Georgia Execution for September 23: Troy Anthony Davis, Possibly Innocent

Thanks, Christina.  I am sure Troy appreciates your thinking so.  Being a few feet from the death chamber cannot be a fun way to spend a beautiful September day.

Thanks for the "good stuff" flag!

Mary

Thanks so much for adding these videos, Jordan!

Mary

The article regarding the State of Georgia v. Troy Davis death penalty hearing has now been updated to include the Parole Board's decision regarding clemency, which was issued last night.

You are about to take a life when you have evidence it may be a mistake. Don't you want the truth? Do you want a cop killer left out there free for life. To be fair to both families, you must reconcider the recants of witness's. At a time when people are in shock, they can make mistakes on identies. I have been there. Please, what do you have to lose? There is nothing but the truth that matters and to be sure you have the right person. You will have to live with the fact that you allowed, perhaps, an innocent man killed for the crime of someone else. Some people believe only an eye witness testimony is accurate and if you look at the facts, this may be the very weakest of the case. History has proven, an eye witness is not to be depended upon for the death penalty. At least give the evidence a chance to prove him guilty or innocent. The most important thing in this case is to find a cop killer and punish the correct person.

Thanks for your comments, Sandy.  Yes, for every person wrongfully convicted, there is a guilty person somewhere free in society.  Thanks for pointing that out.  We watch television and envision a Columbo-type detective is on every criminal case ensuring that people charged with crimes are likely guilty, but that is not true. 

Many innocent folks are in jail tonight, and some of them for crimes that got very scant investigations.  Forensic testing isn't even done for many crimes, like robberies and thefts that don't result in serious injuries.  A woman was attacked in her driveway, her keys wrest from her hand and her car stolen, but police did not even go to the scene!  They only took her statement over the phone.  However, to "close the books" on such crimes, police may be pressed to arrest somebody, and they often do.  Wrongfully charged citizens are then encouraged to "take a deal," and many do that because they have no money to launch a defense and public defenders are often too overburdened with huge caseloads to do more than arrange such "deals."  Because police don't conduct a real investigation and collect phorensic evidence in such crimes (as they probably would if the victim were raped or killed), no DNA evidence is even available to prove the accused person's innocence.  Criminal convictions based on circumstantial evidence, including eye-witness testimonies, are all suspect, in my opinion.

More disturbing is the fact that people who have languished on death row for years after DNA testing became scientifically possible are DENIED the opportunity to conduct such testing (even at their own expense!) by prosecutors and courts who apparently don't want to be on record as having been wrong!  Perhaps part of the reason may also be the monetary settlements that exonerated folks can recover after spending decades in jail for crimes they never committed.  It is simply cheaper for the state and more convenient for prosecutors and other officials to keep innocent people in jail and proceed to execute them than it is to admit to a wrongful conviction and pay the incarceree for the decades they were imprisoned.  DNA testing should be mandatory in all cases - whether murder or for lesser crimes - whenever evidence is available to test. 

Such evidence should never be disgarded until such testing is done, but the laws regarding how long police must keep evidence vary from place to place.  Evidence may get thrown away or conveniently "lost" (as in the case of Thomas Arthur, condemned Alabama man), leaving innocent folks to rot in jail or die by lethal injection.

These are only some of the reason why I say, "Death to the death penalty!"

People who are familiar with my death penalty advocacy will not get me wrong on this . . .

I am truly very pleased and happy for Mr. Alderman, a white male who has been on Georgia's Death Row for 33 years!  He got a stay of execution on 9/15.  GREAT NEWS!  But what about Troy Davis, a black man who was convicted purely off witness testimony in 1992, and seven of the nine witnesses have since then recanted or else they put forth conflicting testomony (acording to AI)?  What is going on around here?  In fact, Alderman got both a stay of execution from a judge, AND the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles decided to give him a new clemency hearing.  I'm REAL HAPPY for Alderman, but what about Troy Davis?

http://www.ajc.com/services/content/metro/stories/2008/09/15/alderman_execution_stay.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=13

LOOK AT THIS ONE-LINER from a television news report:

WGCL TV Atlanta
http://www.cbs46.com/news/17455735/detail.html  

"The board did not give a reason for its decision to deny Davis clemency."

Perhaps they just didn't feel like it.

Mary    

This article has been updated with an audio statement by condemned man, Troy Anthony Davis, who is scheduled for execution Tuesday in Georgia's death chamber for a crime the state has failed to prove.

I think that if Troy Anthony Davis is found innocent he should be left alone and have a wonderful life. I think he is innocent i think that he should be let out of that hell hole.

I belive that Troy Anthony Davis is innocent! I hope you get to spend your birthday this year where ever you would like to spend it Troy and i hope that you get to have a family of your own, and that your family can feel free just like yourself when you get out.

Love ,

Sami