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Getbig Main Boards => Politics and Political Issues Board => Topic started by: Dos Equis on March 28, 2011, 10:09:46 AM
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Interesting case.
U.S. Supreme Court rejects appeal from Georgia death row inmate
By the CNN Wire Staff
March 28, 2011
Washington (CNN) -- The U.S. Supreme Court has rejected a condemned Georgia inmate's request that his execution be delayed as he attempts to prove his "actual innocence."
The justices without comment on Monday turned aside two separate appeals from Troy Davis, likely setting the stage for the state to set another execution date.
Davis has gained international support for his long-standing claim he did not murder an off-duty Savannah police officer more than two decades ago. Monday's ruling is the latest in a case that is procedurally complex but, legally, a simple claim of innocence.
Davis was granted a stay of execution by the U.S. Supreme Court two hours before he was to be put to death in 2008, and the court in 2009 ordered the federal District Court to take another look at the case.
That court, after holding a hearing to review evidence, ruled in August that Davis "failed to show actual innocence" in the case. The District Court suggested that, for procedural reasons, Davis should take his appeal of its ruling directly to the Supreme Court.
Davis ended up filing with both the 11th Circuit and the Supreme Court. The 11th Circuit deflected the appeal in November, saying it agreed with the district court that the Supreme Court was the correct place for the filing. Davis then took his case to the U.S. Supreme Court in January, filing two pleas. One sought review of the Georgia federal judge's rejection of the innocence claim, and the other asked for a test of the 11th Circuit's refusal to review the case. The justices on Monday turned down both pleas without comment.
Davis' sister said Monday that she is "very disappointed" by the Supreme Court's rejection. Martina Correia-Davis said Davis' attorney told her they would continue to pursue all possible legal options, including a possible re-petition of the Georgia State Board of Parole. She said she had not spoken to Davis about Monday's decision but expected his attorney to call him soon.
Correia-Davis said she doesn't want the case to be moved back to Savannah, where Davis was tried and convicted for the 1989 murder, because she doesn't think he will "get a fair chance" there.
Witnesses said Davis, then 19, and two others were harassing a homeless man in a Burger King parking lot when off-duty officer Mark MacPhail came to the man's assistance. They testified that Davis shot MacPhail twice and fled.
Since Davis' conviction in 1991, seven of the nine witnesses against him have recanted their testimony. No physical evidence was presented linking Davis to the killing of the policeman.
But upon reviewing Davis' claims of innocence, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Georgia found in August that Davis "vastly overstates the value of his evidence of innocence."
"Some of the evidence is not credible and would be disregarded by a reasonable juror," Judge William T. Moore wrote in a 172-page opinion. "Other evidence that Mr. Davis brought forward is too general to provide anything more than smoke and mirrors," the court found.
Amnesty International, which is monitoring the case, expressed disappointment Monday that the Supreme Court had rejected the appeals.
"It appears that the justice system is comfortable allowing someone to be executed when there are lingering doubts about guilt in the case. No objective person could confidently determine that Davis is guilty beyond a reasonable doubt from the evidence available now in his case. That leaves an ominous cloud hanging over an irreversible sentence such as the death penalty," the international human rights group said in a statement.
"The Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles, as the final fail-safe, has the opportunity to commute his sentence to life and prevent the possibility of executing an innocent person."
Prominent figures ranging from the pope to the musical group Indigo Girls have asked Georgia to grant Davis a new trial.
Other supporters include celebrities Susan Sarandon and Harry Belafonte; world leaders such as former President Jimmy Carter and former Archbishop Desmond Tutu; and former and current U.S. lawmakers Bob Barr, Carol Moseley Braun and John Lewis.
http://www.cnn.com/2011/CRIME/03/28/us.scotus.davis/index.html?hpt=T2
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Georgia Supreme Court declines to stay Troy Davis execution
September 21st, 2011
On Wednesday at 7 p.m. ET, Georgia inmate Troy Davis is scheduled to be executed for the 1989 murder of Mark MacPhail, an off-duty Savannah police officer. Supporters have sought to prevent the execution, saying seven of the nine witnesses against him have recanted or contradicted their testimony.
