title: McCollough effect

text: The effect is different from colored afterimages, which appear superimposed on whatever is seen and which are quite brief. It depends on retinal orientation (tilting the head to the side by 45 degrees makes the colors in the above example disappear; tilting the head by 90 degrees makes the colors reappear such that the gravitationally vertical grating now looks green). Multiple effects can be stacked by inducting with multiple sets of grids. A set of horizontal and vertical induction grids and a separate set of opposing diagonal induction grids will produce two distinct afterimages when a black and white grid is held normally, and at 45 degrees. The number of different orientations that can be stacked is unknown. As well, inducing the effect with one eye leads to no effect being seen with the other eye. However, there is some evidence of binocular interactions.


title: McCollough effect

text: Any aftereffect requires a period of induction (or adaptation) with an "induction stimulus" (or, in the case of the McCollough effect, "induction stimuli"). It then requires a "test stimulus" on which the aftereffect can be seen. In the McCollough effect as described above, the induction stimuli are the red horizontal grating and the green vertical grating. A typical test stimulus might show adjacent patches of black-and-white vertical and horizontal gratings (as above). The McCollough-effect colors are less saturated than the induction colors.


title: McCollough effect

text: The induction stimuli can have any different colors. The effect is strongest, however, when the colors are complementary, such as red and green, or blue and orange. A related version of the McCollough effect also occurs with a single color and orientation. For example, induction with only a red horizontal grating makes a black-and-white horizontal test grating appear greenish whereas a black-and-white vertical test grating appears colorless (although there is some argument about that). Stromeyer (1978) called these "non-redundant" effects. According to him, the classic effect with induction from two different orientations and colors simply makes the illusory colors more noticeable via contrast.


title: McCollough effect

text: The effect is specific to the region of the retina that is exposed to the induction stimuli. This has been shown by inducing opposite effects in adjacent regions of the retina (i.e., from one region of the retina verticals appear pink and horizontals appear greenish; from an adjacent region of the retina, verticals appear greenish and horizontals appear pink). Nevertheless, if a small region of the retina is exposed to the induction stimuli, and the test contours run through this region, the effect spreads along those test contours. Of course, if the induced area is in the fovea (central vision) and the eyes are allowed to move, then the effect will appear everywhere in the visual scene visited by the fovea.


title: McCollough effect

text: The effect is also optimal when the thickness of the bars in the induction stimulus matches that of those in the test stimulus (i.e., the effect is tuned, albeit broadly, to spatial frequency). This property led to non-redundant effects being reported by people who had used computer monitors with uniformly colored phosphors to do word processing. These monitors were popular in the 1980s, and commonly showed text as green on black. People noticed later when reading text of the same spatial frequency, such as in a book, that it looked pink. Also, a horizontal grating of the same spatial frequency as the horizontal lines of the induction text (such as the horizontal stripes on the letters "IBM" on the envelope for early floppy disks) looked pink.


title: McCollough effect

text: A variety of similar aftereffects have been discovered not only between pattern and color contingencies, but between movement/color, spatial frequency/color and other relationships. All such effects may be referred to as McCollough Effects or MEs.


title: McCollough effect

text: McCollough's paper has sparked hundreds of other scientific papers. Explanations appear to fall into three camps.


title: McCollough effect

text: Neurophysiological explanations of the effect have variously pointed to the adaptation of cells in the lateral geniculate nucleus designed to correct for chromatic aberration of the eye, to adaptation of cells in the visual cortex jointly responsive to color and orientation (this was McCollough's explanation) such as monocular areas of cortical hypercolumns, to processing within higher centers of the brain (including the frontal lobes), and to learning and memory. In 2006, the explanation of the effect was still the subject of debate, although there was a consensus in favor of McCollough's original explanation.


title: McCollough effect

text: MEs do not transfer interocularly and from this it seems reasonable to deduce that the effect occurs in an area of the visual system prior to V1-4B, where binocular cells first occur.


title: McCollough effect

text: In 2008, a similar effect with different results was discovered, and has been termed the "anti-McCollough effect". This effect may be induced by alternating pairings of gratings in parallel alignment, one achromatic (black and white) and the other black and a single color (say black and red). If the color used was red, then after the induction phase the achromatic grating appeared slightly red. This effect is distinct from the classical effect in three important regards: the perceived color of the aftereffect is the same as the inducer's color, the perceived color of the aftereffect is weaker than the classical effect, and the aftereffect shows complete interocular transfer. Like the classic effect, the anti-McCollough effect (AME) is long lasting.


title: McCollough effect

text: Given that AMEs do transfer interocularly, it is reasonable to suppose that they must occur in higher, binocular regions of the brain. Despite producing a less saturated illusory color, the induction of an AME may override a previously induced ME, providing additional weight to the argument that AMEs occur in the higher visual areas than MEs.


title: McCollough effect

text: Explanations of the effect by adaptation of edge-detectors, functional ECDs, and classical conditioning are compelling but may have to be adjusted for the inclusion of AMEs, if the AME can be shown to replicate by independent labs.


title: Google Currents

text: Google Currents, formerly known as Google+ for G Suite, is software developed by Google for internal enterprise communication. It is one of many products that constitute the Google Workspace line of products.


title: Google Currents

text: Google Currents is different from the defunct Google app of the same name, which provided users with access to an electronic library of magazines from 2011 to 2013. It will be replaced by the Spaces feature in Google Chat in 2023.


title: Google Currents

text: Originally called Google+ for G Suite, Currents is the sole remnant of Google's defunct social network Google+, which the company shut down entirely for personal and brand use on April 2, 2019.


title: Google Currents

text: As of June 2020, Google Currents is in Public Beta for Google Workspace clients. A free trial can be requested.


title: Google Currents

text: On February 10, 2022, Google announced that it would be planning to "wind down" Google Currents and transition its users to the Spaces feature in Google Chat the next year.


The Convention on Road Signs and Signals, commonly known as the Vienna Convention on Road Signs and Signals, is a multilateral treaty designed to increase road safety and aid international road traffic by standardising the signing system for road traffic (road signs, traffic lights and road markings) in use internationally.


title: Vienna Convention on Road Signs and Signals

text: This convention was agreed upon by the United Nations Economic and Social Council at its Conference on Road Traffic in Vienna 7 October to 8 November 1968, was concluded in Vienna on 8 November 1968, and entered into force on 6 June 1978. This conference also produced the Vienna Convention on Road Traffic, which complements this legislation by standardising international traffic laws.


text: The convention revised and substantially extended the earlier 1949 Geneva Protocol on Road Signs and Signals, itself based in turn on the 1931 Geneva Convention concerning the Unification of Road Signals. Amendments, including new provisions regarding the legibility of signs, priority at roundabouts, and new signs to improve safety in tunnels were adopted in 2003.


text: Both the Vienna Convention and the Geneva Protocol were formed according to consensus on road traffic signs that evolved primarily in 20th century continental Western Europe. In order to make it as universal as possible, the convention allows some variations, for example danger warning signs can be triangular or square diamond in shape and road markings can be white or yellow. Though most UN members have not ratified the full treaty, the signs and legal principles enshrined in it form the basis of traffic law in a majority of places.


text: An alternative convention called the SADC-RTSM, provided by the Southern African Development Community (SADC), is used by ten countries in southern Africa. Many of the rules and principles of the SADC-RTSM are similar to those of the Vienna Convention.


text: In the United States, signs are based on the US Federal Highway Administration's Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices. Signs in the MUTCD are often more text-oriented, though some signs do use pictograms as well. Canada and Australia have road signs based substantially on the MUTCD. In South America, parts of Asia (such as Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia) and New Zealand, road signage is influenced by both the Vienna Convention and MUTCD. In Central America, road signs are heavily influenced by MUTCD and based on the , a Central American Integration System (SICA) equivalent to the US MUTCD.


text: It also specifies the symbols and pictograms which may be used, and the orientations in which they may be used. When more than one is available, the same one must be used nationally. All signs, except for those that do not apply at night, must be reflective enough to be seen in darkness with headlights from a distance.


text: The convention also specifies road markings. All such markings must be less than high, with cat's eye reflectors no more than above the road surface. The road markings shall be white or yellow.


text: The length and width of markings varies according to purpose, although no exact figures for size are stated; roads in built up areas should use a broken line for lane division, while continuous lines must only be used in special cases, such as reduced visibility or narrowed carriageways.


text: All words painted on the road surface should be either of place names, or of words recognisable in most languages, such as "Stop" or "Taxi".


text: The Convention specifies the colours for traffic lights and their meanings, and places and purposes lights may be used for, like so:


text: Red flashing lights may only be used at the locations specified above; any other use of the lights is in breach of the convention. Red lights must be placed on top when lights are stacked vertically, or on the side closest to oncoming traffic if stacked horizontally.


text: The convention has 71 state parties and 35 signatories (including acceding members) as of October 2022: Albania, Armenia, Austria, Bahrain, Belarus, Belgium, Benin, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Bulgaria, Central African Republic, Chile, Costa Rica, Côte d'Ivoire, Croatia, Cuba, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Denmark, Ecuador, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Guyana, Holy See, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Italy, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Liberia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, North Macedonia, Mexico, Moldova, Mongolia, Montenegro, Morocco, Myanmar, Netherlands, Nigeria, Norway, Pakistan, Paraguay, the Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, San Marino, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Serbia, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sri Lanka, Suriname, Sweden, Switzerland, Tajikistan, Thailand, Tunisia, Turkmenistan, Uganda, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, Uzbekistan, Venezuela and Vietnam.


text: The only countries in Europe that are not parties to the convention are Ireland, Iceland and Malta. Andorra is a signatory but have yet to ratify the convention.


text: The only countries in Asia that are not parties to the convention are Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Malaysia, People's Republic of China (including Hong Kong and Macau), Republic of China (Taiwan), Israel, Japan, Jordan, Lebanon, North Korea, Oman, Palestine, Syria and Yemen. Cambodia, Laos, and South Korea are all signatories, but have yet to ratify the convention.


text: Other countries have not signed the convention; however, some have voluntarily adopted some Vienna convention signs.


title: Milad Tower

text: The Milad Tower ( ) (lit. Birth Tower), also known as the Tehran Tower ( ), is a multi-purpose tower in Tehran, Iran. It is the sixth-tallest tower and the 24th-tallest freestanding structure in the world.


title: Milad Tower

text: It is located between Shahrak-e Gharb and the district of Gisha, standing at 435 meters from the base to the tip of the antenna. The head consists of a large pod with 12 floors, the roof of which is at 315 meters.


