Nephew of Troy Davis Releases Eulogy In His Uncle’s Honor

Tweet

Your Black World reports:

Antone De’Jaun Correia, the nephew of Troy Davis, has now publicized his touching eulogy to his uncle. In a fitting tribute to a man who faced demonization and a highly contested government sanctioned murder, he shares with all Troy’s supporters that even though his uncle had been behind bars his entire life, he was an exemplary role model for him — in life and death.

Since the time that Antone wrote this eulogy, his mother and sister of Troy Davis, Martina Davis Correia, passed away after a long battle with cancer on December 1. As she clung to life, her inspiring words resonated through us all: “I am here to tell you that I’m going to stand for my brother today,” she said, rising from her wheelchair on the day of Troy’s execution.

It appears from Antone De’Jaun Correia’s words, he will continue to stand for him as well.

My uncle, Troy Davis, was arrested in 1989 and sentenced to death in 1991, three years before I was born. He was in jail my whole life, but I knew him very well. I visited him with my mother – his sister – on death row in the Georgia state prison every other week until his execution in September and he became a father figure to me.

Troy was wise, respectful, motivated and a great listener. He didn’t like the position he was in but said he had to learn from it, and used that experience to give me advice. He told me to pick the right friends and not to run away when things got rough; to keep my head up in school and take criticism positively. My uncle was a good family man before he went to prison. My grandma used to tell me that when he got a paycheck he’d give half to her to help pay the bills at home. He was responsible and respectful from a young age.

On 19 August 1989 a police officer called Mark MacPhail was shot dead in a car park in Savannah. My uncle was there at the time and, based on eyewitness testimony, the police decided he’d done it – but they had the wrong person from the get-go. Later we got lawyers to go through the case. They did very rigorous investigations and found there was no evidence to prove my uncle committed the crime – no DNA, no gunpowder residue, nothing at all. Most of the witnesses withdrew their original statements, and another man was implicated in the murder. We appealed, and the execution was stayed three times over the past four years, but on 21 September 2011 Troy was killed by lethal injection.

It was a tough time for my family. My grandma had died in May, so we lost two important parts of the family in the space of five months, but I think we coped pretty well. You’ve just got to learn from things and keep moving. My uncle’s death opened a big can of worms for Georgia and all the other death-row states. The case provoked a huge amount of debate in the US, and we received support from people all over the world.

What Troy did for me in my life will never be forgotten Now I’m hoping to go to Georgia Tech to study robotic engineering. With good work put in, good things come out. My uncle helped me understand that, and I really can’t thank him enough.

 

 

 

Taken from:
Nephew of Troy Davis Releases Eulogy In His Uncle’s Honor