. . .
http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2011/09/21/lawyers-file-appeal-to-stay-troy-davis-execution/?hpt=hp_t1
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Georgia Supreme Court declines to stay Troy Davis execution
September 21st, 2011
On Wednesday at 7 p.m. ET, Georgia inmate Troy Davis is scheduled to be executed for the 1989 murder of Mark MacPhail, an off-duty Savannah police officer. Supporters have sought to prevent the execution, saying seven of the nine witnesses against him have recanted or contradicted their testimony.
. . .
http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2011/09/21/lawyers-file-appeal-to-stay-troy-davis-execution/?hpt=hp_t1
What's your take?
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What's your take?
He was found guilty of murder by 7 blacks and 5 whites. While there is no physical evidence or DNA, that would have been hard to collect from someone that obviously fled the scene to Atlanta and disposed of the murder weapon....not to mention that it was 1988.
While that's no way to ever establish an absolute into his guilt or innocence, he was given a fair trial by a jury of his peers...predominantly black in fact and ultimately was found guilty.
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Update: Execution has been halted as the Supreme Court is reviewing the case.
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Troy Davis Execution Delayed
By COLLEEN CURRY
Sept. 21, 2011
Troy Davis' execution was delayed tonight as the Supreme Court weighed arguments by Davis' legal team and the state of Georgia over whether he deserves a stay.
At 7:05 p.m. tonight, five minutes after his scheduled death, Davis' supporters erupted in cheers, hugs and tears outside the jail in Jackson, Ga., as supporters believed Davis had been saved from the death penalty. But the Supreme Court only granted a temporary reprieve as it considers the decision.
The Supreme Court could decide at any time tonight or in the next seven days whether to go through with his execution.
Davis was convicted of the 1989 murder of Savannah cop Mark MacPhail, and had his execution stayed four times over the course of his 22-year stay on death row, but multiple legal appeals during that time failed to prove his innocence.
Public support grew for Davis based on the recanted testimony of seven witnesses from his trial and the possible confession of another suspect, which his defense team claims cast too much doubt on Davis' guilt to follow through with an execution.
. . .
http://abcnews.go.com/US/troy-davis-execution-delayed-supreme-court-decision/story?id=14571862
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For a Christian, you sure do enjoy a good execution!
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For a Christian, you sure do enjoy a good execution!
it seems to be one of his favorite topics (along with anything involving gay people)
About a year or so ago I did a quick search and found something like 15 different threads he had started about various executions
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We should kill people who kill people to show that killing people is wrong.
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We should kill people who kill people to show that killing people is wrong.
Word.
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He's dead now.
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Troy Davis put to death in Georgia
By the CNN Wire Staff
updated 11:33 PM EST, Wed September 21, 2011
Jackson, Georgia (CNN) -- Troy Davis, whose case drew international attention, was put to death by lethal injection for the 1989 killing of an off-duty police officer in Savannah, Georgia prison officials announced Wednesday night.
The execution followed the U.S. Supreme Court's rejection of a stay, allowing the state to proceed. Davis was declared dead at 11:08 p.m. ET.
According to execution witnesses, Davis told the family of Mark MacPhail that he was not responsible for the officer's death and that he did not have a gun. Davis said the case merited further investigation, the witnesses quoted him as saying.
Throughout the day, Davis' lawyers and high-profile supporters had asked the state and various courts to intervene, arguing he did not murder MacPhail in 1989.
Davis initially had been scheduled to die by lethal injection at 7 p.m. ET. But the proceeding was delayed more than three hours as the justices pondered a plea filed by his attorney.
Several hundred people, most of them opposing the proceeding, gathered outside the state prison in Jackson where Davis, 42, awaited his fate. Others held a vigil in a nearby church.
The inmate's sister, Martina Davis-Correia, was among those who held a vigil outside the prison. Before the U.S. Supreme Court's decision, she said officials needed to take more time to examine the case. "When you are looking at someone's life, you can't press rewind."
More than 100 officers, many in riot gear, stood guard over the largely-quiet gathering, which featured candles, occasional prayers and songs. At least three people who crossed the street had been taken away in handcuffs.
