Talk Elections

Clemency denied for Georgia death row inmate

(Reuters) - A parole board in Georgia has denied a last-ditch clemency appeal by Troy Davis, a Georgia man set to be executed in a high-profile case on Wednesday for the murder of a police officer.

The case has attracted international attention and became a focus for opponents of the death penalty because seven of nine trial witnesses have since recanted their testimony and his supporters say he may be innocent.

The Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles denied clemency on Tuesday in a statement, according to Laura Moye of Amnesty International USA.

"The case against Davis unraveled long ago. Seven out of nine original state witnesses recanted or changed their original testimonies, some alleging police coercion," Amnesty said in a statement.

"Ten people have pointed to one of the remaining witnesses as the actual killer. There is no murder weapon that links Davis to the crime. Any notion of physical evidence that demonstrates Davis' guilt has been debunked," it said.

Davis was convicted of the 1989 killing of police officer Mark MacPhail near a Burger King in Savannah, Georgia. MacPhail's family says Davis is guilty and should be executed.

Davis is due to die by lethal injection at 7 p.m. local time on Wednesday at Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison in Jackson, Georgia.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/09/20/us-usa-execution-georgia-idUSTRE78J2NP20110920

I would have voted for clemency on principle. At this stage it doesn't matter whether or not he's guilty. A life is a life. The fact that it's very doubtful that he even did anything wrong only compounds how sickening it already is anyway.

Remember, children: this is a good thing.  Because killing an innocent person here and there is the sacrifice we must pay to make sure we can kill other people.

I no longer support the death penalty.

cue Reba McEntire

Regardless whether you support or oppose the death penalty, no person who values justice would support an execution of someone, whose doubts is far from being really established.

Yes. I'd vote for clemency for anyone on death row, but this just underscores it even more. Just very very thankful this can not happen in my state.

Sadly, no Southern state seems to be likely to join Minnesota anytime soon.

It's their mindset with so many things. We must adopt mandatory minimum sentences and throw people in jails for decades after 3 minor charges to keep our streets safe!

I remember reading somewhere that one Congressman in 1990s actually called for death sentences in three strike cases.

Just imagine. Three convictions of stealing candy, worth of $2, and you are riding the lighting.

Life in prison for such things is just little less barbaric.

I voted
"Pardon to life without parole".
Doubt about whether he is actually guilty is not the same as proof of innocence.
If the truth can ever be discovered it might be a mistake to release him, in
case he actually is guilty. But executing someone who might be innocent is appalling to me.

Seems like there should be a retrial, but certainly killing someone with this much uncertainty is wrong

This, but if he is guilty, he should be executed.

Ironically, almost everyone who supports this execution considers himself/herself to be "pro-life"

I don't think a second retrial for the case is very likely at all.

I don't pretend to be any kind of expert on this case and have no idea whether or not there should be a retrial. But, I oppose the death penalty and think he ought to get life in prison with no parole if either there is no retrial or he is again found guilty.

I thought the whole principal of the justice system was that it's better for a guilty person to go free than for an innocent person to stand condemned. That's why there's the whole "beyond any reasonable doubt" standard of proof in criminal trials and the onus of proof resting with the prosecution. Regardless of my personal opposition to the death penalty, I think there is enough doubt in this case (from what you've said here) that he should certainly have a stay of execution and a re-trial. It's no justice for the family of the victim for the actual guilty party to get off and an innocent man to be executed in his place.

At minimum a stay of execution pending a potential retrial.

At the maximum, I'd abolish the death penalty. Being as unrealistic as that would be in this maniacal country, that'd be the solution I'd support. No reason to go ahead and f***k up twice by executing an innocent.

The state of Georgia obviously wants to resolve this embarrassing case by ultimate means.

While commutations are rare in post-1976 era, Georgia have relatively high number, mostly because it's up to board, not the Governor, to decide. If I recall correctly, the Governor can give at most a brief stay, but good luck expecting Deal to do that.

