Troy Davis (1968-2011)

KING LITERATE

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/troy-davis-denied-clemency-in-georgia/2011/09/20/gIQAP3xAiK_video.html

I love you Georgia, I love you so much...

EDIT:

INFO:

Troy Anthony Davis (born October 9, 1968) was convicted of the August 19, 1989, murder of Savannah, Georgia police officer Mark MacPhail. MacPhail was working as a security guard at a Burger King when he intervened in an argument between several men in a nearby parking lot. He was shot in the heart and face without having drawn his gun. One of the men, Sylvester "Redd" Coles, went to police and implicated Davis in the killing, and Davis was arrested four days later. During Davis’ 1991 trial, many witnesses testified they had seen Davis shoot MacPhail. Two others testified that Davis had confessed the murder to them. The murder weapon was never found, and no physical evidence linked Davis to the crime. Throughout his trial and subsequent appeals, Davis has maintained his innocence. Davis was convicted and sentenced to death in August 1991.

Many appeals in state and federal courts followed. Davis and his lawyers argued that the racial composition of the jury and poor advocacy from his lawyers had affected his right to a fair trial. Seven of the original nine eyewitnesses who had linked Davis to the killing recanted all or part of their trial testimony. Several stated they had felt pressure by police to implicate Davis. New witnesses implicated Coles in the crime. The appeals were denied with courts declaring that Davis had not provided a "substantive claim" of innocence and that the recantations were unpersuasive. In July 2007, September 2008, and October 2008, execution dates were scheduled but stayed shortly before the events took place.

Amnesty International and other groups such as National Association for the Advancement of Colored People took up Davis' cause. Prominent politicians and leaders, including former President Jimmy Carter, Al Sharpton, Pope Benedict XVI, Nobel laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu, 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 August 17, 2009, the U.S. Supreme Court, over the dissenting votes of two justices, ordered a federal district court in 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, during which several former prosecution witnesses recanted their previous testimony and described police coercion. Other witnesses asserted that Coles had confessed to the killing; this evidence was excluded as Coles was not given the opportunity to rebut it. In an August 2010 decision, the conviction was upheld, with the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Georgia declaring that the new evidence cast only "minimal doubt on his conviction". Subsequent appeals, including to the Supreme Court, were rejected, and a fourth execution date was set for September 21, 2011. A clemency hearing by the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles was set for September 19. Over 650,000 people signed a petition urging the Board to grant clemency. On September 20, the Board denied him clemency

JustinSane07

So you uh, you wanna explain what makes this controversial? Cuz that video sure as fuck doesn't.

dbrock270

7 of the 9 eyewitnesses who said Davis pulled the trigger later said their testimonies were false and they were pressured by the police to give a false testimony.

KING LITERATE

JustinSane07 wrote:

So you uh, you wanna explain what makes this controversial? Cuz that video sure as fuck doesn't.

Oh I don't know, maybe it has something to do with the fact that a possibly innocent man is going to be executed tomorrow maybe?

moniker

KING LITERATE wrote:

JustinSane07 wrote:

So you uh, you wanna explain what makes this controversial? Cuz that video sure as fuck doesn't.

Oh I don't know, maybe it has something to do with the fact that a possibly innocent man is going to be executed tomorrow maybe?

Did you ever think about maybe putting that in your OP? Because right now it's pretty barren. I mean you don't even have link + discuss, which is bad enough, you just have link + snark which somehow manages to be worse.


As to the matter at hand; personally I'm universally opposed to the death penalty. So...boo death penalty.

Syrdon

By way of adding some information to the thread:

Wikipedia wrote:

Troy Anthony Davis (born October 9, 1968) was convicted of the August 19, 1989, murder of Savannah, Georgia police officer Mark MacPhail. MacPhail was working as a security guard at a Burger King when he intervened in an argument between several men in a nearby parking lot. He was shot in the heart and face without having drawn his gun. One of the men, Sylvester "Redd" Coles, went to police and implicated Davis in the killing, and Davis was arrested four days later. During Davis’ 1991 trial, many witnesses testified they had seen Davis shoot MacPhail. Two others testified that Davis had confessed the murder to them. The murder weapon was never found, and no physical evidence linked Davis to the crime. Throughout his trial and subsequent appeals, Davis has maintained his innocence. Davis was convicted and sentenced to death in August 1991.

Many appeals in state and federal courts followed. Davis and his lawyers argued that the racial composition of the jury and poor advocacy from his lawyers had affected his right to a fair trial. Seven of the original nine eyewitnesses who had linked Davis to the killing recanted all or part of their trial testimony. Several stated they had felt pressure by police to implicate Davis. New witnesses implicated Coles in the crime. The appeals were denied with courts declaring that Davis had not provided a "substantive claim" of innocence and that the recantations were unpersuasive. In July 2007, September 2008, and October 2008, execution dates were scheduled but stayed shortly before the events took place.