Davis's supporters, who also rallied outside the U.S. Supreme Court building, argued that his conviction was based on the testimony of numerous witnesses who had recanted, including a jailhouse informer who claimed Davis had confessed.
"There's a genuine feeling among people here and across the nation that we're about to do the unthinkable," said Isaac Newton Farris Jr., president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.
But prosecutors have stood by the conviction, and every appeal -- including the last-minute petitions filed Wednesday -- has failed.
Davis's supporters cheered and hugged each other when news of the earlier delay reached them. But it did not sit well with McPhail's mother, who remained at home.
"This delay again is very upsetting and I think really unfair to us, because we want this situation closed," the slain officer's mother, Anneliese MacPhail, told CNN's "Anderson Cooper 360" earlier in the evening. She said the execution would bring her "relief and maybe some peace."
Davis' attorneys started the day by asking a judge in Jackson, where Georgia's death row is located, to halt the proceeding, citing a new analysis they say shows ballistics testimony at his trial was "inaccurate and misleading." They also note that a federal judge found in 2010 that a jailhouse informer's testimony that Davis confessed to killing MacPhail was "patently false" and that prosecutors knew a key eyewitness account was wrong.
"Clearly, the fact that Mr. Davis's death sentence rests in part on 'patently false' and egregiously inaccurate and misleading testimony, evidence and argument renders the death sentence fundamentally unfair, unreliable and therefore violative of the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments," his attorneys argued in a motion filed Wednesday morning.
That appeal was denied Wednesday afternoon. The state Supreme Court followed suit a short time later, leading his attorneys to turn to the U.S. Supreme Court in the final hour before the execution.
Davis has been scheduled to die three times before, most recently in October 2008. That time, the U.S. Supreme Court halted the execution two hours before it was scheduled to take place.
This time, Davis declined to request the special last meal offered inmates prior to execution and was offered a standard meal tray: Grilled cheeseburgers, oven-browned potatoes, baked beans, coleslaw, cookies and a grape drink.
"He has continued to insist this is not his last meal," said the Rev. Raphael Warnock, the senior pastor at Atlanta's Ebenezer Baptist Church.
Pope Benedict XVI, South African anti-apartheid leader Desmond Tutu and former President Jimmy Carter said the execution should have been called off. Amnesty International and the NAACP led efforts to exonerate Davis, and U.N. human rights officials joined those calls Wednesday.
"Not only do we urgently appeal to the government of the United States and the state of Georgia to find a way to stop the scheduled execution, but we believe that serious consideration should be given to commuting the sentence," read a joint statement from the U.N. special rapporteurs on arbitrary executions, judicial independence and torture.
But the man who originally prosecuted the case, Spencer Lawton, said those who do not believe there is physical evidence in the case are wrong.
"There are two Troy Davis cases," Lawton said Tuesday. "There is the legal case and the public relations case. We have consistently won in court, and consistently lost in the public relations battle."
Since Davis' 1991 trial, seven of the nine witnesses against him have recanted or contradicted their testimony. The U.S. Supreme Court ordered a district court in Savannah to review his claims of innocence in 2009, but District Judge William Moore ruled the following year that the evidence did "not require the reversal of the jury's judgment."
The parole board rejected a plea for clemency on Tuesday. In Georgia, only the board -- not the governor -- has the right to grant clemency.
And a request that Davis be allowed to sit for a polygraph by his attorneys was also rejected by the state Department of Corrections.
Davis' supporters argue he was the victim of a rush to judgment by police seeking justice for the death of one of their own, as well as widespread racial prejudice in the criminal justice system. Warnock noted to CNN that several other inmates have been proven innocent in recent years.
Supporters argued that the original witnesses who testified against Davis were fearful of police and spoke under duress. Other witnesses also have since come forward with accounts that call Davis' conviction into question, according to his supporters.
According to prosecutors, Davis was at a pool party in Savannah when he shot a man, Michael Cooper, wounding him in the face. He then went to a nearby convenience store, where he pistol-whipped a homeless man, Larry Young, who'd just bought a beer, according to accounts of the case.
