1199SEIU President George Gresham was an honorary pallbearer at the October 1 funeral of Troy Davis in Savannah, GA.

After four years of extraordinary appeals, the absence of any physical evidence against Davis, the recanting of seven of nine eye witnesses and worldwide appeals for clemency from figures like former President Jimmy Carter and Pope Benedict XVI, Davis was executed on September 21.

As he lay strapped to a gurney in the Jackson penitentiary death chamber, the 42-year-old told relatives of Mark MacPhail, the police officer he was convicted of killing, that he was not responsible for the 1989 slaying.

"I am innocent. The incident that happened that night is not my fault. I did not have a gun," he insisted. "All I can ask ... is that you look deeper into this case so that you really can finally see the truth. I ask my family and friends to continue the fight.”

At the funeral, a recorded message by Davis was reportedly played in the church: "Everything we do today will clear the way for a better tomorrow. We can correct all the wrongs if we band together. Don't give up the fight."

“I am Troy Davis,” was chanted and shouted at demonstrations and vigils by thousands of supporters fighting to prevent the execution. It was repeated often at Davis’s funeral.

"Troy's last words that night (Sept. 21) were he told us to keep fighting until his name is cleared in Georgia," said NAACP President Benjamin Jealous at the funeral. "But most important, keep fighting until the death penalty is abolished and this can never be done to anyone else."

Larry Cox, the U.S. director of Amnesty International, which fought for years for Davis’s exoneration, also spoke from the dais behind Davis' casket. He urged those who fought to spare Davis’s life not to give up until America ends its use of the death penalty.

"If you thought you saw us fighting to save Troy Davis, now that we've been inspired by Troy Davis, you ain't seen nothing yet," Cox said to applause.

Amnesty International reports that the U.S. is among the top five nations in the world and the only one in the Americas in executing people. AI’s death penalty report states: “The death penalty, both in the U.S. and around the world, is discriminatory and is used disproportionately against the poor, minorities and members of racial, ethnic and religious communities. Since humans are fallible, the risk of executing the innocent can never be eliminated.”

Since 1973, over 130 people have been released from death rows throughout the U.S. due to evidence of their wrongful convictions. In 2003 alone, 10 wrongfully convicted defendants were released from death row.

President Gresham, in his October 6 Amsterdam News column, wrote about the case. “I had the honor on October 1 of being a pall bearer in the funeral of Troy Davis,” said Gresham. “I, like many in our nation and around the world, was sickened and outraged by the execution of a man whose guilt was so clearly in doubt.

“But at the funeral, my mind also returned to the Republican debate in early September when the audience applauded and cheered when a moderator noted that Texas Governor Rick Perry had presided over 234 executions, by far the most under any governor. We are a better nation than that.”