title: Milad Tower

text: The tower is a part of the International Trade and Convention Center of Tehran, which also includes a five-star hotel, a convention center, a world trade center and an IT park.


title: Milad Tower

text: The Milad Tower was part of the Shahestan Pahlavi project, a vast development for a new government and commercial centre for Tehran, that was designed in the 1970s but never materialized, except for the tower. After an international competition, the project was awarded to the Llewely Davies Company, and construction was inaugurated on August 19, 1975, with the Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and the Mayor of Tehran Dr G. R. Nickpay burying a commemorative gold plaque . There is also another background of building this tower, since the construction of the tower was started after the 1979 revolution. The new government of Iran wanted to create a new symbol for Tehran to replace the Azadi Tower that was a symbol of Pahlavi's reign.


title: Milad Tower

text: The construction of the tower was commenced in 1997. Upon completion of its construction in the mid 2000s, the Milad Tower was considered the fourth-tallest freestanding telecommunication tower in the world. While the tower opened in 2007, numerous conflicts on the history of the tower still prevail, partly because sections of the tower were open to visitors once the elevators started operating during construction and the tower was still far from finished.


title: Milad Tower

text: The design of the project was headed by Iranian architect Mohammad Reza Hafezi. The general contractor was the company of Boland Payeh, and the main client and investor was the company of Yadman Sazeh, a representative of the Municipality of Tehran.


title: Milad Tower

text: Milad Tower is tall and is the tallest tower in Iran, and the sixth-tallest telecommunication tower in the world. It consists of five main parts, including the foundation, transition (lobby) structure, shaft, head structure and the antenna mast.


title: Milad Tower

text: The lobby structure consists of six floors. The first three floors consist of 63 trade units, 11 food courts, a cafeteria, and a commercial products exhibition which is supposed to be about . The first and second underground floors consist of installing sections and a data center. The ground floor is dedicated to the entrance and the gatehouse.


title: Milad Tower

text: The shaft is a concrete structure about high from the ground floor. Six elevators in three different sides of the shaft are used to transfer the visitors to the head of the tower at the speed of , besides an emergency staircase at the fourth side.


title: Milad Tower

text: The head of the tower is a steel structure weighing about 25,000 tonnes and consisting of 12 floors. The top floors of the tower include a public art gallery, a cafeteria, a revolving restaurant, a VIP restaurant, telecommunication floors, mechanical floors, fire-immune areas built as a refuge zone, a closed observation deck, an open observation deck, and a .


title: Milad Tower

text: The four-stage antenna mast is about high. The lower floor of the mast is for the adjustment of public users' telecommunication antennas, and the three upper floors are dedicated to the antenna of the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting.


title: Milad Tower

text: The complex also features a parking area of about , a large computer and telecommunications unit, a cultural and scientific unit, a commercial transaction center, a temporary showroom for exhibiting products, a specialized library, an exhibition hall, and an administrative unit.


title: Amaarae

text: Ama Serwah Genfi, known professionally as Amaarae, is a Ghanaian singer known for her work around representation of gender and race in music. After collaborating with local artists and putting out a few non-album singles, she released her debut EP, "Passionfruit Summers," in 2017.


title: Amaarae

text: In 2020, Amaarae released the song "Sad Girlz Luv Money" featuring Moliy on her debut album "The Angel You Don't Know". In 2021 the song was remixed with a feature from Kali Uchis, and became a popular song on social media, streaming platforms, and charted globally.


title: Amaarae

text: Amaarae was born in Accra, Ghana to Ama Bawuah and Kwadwo Boateng Genfi and was raised between Atlanta, United States and Accra, Ghana. She is the eldest of two children. Amaarae wrote her first song at the age of 13. During her teenage years, she enjoyed watching music videos and said that one of her most vivid memories was watching the music video for the Kelis song "Young, Fresh n' New". She recalls Kelis' unique expression being an inspiration for her.


title: Amaarae

text: During high school, she started making mixtapes. By the age of 17, she took up an internship at a music studio. At a tertiary institution, she undertook voice training and honed her songwriting skills while studying English literature. She returned to Ghana in June 2017.


title: Amaarae

text: Amaarae released her debut project "Passionfruit Summers" in 2017. The album features the song "Fluid", which was complemented by a music video.


title: Amaarae

text: Amaarae was named one of Apple Music Africa's Favourite New Artists in April 2018 and later that year became an Apple Music Beats 1 featured artist for her debut project "Passionfruit Summers" which she released through her independent record label, Golden Child LLC on November 30, 2017. In November 2018 she performed with Teni, Boj of DRB LasGidi and Odunsi at ART X Lagos, an art fair in Lagos, Nigeria.


title: Amaarae

text: Amaarae has also been acknowledged for her style and fashion sense. In 2018, she was featured in Vogue Magazine online in an article on four women across the globe with buzz haircuts and was mentioned as one of Vogue online's Top 100 Style Influencers of 2018. She was nominated as Artist of the Year at the Glitz Style Awards in Ghana. She has also patronized Ghanaian fashion brand Free The Youth.


title: Amaarae

text: On March 23, 2019, Amaarae was chosen to perform at the first Boiler Room event in Accra alongside La Meme Gang (A Collective comprising Nxwrth, RJZ, KwakuBS, Darkovibes, Kiddblack and $pacely) and rapper Kwesi Arthur.


title: Amaarae

text: Amaarae has since collaborated with Stonebwoy, Kojey Radical, M3NSA, Santi, Blaqbonez, Buju, Odunsi, B4bonah. In 2019, she collaborated with the Nigerian singer-songwriter Wande Coal.


title: Amaarae

text: On November 12, 2020, Amaarae released her debut studio album, "The Angel You Don't Know". Owen Myers of "Pitchfork" wrote that it "crackles with innovation, a pacesetter at a time when industry bigwigs are waking up to the long-held truth that Africa is setting the global tempo for pop music."


title: Amaarae

text: In May 2022, Amaarae, together with Black Sherif, Stonebwoy and Smallgod met Kendrick Lamar when he visited Ghana and held a private album listening party in Accra for his new album, "Mr. Morales & The Big Steppers".


title: Japanese profanity

text: Profanity in the Japanese language can pertain to scatological references or aim to put down the listener by negatively commenting on their ability, intellect, or appearance. Furthermore, there are different levels of Japanese speech that indicate politeness, social standing and respect, referred to, simply, as "honorific form" (敬語 "keigo"). Using the incorrect form of Japanese can itself be insulting to the listener.


title: Japanese profanity

text: In Japanese culture, social hierarchy plays a significant role in the way one speaks to the various people they interact with on a day-to-day basis. Choice on level of speech, politeness, body language and appropriate content is assessed on a situational basis, and intentional misuse of these social cues can be offensive to the listener in conversation.


title: Japanese profanity

text: Pronouns are rarely used in Japanese compared to English. Rather, a Japanese speaker would refer to another individual, whether it be in the second person or third person, by their family name. However, when referring to an individual, the use of suffixes on pronouns can be used to indicate levels of politeness.


title: Japanese profanity

text: For example, in English one could say "Excuse me, Ms Ishiyama, but I cannot hear you. Could you please speak louder?", the following would be an incorrect translation:


title: Japanese profanity

text: Japanese exhibits pronoun avoidance, meaning that using pronouns is often too direct in Japanese, and considered offensive or strange. One would not use pronouns for oneself, 私 ('I'), or for another, あなた ('you'), but instead would omit pronouns for oneself, and call the other person by name:


title: Japanese profanity

text: The use of 'Ishiyama' instead of her first name and the use of 'sensei' (teacher) as a suffix indicates recognition of Ms. Ishiyama's superiority in the social hierarchy as one's teacher.


title: Japanese profanity

text: to their teacher, it would be considered incredibly impolite. Ms Ishiyama's status is not mentioned, indicating that the speaker considers themself to be of equal or high social standing.


title: Japanese profanity

text: Profanity can be accentuated also through use (or lack) of honorific language (敬語 けいご "keigo"). Following on from pronouns and suffixes in the example above, the speaker has contracted the words for 'excuse me/sorry' (すみません "sumimasen" to ごめん "gomen"), 'I cannot hear you' (聞こえません "kikoemasen" to 聞こえない "kikoenai") and 'can you speak' (話してくれませんか "hanashitekuremasenka" to 言って "itte").


title: Japanese profanity

text: Politeness can be conveyed to the listener by conjugating plain forms (verb stems) of Japanese verbs into what is called the polite form.


title: Japanese profanity

text: Consider the original example. The plain form verb for 'listen' is 聞く "kiku". The potential form of this is 聞こえる "kikoeru", and the corresponding negative form is 聞こえない "kikoenai". The polite conjugation of the negative potential plain form is then 聞こえません "kikoemasen", as seen in the example (1). In example (3) the speaker has chosen to use the plain form 聞こえない "kikoenai", and this indicates a disregard for the social hierarchical status of Ms Ishiyama over the speaker.


title: Japanese profanity

text: Bowing was introduced into Japanese culture c. 500–800 CE, possibly alongside the introduction of Chinese Buddhism into the country. Bowing when greeting another person has become a large part of Japanese culture and there are specific customs that are followed to show humility and respect in situations including business meetings, formal occasions, and day-to-day interactions. When performing a standing bow (正立 "seiritsu") to another Japanese speaker, the individual's back should remain straight, with their hands by their side, and eyes averted to the ground. From sitting, the individual should be seated on their knees (正座 "seiza") with their hands forming a triangle on the floor in front of them, and head moving towards the hands. The bow does not need to be held for extended time, however the action should not be rushed either. The speed in which the bow is performed, as a result, can infer levels of politeness or rudeness.


title: Japanese profanity

text: The depth of the bow performed by an individual changes the meaning of the bow. A bow of 15 degrees is considered a casual bow or greeting bow (会釈 "eshaku"). This sort of bow can be used with someone of equal social hierarchical status such as a colleague or friend's friend. A bow of 30 degrees is considered a polite bow (浅礼 "senrei") and should be made from "seiza", not from "seiritsu". This sort of bow is used in semi-formal situations. A bow of 45 degrees is a respectful bow (敬礼 "keirei") and can be done while seated or standing. The respectful bow is used when greeting a superior such as an employer, or in-laws. Finally, a deep bow of greater than 45 degrees is called a reverent bow (最敬礼 "saikeirei") and this is reserved either for an audience with the emperor or to communicate a deep reverence or regret.


title: Japanese profanity

text: With regards to profanity, using an overly polite or reverent form of bowing can display sarcasm and disdain, and conversely, choosing an inappropriately familial bow can be offensive to the other party.