Amnesty International and other groups such as National Association for the Advancement of Colored People took up Davis' cause. Prominent politicians and leaders, including former President Jimmy Carter, Al Sharpton, Pope Benedict XVI, Nobel laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu, 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 August 17, 2009, the U.S. Supreme Court, over the dissenting votes of two justices, ordered a federal district court in 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, during which several former prosecution witnesses recanted their previous testimony and described police coercion. Other witnesses asserted that Coles had confessed to the killing; this evidence was excluded as Coles was not given the opportunity to rebut it. In an August 2010 decision, the conviction was upheld, with the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Georgia declaring that the new evidence cast only "minimal doubt on his conviction". Subsequent appeals, including to the Supreme Court, were rejected, and a fourth execution date was set for September 21, 2011. A clemency hearing by the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles was set for September 19. Over 650,000 people signed a petition urging the Board to grant clemency. On September 20, the Board denied him clemency

TL;DR: No evidence actually found for the case, 7 of 9 witnesses say police pressured them into giving false testimony against the guy in question, courts in Georgia not impressed and left conviction in place.

Skoal Cat

This isn't the case where the psychologist for the prosecutor said that he was more prone to violence because he was black, was it?

emnmnme

This guy had a close shave today in Texas.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/20/cleve-foster-suprme-court-texas-execution_n_972376.html

Caveman Paws

I saw a clip of the family of the dead police officer speaking to the press, and they seem to think that because these 7 witnesses are changing their stories so many years after the trial that it doesn't matter.

Is there a written statement by the family explaining why they are convinced that Davis is guilty beyond a doubt? It sounds like he had crap defense, no real evidence against him, and pretty much everyone (except those in a position to halt the execution) seem to think there is more than enough doubt in this case to call off the execution.

Skoal Cat

Caveman Paws wrote:

I saw a clip of the family of the dead police officer speaking to the press, and they seem to think that because these 7 witnesses are changing their stories so many years after the trial that it doesn't matter.

Is there a written statement by the family explaining why they are convinced that Davis is guilty beyond a doubt? It sounds like he had crap defense, no real evidence against him, and pretty much everyone (except those in a position to halt the execution) seem to think there is more than enough doubt in this case to call off the execution.

Its probably a coping mechanism

Syrdon

Skoal Cat wrote:

This isn't the case where the psychologist for the prosecutor said that he was more prone to violence because he was black, was it?

Different case I think.

TehSpectre

There was a guy in texas who was just put to death, even after many arson experts claimed there was never a crime committed and the original person who did the investigation was just a firefighter, before the advent of arson-science.

It was pretty messed up. I think there was a frontline documentary about it or some such.

Unknown

This content has been removed.

Invisible

TehSpectre wrote:

There was a guy in texas who was just put to death, even after many arson experts claimed there was never a crime committed and the original person who did the investigation was just a firefighter, before the advent of arson-science.

It was pretty messed up. I think there was a frontline documentary about it or some such.

Cameron Todd Willingham

And just because the fucker is in the running for President, regarding the investigation into whether the investigation used flawed science:
Days before the meeting, however, Gov. Rick Perry replaced the commission chairman with Bradley, district attorney in Williamson County. The session at which Beyler was scheduled to speak was canceled, and the fire expert never appeared before the body.

Kagera

I mean, as long as there is only a MINIMAL reason of doubt it's okay to kill someone, right state supreme court?

enlightenedbum

Skoal Cat wrote:

This isn't the case where the psychologist for the prosecutor said that he was more prone to violence because he was black, was it?

Nope, that's a different case. Even Jon Cornyn was like "um... what?" and then Scalia granted a stay pending the full Court's decision on certiorari. Scalia!

In that particular case he might end up sentenced to death anyway, because he very obviously killed two people (that's not in question) and it's Texas, but the death penalty phase of the trial was such bullshit he'll probably get a new sentencing phase.

Paladin

I don't think "well, it's not an open and shut case" matters as much as the fact a death penalty exists. Once a person's declared guilty, that's it, even if they were just guilty or all the way guilty with guilt to spare. Guiltiness past adequate conviction isn't even factored into whether a person gets the death penalty or not, I don't think.


I don't believe it is valid to abhor the death penalty only for guys who might be convicted and innocent. You've got to go all one way or the other, because it's impossible to draw the line between death penalty being okay and death penalty not being okay. If you don't have faith in the judicial system to get an accurate verdict, that's another problem, and arguably immutable life would be just as bad in that case, because you'd be punishing an innocent person for the rest of their life.