Unless some federal court get involved, Georgia will murder possibly innocent man tomorrow :(

Does this grim outcome suprise me? No. If you look at post-1976 executions, you'll find dozens of doubtful cases in which prisoner has been executed, because no one (state and federal courts, Governors, boards) cares. Jesse Tafero, electrocuted in 1990 in Florida is perhaps the most outrageous case, since there were clear evidences of his innocence before he was (literally) burn to death in Old Sparky.

American criminal "justice" sucks.

Well, you need to prove it beyond any doubts. And this case is literally made up from doubts.

So I don't understand how even death penalty supporter, who still have some sense of justice, can justify this, for God's sake...

The more I read about this case... the more sickened I am that this man may be executed.

actually, let's go with the original, Vicki Lawrence:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6-4N0IPVh8 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6-4N0IPVh8)

Sadly, this seems to be the case with large parts of the american 'pro-life' movement.

Hooray for state-sanctioned murder.

A death penalty that takes twenty years to go from trial to carrying out the sentence is not particularly useful.  That said, I think it think it is well past the time for the sentence to be carried out.

While I do not support the death penalty to begin with, this is a very disturbing story that goes well beyond being for or against the death penalty. There are clear doubts about his guilt--why else would 7 witnesses recant?

I know death penalty supporters will say that the DP is necessary to protect innocent life, but given that there is a good chance he is not guilty, then that entire reasoning wouldn't work. If he turns out to be innocent, who should be killed to punish the taking of this innocent life?

Lil Wayne would be a most excellent sacrifice.

Any idea what's going on since the USSC issued the hold?

nobody really seems to know.  this seems to be a decent rolling update type page:

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2011/09/21/140675230/with-a-few-hours-left-before-troy-davis-execution-protests-mount

The Supreme Court and the state of Georgia are allegedly about to commit murder. Unbelievable.

Good Lord...

This is highly unsettling, there were so many doubts, yet this is still happening. It's scary to think that someone who may not have committed a crime could lose their life for it.

Awfully sickening.  And they say this is the best judicial system in the world?

I like to look at the bright side of things. At least he wasn't beaten to death brutally by a gang of "peace officers" and had something resembling a trial by jury.

It's awful - regardless of how long it took for the recantations - if they happened, the basis for the guilty verdict is severely compromised.

I understand the victim's family wanting closure, I completely do, but this is not justice for their son.

It's sickly sad that he might achieve more by being murdered than by living.

Executed. Smoke and mirrors claims did not hinder justice today.

Well, the state of Georgia just committed murder.

Ugh, I remember the ray of hope earlier.... :(

Blood on the hands of at least a majority of Supreme Court justices and the Georgia Board of Clemency.

It's the 21st century, and still we murder people.  What a miscarriage of justice.

The American "justice system" really is retarded anyways.  Nobody bothers to question the notion that killing someone for killing someone is really justice.

I don't want to live on this planet anymore.

I don't know why people are so surprised clemency was denied.

Here's the supposed killer:

()


And here's the victim:

()


You figure it out.

Casey Anthony remains alive because there was reasonable doubt.
Troy Davis dies despite reasonable doubt.

Sick. Very sick.

Sure it's disgusting, but it's hardly surprising. That's just America for you.

We're not surprised, but God, we are pissed.

The entire Supreme Court, I'm afraid.  They all voted to kill him.

I'm sure krazen has done more research on this thread topic beyond reading its title.  I'm sure of it.

Some more pictures:

Troy Davis:

()


Casey Anthony:

()


Again, not much to figure out here.

In fairness, if They actually do say that, then no one actually believes Them.

Certainly quite a bit more than the peanut gallery here, including you, obviously, since the reference flew over your head.

Are you implying that the jury that sentenced him to die was not majority black? Surely not.

Yes, because we disagree with you, you can freely insult our maturity.

Ah, so if the majority of the jurors are the same race as the defendant, then erroneous testimony and bad evidence is acceptable?