title: Japanese profanity

text: The Japanese media industry self-censors by adopting the , a list of words prohibited from broadcasting. Not all words on the list are profanities, and the list has been accused of excessively limiting freedom of speech by bowing to political correctness (in Japanese, "kotobagari"). For example, the name of professional wrestler Bobo Brazil has at times been censored because , an obscure dialectal term for "vagina", is on the list.


title: Japanese profanity

text: Similar to English, profanities that relate to the body tend to refer to the direct words for body parts and may not necessarily be negative words.


title: Japanese profanity

text: Japan has managed to preserve its culture, which was highly influenced by Chinese culture, through isolation from other countries. Prior to the World Wars, Japan had unstable relationships with the nations surrounding them, including Korea and China. Following the World Wars, Japanese civilization experienced exposure to Western culture, and this resulted in a range of insults with regards to nationality, race, and place of origin.


title: Cheb Mami

text: Mohamed Khelifati (, ), better known by his stage name Cheb Mami (, , born 11 July 1966), is an Algerian musician and singer-songwriter. He sings and speaks in Algerian Arabic and sometimes in French or Eastern Arabic dialects.


title: Cheb Mami

text: Cheb Mami was born in Graba-el-wed (Arabic: غربة الواد), a populous quarter of Saïda (Arabic: سعيدة), Algeria. Located 170 kilometres south of Oran, the city is on the high mesas of northwestern Algeria.


title: Cheb Mami

text: He later performed military service for two years in Algeria while working as an entertainer on army bases. In May 1989, he returned to Paris. He went on to tour the United States, the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, Spain, Scandinavia, and England.


title: Cheb Mami

text: Cheb Mami's music is a blend of Mediterranean and Western influences, including Turkish, Flamenco, and Greek music, as well as Latin music. His voice is tinged with Andalusian accents, and his music is an amalgamation of traditional and modern styles of singing.


title: Cheb Mami

text: When Sting's album "Brand New Day" was released in 1999, the pair's duet, "Desert Rose", appeared on singles charts around the world and led to television appearances on "Saturday Night Live", the "Today Show", "Jay Leno", "David Letterman", the Grammy Awards telecast, and even a live performance at the Super Bowl.


title: Cheb Mami

text: Cheb Mami was under an international arrest warrant after being indicted in October 2006 for "voluntary violence, sequestration, and threats" against an ex-wife, and failing to answer a court summons on 14 May 2007. He was accused of attempting to force an abortion on his then-girlfriend, magazine photographer Isabelle Simon. During a trip to Algeria in the summer of 2005, Simon was locked in a house belonging to one of Cheb Mami's friends, where an abortive procedure was attempted on her. Afterwards in France, she realized the fetus was still alive, and she later gave birth to a daughter. Cheb Mami had accused his manager Michel Lecorre (a.k.a. Michel Levy) of organizing the abortion plan; Levy was later sentenced to four years for plotting and organizing the assault. Cheb Mami was arrested in France several days before his trial and taken into custody by officials at a Paris airport as he arrived in the country from Algeria on 22 June 2009.


title: Cheb Mami

text: In July 2009, a Paris court found him guilty of drugging and attempted forcible abortion, and sentenced him to five years in prison.


title: Cheb Mami

text: On 21 September 2010, his lawyers applied for conditional release, a request that was turned down on 12 October 2010. Upon a second appeal however, the French court agreed for his conditional release on 23 March 2011.


title: Cheb Mami

text: In July 2015, Cheb Mami had to compensate 200,000 euros to Cheb Rabah (born Rabah Zerradine) for plagiarizing his texts. The songs in question are "Le raï c'est chic", "Madanite", "Ma vie deux fois", and "Gualbi Gualbi".


title: Morten Gamst Pedersen

text: Morten Gamst Pedersen (born 8 September 1981) is a Norwegian professional footballer who last played as a midfielder for Åsane.


title: Morten Gamst Pedersen

text: Pedersen began his career with Tromsø, then played for English side Blackburn Rovers between 2004 and 2013. He then played for the Turkish side Karabükspor. Gamst Pedersen signed with Rosenborg in March 2014.


title: Morten Gamst Pedersen

text: Since he made his debut in 2004, Pedersen has been capped more than 80 times, and scored 17 goals, for Norway. He was an international regular until August 2012, when he was left off of the national team.


title: Morten Gamst Pedersen

text: Pedersen was born in Vadsø, Finnmark. He had his breakthrough in the Norwegian top division club Tromsø, scoring 7 goals in the 2004 season, before he signed with Blackburn with only half a season played by August. The fee was £1.5 million, which could rise to £2.5 million on the basis of future appearances. Gamst was required to fill the gap left by Damien Duff, who had left in July 2003 to go to Chelsea.


title: Morten Gamst Pedersen

text: Pedersen was signed by former Blackburn boss Graeme Souness back in 2004, just in time for the 2004–05 season. The Norwegian international made his Premier League debut in a 1–1 draw against local rivals Manchester United on 28 August 2004, a match Blackburn were leading until deep into injury time. He initially struggled to make an impact in the Premier League and had lengthy period of not being selected after Souness was replaced by Mark Hughes as the Blackburn manager in September 2004. However, he started the year of 2005 in style, scoring against Cardiff City on his return to side and going on to score three goals in his next three matches. In his first season in English football he featured in 27 matches and scored 8 goals in all competitions.


title: Morten Gamst Pedersen

text: 2005–06 saw Pedersen make the left-midfield position his own and he has become well known for scoring many spectacular goals, such as a volley against Fulham in August 2005 which won BBC Match of the Day's Goal of the Month. The highlight of his Blackburn career came in September 2005, when he scored both goals in a 2–1 victory against Manchester United at Old Trafford.


title: Morten Gamst Pedersen

text: During the 2006–07 season, Pedersen seemingly struggled for form during the early half of the league season, but returned to form in the second half of the campaign. With new management under Paul Ince in 2008, Pedersen found himself in and out of the team, but when Ince was dismissed in December 2008 and Sam Allardyce was appointed Pedersen regained a regular starting position. He has been frequently used a central attacking midfielder under Allardyce, initially with great success. On 17 April 2010, Pedersen, was poked in the cheek and then the eye from Everton midfielder Mikel Arteta, who acted angrily after Pedersen had tackled him in a challenge. They both were booked for stopping play.


title: Morten Gamst Pedersen

text: After a year of transfer negotiations, Blackburn announced that Pedersen had signed a new four-year deal at Ewood Park on 19 May 2010, which would see him stay contracted until the summer of 2014. He went on to make more than 30 appearances for them, and scored three goals in the 2009–10 Premier League campaign, in which Blackburn finished 10th, achieving 50 points and winning 10 league games at home and three away. Blackburn chairman, John Williams, who completed the formalities of the deal, added: "Sam made this, together with finding a striker, being our summer priority. "He regards Morten as a key member of the Rovers squad and his future at Ewood Park is now secure." On 6 November 2010, he scored a 40-yard free-kick against Wigan Athletic, in a 2–1 victory at Ewood Park, playing the full 90 minutes. And then four days later, on 10 November, he netted against Newcastle United at St James' Park, scoring in the third minute with his right foot following an assist from teammate Brett Emerton and he also took a punch to the stomach by Joey Barton. This was also coincidentally his 40th goal for the club in all competitions. On 21 November, in the game against Aston Villa, he scored twice at Ewood Park. First, from a free kick on the stroke of half time and the second came from a deflection off Ryan Nelsen's shot in the 66th minute. Rovers went on to win the game 2–0. At the end of the 2010–11 season, he had made 39 appearances and scored four league goals for Rovers in all competitions.


title: Morten Gamst Pedersen

text: On 13 August 2011, Pedersen started against Wolverhampton Wanderers at Ewood Park in a 2–1 defeat in their opening 2011–12 Premier League fixture. On 20 August 2011, he started against Aston Villa in a 3–1 defeat at Villa Park and scored Rovers' only goal in the 52nd minute. On 24 August 2011, Pedersen captained Blackburn in their 3–1 win over Sheffield Wednesday at Ewood Park in the second round of the League Cup. Three days later, in a league game with Everton at Ewood Park, he suffered a thigh injury in a 1–0 loss.


title: Morten Gamst Pedersen

text: Gamst Pedersen was told in August 2013 by Blackburn Rovers that he was allowed to find himself a new club. "Berlingske Tidende" reported that Gamst Pedersen was in talks with FC Copenhagen, but after the Norwegian Ståle Solbakken was hired as manager of the Danish side, he stated that he did not want to sign Gamst Pedersen. On 30 August 2013, he joined the Turkish side Karabükspor on a free transfer, after he had made 288 league appearances for the Ewood Park outfit.


title: Morten Gamst Pedersen

text: After leaving Turkish football, Gamst Pedersen returned to his native Norway to continue his football career. He signed for Rosenborg and made 28 league appearances scoring 3 goals over 2 seasons. At the end of his Rosenborg contract he remained in the top division of Norwegian football returning to his first senior club, Tromsø. Whilst representing Tromsø, Gamst Pedersen made 88 league appearances scoring 3 goals.


title: Morten Gamst Pedersen

text: Carrying on his footballing career into his 40s, Gamst Pedersen moved to Alta in the 2nd division (2. Divisjon) of Norwegian football where he is currently still playing and wears the number 12 shirt.


title: Morten Gamst Pedersen

text: Gamst Pedersen scored two goals in his debut for Norway against Northern Ireland on 18 February 2004.


title: Morten Gamst Pedersen

text: On 2 September 2006, in a Euro 2008 qualifier against Hungary, Pedersen, whose favourite player as a kid was Marco van Basten, scored a goal which was very similar to van Basten's famous goal in the final of the 1988 European Football Championship. Major newspapers Aftenposten, Dagbladet and VG all dubbed him "van Gamsten" as a result of the goal. After the match against Hungary, he received the coveted Golden Watch award given to him by the Football Association of Norway on the occasion of his 25th appearance for his country.


title: Morten Gamst Pedersen

text: On 12 August 2009, he scored two goals for Norway in a world cup qualifier against Scotland, scoring in stoppage time in both the first and second half. On 17 November 2010, Pedersen scored in the 34th minute to equalise, playing the full 90 minutes against Republic of Ireland, at the Aviva Stadium, scoring with a superb curling free-kick into the top corner in a 2–1 win. On 4 June 2011, Pedersen started the Euro 2012 qualifier against Portugal in Lisbon, where he played the full 90 minutes in a 1–0 defeat. On 7 June 2011, he completed the full 90 minutes and was Norway's matchwinner when he scored in the 83rd minute from a rebound after he missed a penalty against Lithuania in a friendly game held in Oslo.


