TheAgitator.com
Troy Davis Denied
Tuesday, October 14th, 2008Last month, the U.S. Supreme Court granted Georgia death row inmate Troy Davis a last-minute reprieve while the justices reviewed his case.
Davis was convicted of murdering a police officer in 1991 based on eyewitness testimony. The problem is that seven of the nine people who testified against him at his trial have since recanted, saying they were pressured and coerced by the police. Three other witnesses who did not testify at the trial have since come forward to say another man committed the murder—a man who happens to have been one of the two remaining witnesses against Davis who have yet to recant their testimony.
This morning, the Court denied Davis’ appeal. It doesn’t look like Davis has many more options.
American Just-us.
And this is (among others, but this is one of the most important reasons) why I’m against the death penalty.
sickening
Exactly, Andrew. I’m all for removing bad people from the earth, but it does no good to just remove people willy nilly. It especially does no good if you don’t remove the people who DO the bad stuff.
We’re not good enough at determining who the bad people are.
Until our system is perfect, which seems to be getting farther and farther away, the death penalty will continue to kill innocent people.
Well, given that Scalia has said that actual innocence and new witnesses are irrelevant as long as the initial procedure was followed correctly, I can hardly say this is surprising.
Procedure over justice. Right there is reason number 1 that Scalia sickens me. I haven’t read the denial of cert reasoning (if there even is one), but if there is, I would bet heavily it will talk all about how the correct procedure was followed.
That’s it, I am no longer on the fence. I’ve leaned against it for a while now, but now I can see that the death penalty must be abolished. If a case with this many legitimate questions and doubts wasn’t enough to convince the system he deserved a new trial, then justice isn’t only blind, it’s stupid too. He may be guilty, he may not be, but I wouldn’t even ground my kid on evidence this thin. And he’ll be executed? Just-us indeed.
I wouldn’t trust the government to run a lemonade stand, much less decide who gets to die for a crime.
Residents of Georgia:
Storm the Bastille.
I’m serious.
As we now look upon slavery as a crime of greed over humanity, our decedents will likely look upon our use of the death penalty as a crime of revenge over humanity.
The people pushing for the death of Troy Davis are a bunch of cowards. I’m talking to you, Sonny Purdue, GA parole board, prosecutors, police, victims families, and any other savages calling for blood.
troyanthonydavis.org
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I’ve not been able to gather this from the articles. Is it the defense’s case that Troy Davis was actually at the crime scene as a participant in the robbery, but was not the person that killed the police officer? Or that he was not present at all?
#12
I had to infer this from the local newspaper article, but it does look like Davis was at the scene.
“Other witnesses also have come forward implicating another man who was with Davis at the scene as being MacPhail’s killer.”
Troy Davis is scum. Sorry. He and two others decided to beat up a homeless man who wouldn’t give one of them a can of beer. Davis was apparently beating the guy with the butt of a .38 pistol. MacPhail, the victim, was working as a security guard nearby, came over to break it up and got shot by somebody. The weapon was never found; no physical evidence ever was, just eyewitness testimony. Davis does admit that he was there, just not that he was the trigger man.
So, he apparently didn’t do the shooting, but one of his buddies did. While I don’t believe that merits the death penalty (particularly not based solely on recanted eyewitness testimony), he should never leave prison.
Michael — Nobody’s arguing he should be let out. But commute it to life in prison.
The Supreme Court isn’t allowed to review the facts of a case, only the legal issues, so I’d say Scalia has the right of it, unfortunately. It isn’t clear on what basis the Court could take up the case.
I recently became a convert of the abolishing the death penalty movement. Mostly becuase the I don’t trust the government to kill the right people. But on top of that, the death penalty serves as tremendous leverage for the prosecution. After all, if you can tell a person charged with a crime that you won’t kill them so long as they cooperate, they will tell you anything you want. Which is what torcher does. It’s a tool that is applied in many wrong doings, not just the killing of innocents.
