Innocent man scheduled to receive death penalty in GA in two weeks

[Bjorn Against]

Troy Anthony Davis almost certainly is innocent, but that has not stopped the State of Georgia from giving him a new execution date: September 23, 2008. A hearing on his case is scheduled before the State of Georgia Board of Pardons and Parole on Friday, September 12, 2008 at 9:00 a.m. It is imperative that the board receive notes, emails and calls from people who want to try and stop this injustice.

An African-American, Davis was convicted of the murder of off-duty Savannah Police Officer Mark MacPhail in 1991. No physical evidence links him to the crime, and he has steadfastly maintained his innocence. Nine non-police witnesses testified against him at trial, but all but two of these witnesses have recanted their statements. Some claim that they were coerced by police to say that Davis was the murderer.

One of the witnesses who did not recant was seen acting suspiciously the night of Officer MacPhail’s murder and has been heard boasting that he killed an off-duty police officer.

In 2007, Davis was one day away from being executed, but the Georgia Board of Pardons and Parole voted to give him a 90-day stay because of the injustice in his case – an injustice that moved death penalty proponent Judge William Sessions, former Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, to write the Board of Pardons and Parole on Davis’s behalf.

http://blog.aclu.org/2008/09/09/almost-certainly-innocent-troy-anthony-davis-receives-another-execution-date/

Make no mistake about it this is state sanctioned murder.

[cobalt1999]

1. I'm not opposed to the Death Penalty, however

it should only be used in cases where there is no question of guilt.

[Bjorn Against]

2. The problem is when they convict someone they claim they have been "proven" guilty

The state will never admit that a defendent's guilt is in question.

[cobalt1999]

5. True.

If the state admitted a defendant's guilt is in question then even Life in Prison could be challenged.

However, without any physical evidence and without any admission of guilt, there is a chance he could be later be found innocent. So while the state can still maintain the guilty verdict, the standard where the DP is applied should be higher than that to put a person in prison.

On edit: You've done the same thing as the state in reverse by declaring him "innocent", when in reality, he is "potentially innocent"

[Bjorn Against]

8. We do have a concept called innocent until proven guilty in this country.

Without evidence of guilt a person is considered to be innocent by any reasonable standard of justice. I don't need to prove anyone innocent, the state needs to prove them guilty and they have not done so.

[MnFats]

3. Done. Will write from tonight, too, when time permits more substantial message

Gawd, but I hate capital punishment.

Is Barry Scheck in on this?

[Bjorn Against]

6. Unfortunately there is no DNA evidence to exonerate him

Barry Scheck has used DNA evidence to show that many innocent people were in prison, the problem is however that there is not DNA evidence at every murder scene. In fact according to the ACLU there is no DNA evidence in 90% of murder cases. This is one of those cases in which no DNA evidence is available so Scheck has nothing to test.

This shows a massive problem with our system though, if Scheck can prove hundreds of people innocent through DNA testing yet there is no DNA evidence 90% of the time just imagine how many innocent people are sitting in prison who will not be able to be exonerated because they can't prove themselves innocent.

[samuraiguppy]

4. the death penalty

is so obviously racist and unequally applied to AA males.

When we get Obama in office, hopefully we can change this.

[ColbertWatcher]

7. Kick and rec for more attention. n/t