Suriko

TehSpectre wrote:

There was a guy in texas who was just put to death, even after many arson experts claimed there was never a crime committed and the original person who did the investigation was just a firefighter, before the advent of arson-science.

It was pretty messed up. I think there was a frontline documentary about it or some such.

Death by Fire. The whole thing's online. If Perry gets into the general election, the Democrats had better fucking bring this up.

Andrew_Jay

-

Kagera

Andrew_Jay wrote:

moniker wrote:

As to the matter at hand; personally I'm universally opposed to the death penalty. So...boo death penalty.

Same here, and what always blows my mind is that the same folks who will moan and complain about the "big bad government" collecting taxes from them, will loudly cheer and applaud that same "big bad government" murdering its own citizens.

Hey, it's the STATE government so it's okay. Because for some reason a state government and a federal government are different to the minds of Americans.

If it was the federal government, then Obama could be pressure to pardon the dude.

dlinfiniti

Kagera wrote:

Andrew_Jay wrote:

moniker wrote:

As to the matter at hand; personally I'm universally opposed to the death penalty. So...boo death penalty.

Same here, and what always blows my mind is that the same folks who will moan and complain about the "big bad government" collecting taxes from them, will loudly cheer and applaud that same "big bad government" murdering its own citizens.

Hey, it's the STATE government so it's okay. Because for some reason a state government and a federal government are different to the minds of Americans.

If it was the federal government, then Obama could be pressure to pardon the dude.

pfft obama already has his death panels

So It Goes

Paladin wrote:

I don't think "well, it's not an open and shut case" matters as much as the fact a death penalty exists. Once a person's declared guilty, that's it, even if they were just guilty or all the way guilty with guilt to spare. Guiltiness past adequate conviction isn't even factored into whether a person gets the death penalty or not, I don't think.


I don't believe it is valid to abhor the death penalty only for guys who might be convicted and innocent. You've got to go all one way or the other, because it's impossible to draw the line between death penalty being okay and death penalty not being okay. If you don't have faith in the judicial system to get an accurate verdict, that's another problem, and arguably immutable life would be just as bad in that case, because you'd be punishing an innocent person for the rest of their life.

which of these can we "correct" in the sense of letting a person later found out to be not guilty go free

- a sentence of life in prison
- a sentence of death


It is not impossible to draw a line. The death penalty is not ok. The judicial system will never, ever, be 100% accurate.

L|ama

I dunno, seems like a bad theme for a date.

Kana

The Frontline report about Cameron Todd Willingham is good, it mostly builds off of this article from the New Yorker, which really publicized the case in the first place: http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/09/07/090907fa_fact_grann

There's also the case of Anthony Graves, who was let off after 18 years, and only escaped the death penalty after he won an appeal on his last chance. However, when it came time to re-try the case the prosecutor ended up releasing him, and in a press conference publicly said that not only were they unable to prove his guilt, but that they believed he was clearly, obviously innocent, and the victim of corrupt prosecution, witness tampering, and ethical violations. This article is probably most responsible for him finally being released: http://www.texasmonthly.com/2010-10-01/feature2.php Shortly afterwards 48 Hours Mystery did an episode about his trial, it doesn't seem to be available streaming, but uh, if you happen to go to a certain bay and search for '48 hours grave injustice' you can find it there. Even more shocking that there were several judges who didn't think anything wrong happened in his case.

Just a few months ago they released the West Memphis Three, after something like 14 years in prison, with one of them sentenced to death row. They were all convicted primarily on the testimony of a minor with a severe learning disability, after a 12 hour interrogation without a parent or lawyer, who had to be coached by the police on what the crime scene looked like. There was no physical evidence, no other witnesses... Basically NOTHING, except that the lead kid was a loner who dressed in black and liked heavy metal. There's a couple of documentaries about their case, made before they were released, and 48 hours also did an episode about them: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JS1yzjNjJGs As obnoxious as it sometimes can be to see celebrities taking up causes, Johnny Depp really did end up making a big difference, luring in a lot of press interest to the case.

I think that last link really helps spell out the best argument against the death penalty: Those awful, emotional cases where a community demands a death penalty are exactly the cases where we can least trust a jury to deliver a fair trial. Especially considering how absolutely awful some of these defenses have been revealed to be. It's clearly far more than a freak occurance, it's a systemic flaw.

psyck0

I don't think the death penalty is the problem. I am 100% opposed to it, but I think the bigger problem is the ridiculously corrupt police and judiciary in certain parts of the US.

Zombiemambo

So basically, this was a legal case of "Uhm...he did it." And they bought it.

And sentenced him to death.

enlightenedbum

Zombiemambo wrote:

So basically, this was a legal case of "Uhm...he did it." And they bought it.