Gary: The Supreme Court would’ve been deciding whether the district court was correct to deny Troy Davis a new trial. They were never going to be able to set him free, but they could have said that Troy’s new evidence (the recantations) were sufficient to warrant a new trial.
It wouldn’t have even had to be a death-penalty issue.
Fuck. Tha. Po. Lice.
And those assholes in GA who want to kill Troy Davis.
The affidavits include statements by two individuals recanting their earlier testimony that Davis had admitted independently to them that he had killed the police officer. Affidavits from three other individuals say that Coles had admitted to each of them independently that he killed the police officer, not Davis. In addition, there are several affidavits from eyewitnesses who had identified Davis as the shooter but who later said they couldn’t be sure who the shooter was because the crime scene was dark and confusing.
The majority justices on the Georgia Supreme Court said they were not impressed by the affidavits, which they found to be vague and subject to differing interpretations.
Andrew, I understand that and agree with it. Read my last line.
There is a definite problem in the system: I am not sure of the correct solution. It is pretty clear that this man should not die based on such a faulty trial. Even if he beats up homeless people, he would probably have served his time by now.
Justice would demand a new trial.
But, how to get to that point? SCOTUS is only supposed to review the law. This is one case that calls for the (dreaded) “activist judiciary” But, if that happens, it is a one time case. SCOTUS is ill-equipped to (and by the constitution, should not) create policy. What we need is something more comprehensive.
There is an election coming up. You may have heard. Time to ask all our reps, at every level, what to do about criminal justice reform. What they think they would do when there is evidence of innocence, police coercion or corruption.
Well, apparently the excuse from the prosecutors is that too many people have recanted their stories, so it must be a lie. What a joke.
So it’s A-Okay to execute the innocent so long as “procedure” was followed.
That about sums up The US “Justice” system.
When I was younger, I was for the death penalty. But over the years, I have learned so much more. Especially in Scripture and life experience. A human life is of the most supreme importance, made in the image and likeness of God, and it is not our place to take it. Self-defense is the only excuse given in the Bible for any kind of action. Troy Davis is in prison. There’s no need to murder him in cold blood, even if he is a monster. Prison gives people a chance to turn away from the evil they have done and save their souls. A human soul has tremendous value. If it did not, Jesus would not have died for us. It’s a great thought that we have obviously not carried far enough in our thinking.
As for whether or not Troy Davis is guilty or innocent, I honestly don’t know. I have not followed this case. It does sound like a lot of manipulation to me. But if someone else really did admit to the murder, that is a serious concern, whether Troy Davis beat up the homeless or not. Why not give him another chance to present his case? I guess the justices are afraid that they would put pressure on people to lie. I can understand that too from all that I have seen going on in society these days.
But I can tell you another thing. I’ve lived in several states where the homeless have been systematically exterminated, as though they were trash. No matter how low a human being has sunk, they are still a child of God, and there is still hope for thier salvation. And many homeless people are simply homeless by circumstance. Those who beat up the homeless, often kill them as well. It is a frame of mind. It is a mind that disregards the rights of others, and has no concept of what it is like to be caught in a difficult situation and forced into abject poverty.
But we do not teach anyone not to kill by killing them!!!! A trite statement, but a powerfully truthful one. We teach people not to kill by not killing. We teach people to love by loving. We teach people to care by caring enough to take care of them, to care for them. We should take care of Troy Davis in prison and not murder him. I’m all for the abolishing of the death penalty all across the land. I’m all for introducing programs in prisons that allow people to find God, to get spiritually correct therapy, to improve their education, to learn a life skill that is useful to society, to have some kind of ethics training or something like that. Everyone needs, and indeed has, a code to live by. Many just don’t realize it. It’s important for these prisoners to look at what they do live by, and to consider the ultimate destination of that code. Maybe they’d like to swap it for a better one. For it is only in God that we will find peace. And when we make peace with one another, then peace flows from us out into the whole world. It’s what Jesus taught.
