Cherokee County puts-off immigration vote

The Cherokee County Commission decided Monday night to wait until mid-January at the earliest to vote on a revised ordinance targeting illegal immigrants.

A 2006 county law was passed making it unlawful for landlords to rent or lease to people not able to prove citizenship. That ordinance is currently tied-up in a legal challenge. The revision calls for any prospective renter to apply for an occupancy license and get verified for citizenship. It also targets business owners who hire undocumented workers.

Commission members last night heard public comment on the re-worked proposal, which drew strong opinion from both sides of the issue.

Debbie Seagraves has problems with the proposal. She’s with ACLU-Georgia, and a lifelong Cherokee County resident:

"I'm very concerned about the idea that everyone in this county would be required to get a license to rent a home. If that is not inherently un-American, I don't know what could be."

Seagraves and others also voiced concern over the cost to businesses during bad economic times.

Others support the ordinance. Community activist D.A. King says the proposal hits all the right notes:

"You can tell this is a good ordinance by the amount of people who are here opposing it. This bill--this ordinance--has all the right enemies."

A commission member detailed this version should be able to hold-up to possible legal challenges.

Death row opponents ask Court for new trial

Supporters of death row inmate Troy Anthony Davis asked the state Supreme Court today to order a new trial in the case. They say eyewitness testimony implicates another man in the 1989 shooting death of 27-year old Savannah police officer Mark McPhail.

Davis' attorneys argued Georgia law allows death row inmates to ask for a new trial, after all other appeals have been exhausted. However, prosecutors say the time for a new trial has passed and no further evidence may be introduced.

Martina Correia is Troy Anthony Davis' older sister. She says similar stories by witnesses about police coercion are too alike for the court to ignore.

"They didn't come forward because we asked them. They came forward because it was the right thing to do. It was amazing that their recantations were almost the same thing. They told stories of coercion and intimidation and of threats. They didn't know each other was recanting."

Since his 1989 conviction, nearly a dozen witnesses have recanted their eyewitness testimony against Troy Anthony Davis. Davis is African American and was convicted in Chatham County. His supporters say the previous exoneration of two other African American males from Chatham County may point to a pattern of police misconduct.