Post by wheelspinner on Sept 22, 2011 4:49:41 GMT -5
My response to the prosecutor who claims opponents to this act are motivated by opposition to the death penalty is "Yeah, so what?". Presumably the former head of the FBI is one of those anti-death penalty haters.
His claim doesn't change the FACTS that prosecution witnesses recanted, there was little physical evidence, no weapon and no DNA evidence. Heck there is plenty here to wonder why he was even convicted, let alone executed.
People have indeed looked at the record, despite his claim, and they find it woefully unconvincing. He may console himself that he won in court, but what he calls losing the PR battle is really code for being unable to convince your fellow Americans that you are right.
Death penalty advocates say there should always be scope for the State to kill the worst of the worst. They usually claim that the system can be operated in such a way to make sure it is only applied to people who are certainly guilty. The Davis case is proof of what fanciful nonsense that is.
Clemency and pardons exist to right such wrongs, and it's a scandal that politicians take pride in never using these remedies. Still, in a nation that includes people who will applaud a guy for executing 234 people without the slightest second thought, including at least some almost certainly innocent, this isn't going to change soon.
As in so many other areas, I doubt the USA is capable of changing itself, even when it is wallowing in the gutter with the likes of China and Iran as company. Only 33% of Americans actually support the death penalty, but somehow its politicians can't bring themselves to side with the 67%. You have to wonder why that is.
Death row controversy built on lie, says lawyer
Simon Mann
September 22, 2011
MANY of the hundreds of thousands of people calling for clemency for a death row inmate in Jackson, Georgia, were doing so because of their opposition to the death penalty, not because of any new evidence that exonerated police killer Troy Davis, according to the prosecutor who led the case 20 years ago.
The supporters of clemency for Davis, who is scheduled to die by lethal injection at 9.30am today Melbourne time (Wednesday evening Georgia time) after a parole board yesterday rejected a last-ditch plea, include the Pope, Desmond Tutu, Jimmy Carter and a former FBI director, William Sessions.
''Their credibility is hanging on a falsehood,'' said the former prosecutor, Spencer Lawton, breaking his decades-long silence.
''They would know differently if they looked at the record.''
It was the fourth time that an execution date had been set for the 42-year-old Davis, who was convicted of the fatal shooting in 1989 of an off-duty police officer in the car park of a Savannah takeaway.
The family of slain policeman Mark MacPhail welcomed the decision, but were cautious. ''I'm hoping that this is the end for our family,'' said his widow Joan. ''We want to believe so desperately that this is it.''
Earlier, his mother, Anneliese MacPhail, had said: ''I will never have closure because that can't be. But I may have some peace, which I hope for.''
MacPhail, a 27-year-old father of two infants, had sought to break up an argument when he was shot in the chest and face. Davis's arrest and subsequent conviction - despite the absence of a weapon, DNA evidence and any surveillance footage - signalled the beginning of his tortuous trek through the US judicial system, during which time his case was subjected to a series of appeals and at one stage reached the Supreme Court.
Three times he was granted stays, twice just hours before he was due to be executed, as his case became clouded by unreliable witness testimony and the murky issue of race in a Deep South legal system.
Seven of the original witnesses have recanted part or all of their testimony, while at least one juror told the local parole board that she no longer felt comfortable with the verdict.
Two witnesses who testified that Davis had confessed said later they had lied. His defence team had also questioned the racial make-up of the jury and the thoroughness of Davis's earlier legal representation. They also pointed to another man who had been with Davis that evening.
In their 60-page plea to the parole board, they wrote: ''What we now know casts considerable doubt on Mr Davis's guilt and implicates the state's star witness, Sylvester 'Redd' Coles, as the actual murderer.''
The parole board said on Tuesday: ''The board has considered the totality of the information presented in this case and thoroughly deliberated on it, after which the decision was to deny clemency.''
Davis's advocates, including Amnesty International and the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People, had presented the signatures of more than 660,000 people worldwide, including from Australia, who were appealing for clemency. Davis, who has always maintained his innocence, asked his supporters to continue the fight to clear his name.