Just keep missing the point.

Apologies if this is seen as tasteless, but this whole case just reminded me too much of this:

http://www.theonion.com/video/dna-evidence-frees-black-man-convicted-of-bear-att,14323/

Another one of those scarily apt onion comments

"The girl in question will face the harshest legal treatment, she will be tried as a black adult"

Beyond disturbing.

Pray for the living and the dead.

The living need it more now.

With supporters like this, the death penalty barely even needs any active opponents. ::)


Idiots all!!! 


I give it 15 years, maybe 20 at most, and in this manner the issue shall be decided.

Horrific.

Can someone who know about Georgia's judicial system explain me why all the appeals were rejected ? I mean, aren't such high doubts about his guilt a sufficient ground to suspend the procedure ?

I never supported it from the start.

This is a VERY contradictory statement to make in a legal decision.

By saying 'additional' it suggests that there were doubts surrounding his conviction. Minimal or not, considering the 'beyond a reasonable doubt' standard as well as the fact that it was a capital case - the judicial diligence in this case was appalling. The response from all of the appeals were, the recantations weren't under oath or the evidence has been ruled inadmissible by **** court.

It's also interesting how the prosecutor spoke of the recantations, they were 'suspect' - so given that he clearly brought the 'character' of his witnesses into disrepute ... hmmmm?

I don't think it was an open and shut 'clearly innocent' case - and for me, that's not the point. If there is even a scrap of evidence to suggest that the conviction was based on flawed evidence, let alone coercion ... then a re-trial was warranted.

This is very sad. Hopefully it will lead to more awareness that the system is flawed and a flawed system should never have death as an option.

It is of course ironic that those who most scream and yell about the state having too much power and how government cant get anything right are the same ones who most support (and at times applaud) the state having the power to kill.

Unacceptable. I've always been against the death penalty for this reason.

A moral confession of failure from the state of Georgia.

Very sad to watch such a (racially charged) misjudgement of justice.

:(

Same here. I supported the death penalty but if this is how these cases are handled, then we might as well not have it. I don't want blood on my hands. And that is exactly what this is. Since this is being done in the name of the people, if a person is wrongly executed all the people are guilty.

You might want to check out the Innocence Project (http://www.innocenceproject.org/know/Browse-Profiles.php).  They aren't all death penalty cases, but they show we still have a ways to go in making sure our court system is as fair as possible.

Disgusting. Cases like these are a big reason I oppose the death penalty. An eye for an eye is not a fair legal system. The supreme court, or at least 5 of the justices, have blood on their hands.

What doubts? State had 34 witnesses, including numerous friends and acquaintances. Later some of his homies decided to retract the testimonies to save him from the needle. Post-trial retractions are widely considered laughable as "proofs" of innocence, especially when there are dozens of witnesses who are not retracting.

And by the way the other victim was black just like Davis, just like the majority of jury that sentenced him to death in less than two hours. He lost the SCOTUS appeal 9-0, and never found one single judge in 20 years of trying that would believe his "ONE-ARMED MAN DID IT!!!" nonsense.

I feel you

There weren't "dozens of witnesses". There were 9, of whom 7 recanted, one of whom confessed to the crime himself (not something you're likely to do to protect "your homie"). Take your racism elsewhere.

The fact of the matter is that jury convictions, even incredibly unjust jury convictions, are extraordinarily difficult to overturn, to the point of absurdity. The standard of overturning a jury conviction is literal "proof of innocence", which is just plain impossible for the vast majority of innocent convicts. The Supreme Court made their decision 9-0 because the standard of "proof of innocence" is impossible to meet. There may have been twenty years of appeals, but none of those appeals really stood much chance of exonerating the innocent. A big part of the problem is the irrational respect for jury verdicts.

(In answer the original question, declare a mistrial and start all over--he might well have been guilty, but it certainly was never proven beyond a reasonable doubt. Also, no death penalty regardless, obviously.)