title: Morten Gamst Pedersen

text: He played his last match so far for Norway against Greece on 15 August 2012 in a 2–3 loss, and he has been capped 74 times scoring 14 goals. Gamst Pedersen was left off of the squad for the 2014 World Cup qualifying matches against Iceland and Slovenia in September 2012, and was not called up for the national team for over a year when on 11 November 2013 he was included in Per-Mathias Høgmo squad for the friendly matches against Denmark and Scotland after Daniel Braaten called absent due to an injury.


title: Morten Gamst Pedersen

text: Morten Gamst Pedersen is the son of Ernst Pedersen, a former footballer who played in the Norwegian Premier League for Bodø/Glimt and Vålerenga in the late 1970s and early 1980s. His father trained Morten to use his left foot rather than his natural right foot in a bid to help him become a professional player, as there is less competition for left-sided roles within the sport. As a result, his left foot has become his dominant foot.


title: Morten Gamst Pedersen

text: Pedersen is of partial Sami origin. In a 2007 interview with Sami newspaper Ságat, Pedersen said he has Sami blood from both parents, though mostly from his mother's side. However, he admits his knowledge of the Sami language is very limited.


title: Morten Gamst Pedersen

text: Pedersen fronted Norwegian boyband The Players, alongside fellow footballers Freddy dos Santos, Raymond Kvisvik, Kristofer Hæstad and Øyvind Svenning. Released in aid of the Soccer Against Crime campaign, their first single became a hit across Scandinavia.


title: 2002 Major League Baseball season

text: The 2002 Major League Baseball season finished with two wild-card teams contesting the World Series; the Anaheim Angels defeated the San Francisco Giants in seven games for the World Series championship. It was the first title in Angels team history. This was the first season for mlb.tv .


title: Pedro de Alvarado

text: Pedro de Alvarado (; c. 1485 – 4 July 1541) was a Spanish conquistador and governor of Guatemala. He participated in the conquest of Cuba, in Juan de Grijalva's exploration of the coasts of the Yucatán Peninsula and the Gulf of Mexico, and in the conquest of the Aztec Empire led by Hernán Cortés. He is considered the conquistador of much of Central America, including Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.


title: Pedro de Alvarado

text: Pedro de Alvarado was flamboyant and charismatic, and was both a brilliant military commander and a cruel, hardened man. His hair and beard were red, which reminded the Aztecs of their sun-god (often painted red) Tōnatiuh. He was handsome, and presented an affable appearance, but was volatile and quick to anger. He was ruthless in his dealings with the indigenous peoples he set out to conquer. Historians judge that his greed drove him to excessive cruelty, and his Spanish contemporaries denounced his extreme brutality during his lifetime. He was a poor governor of territories he had conquered, and restlessly sought out new adventures.


title: Pedro de Alvarado

text: His tactical brutality, such as the massacre in the Great Temple of Tenochtitlan, often undermined strategic considerations. He was also accused of cruelty against fellow Spaniards. Alvarado was little suited to govern; when he held governing positions, he did little to establish stable foundations for colonial rule. His letters show no interest in civil matters, and he only discussed exploration and war. Alvarado stubbornly resisted attempts by the Spanish Crown to establish ordered taxation in Guatemala, and refused to acknowledge such attempts. As governor of Guatemala, Alvarado has been described by W. George Lovell et al. as "an insatiable despot who recognized no authority but his own and who regarded Guatemala as little more than his personal estate."


title: Pedro de Alvarado

text: Spanish chronicler Antonio de Remesal commented that "Alvarado desired more to be feared than loved by his subjects, whether they were Indians or Spaniards." In his easy recourse to violence, Alvarado was a product of his time, and Alvarado was not the only "conquistador" to have resorted to such actions. Hernán Cortés and Francisco Pizarro carried out deeds of similar cruelty, but have not attracted as much criticism as Alvarado.


title: Pedro de Alvarado

text: Pedro de Alvarado was born in 1485 in the town of Badajoz, Extremadura. His father was Gómez de Alvarado, and his mother was Leonor de Contreras, Gómez's second wife. Pedro de Alvarado had a twin sister, Sarra, and four full-blood brothers, Jorge, Gonzalo, Gómez, and Juan. Pedro had an illegitimate half brother, also named Juan, referred to in contemporary sources as "Juan el Bastardo".


title: Pedro de Alvarado

text: Very little is known of Pedro de Alvarado's early life before his arrival in the Americas. During the conquest of the Americas, tales of his youthful exploits in Spain became popular legends, but their veracity is doubtful. An example is the tale then current that when he was a youth awaiting passage to the Americas, he climbed the church tower in Seville with some friends. A banner pole extended some from an upper window. One of his companions walked out to the end of the pole after removing his cloak and sword, and returned to the tower backwards. Alvarado, afraid of being mocked, walked out onto the pole with both sword and cloak, and turned around at the end to return to the tower facing it.


title: Pedro de Alvarado

text: Alvarado's paternal grandfather was Juan Alvarado "el Viejo" ("the elder"), who was "comendador" of Hornachos, and his paternal grandmother was Catalina Messía. Pedro de Alvarado's uncle on his father's side was Diego de Alvarado y Messía, who was the "comendador" of Lobón, Puebla, and Montijo, "alcalde" of Montánchez, and lord of Castellanos and of Cubillana. Diego was a veteran of the campaigns against the Moors.


title: Pedro de Alvarado

text: Alvarado and his brothers crossed the Atlantic Ocean before 1511, possibly in 1510. By 1511 a system of licenses had been established in Spain to control the flow of colonists to the New World. The only one of the Alvarado brothers that appears in the registers is Juan de Alvarado, in 1511, leading to the assumption that the rest were already in the Americas by the time the licensing system was established. The Alvarado brothers stopped off at Hispaniola, but there are few mentions of their stay there in historical documents.


title: Pedro de Alvarado

text: Soon after arriving in Santo Domingo, on Hispaniola, Pedro de Alvarado established a friendship with Hernán Cortés, who at the time was serving as public scribe. Alvarado joined Cortés to participate in the conquest of Cuba, under the command of Diego de Velázquez. The conquest of Cuba was launched in 1511, and Pedro de Alvarado was accompanied by his brothers. Soon after the invasion, Alvarado was managing a prosperous "hacienda" in the new colony. It is around this time that Pedro de Alvarado emerges into the historical record as a prosperous and influential "hacienda"-owner, already well connected with Velázquez, who was now governor of Cuba.


title: Pedro de Alvarado

text: Diego Velázquez, the governor of Cuba, was enthused by Francisco Hernández de Córdoba's report of gold in the newly discovered Yucatán Peninsula. He organised an expedition consisting of four ships and 260 men. He placed his nephew Juan de Grijalva in overall command; Pedro de Alvarado captained one of the ships. The small fleet was stocked with crossbows, muskets, barter goods, salted pork and cassava bread.


title: Pedro de Alvarado

text: The fleet left Cuba in April 1518, and made its first landfall upon the island of Cozumel, off the east coast of Yucatán. The Maya inhabitants of Cozumel fled the Spanish; the fleet then sailed south from Cozumel, along the east coast of the peninsula. The Spanish spotted three large Maya cities along the coast. On Ascension Thursday the fleet discovered a large bay, which the Spanish named Bahía de la Ascensión.


title: Pedro de Alvarado

text: Grijalva did not land at any of these cities and turned back north to loop around the north of the Yucatán Peninsula and sail down the west coast. At Campeche the Spanish opened fire against the city with small cannon; the inhabitants fled, allowing the Spanish to take the abandoned city. The Maya remained hidden in the forest, so the Spanish boarded their ships and continued along the coast.


title: Pedro de Alvarado

text: At Champotón, the fleet was approached by a small number of large war canoes, but the ships' cannon soon put them to flight. At the mouth of the Tabasco River the Spanish sighted massed warriors and canoes but the natives did not approach. By means of interpreters, Grijalva indicated that he wished to trade and bartered wine and beads in exchange for food and other supplies. From the natives they received a few gold trinkets and news of the riches of the Aztec Empire to the west. The expedition continued far enough to confirm the reality of the gold-rich empire, sailing as far north as Pánuco River.


title: Pedro de Alvarado

text: At the Papaloapan River, Alvarado ordered his ship upriver, leaving the rest of the small fleet behind to wait for him at the river mouth. This action greatly angered Grijalva, who feared that a lone ship could be lost. After this, the Spanish referred to the river as the "Río de Alvarado" ("Alvarado's River"). A little further along the coast, the fleet encountered settlements under Aztec dominion, and was met by Aztec emissaries with gifts of gold and jewels sent by the Emperor Moctezuma II.


title: Pedro de Alvarado

text: As punishment for entering the Papaloapan River without orders, Grijalva sent Alvarado with the ship "San Sebastián" to relay news of the discoveries back to Cuba. Alvarado made a triumphal entry to Santiago de Cuba, with a great display of the wealth that had been gained from the expedition. His early arrival in Cuba allowed him to ingratiate himself with the Governor Velázquez before Grijalva's return. The rest of the fleet put into the port of Havana five months after it had left. Grijalva was coldly received by the governor, who Alvarado had turned against him, claiming much of the glory of the expedition for himself.


title: Pedro de Alvarado

text: Grijalva's return aroused great interest in Cuba. A new expedition was organised, with a fleet of eleven ships carrying 500 men and some horses. Hernán Cortés was placed in command; Pedro de Alvarado and his brothers Jorge, Gómez and Juan "El Bastardo" joined the expedition. Cortés charged Pedro de Alvarado with gathering recruits from the inland estates of Cuba. The crew included officers that would become famous conquistadors, including Cristóbal de Olid, Gonzalo de Sandoval and Diego de Ordaz. Also aboard were Francisco de Montejo and Bernal Díaz del Castillo, veterans of the Grijalva expedition.


title: Pedro de Alvarado

text: Alvarado once again commanded the "San Sebastián", with 60 men under his orders. The fleet made its first landfall at Cozumel, and remained there for several days. Maya temples were cast down and a Christian cross was put up on one of them. From Cozumel, the fleet looped around the north of the Yucatán Peninsula and followed the coast to the Tabasco River. In Tabasco, the fleet anchored at Potonchán, a Chontal Maya town. The Maya prepared for battle but the Spanish horses and firearms quickly decided the outcome. From Potonchán, the fleet continued to San Juan de Ulua. The crew stayed only a short time before relocating to a promontory near Quiahuiztlan and Cempoala, a subject city of the Aztec Empire. Some of the Spaniards stayed near the coast when Cortés journeyed inland but Alvarado accompanied Cortés on the inland march. While marching toward Tenochtitlan, the expedition made a slight detour to travel through Tlaxcalteca lands. The Tlaxcalteca attacked the Spanish force numerous times but they were unable to rout the Spanish forces. After making an alliance with the Tlaxcalteca, the Spanish went on to conquer the Aztecs.


