Friday, September 23, 2011

Activists Call For Boycott of Georgia Over Troy Davis Execution

www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-michael-moore-georgia-boycott,0,5523848.story

Michael Moore urges boycott of Georgia over Troy Davis execution

By Richard Fausset in Atlanta, Los Angeles Times
6:28 PM CDT, September 23, 2011

Liberal filmmaker Michael Moore has called for an economic boycott of the state of Georgia to protest Wednesday's execution of Troy Davis, the Savannah man convicted of murdering an off-duty police officer in 1989.

"I encourage everyone I know to never travel to Georgia, never buy anything made in Georgia, to never do business in Georgia," Moore wrote on his website in a blog item posted a few hours after Davis' death.

"I will ask my publisher to pull my book from every Georgia bookstore and if they won't do that I will donate every dime of every royalty my book makes in Georgia to help defeat the racists and killers who run that state. I ask all Americans with a conscience to shun anything and everything to do with the murderous state of Georgia."

The case of Davis, 42, garnered international attention in recent years as a number of witnesses recanted statements that helped convict him in his 1991 trial. In 2010, U.S. District Judge William Moore (presumably no relation to the filmmaker), reviewed the new evidence on orders of the U.S. Supreme Court and found it to be "largely smoke and mirrors."

Upon close inspection, most of the recantations, Moore ruled, were partial, illogical, or "impossible to believe."

Michael Moore's latest book, "Here Comes Trouble: Stories From My Life," was released this year and is currently available in hardcover.

It was in stock Friday at A Cappella Books, an indie retailer in the Little Five Points neighborhood that boasts a wide selection countercultural and left-wing titles.

A Cappella staffer (and noted avant-garde musician) Glen Thrasher told a reporter that the store hadn't received a phone call from Moore's publisher.

Thrasher said he was among the thousands who signed a petition calling for clemency for Troy Davis.

As for Moore's boycott?

"I have to sell books," Thrasher said, drily. "So I guess I can't agree with him."

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