Prosecutors said MacPhail rushed to the scene to help, but wound up being shot three times by Davis. They said Davis shot the officer once in the face as he stood over him.
A jury convicted Davis on two counts of aggravated assault and one count each of possessing a firearm during a crime, obstructing a law enforcement officer and murder. The murder charge led to the death sentence.
Anneliese MacPhail told CNN earlier this week that she didn't begrudge protesters their opinions. But she said they don't understand the facts of the case.
"To them the point is the death penalty. Ninety-nine percent have absolutely no idea who Troy Davis is or who Mark MacPhail was," she said. "They're just following their belief."
http://www.cnn.com/2011/09/21/justice/georgia-execution/index.html?hpt=hp_t1
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We should kill people who kill people to show that killing people is wrong.
yes just like giving ppl special consideration and justifying it with other ppl getting special consideration like affirmative action...
the difference is bottom bear is that the death penalty is much more than just a punishment...kinda sad that ppl cant see that.
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He's dead now.
if he had a chance to accept JC as his personal saviour then he's fine (from what I've read)
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yes just like giving ppl special consideration and justifying it with other ppl getting special consideration like affirmative action...
the difference is bottom bear is that the death penalty is much more than just a punishment...kinda sad that ppl cant see that.
;D
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He was found guilty of murder by 7 blacks and 5 whites. While there is no physical evidence or DNA, that would have been hard to collect from someone that obviously fled the scene to Atlanta and disposed of the murder weapon....not to mention that it was 1988.
While that's no way to ever establish an absolute into his guilt or innocence, he was given a fair trial by a jury of his peers...predominantly black in fact and ultimately was found guilty.
There you have it folks, a new legal standard for death penalty cases if the defendant is black: The jury has to be majority black for the verdict to be considered legitimate.
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if he had a chance to accept JC as his personal saviour then he's fine (from what I've read)
Yeah, its sad. Unfortunately, you're the only one who has a monopoly on accepting Perez Hilton as his be all, end all for spiritual matters.
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The World is shocked? ::) The EU can kiss where the sun doesn't shine. The State of Georgia doesn't answer to EU.
World shocked by U.S. execution of Troy Davis
By Peter Wilkinson, CNN
updated 11:09 AM EST, Thu September 22, 2011
London (CNN) -- Troy Davis may be dead, but his execution Thursday in the American state of Georgia has made him the poster boy for the global movement to end the death penalty.
World figures, including Pope Benedict XVI and former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, human groups and commentators urged the execution to be halted -- but to no avail. On Wednesday Davis was put to death by lethal injection for the 1989 killing of off-duty police officer Mark MacPhail despite doubts being raised over the conviction.
The execution sparked angry reactions and protests in European capitals -- as well as outrage on social media. "We strongly deplore that the numerous appeals for clemency were not heeded," the French foreign ministry said.
"There are still serious doubts about his guilt," said Germany's junior minister for human rights Markus Loening. "An execution is irreversible -- a judicial error can never be repaired."
Davis lawyers: Innocent man 'lynched'
Mother of slain cop reacts to execution
The European Union expressed "deep regret" over the execution and repeated its call for a universal moratorium on capital punishment.
EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said the bloc had learnt "with deep regret that Mr Troy Davis was executed," her spokeswoman Maja Kocijancic told Agence-France Presse.
'"The EU opposes the use of capital punishment in all circumstances and calls for a universal moratorium," she said.
"The abolition of that penalty is essential to protect human dignity."
Amnesty International condemned the execution in a statement. "The U.S. justice system was shaken to its core as Georgia executed a person who may well be innocent. Killing a man under this enormous cloud of doubt is horrific and amounts to a catastrophic failure of the justice system," Amnesty said.
In Britain's Guardian newspaper, Ed Jackson, reporting from Jackson, Georgia, before the execution took place, gave 10 reasons why he believed the death sentence for "a man who is very possibly innocent" should be commuted.
Most of his argument concerned doubts about the conviction -- seven of the nine key witnesses to the murder of MacPhail later recanted their evidence -- but his final reason concerned the manner in which Davis was put to death.