title: Pedro de Alvarado

text: Alvarado commanded one of the eleven vessels in the fleet and also acted as Cortés' second in command during the expedition's first stay in the Aztec capital city of Tenochtitlán. Relations between the Spaniards and their hosts were uneasy, especially given Cortés' repeated insistence that the Aztecs desist from idol worship and human sacrifice; in order to ensure their own safety, the Spaniards took the Aztec king Moctezuma hostage. When Cortés returned to the Gulf coast to deal with the newly arrived hostile expedition of Pánfilo de Narváez, Alvarado remained in Tenochtitlan as commander of the Spanish enclave, with strict orders to make sure that Moctezuma not be permitted to escape.


title: Pedro de Alvarado

text: During Cortés' absence, relations between the Spaniards and their hosts went from bad to worse, and Alvarado led a massacre of Aztec nobles and priests observing a religious festival. Alvarado claims he did so because he feared the Aztecs were plotting against him but there is no physical evidence to support this claim and the alleged warnings he received came from tortured captives that very likely would have said anything to make the torture stop. When Cortés returned to Tenochtitlan, he found the Spanish force under siege. After Moctezuma was killed in the attempt to negotiate with his own people, the Spaniards determined to escape by fighting their way across one of the causeways that led from the city across the lake and to the mainland. In a bloody nocturnal action of 10 July 1520, known as La Noche Triste, Alvarado led the rear-guard and was badly wounded. According to satirical verses by Gonzalo Ocampo, in reference to Alvarado crossing a causeway gap during the escape, Alvarado's escape became known as "Salto de Alvarado" ("Alvarado's Leap").


title: Pedro de Alvarado

text: Pedro then participated in the Siege of Tenochtitlan, commanding one of four forces under Cortés. Alvarado was wounded when Cuauhtemoc attacked all three Spanish camps on the feast day of St. John. Alvarado's company was the first to make it to the Tlateloco marketplace, setting fire to the Aztec shrines. Cortés' and Sandoval's companies joined him there after four more days of fighting.


title: Pedro de Alvarado

text: Cortés despatched Pedro de Alvarado to invade Guatemala with 180 cavalry, 300 infantry, crossbows, muskets, 4 cannons, large amounts of ammunition and gunpowder, and thousands of allied Mexican warriors. Pedro de Alvarado passed through Soconusco with a sizeable force in 1523, en route to conquer Guatemala. Alvarado's army included hardened veterans of the conquest of the Aztecs, and included cavalry and artillery; there were also a great many indigenous allies from Cholula, Tenochtitlan, Texcoco, Tlaxcala, and Xochimilco.


title: Pedro de Alvarado

text: Alvarado was received in peace in Soconusco, and the inhabitants swore allegiance to the Spanish Crown. They reported that neighbouring groups in Guatemala were attacking them because of their friendly outlook towards the Spanish. Alvarado's letter to Hernán Cortés describing his passage through Soconusco is lost, and knowledge of events there come from the account of Bernal Díaz del Castillo, who was not present, but related the report of Gonzalo de Alvarado. By 1524, Soconusco had been completely pacified by Alvarado and his forces.


title: Pedro de Alvarado

text: Pedro de Alvarado and his army advanced along the Pacific coast unopposed until they reached the Samalá River in western Guatemala. This region formed a part of the K'iche' kingdom, and a K'iche' army tried unsuccessfully to prevent the Spanish from crossing the river. Once across, the conquistadors ransacked nearby settlements in an effort to terrorise the K'iche'. On 8 February 1524 Alvarado's army fought a battle at Xetulul, called Zapotitlán by his Mexican allies (modern San Francisco Zapotitlán). Although suffering many injuries inflicted by defending K'iche' archers, the Spanish and their allies stormed the town and set up camp in the marketplace.


title: Pedro de Alvarado

text: Alvarado then turned to head upriver into the Sierra Madre mountains towards the K'iche' heartlands, crossing the pass into the fertile valley of Quetzaltenango. On 12 February 1524 Alvarado's Mexican allies were ambushed in the pass and driven back by K'iche' warriors but the Spanish cavalry charge that followed was a shock for the K'iche', who had never before seen horses. The cavalry scattered the K'iche' and the army crossed to the city of Xelaju (modern Quetzaltenango) only to find it deserted.


title: Pedro de Alvarado

text: Almost a week later, on 18 February 1524, a K'iche' army confronted the Spanish army in the Quetzaltenango valley and were comprehensively defeated; many K'iche' nobles were among the dead. This battle exhausted the K'iche' militarily and they asked for peace and offered tribute, inviting Pedro de Alvarado into their capital Q'umarkaj, which was known as Tecpan Utatlan to the Nahuatl-speaking allies of the Spanish. Alvarado was deeply suspicious of the K'iche' intentions but accepted the offer and marched to Q'umarkaj with his army.


title: Pedro de Alvarado

text: In March 1524 Pedro de Alvarado entered Q'umarkaj at the invitation of the remaining lords of the K'iche' after their catastrophic defeat, fearing that he was entering a trap. He encamped on the plain outside the city rather than accepting lodgings inside. Fearing the great number of K'iche' warriors gathered outside the city and that his cavalry would not be able to manoeuvre in the narrow streets of Q'umarkaj, he invited the leading lords of the city, Oxib-Keh (the king) and Beleheb-Tzy (the king elect) to visit him in his camp.


title: Pedro de Alvarado

text: As soon as they did so, he seized them and kept them as prisoners in his camp. The K'iche' warriors, seeing their lords taken prisoner, attacked the Spaniards' indigenous allies and managed to kill one of the Spanish soldiers. At this point Alvarado decided to have the captured K'iche' lords burnt to death, and then proceeded to burn the entire city. After the destruction of Q'umarkaj and the execution of its rulers, Pedro de Alvarado sent messages to Iximche, capital of the Kaqchikel, proposing an alliance against the remaining K'iche' resistance.


title: Pedro de Alvarado

text: On 14 April 1524, soon after the defeat of the K'iche', the Spanish were invited into Iximche and were well received by the lords Belehe Qat and Cahi Imox. The Kaqchikel kings provided native soldiers to assist the conquistadors against continuing K'iche' resistance and to help with the defeat of the neighbouring Tz'utuhil kingdom. The Spanish only stayed briefly in Iximche before continuing through Atitlán, Escuintla and Cuscatlán. The Spanish returned to the Kaqchikel capital on 23 July 1524 and on 27 July, Pedro de Alvarado declared Iximche as the first capital of Guatemala, Santiago de los Caballeros de Guatemala ("St. James of the Knights of Guatemala").


title: Pedro de Alvarado

text: The Kaqchikel appear to have entered into an alliance with the Spanish to defeat their enemies, the Tz'utujil, whose capital was Tecpan Atitlan. Pedro de Alvarado sent two Kaqchikel messengers to Tecpan Atitlan at the request of the Kaqchikel lords, both of whom were killed by the Tz'utujil. When news of the killing of the messengers reached the Spanish at Iximche, the conquistadors marched against the Tz'utujil with their Kaqchikel allies.


title: Pedro de Alvarado

text: Pedro de Alvarado left Iximche just 5 days after he had arrived there, with 60 cavalry, 150 Spanish infantry and an unspecified number of Kaqchikel warriors. The Spanish and their allies arrived at the lakeshore after a day's hard march, without encountering any opposition. Seeing the lack of resistance, Alvarado rode ahead with 30 cavalry along the lake shore. Opposite a populated island the Spanish at last encountered hostile Tz'utujil warriors and charged among them, scattering and pursuing them to a narrow causeway across which the surviving Tz'utujil fled. The rest of Alvarado's army soon reinforced his party and they successfully stormed the island. This battle took place on 18 April.


title: Pedro de Alvarado

text: The following day the Spanish entered Tecpan Atitlan but found it deserted. Pedro de Alvarado camped in the centre of the city and sent out scouts to find the enemy. They managed to catch some locals and used them to send messages to the Tz'utujil lords, ordering them to submit to the king of Spain. The Tz'utujil leaders responded by surrendering to Pedro de Alvarado and swearing loyalty to Spain, at which point Alvarado considered them pacified and returned to Iximche. Three days after Pedro de Alvarado returned to Iximche, the lords of the Tz'utujil arrived there to pledge their loyalty and offer tribute to the conquistadors. A short time afterwards a number of lords arrived from the Pacific lowlands to swear allegiance to the king of Spain.


title: Pedro de Alvarado

text: Pedro de Alvarado rapidly began to demand gold in tribute from the Kaqchikels, souring the friendship between the two peoples. He demanded that their kings deliver 1000 gold leaves, each worth 15 pesos. The Kaqchikel people abandoned their city and fled to the forests and hills on 28 August 1524. Ten days later the Spanish declared war on the Kaqchikel.


title: Pedro de Alvarado

text: Two years later, on 9 February 1526, a group of sixteen Spanish deserters burnt the palace of the "Ahpo Xahil", sacked the temples and kidnapped a priest, acts that the Kaqchikel blamed on Pedro de Alvarado. The Kaqchikel kept up resistance against the Spanish for a number of years. On 9 May 1530, exhausted by the warfare that had seen the deaths of their best warriors and the enforced abandonment of their crops, the two kings of the most important clans returned from the wilds. A day later they were joined by many nobles and their families and many more people; they then surrendered at the new Spanish capital at Ciudad Vieja.


title: Pedro de Alvarado

text: On 8 May 1524, Pedro de Alvarado continued southwards to the Pacific coastal plain with an army numbering approximately 6000, where he defeated the Pipil of Panacal or Panacaltepeque near Izcuintepeque on 9 May. Alvarado described the terrain approaching the town as very difficult, covered with dense vegetation and swampland that made the use of cavalry impossible; instead he sent men with crossbows ahead. The Pipil withdrew their scouts because of the heavy rain, believing that the Spanish and their allies would not be able to reach the town that day.