And sentenced him to death.

Black dude in the South.

override367

A black guy in Georgia was given life for receiving oral from a white girl a few years ago wasn't he? The North came out on the losing side of the civil war, because we had to take the south back. Collection of welfare states that take northern tax dollars with one hand and hold a "dont tread on me" flag with the other.

I'm not bitter or anything though

KING LITERATE

Troy Davis demands polygraph hours before execution

The Ender

...I've been so busy with superficial crap that this case completely slipped past my radar. Holy fuck.

I wish I could do something. I don't even have money to give to a fund for his family right now, if there is one.


I really, really hope that somehow magically something prevents him from being killed today.


Incredible.

darleysam

There's an Amnesty International petition about this, for what it's worth
http://action.amnesty.org.uk/ea-action/action?ea.client.id=1194&ea.campaign.id=12137&utm_source=social&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=deathpenalty&utm_content=newtroyactiontw

The Ender

Signed.


This is ridiculous. We're going to kill a man today for no reason.

I'm sorry for the family of MacPhail, but this will not cure their grief.

Sagroth

Signed also.

Halfhand

override367 wrote:

A black guy in Georgia was given life for receiving oral from a white girl a few years ago wasn't he? The North came out on the losing side of the civil war, because we had to take the south back. Collection of welfare states that take northern tax dollars with one hand and hold a "dont tread on me" flag with the other.

I'm not bitter or anything though

That is fucking ludicrous.

Also, signed.

Mim

override367 wrote:

A black guy in Georgia was given life for receiving oral from a white girl a few years ago wasn't he? The North came out on the losing side of the civil war, because we had to take the south back. Collection of welfare states that take northern tax dollars with one hand and hold a "dont tread on me" flag with the other.

I'm not bitter or anything though

I thought they knocked it down to a few years? Apparently there was only a year difference between them but the law totally overreacted in that situation. I don't believe he has life anymore but the mere fact he was charged at all is ...infuriating.

Also signed and sending the e-mail.

joshofalltrades

Signed. Apparently the Parole board is blocking all emails from Amnesty International, at least regarding this.

You know you might be making a huge mistake when...

The Ender

joshofalltrades wrote:

Signed. Apparently the Parole board is blocking all emails from Amnesty International, at least regarding this.

You know you might be making a huge mistake when...

It's always good to know that even with someone's life in their hands people will still go into Stubborn Primate Mode and reject any and all notions that they might've made an error.

Jesus I hope this winds-up being another close shave.


Please tell me I will wake up and this man will have gotten the luckiest break of his life.

Ginrai

override367 wrote:

A black guy in Georgia was given life for receiving oral from a white girl a few years ago wasn't he? The North came out on the losing side of the civil war, because we had to take the south back. Collection of welfare states that take northern tax dollars with one hand and hold a "dont tread on me" flag with the other.

I'm not bitter or anything though

Civil War? Don't you mean the "War of Northern Aggression"? The south always loves to call it that as well as honor those 'southern heros' whenever they can.

And then there are universities like Alabama who still segregate their fraternity system, while also pulling stunts like having a confederate parade in front of an all-black soriety that was celebrating their 30th anniversary.

Couscous

enlightenedbum wrote:

Zombiemambo wrote:

So basically, this was a legal case of "Uhm...he did it." And they bought it.

And sentenced him to death.

Black dude in the South.

All else being equal, a black person is about 3.9 times more likely than a white guy to be sentenced to death in Georgia. I have heard lawyers admit that many paarts of Georgia are more likely to convict a black guy than other parts.

either,or

I really hope there is a last minute reprieve for him. I've been following this case for a while and getting involved with the Amnesty appeals on this side of the Atlantic up until now so when I saw this last night it was quite upsetting. I've been in touch with my local MP today, a former cabinet minister, and although there is obviously nothing that can be done in time with this case he has indicated a willingness to talk to me at the earliest opportunity about anything that can be done in the house of commons.

I'll probably get a lot of flak for this but from an outside perspective the justice system in America looks completely fucked, it seems that local politics turns it into a lottery of who gets to live or die depending on who is looking to be re-elected and how tough they want to appear on crime.

moniker

The Ender wrote:

Signed.


This is ridiculous. We're going to kill a man today for no reason.

I'm sorry for the family of MacPhail, but this will not cure their grief.

Even ignoring my universal disapproval of capital punishment, what really gets me about all of these kinds of cases (innocent people imprisoned, prosecutorial and police misconduct, &c.) is that we as a society are creating a new victim while ostensibly refusing to gain closure for the original victims. The man who actually did shoot that guy is free right now. That is a travesty above and beyond wrongful imprisonment and execution. Someone managed to ruin two family's lives and got away with it.