VIDEO: Outside the White House with Troy Davis Supporters

By 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, just half an hour before Troy Davis was scheduled to be executed in Georgia, hundreds of Howard University students had gathered outside the White House.

Many had been there since noon. Some carried candles. Some shouted slogans and held signs that read “Save Troy Davis” or “NO to Legal Lynching.” A dozen students and one Howard professor had already been arrested.

Video: Emily Crockett

The air was mild and preparing for rain in Washington, DC, while hundreds of miles south a possibly innocent man was scheduled to die in half an hour.

There is a significant amount of doubt about whether Troy Davis actually committed the crime of which he was convicted—killing an off-duty Georgia police officer in 1991. Several witnesses have recanted their testimony and no physical evidence links Davis to the crime.

Nonetheless, Davis had lost multiple appeals for a new trial and for clemency.

Lakeasha Williams, a sophomore at Howard, said she didn’t know about Troy Davis until last month when she started getting emails from the NAACP.

“I’m here because I don’t believe in the death penalty,” she said of her presence outside the White House.” “And there’s no concrete evidence against him.”

Howard senior Sainabou Jobe agreed.

“Our school really mobilized and came together over this,” Jobe said. “Nobody’s been talking about anything else.”

“The whole world is watching,” added Rhodaline Wright, a Howard alum.

By that time, there were just a few last-minute options available to Davis after the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles denied him clemency: appealing to the Georgia State Supreme Court, and then to the United States Supreme Court.

Over a megaphone, an organizer of the Howard University protest told the crowd that the Georgia State Supreme Court appeal had failed.

The only option left was the highest court of the land.

The crowd did its best to observe a moment of silence. A megaphone-happy proselytizer kept breaking up the sober, communal atmosphere—if that’s even what he was. He talked about Jesus a lot, and rambled about the gathering itself, in strange, mechanical cadences that rode the line between madness and mockery.

Organizers read aloud from a letter from Troy Davis.

“Because of my faith in God, my family and all of you I have been spiritually free for some time,” Davis wrote.

When someone finally convinced the megaphone man to go elsewhere, members of the gathering joined hands for a prayer circle. It was a moment of peace, finally, and of powerful shared emotion.

After another speaker, it was nearly time. The crowd waited in perfect silence. Many took pause from the gathering to check their phones for news updates.

The clock struck seven. The crowd waited. Several minutes passed.

Then someone held up a radio playing news of a stay of execution, and everyone exploded into joyful screams and tears.

But wait—no, Davis hadn’t been executed, but it wasn’t a stay.

The reports from Democracy NOW were changing. It was a temporary reprieve, which could last a few minutes or hours or days, while the nine members of the U.S. Supreme Court reviewed the case.

As it began to rain lightly, the protestors opened their umbrellas and marched the 16 blocks from the White House to the Supreme Court.

The walk was long; the chanting was loud.

“They say death, we say no! Take Troy Davis off death row!”

Some cars honked in support. One honked in rhythm with the chanting. Others leaned on the horn when the protestors walked through the street on their light.

“Keep it tight,” people urged each other as they raced to stay together on the median. The chants grew weaker in the last several blocks as police in squad cars ordered marchers to stay on the sidewalks.

At the Supreme Court, a group of Amnesty International protestors joined with the Howard University crowd. The chants gained back the momentum they’d lost, and protestors marched in a circle in front of the high court building while Amnesty organizers handed out water bottles and cough drops.

Again, the media reports were confusing.

There was talk of a weeklong reprieve, but the protest continued. No one was sure when—or if—a decision would be reached that night.

Hours later, after 10 p.m., the Supreme Court issued a one-sentence judgment: The execution would continue as planned.

The protest turned from a raucous call for justice to a grieving candlelight vigil and, at 11:08 pm, Troy Davis was declared dead. 

Emily Crockett is a staff writer with Campus Progress. Follow her on Twitter @emilycrockett.

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