Another thing that I have found is that most people really do want to be able to contribute something to society, to be useful in some way. Maybe there are layers of things that overshadow that. But if you can give prisoners a sense of constructive purpose, then I believe most of them will reform their lives. Everyone, even prisoners can be very useful to society, even powerful, and that’s through prayer for themselves, for others, for the whole world. Right now, this is a very important task, and it doesn’t matter where you are. Not only that, but it advances one’s own soul. All of these things need to be taught in prisons. I personally would make certain books available to prisoners.
I think all of this is pertinent to why Troy Davis should not be executed, to why the death penalty should be abolished. Time can work miracles in a person’s life.
There is a true story told by one of those university researchers who studied some remote tribe. The daughter of a certain man in the village married a man of the tribe who did not want to work. So the father continued to grow vegetables for them and to hunt and fish for them, and he did so with love. He never complained, but he supplied them with their living with no regrets, with joy. Well, this father is telling the story to the researcher, and he tells him of how one day, the loafer took an interest in the vegetable garden. He began questioning the father about it, and finally asked if he could help. After a while, he was growing his own vegetable garden. Then he began asking the father about his fishing, and if he could go with him. After a while, the former loafer was doing his own fishing. The father laughing in glee told the researcher, “HE DIDN’T KNOW HE WANTED TO WORK!”
This is really self explanatory. And it should be the purpose of prison, not to murder people or to encourage revenge. The Bible makes it clear that God has eternity for punishing our offenses, but that He reserves our time on earth to save our souls through His love. Shouldn’t we be doing the same thing?
You guys don’t have a clue………….it’s a good thing you live in America where you can say whatever dumb things you want to say without any consequences.
I was in the court room when the witnesses testified against Davis. They were sure!
The recantings are not believable, because it worked liked this:
They gave their statements and then 2 YEARS later they testified in court validating their written statements. 2 years time passed and their testimony did NOT change. It was only several years later did they decide they might have reservations on what they said. C’mon……………….If you could pick a time that the witnesses should be believed, when would be? The time of the crime, 2 years later when they swore under oath they were telling the truth or many years later when they decide they may not be sure?
Troy Davis has run through every single possible defense in an effort to get out of this:
He has claimed, failure of due process, poopy attorney, failed to blame another earlier because “he didn’t want to be a snitch”, he has been railroaded re: a racial thing, he is innocent and all of those eye witnesses were wrong, now all of the witnesses are correct since they are recanting. The question reverts back to how innocent is a man pistol whipping an unarmed homeless guy for a can of beer at 1:00am?
There WAS blood evidence, in 1989 there was no DNA testing available, when the prosecution (not the defense) insisted on testing the old blood, it was degraded and the sample was used up in the test. So no results were generated. The blood came from Troy Davis’s shorts that were found in his mother’s washing machine. How many folks do you know that wash clothes between 1:00am 6:00am? The earlier shooting that Davis committed (he was involved in 2 that night) resulted in the same ballistic match as the ammo at the Police Officer’s murder, while Troy was the common denominator at both locations. Go to the website for ALL of the facts. Ever wonder why the defense doesn’t offer facts on their website?
These recanting witnesses have been interviewed by the Pardons and Parole Board and apparently found lacking in credibility.
http://www.markallenmacphail.com
How can anyone look at this case and say that execution is fair? Even proponents of the death penalty cannot possibly argue that justice will be done in this case. At the very least, he should get his day in court. I don’t care if they say he already had one… it was alleged to be flawed, and if there is any shadow of impropriety hanging over the testimony of the prosecution witnesses in a death penalty case, then common sense, decency, and respect for human life dictates that the execution not go forward as planned.
We need justices who are capable of taking action to prevent injustice. SCOTUS hiding behind “procedure was followed” is not only ignoble, but downright embarrassing for me as a citizen of the US.
Justice WILL be Done
October 27, 2008 @ 7:00pm
I’ve always wanted to have a vegetable garden…maybe now I will :o) 5* and thanks for some excellent information!