Davis case to become global 'scandal'
Davis maintains innocence to end
"Even if you set aside the issue of Davis's innocence or guilt, the manner of his execution tonight is cruel and unnatural," Jackson wrote. "If the execution goes ahead as expected, it would be the fourth scheduled execution date for this prisoner. In 2008 he was given a stay just 90 minutes before he was set to die. Experts in death row say such multiple experiences with imminent death is tantamount to torture."
In the right-of-center Daily Telegraph, Tom Chivers said the death penalty was "barbaric" and far more likely to be used against black people than white. But the main thrust of his argument was that there were serious doubts over the conviction.
"If you are pro-death penalty, you should be shouting twice as loud as the rest of us about the imminent murder of Troy Davis," Chivers wrote. "Otherwise, you can't claim to be supporting a stark but necessary act of justice. You're just a fan of killing people in general. There are words for people like that. None of them are nice."
On social media, many users predicted the execution would encourage a new civil rights movement to spring up. American novelist Hari Kunzru commented that on the issue of capital punishment the U.S. was isolated from much of the rest of the world "So I wake up to hear they executed Troy Davis. Wonder if most Americans realize how far out of step they are with international norms."
And entertainer Vincent Tucker remarked that campaigners should continue their campaign despite Davis's death. "It's one thing to fight for Troy Davis when he was alive but the key question now is will you STILL fight for his cause after his death?"
http://www.cnn.com/2011/09/22/world/davis-world-reaction/index.html?hpt=hp_c1
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The EU only objects to the death penalty where there is a trial by jury and an extensive appeals process.
When a European is butchered by a Muslim who is in the country illegally or Muslims decide to partake in stonings or honor killings, "cultural sensitivity" takes precedent over human life.
I mean gee whiz! 10 years worth of appeals, a trial by jury with a guilty verdict, several requests for clemency! Who do we arrogant Americans think we are?
I wonder if these same period blood stained eurotrash faggs are outraged by the execution of James Byrd? Maybe he should have had his sentence switched to 5 years in a minimum security French prison. That seems about right for a brutally heinous murder over there.
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The EU only objects to the death penalty where there is a trial by jury and an extensive appeals process.
When a European is butchered by a Muslim who is in the country illegally or Muslims decide to partake in stonings or honor killings, "cultural sensitivity" takes precedent over human life.
I mean gee whiz! 10 years worth of appeals, a trial by jury with a guilty verdict, several requests for clemency! Who do we arrogant Americans think we are?
I wonder if these same period blood stained eurotrash faggs are outraged by the execution of James Byrd? Maybe he should have had his sentence switched to 5 years in a minimum security French prison. That seems about right for a brutally heinous murder over there.
I like it. :)
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Sad decision. Georgia messed up on this one.
Time to repeal the barbaric capital punishment law.
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Great way to prove you are nothing more than a vacant human being.
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Sad decision. Georgia messed up on this one.
Time to repeal the barbaric capital punishment law.
LOL bet your all for abortion arent you?
barbaric ::)
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LOL bet your all for abortion arent you?
barbaric ::)
Haha...I fall into a similar boat.
Actually I don't usually have a problem with the death penalty as long as the guilt is clear cut with little or no doubt.
When there's a good amount of doubt or the case is all circumstantial, then I'm not too big on it. Especially given how many people the Innocence Project has freed - that's some scary shit.
I don't know how much doubt is in this case as many seem to be trying it in the media so I'm not sure here.
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How many appeals did this guy have that didn't get anywhere? 7 black jurors convicted the guy. A complete non-factor given the economic events going on these days.
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How many appeals did this guy have that didn't get anywhere? 7 black jurors convicted the guy. A complete non-factor given the economic events going on these days.
Explain.
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Yeah, its sad. Unfortunately, you're the only one who has a monopoly on accepting Perez Hilton as his be all, end all for spiritual matters.
LoL - I had to look that up
I thought it was a sister of Paris Hilton
why am I not suprised you're a fan of a gay gossip columnist
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Family, friends celebrate Troy Davis' life at funeral
By Moni Basu, CNN
updated 6:09 PM EST, Sat October 1, 2011
(CNN) -- It was inevitable that the fiery politics of the death penalty would punctuate Saturday's remembrance of Troy Anthony Davis.