title: Pedro de Alvarado

text: Pedro de Alvarado pressed ahead and when the Spanish entered the town the defenders were completely unprepared, with the Pipil warriors indoors sheltering from the torrential rain. In the battle that ensued, the Spanish and their indigenous allies suffered minor losses but the Pipil were able to flee into the forest, sheltered from Spanish pursuit by the weather and the vegetation. Pedro de Alvarado ordered the town to be burnt and sent messengers to the Pipil lords demanding their surrender, otherwise he would lay waste to their lands.


title: Pedro de Alvarado

text: According to Alvarado's letter to Cortés, the Pipil came back to the town and submitted to him, accepting the king of Spain as their overlord. The Spanish force camped in the captured town for eight days. A few years later, in 1529, Pedro de Alvarado was accused of using excessive brutality in his conquest of Izcuintepeque, amongst other atrocities.


title: Pedro de Alvarado

text: In Guazacapán, Pedro de Alvarado described his encounter with people who were neither Maya nor Pipil, speaking a different language altogether; these people were probably Xinca. At this point Alvarado's force consisted of 250 Spanish infantry accompanied by 6,000 indigenous allies, mostly Kaqchikel and Cholutec. Alvarado and his army defeated and occupied the most important Xinca city, named as Atiquipaque. The defending warriors were described by Alvarado as engaging in fierce hand-to-hand combat using spears, stakes and poisoned arrows. The battle took place on 26 May 1524 and resulted in a significant reduction of the Xinca population.


title: Pedro de Alvarado

text: Alvarado's army continued eastwards from Atiquipaque, seizing several more Xinca cities. Because Alvarado and his allies could not understand the Xinca language, Alvarado took extra precautions on the march eastward by strengthening his vanguard and rearguard with ten cavalry apiece. In spite of these precautions the baggage train was ambushed by a Xinca army soon after leaving Taxisco. Many indigenous allies were killed and most of the baggage was lost, including all the crossbows and ironwork for the horses.


title: Pedro de Alvarado

text: This was a serious setback and Alvarado camped his army in Nancintla for eight days, during which time he sent two expeditions against the attacking army. Alvarado sent out Xinca messengers to make contact with the enemy but they failed to return. Messengers from the city of Pazaco, in the modern department of Jutiapa, offered peace to the conquistadors but when Alvarado arrived there the next day the inhabitants were preparing for war. Alvarado's troops encountered a sizeable quantity of gathered warriors and quickly routed them through the city's streets. From Pazaco, Alvarado crossed the Río Paz and entered what is now El Salvador.


title: Pedro de Alvarado

text: Alvarado led the first effort by Spanish forces to extend their dominion to the nation of Cuzcatlan (in modern El Salvador), in June 1524. These efforts established many towns such as San José Acatempa in 1525 and Esquipulas in 1560. Spanish efforts were firmly resisted by the indigenous people known as the Pipil and their Mayan speaking neighbors. Despite Alvarado's initial success in the Battle of Acajutla, the indigenous people of Cuzcatlán, who according to tradition were led by a warlord called Atlácatl, defeated the Spaniards and their auxiliaries, and forced them to withdraw to Guatemala.


title: Pedro de Alvarado

text: Alvarado was wounded on his left thigh, remaining handicapped for the rest of his life. He abandoned the war and appointed his brother, Gonzalo de Alvarado, to continue the task. Two subsequent expeditions were required (the first in 1525, followed by a smaller group in 1528) to bring the Pipil under Spanish control. In 1528 the conquest of Cuzcatlán was completed and the city of San Salvador was established.


title: Pedro de Alvarado

text: On 18 December 1527, the king of Spain named Alvarado as governor of Guatemala; two days later he granted him the coveted military title of "Adelantado". Alvarado's close friendship with Cortés was broken in the same year; Alvarado had promised Cortés that he would marry Cecilia Vázquez, Cortes' cousin. Alvarado broke his promise and instead married Francisca de la Cueva. Technically, this was not his first marriage as he married an indigenous woman, daughter to Xicotencatl the Elder, who was referred to as Dona Luisa by Spanish speakers and Tlecuiluatzin by Nahuatl speakers.


title: Pedro de Alvarado

text: Francisca de la Cueva was well connected at the royal court, being the niece of Francisco de los Cobos, the king's secretary, and a member of the powerful noble house of Albuquerque. This marriage gave Alvarado extra leverage at court and was far more useful to his long term interests; Alvarado thereafter maintained a friendship with Francisco de los Cobos that allowed him access to the king's favour. In 1528, by coincidence both Alvarado and Cortés were in Seville at the same time, but Cortés ignored him.


title: Pedro de Alvarado

text: Francisca de la Cueva died shortly after their arrival in America. Alvarado remained governor of Guatemala until his death. He was made Knight of Santiago in 1527.


title: Pedro de Alvarado

text: By 1532, Alvarado's friendship with Hernán Cortés had soured, and he no longer trusted him. At this time Alvarado requested permission from the king for an expedition south along the Pacific coast, to conquer any lands there that had not already been claimed for the Crown, and specifically rejected that Cortés should accompany him. In 1534, Alvarado heard tales of the riches of Peru, headed south to the Andes and attempted to bring the province of Quito under his rule. When he arrived, he found the land already held by Francisco Pizarro's lieutenant Sebastián de Belalcázar. The two forces of Conquistadors almost came to battle; however, Alvarado bartered to Pizarro's group most of his ships, horses, and ammunition, plus most of his men, for a comparatively modest sum of money, and returned to Guatemala.


title: Pedro de Alvarado

text: In 1532, Alvarado received a Royal Cedula naming him Governor of the Province of Honduras. At that time, Honduras consisted of a single settlement of Spaniards in Trujillo, but he declined to act on it. In 1533 or 1534 he began to send his own work gangs of enslaved Africans and Native Americans into the parts of Honduras adjacent to Guatemala to work the placer gold deposits.


title: Pedro de Alvarado

text: In 1536, ostensibly in response to a letter asking for aid from Andrés de Cereceda, then acting Governor of the Province of Honduras, Alvarado and his army of Indian allies arrived in Honduras, just as the Spanish colonists were preparing to abandon the country and go look for gold in Peru. In June, 1536, Alvarado engaged the indigenous resistance led by Cicumba in the lower Ulua river valley, and won. He divided up the Indian labor in "repartimiento" grants to his soldiers and some of the colonists, and returned to Guatemala.


title: Pedro de Alvarado

text: During a visit to Spain, in 1537, Alvarado had the governorship of Honduras reconfirmed in addition to that of Guatemala for the next seven years. His governorship of Honduras was not uncontested. Francisco de Montejo had a rival claim, and was installed by the Spanish king as Governor of Honduras in 1540. Ten years after being widowed, Alvarado married one of his first wife's sisters, Beatriz de la Cueva, who outlived him.


title: Pedro de Alvarado

text: After the death of Alvarado, de la Cueva maneuvered her own election and succeeded him as governor of Guatemala, becoming the only woman to govern a major political division of the Americas in Spanish colonial times. She drowned a few days after taking office in the destruction of the capital city Ciudad Vieja by a sudden mudflow from the Volcán de Agua in 1541.


title: Pedro de Alvarado

text: Alvarado developed a plan to outfit an armada that would sail from the western coast of Mexico to China and the Spice Islands. At great cost, he assembled and equipped 13 ships and approximately 550 soldiers for the expedition. The fleet was about to set sail in 1541 when Alvarado received a letter from Cristóbal de Oñate, pleading for help against hostile Indians who were besieging him at Nochistlán.


title: Pedro de Alvarado

text: The siege was part of a major revolt by the Mixtón natives of the Nueva Galicia region of Mexico. Alvarado gathered his troops and went to help Oñate. In a freak accident, he was crushed by a horse that was spooked and ran amok. He died a few days later, on July 4, 1541, and was buried in the church at Tiripetío, a village between Pátzcuaro and Morelia (in present-day Michoacán).


title: Pedro de Alvarado

text: Four decades after Alvarado's death, his mestiza daughter Leonor de Alvarado Xicoténcatl paid to transport his remains to Guatemala for reburial in the cathedral of the city of Santiago de los Caballeros de Guatemala, now Antigua Guatemala.


title: Pedro de Alvarado

text: After the death of her husband, Beatriz de la Cueva maneuvered her own election and succeeded him as governor of Guatemala, becoming the only woman to govern a major political division of the Americas in Spanish colonial times.


title: Pedro de Alvarado

text: Alvarado had no children from either of his legal marriages. His life companion was his concubine Luisa de Tlaxcala (also called Xicoténcatl or Tecubalsi, her original names after Catholic baptism). She was a Nahua noblewoman, daughter of the Tlaxcallan King Xicotencatl the Elder. Luisa was given by her father in 1519 to Hernán Cortés as a proof of respect and friendship. In turn Cortés gave her "in guard" to Pedro de Alvarado, who quickly and unremarkably became her lover. Luisa followed Alvarado in his pursuit of conquests beyond central Mexico. Despite never being his legitimate wife, Luisa de Tlaxcala had numerous possessions and was respected as a Doña, both for her relationship with Alvarado and for her noble origin. She died in 1535 and was buried at the Guatemala Cathedral.


title: Troy Davis

text: Troy Anthony Davis (October 9, 1968 – September 21, 2011) was a man convicted of and executed for the August 19, 1989 murder of police officer Mark MacPhail in Savannah, Georgia. MacPhail was working as a security guard at a Burger King restaurant and was intervening to defend a man being assaulted in a nearby parking lot when he was murdered. During Davis's 1991 trial, seven witnesses testified they had seen Davis shoot MacPhail, and two others testified Davis had confessed the murder to them. There were 34 witnesses who testified for the prosecution, and six others for the defense, including Davis. Although the murder weapon was not recovered, ballistic evidence presented at trial linked bullets recovered at or near the scene to those at another shooting in which Davis was also charged. He was convicted of murder and various lesser charges, including the earlier shooting, and was sentenced to death in August 1991.


title: Troy Davis

text: Davis maintained his innocence up to his death. In the twenty years between his conviction and execution, Davis and his defenders secured support from the public, celebrities, and human rights groups. Amnesty International and other groups such as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) took up Davis's cause. Prominent politicians and leaders, including former President Jimmy Carter, Rev. Al Sharpton, Pope Benedict XVI, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, former U.S. Congressman from Georgia and presidential candidate Bob Barr, and former FBI Director and judge William S. Sessions called upon the courts to grant Davis a new trial or evidentiary hearing. In July 2007, September 2008, and October 2008, execution dates were scheduled, but each execution was stayed shortly before it was to take place.