Read more: www.theage.com.au/world/death-row-controversy-built-on-lie-says-lawyer-20110921-1kl4s.html#ixzz1YfhRxiVg
His claim doesn't change the FACTS that prosecution witnesses recanted, there was little physical evidence, no weapon and no DNA evidence. Heck there is plenty here to wonder why he was even convicted, let alone executed.
People have indeed looked at the record, despite his claim, and they find it woefully unconvincing. He may console himself that he won in court, but what he calls losing the PR battle is really code for being unable to convince your fellow Americans that you are right.
Death penalty advocates say there should always be scope for the State to kill the worst of the worst. They usually claim that the system can be operated in such a way to make sure it is only applied to people who are certainly guilty. The Davis case is proof of what fanciful nonsense that is.
Clemency and pardons exist to right such wrongs, and it's a scandal that politicians take pride in never using these remedies. Still, in a nation that includes people who will applaud a guy for executing 234 people without the slightest second thought, including at least some almost certainly innocent, this isn't going to change soon.
As in so many other areas, I doubt the USA is capable of changing itself, even when it is wallowing in the gutter with the likes of China and Iran as company. Only 33% of Americans actually support the death penalty, but somehow its politicians can't bring themselves to side with the 67%. You have to wonder why that is.
Death row controversy built on lie, says lawyer
Simon Mann
September 22, 2011
MANY of the hundreds of thousands of people calling for clemency for a death row inmate in Jackson, Georgia, were doing so because of their opposition to the death penalty, not because of any new evidence that exonerated police killer Troy Davis, according to the prosecutor who led the case 20 years ago.
The supporters of clemency for Davis, who is scheduled to die by lethal injection at 9.30am today Melbourne time (Wednesday evening Georgia time) after a parole board yesterday rejected a last-ditch plea, include the Pope, Desmond Tutu, Jimmy Carter and a former FBI director, William Sessions.
''Their credibility is hanging on a falsehood,'' said the former prosecutor, Spencer Lawton, breaking his decades-long silence.
''They would know differently if they looked at the record.''
It was the fourth time that an execution date had been set for the 42-year-old Davis, who was convicted of the fatal shooting in 1989 of an off-duty police officer in the car park of a Savannah takeaway.
The family of slain policeman Mark MacPhail welcomed the decision, but were cautious. ''I'm hoping that this is the end for our family,'' said his widow Joan. ''We want to believe so desperately that this is it.''
Earlier, his mother, Anneliese MacPhail, had said: ''I will never have closure because that can't be. But I may have some peace, which I hope for.''
MacPhail, a 27-year-old father of two infants, had sought to break up an argument when he was shot in the chest and face. Davis's arrest and subsequent conviction - despite the absence of a weapon, DNA evidence and any surveillance footage - signalled the beginning of his tortuous trek through the US judicial system, during which time his case was subjected to a series of appeals and at one stage reached the Supreme Court.
Three times he was granted stays, twice just hours before he was due to be executed, as his case became clouded by unreliable witness testimony and the murky issue of race in a Deep South legal system.
Seven of the original witnesses have recanted part or all of their testimony, while at least one juror told the local parole board that she no longer felt comfortable with the verdict.
Two witnesses who testified that Davis had confessed said later they had lied. His defence team had also questioned the racial make-up of the jury and the thoroughness of Davis's earlier legal representation. They also pointed to another man who had been with Davis that evening.
In their 60-page plea to the parole board, they wrote: ''What we now know casts considerable doubt on Mr Davis's guilt and implicates the state's star witness, Sylvester 'Redd' Coles, as the actual murderer.''
The parole board said on Tuesday: ''The board has considered the totality of the information presented in this case and thoroughly deliberated on it, after which the decision was to deny clemency.''
Davis's advocates, including Amnesty International and the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People, had presented the signatures of more than 660,000 people worldwide, including from Australia, who were appealing for clemency. Davis, who has always maintained his innocence, asked his supporters to continue the fight to clear his name.
Read more: www.theage.com.au/world/death-row-controversy-built-on-lie-says-lawyer-20110921-1kl4s.html#ixzz1YfhRxiVg