There were 34 witnesses, I suggest you start Googling for relevant legal documents and not Amnesty International & NAACP spin spread through media. You could start with the opinion of Clinton-appointed federal judge William Theodore Moore who found miraculous recantations to be "not credible or partly credible" and the Davis's magic unicorn defense as "largely smoke and mirrors".

So the cop-killer is gone now.  Good.

The accusation of racism is certainly curious. The accusation of erroneous testimony naturally held little weight because Davis and his lawyers ensured that it was hearsay.

Correction, since you're playing fast and loose.

Coles did not confess. Rather, others claimed he confessed.

I can show you a couple hundred million who do

Another proof of the racist conspiracy:

*chairman of the Georgia Parole Board and vice chairman are... guess what? Black!

*DA who prosecuted Davis is... guess what? Black!

isn't it time to change the title of this thread?

http://i.imgur.com/W2F4S.png

Well, there is one less blackie out there now. Isn't that at least a good thing?

What should be done with killers who are cops? Given the benefit of the doubt, I suppose?

I'm glad you have such principled positions, which is why I'm sure you oppose the president who claimed the power to order assassinations of American citizens.

I'm pretty sure only 9 witnesses actually accused Davis though the others were just asked questions like when did you here the shot? etc.

9 eyewitnesses, 7 of whom recanted. 25 "other witnesses", most of whom provided meaningless testimony and were just noise to fill the case (not that this is unusual, or even necessarily a bad idea--just that they certainly were not "witnesses" in the colloquial sense).

Just another drop in the unending ocean of humanity's potential for cruelty. If this were an isolated case, I might be outraged, but the sheer number of lives taken at the hands of our culture of cheap death and valueless life has desensitized me far more than I'd care to admit.

i do of course

Ftr, the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 did a lot on limiting appeals for people like Troy Davis.

Thnx, Bill Clinton and Bob Dole.

That's...that's a joke, right?  The relevant difference is that one pled guilty.

Why is it that somebody's profession should be relevant to crimes perpetrated against them while off-duty, again, exactly?

You again have no idea what are you talking about. There were 34 witnesses overall and 9 eye-witnesses to MacPhail's murder (Davis was convicted of shooting another random guy earlier that night with the same gun so some of the witnesses were eyewitnesses to that shooting) and 7 witnesses recanted parts of the testimony. Those 7 are pulled from the entire group of 34, not just 9 eyewitnesses to the murder.

http://www.gasd.uscourts.gov/pdf/409cv00130_92part1.pdf

http://www.gasd.uscourts.gov/pdf/409cv00130_92part2.pdf



Great opinions from a Democratic recommended judge appointed by a Democratic President confirmed by a Democratic Senate.

I suspect that most posters will choose to ignore this, just as they ignored your earlier post showing some of the reasons why charges of a racist conspiracy are groundless-they already have their minds made up in accordance with their pre-existing assumptions and prejudices.

Whatever one feels about the death penalty, the combined evidence (even without the rather uncredible recantations) show the man to be guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

Given all that is known about the relability of eyewitnesses, I don´t think any case could ever be proven beyond a reasonable doubt if it depends solely on eyewitnesses.

I'm surprised, Gully; that's an insight that comes from cognitive science! ;)

It's also entirely correct, and it's disgusting that the judicial system hasn't woken up to it.

Oh please, that´s academic gloryhogging for one disclipine. A wide variety of research has shown this to be the case.

And besides, I´m not totally hostile to cognitive science (actually you will be happy to discover I dislike behaviourism even more) just evolutionary pschology and especially it´s "media champions".

Oral History for the win.

Oh, good, good.  And you disliking behaviorism more than cog sci makes complete sense, I suppose, when considering that behaviorism denies the existence of inner states at all ;)

So, inform us.  What evidence do you guys bring to the table against eyewitness identification?

Does Cog Sci in this discussion function as a stand-in for reductionism and/or functionalism? Whereas behaviourism equals eliminativism?