Who Is Troy Davis? Hip-Hop Speaks Out Against His Execution

[NelsonG]

“Who Is Troy Davis” has been one of Twitter’s top trending topics this morning. Davis is scheduled to be sentenced to death by the state of Georgia this evening.

In 1991 Davis was convicted of the August 19, 1989 murder of Officer Mark McPhails in Savannah, Georgia. McPhails was off-duty at the time, working as security guard when the shooting occured. He was shot twice trying to intervene during an assault on another man.

Davis has maintained his innocence since, and the verdict has been appealed several times on the grounds that Davis had not received a fair trial. Davis’ execution date has been stayed on three previous occasions as a result. Despite these appeals – due in large part to witnesses recanting some or their entire story - The U. S. District Court for the Southern District of Georgia upheld the conviction in August 2010. Further appeals were rejected and Davis was set to be executed September 21, 2011.

Over the years Davis has garnered the support of Amnesty International, former president Jimmy Carter, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and many more, each calling for Davis to be retried or to receive an evidentiary hearing. Davis has also received love from the hip-hop community.

As his execution inches closer and closer, the likes of Diddy, ?uestlove, Killer Mike and Russell Simmons have all come out to share their support in stopping the execution. One of the most vocal people has been Outkast’s Big Boi. The Atlien has taken to his Twitter, seemingly making it his mission to get people in and out of Atlanta mobilized and ready to protest.

“Time to hit the streets people!!!! #Troydavis Rally at the prison in Jackson Georgia 4:00 pm , time to be seen!!!!!," he tweeted. “Judge Penny Freezeman is apparently the only one that can stop the UNJUST execution of Troy Davis: 912-652-7252”

Ironically many users have accused Twitter of blocking Davis’ name from becoming a trending topic, but it hasn’t stopped Big Boi. He’s urged his followers and friends’ followers to make their voice heard

“We don't need a trending topic , we need boots on the ground, meet me in Jackson Georgia 40 miles outside Atlanta !!! #Troydavis," Big Boi wrote on the social networking site.

Sir Lucious Leftfoot isn’t the only person getting out there to fight. Lupe Fiasco had a show in Atlanta Tuesday evening and during his performance of “Superstar,” he took the opportunity to voice his support altering the songs lyrics.

“Like the Governor called and he told ‘em to wait, unstrap ‘em from the chair put Troy back in the A. Ya’ll thought I didn’t know about that did y’all? Y’all was hitting me up on Twitter like ‘say something about Troy Davis.’ I was like ‘wait, I’m going to say something. Let that boy come home.’ At the same time rest in peace to officer McPhails,” said Lupe.

“That’s the name of the officer that was killed 10 years ago and they still can find who did it. So we send condolences and everything out to his family but the same time too we want truth and we want justice. We don’t want to send two victims to the gravediggers “

Check out ‘RapFix Live’ today at 4 pm ET on MTV.com as Big Boi and Pill will discuss their protests of the Troy Davis execution with Sway.

[url=http://rapfix.mtv.com/2011/09/21/who-is-troy-davis/]View the full article[/url]