injection on September 21 at a prison in central Georgia for the murder of police officer Mark MacPhail in 1989. His execution was delayed by more than four hours as the US Supreme Court considered whether to issue a stay.