title: Troy Davis

text: In 2009, the Supreme Court of the United States ordered the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Georgia to consider whether new evidence "that could not have been obtained at the time of trial clearly establishes [Davis'] innocence". The evidentiary hearing was held in June 2010. The defense presented affidavits from seven of the nine trial witnesses whose original testimony had identified Davis as the murderer, but who it contended had changed or recanted their previous testimony. Some of these writings disavowed parts of prior testimony, or implicated Sylvester "Redd" Coles, who Davis contended was the actual triggerman. The state presented witnesses, including the police investigators and original prosecutors, who described a careful investigation of the crime, without any coercion. Davis did not call some of the witnesses who had supposedly recanted, despite their presence in the courthouse; accordingly their affidavits were given little weight by the judge. Evidence that Coles had confessed to the killing was excluded as hearsay because Coles was not subpoenaed by the defense to rebut it.


title: Troy Davis

text: In an August 2010 decision, the conviction was upheld. The court described defense efforts to upset the conviction as "largely smoke and mirrors" and found that several of the proffered affidavits were not recantations at all. Subsequent appeals, including to the Supreme Court, were rejected, and a fourth execution date was set for September 21, 2011. Nearly one million people signed petitions urging the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles to grant clemency. The Board denied clemency and, on September 21, it refused to reconsider its decision. After a last-minute appeal to the United States Supreme Court was denied, Davis was executed on September 21, 2011.


title: Troy Davis

text: The charges against Troy Davis arose from the shooting of Michael Cooper, the beating of Larry Young and the murder of Officer Mark MacPhail on August 18–19, 1989.


title: Troy Davis

text: On the evening of August 18, 1989, Davis attended a pool party in the Cloverdale neighborhood of Savannah, Georgia. As he left the party with his friend Daryl Collins, the occupants of a passing car yelled obscenities and began shooting at a gathering of neighborhood teenagers. One of the teenagers returned fire, and Michael Cooper, a passenger, was struck in the jaw. Davis and Collins then went to a pool hall on Oglethorpe Avenue in the Yamacraw Village section of Savannah.


title: Troy Davis

text: Later that evening, Davis and Collins proceeded to the parking lot of a Burger King restaurant on Oglethorpe Avenue, not far from the pool hall. There they encountered Sylvester "Redd" Coles arguing with a homeless man, Larry Young, over alcohol. Young was pistol-whipped, but could not identify his attacker.


title: Troy Davis

text: At about 1:15 am on August 19, 1989, Mark MacPhail, an off-duty police officer who was working as a security guard at the Burger King, attempted to intervene in the pistol-whipping of Young at the parking lot. MacPhail was shot twice: once through the heart and once in the face. He did not draw his gun. Bullets and shell casings which were determined to have come from a .38-caliber pistol were retrieved from the crime scene. Witnesses to the shooting agreed that a man in a white shirt had struck Young and then shot MacPhail.


title: Troy Davis

text: On August 19, Coles told Savannah Police he had seen Davis with a .38-caliber pistol, and that Davis had assaulted Young. Coles failed to tell police that he owned a .38-caliber weapon and was in possession of that weapon on the night of the shooting. The same evening as the shooting, Davis drove to Atlanta with his sister. In the early morning of August 20, 1989, Savannah Police searched the Davis home but all they found was a pair of Davis's shorts in a clothes dryer. Davis's family began negotiating with police, motivated by concerns about his safety. On August 23, 1989, Davis returned to Savannah, surrendered himself to police and was charged with MacPhail's murder. The murder weapon was never recovered, and Mr. Coles told police that he had lost his .38-caliber weapon before it could be tested.


title: Troy Davis

text: Davis was the eldest child of Korean War veteran Joseph Davis and hospital worker Virginia Davis. The couple divorced when Davis was very young, and Davis grew up with four siblings in the predominantly black, middle-class neighborhood of Cloverdale in Savannah, Georgia.


title: Troy Davis

text: Davis attended Windsor Forest High School, where one teacher described him as a poor student. He dropped out in his junior year so he could drive his disabled younger sister to her rehabilitation. Davis obtained his high-school equivalency diploma from Richard Arnold Education Center in 1987. A teacher noted that he attended school regularly but seemed to lack discipline. Davis's nickname at the time was "Rah," or "Rough as Hell," but some neighbors reported that it did not reflect his behavior; they described him as a "straight-up fellow" who acted as a big brother to local children.


title: Troy Davis

text: In July 1988, Davis pleaded guilty to carrying a concealed weapon; he was fined $250 as part of a plea agreement in which a charge of possession of a gun with altered serial numbers was dropped.


title: Troy Davis

text: In August 1988, Davis began work as a drill technician at a plant that manufactured railroad crossing gates. His boss commented that while Davis was a likeable and good worker who appeared to have positive life goals, his job attendance was poor; by Christmas 1988, he had stopped coming to work. Davis returned to the job twice in the following months but neither time remained for long.


title: Troy Davis

text: Davis was a coach in the Savannah Police Athletic League and had signed up for service in the United States Marine Corps.


title: Troy Davis

text: Mark Allen MacPhail Sr., was 27 years old at the time of his murder. He was the son of a U.S. Army colonel, was married, and was father to a two-year-old daughter and an infant son. He had joined the Savannah Police Department in 1986 following six years of military service as an Army Ranger. MacPhail had worked for three years as a regular patrol officer and in the summer of 1989 had applied to train as a mounted police officer.


title: Troy Davis

text: Hundreds of mourners, including county, state, and federal law enforcement officers, attended MacPhail's funeral at Trinity Lutheran Church in Savannah on August 22, 1989.


title: Troy Davis

text: On November 15, 1989, a grand jury indicted Davis for murder, assaulting Larry Young with a pistol, shooting Michael Cooper, obstructing MacPhail in performance of his duty and possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime. Davis pleaded not guilty in April 1990.


title: Troy Davis

text: In November 1990, the presiding judge excluded forensic evidence from the pair of shorts seized at the Davis home. The judge ruled that Davis's mother did "not freely and voluntarily grant the police the right to search her home." She had testified that police officers had threatened to break down her door unless she let them into her home. The Georgia Supreme Court upheld the exclusion of the evidence in May 1991, saying that the police should have obtained a search warrant.


title: Troy Davis

text: The prosecution claimed that Davis had shot Cooper in Cloverdale, then met up with Redd Coles at a pool hall, pistol-whipped the homeless man Larry Young in the parking lot, and then killed Mark MacPhail.


title: Troy Davis

text: The prosecution did not produce a weapon (neither the gun which Davis was said to have used nor the gun owned by Coles) as evidence. A ballistics expert testified that the .38-caliber bullet that killed MacPhail "could have been fired from the same gun" that wounded Cooper, but that conclusion was not definitive. The expert stated that he was confident that .38 casings found at Cloverdale matched bullet casings found near the scene of MacPhail's shooting, but could not tie the casings to the bullet that killed MacPhail.


title: Troy Davis

text: Davis denied shooting Cooper and denied shooting MacPhail. Davis testified to having seen Coles assault Young, and Davis said that he had fled the scene before any shots were fired and, therefore, did not know who had shot MacPhail.


title: Troy Davis

text: Six witnesses, including Davis, testified at trial for the defense. Davis's mother testified that Davis had been at home on August 19, 1989, until he left for Atlanta with his sister at about 9 pm.


title: Troy Davis

text: On August 28, 1991, the jury took under two hours to find Davis guilty of murder, aggravated assault, possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony and obstruction of a law enforcement officer.


title: Troy Davis

text: The prosecution sought the death penalty during sentencing proceedings for the murder conviction. Davis and three of his family members testified on Davis's behalf. In a final address to the jury, Davis pleaded, "Spare my life. Just give me a second chance. That's all I ask." He told jurors he was convicted for "offenses I didn't commit." MacPhail's family members and friends were not allowed to testify. On August 30, 1991, after seven hours of deliberation, the jury rendered a death verdict and Davis was then sentenced to death by the judge.


title: Troy Davis

text: Since the death penalty was imposed, both the conviction and sentence were automatically appealed to the Georgia Supreme Court. Davis and his lawyers requested a new trial, citing problems with the trial site and selection of the jury. The request was denied in March 1992. In March 1993, the Georgia Supreme Court also upheld Davis's conviction and sentence, ruling that the judge had correctly refused to change trial site and that the racial composition of the jury did not deny his rights. The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal in November 1993. Direct appeals having been exhausted, in March 1994 an order was signed for Davis's execution.


title: Troy Davis

text: In 1994, Davis began habeas corpus proceedings, filing a petition in state court alleging that he had been wrongfully convicted and that his death sentence was a miscarriage of justice. The following year, the federal funding of the Georgia Resource Center, which helped represent Davis, was cut by 70%, leading to the departures of most of the center's lawyers and investigators. According to a later affidavit by the Executive Director, the "work conducted on Mr. Davis's case was akin to triage... There were numerous witnesses that we knew should have been interviewed, but lacked the resources to do so." The appeal stated that the testimony of the prosecution witnesses had been coerced by law enforcement personnel. The petition was denied in September 1997, with the court ruling that claims of improper law enforcement approaches should have been raised earlier in the appeal process, and the court could not usurp the jury's role to evaluate the evidence offered during the trial. The Georgia Supreme Court affirmed the denial of state habeas corpus relief on November 13, 2000.


title: Troy Davis

text: In 2000 Davis challenged his conviction in state court. He alleged that the use of the electric chair during executions in Georgia constituted cruel and unusual punishment. By a 4–3 margin the Georgia Supreme Court rejected the challenge, stating once again that Davis should have raised the issue earlier in the appeal process.


title: Troy Davis

text: In December 2001, Davis filed a habeas corpus petition in the United States District Court. From 1996 onwards, seven of the nine principal prosecution eyewitnesses changed all or part of their trial testimony. Dorothy Ferrell, for example, stated in a 2000 affidavit that she felt under pressure from police to identify Davis as the shooter because she was on parole for a shoplifting conviction. In a 2002 affidavit, Darrell Collins wrote that the police had scared him into falsely testifying by threatening to charge him as an accessory to the crime, and alleged that he had not seen Davis do anything to Young. Antoine Williams, Larry Young and Monty Holmes also stated in affidavits that their earlier testimony implicating Davis had been coerced by strong-arm police tactics. In addition, three witnesses signed affidavits stating that Red Coles had confessed to the murder to them.