His 20 years of claims of innocence on Georgia's death row earned him millions of supporters who believe the state wrongfully executed him on the night of September 21.
Saturday, Davis' family and closest friends gathered inside the Jonesville Baptist Church to celebrate his life.
A mass of flowers covered Davis' closed casket. Two photos flanked it -- one a color portrait of a young boy who grew up on the streets of Savannah's Cloverdale neighborhood and the other a black and white photo of a young man in a suit attending his murder trial.
Those in attendance repeatedly chanted: "I am Troy Davis," the slogan adopted in the campaign to spare his life and one that went viral on social media networks.
"Look at those last two lines of your program today," said Benjamin Jealous, president of the NAACP. "I am Troy Davis. And I am free."
Jealous and other friends and advocates for Davis, including his lawyer, Jason Ewart, voiced Davis' last words before he was put to death by lethal injection. That he was sorry for the family of police Officer Mark MacPhail, but that he was innocent.
"We're going to keep on fighting until his name is finally cleared and Georgia admits what it has done," Jealous said. "We're going to keep on fighting until the death penalty is abolished and this can never be done to anyone else."
MacPhail was shot in the early morning hours of August 19, 1989, in the parking lot of a Burger King just a few miles north of the church where Davis was memorialized. Davis was tried and convicted for MacPhail's murder and sent to death row in 1991.
But he and his family had always maintained that the jury convicted the wrong man.
The MacPhails said they lived in agony as legal proceedings dragged on year after year.
The case became controversial after several of the witnesses who testified against him at trial later said they were coerced to speak against Davis.
It was battled in many courtrooms before his execution. But in the end, Davis lost all his appeals.
"We are gathered here in a place of the most unjust execution of mankind," Ewart said. "Jesus was killed on the cross, not because he was guilty, but because we are.
"Many have spoken of Troy as a symbol," Ewart said. "He was the soul of something profound."
Ewart, a young antitrust lawyer signed onto defending Davis shortly after graduating from Emory University's law school in Atlanta.
"I met him seven years ago. When I met him I was young. I was green," he said. "From the very first conversation I had with Troy I knew he could be my older brother, my friend, and eventually, he became just that."
Raphael Warnock, pastor at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, invoked the 1994 book the made Savannah famous.
"It's midnight in the garden of good and evil," he said. "But I am so glad God does his best work at midnight. When the adversary has our backs against the wall, that's when God does his best work.
"Strange things happen in Savannah, Georgia," he said. "This city of cobblestone streets and verdant town squares ... you have become the ground zero for the struggle to abolish the death penalty once and for all. Savannah, Georgia, the world is watching you."
Davis' mother, Virginia, died in April. She was not around to see the execution of her son, an act that would have surely been wretchedly painful to bear. Davis' sisters, Martina Correia and Kimberly Davis, attended the funeral Saturday, as did Correia's son De'Jaun Davis-Correia.
Davis-Correia, born prematurely, said his uncle Troy was afraid to hold him when he was first born. He weighed only 3 pounds, 8 ounces.
"He thought he would break me," Davis-Correia said.
But he grew into a strong young man, he said, through his uncle's guidance. He spoke of how Davis, from death row, used to help his nephew with homework, even put his tests and exams on his calendar. People tell him now that he's a little version of his uncle.
And that makes Davis-Correia, the nephew of an executed man, very proud. For all his life, his uncle lived 300 miles away, behind brick walls. But, he said, "It was always like he was home with us."
The funeral was open to the public, but Davis was to be buried Saturday with only his family at his graveside.
And then, just before people began streaming out of the church well into Saturday afternoon, a message recorded by Davis thanked his supporters all over the world for their efforts on his behalf.
"Everything we do today will clear the way for a better tomorrow," Davis said. "We can correct all the wrongs if we band together. Don't give up the fight."
The voice of the dead had filled the sanctuary.
http://www.cnn.com/2011/10/01/justice/troy-davis-funeral/index.html?hpt=hp_t1