title: Troy Davis

text: The State of Georgia argued that the evidence had been procedurally defaulted since it should have been introduced earlier. Davis's petition was denied in May 2004; the judge stated in an opinion that the "submitted affidavits are insufficient to raise doubts as to the constitutionality of the result at trial, there is no danger of a miscarriage of justice in declining to consider the claim." He also rejected other defense contentions about unfair jury selection, ineffective defense counsel and prosecutorial misconduct. The decision was appealed to the 11th Circuit Court, which heard oral arguments in the case in September 2005. On September 26, 2006, the court affirmed the denial of federal habeas corpus relief, and determined that Davis had not made "a substantive claim of actual innocence" or shown that his trial was constitutionally unfair; the circuit court found that neither prosecutors nor defense counsel had acted improperly or incompetently at trial. A petition for panel rehearing was denied in December 2006.


title: Troy Davis

text: Legal experts argued that a major obstacle to granting Davis a new trial was the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996, passed after the Oklahoma City bombing, which bars death row inmates from later presenting evidence they could have presented at trial. Members of the legal community have criticized the restricting effect of the 1996 Act on the ability of wrongfully convicted persons to prove their innocence.


title: Troy Davis

text: On June 25, 2007, Davis's first certiorari petition to the U.S. Supreme Court was denied, and his execution was then set for July 17, 2007.


title: Troy Davis

text: Davis's case gained increasing public exposure and support from organizations and prominent individuals. Nobel Peace Prize winner Archbishop Desmond Tutu urged the courts to agree to hear the evidence of police coercion and recanted testimony. An appeal to Governor of Georgia Sonny Perdue urging him to spare Davis's life was sent on behalf of Pope Benedict XVI. Similar appeals were sent by singer Harry Belafonte, Sister Helen Prejean, author of "Dead Man Walking", and actor Mike Farrell. Amnesty International published a report about Davis's case characterizing it as a miscarriage of justice and a "catastrophic flaw in the U.S. death penalty machine." The human rights group initiated a letter-writing campaign and delivered 4,000 letters to the clemency board. William S. Sessions, former FBI Director and federal judge, called on authorities to halt the execution process, writing that "[i]t would be intolerable to execute a man without his claims of innocence ever being considered by the courts or by the executive". Politicians and others such as Jesse Jackson Jr. and Sheila Jackson Lee, and former Texas District Attorney Sam D. Millsap Jr., and the organization Murder Victims Families for Reconciliation requested that the courts grant Davis a new trial. U.S. Congressman John Lewis spoke to the Georgia State Board of Pardons and Paroles, suggesting that Coles—one of the witnesses who had not recanted—was the real killer. Representatives from the Council of Europe and European Parliament also spoke out on Davis's case, asking U.S. authorities to halt the planned execution and calling for a new trial.


title: Troy Davis

text: On July 16, 2007, the Georgia State Board of Pardons and Paroles granted a ninety-day stay of execution in order to allow the evaluation of evidence presented, including the doubts about Davis's guilt. The stay was superseded by the August 2007 decision of the Georgia Supreme Court to grant Davis's application for discretionary appeal from the denial of his Extraordinary Motion for a New Trial. Defense lawyers requested a new trial based on statements of mistaken identity. On March 17, 2008, the Georgia Supreme Court denied the appeal by a 4–3 majority. The majority wrote that the recanting witnesses "have merely stated they now do not feel able to identify the shooter", that the trial testimony could not be ignored, and that they "in fact, favor[ed] that original testimony over the new." In dissent, the Chief Justice wrote that "if recantation testimony, either alone or supported by other evidence, shows convincingly that prior trial testimony was false, it simply defies all logic and morality to hold that it must be disregarded categorically".


title: Troy Davis

text: In July 2008, Davis's lawyers filed a petition for a writ of certiorari in the U.S. Supreme Court, seeking review of the Georgia Supreme Court decision and arguing that the Eighth Amendment creates a substantive right of the innocent not to be executed. However, an execution date was scheduled for September 23, 2008, before the United States Supreme Court decided whether to take up Davis's case. The Georgia Supreme Court refused to grant a stay of execution and the Board of Pardons and Paroles denied clemency. Amnesty International condemned the decision to deny clemency, and former president (and Georgia governor) Jimmy Carter released a public letter in which he stated "Executing Troy Davis without a real examination of potentially exonerating evidence risks taking the life of an innocent man and would be a grave miscarriage of justice." Reverend Al Sharpton also called for clemency after he met and prayed with Davis on death row. A stay of execution was also supported by the NAACP; the president of the Georgia state conference said "This is a modern-day lynching if it's allowed to go forward." Former Republican Congressman and Libertarian presidential candidate Bob Barr wrote that he is "a strong believer in the death penalty as an appropriate and just punishment," but that the proper level of fairness and accuracy required for the ultimate punishment has not been met in Davis's case.


title: Troy Davis

text: A last-minute emergency stay, issued by the Supreme Court less than two hours before Davis was scheduled to be put to death, halted the execution. Lawyers for Davis argued that lower courts had failed to permit a hearing to carefully examine the recanted testimony and four witnesses who implicated Coles. Lawyers for the Georgia attorney general's office argued that most of the affidavits had already been presented and reviewed, and that questions about the quality and credibility of the witnesses were raised at the initial trial.


title: Troy Davis

text: On October 14, 2008, the Supreme Court declined to hear Davis's petition, and a new execution date was set for October 27, 2008.


title: Troy Davis

text: On October 21, 2008, Davis's lawyers requested an emergency stay of the pending execution, and three days later the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals issued a stay of execution to consider a newly filed federal habeas petition. Davis's supporters continued their appeals and actions; these included rallies held worldwide, a petition with 140,000 signatures presented to the state Board of Pardons and Paroles, and an appeal from the European Union calling for the death sentence to be commuted. In contrast, the Chatham County prosecutors asserted that Davis was guilty and deserved the death penalty.


title: Troy Davis

text: Oral arguments were heard by a three-judge panel on December 9 in Atlanta. Davis's lawyers again argued that exculpatory affidavits proving Davis's innocence had not been examined in a court of law; they noted the witnesses who had implicated Coles, and that his photo was not included among those shown to witnesses in the case. The Senior Assistant Attorney General argued that, in extraordinary cases, evidence of wrongful conviction could be heard at this stage of the appeals process, but that in this case the recantation evidence was untrustworthy, and are generally regarded with the "highest suspicion." Multiple courts and boards had also previously declined appeals. During the hearing, judge Joel F. Dubina commented: "As bad as it would be to execute an innocent man, it's also possible the real guilty person who shot Officer MacPhail is not being prosecuted." Another judge, Stanley Marcus, noted that two of the witnesses had not changed their recollections, and that no DNA evidence was available to categorically clear Davis. After the hearing, Davis's sister, Martina Correia, an active campaigner for her brother stated "This is not family against family. We have no ill will against the MacPhail family. When justice is found for Troy, there will be justice for Officer MacPhail."


title: Troy Davis

text: On April 16, 2009, the panel denied Davis's application by a 2–1 majority. Judges Dubina and Marcus rejected the petition, stating that Davis's claims having been reviewed and rejected in the past, and that the recantations were not persuasive. Judge Rosemary Barkett, in dissent, expressed her belief that as Davis might prove his innocence, it would be wrong to execute him. In an interview, Mark MacPhail Jr. said of his father, "He gave his life for the community and now I'm trying to help out his name and help him in some way." Of the appeals process, he says, "The past two years we've had countless appeals and it just keeps on getting drug out." Of Davis, MacPhail said, "He decided to break the law. And our law says, you kill an officer of the law, who tries to uphold it, you must be punished." The 11th Circuit issued an order extending the stay of execution for 30 days to allow Davis the opportunity to file a habeas corpus petition with the U.S. Supreme Court. Davis filed a petition for habeas corpus with the U.S. Supreme Court on May 19, 2009.


title: Troy Davis

text: On August 17, 2009, the Supreme Court ordered the Savannah federal district court to "receive testimony and make findings of fact as to whether evidence that could not have been obtained at the time of trial clearly establishes [Davis's] innocence." Justice John Paul Stevens, joined by Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer, wrote that "[t]he substantial risk of putting an innocent man to death clearly provides an adequate justification for holding an evidentiary hearing." Justice Antonin Scalia dissented, stating that a new hearing would be "a fool's errand" because Davis's claim of innocence was "a sure loser". He was joined by Justice Clarence Thomas.


title: Troy Davis

text: In response to the Supreme Court order, a two-day hearing was held in June 2010 in a federal district court in Savannah in front of Judge William Moore. Benjamin Gordon testified that he was present on the night Officer MacPhail was killed and saw that his uncle, Sylvester Coles, was the shooter. Former prosecution witness Antoine Williams stated he did not know who had shot MacPhail, and that because he was illiterate he could not read the police statements he had signed in 1989. Other prosecution witnesses Jeffrey Sapp and Kevin McQueen testified that Davis had not confessed to them as they had stated at the initial trial. Darrell Collins also recanted his previous evidence that he had seen Davis shoot Cooper and MacPhail. The witnesses variously described their previous testimony against Davis as being the result of feeling scared, of feeling frightened and pressured by police or to get revenge in a conflict with Davis. Anthony Hargrove testified that Redd Coles had admitted the killing to him. The state's lawyers described Hargrove's testimony as hearsay evidence; Judge William T. Moore permitted the evidence but stated that unless Coles appeared, he might give the evidence "no weight whatsoever." Another witness making a similar statement was heard, but a third was rejected by Judge Moore as the claims were inadmissible hearsay because Coles was not called as a witness and given the opportunity for rebuttal. Moore criticized the decision not to call Coles, saying that he was "one of the most critical witnesses to Davis's defense". One of Davis's lawyers stated that the day before they had been unsuccessful in serving a subpoena on Coles; Moore responded that the attempt had been made too late, given that the hearing date had been set months in advance.


title: Troy Davis

text: State attorneys called current and former police officers and the two lead prosecutors, who testified that the investigation had been careful, and that no witnesses had been coerced or threatened. The lead detective testified that his investigation was "very meticulous and careful… I was in no rush just to pick the first guy we got our hands on. I wanted the right guy." He stated that witnesses gave "strikingly similar descriptions on how the shooter was dressed", mostly describing the shooter as wearing a white T-shirt and dark pants, which other witnesses said Davis was wearing that evening. A state attorney asserted that the testimony of at least five prosecution witnesses remained unchallenged, and the evidence of Davis's guilt was overwhelming. In July 2010, Davis's lawyers filed a motion asking Moore to reconsider his decision to exclude testimony from a witness to a confession by Coles, but in August 2010, Moore stood by his initial decision, stating that in not calling Coles, Davis's lawyers were seeking to implicate Coles without desiring his rebuttal.