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Troy Davis Execution: Former FBI Chief William S. Sessions Calls On Georgia To Stay Order
Troy Davis Execution Georgia
First Posted: 9/15/11 08:20 AM ET Updated: 9/15/11 11:37 AM ET
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The execution of Troy Davis, a Georgia death row inmate scheduled to die in less than a week, should be halted because of "pervasive, persistent doubts" about his guilt, said William S. Sessions, a former federal district judge in Texas and FBI director under Presidents Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton, in a sharply-worded editorial on Thursday.
"Serious questions about Mr. Davis' guilt, highlighted by witness recantations, allegations of police coercion, and a lack of relevant physical evidence, continue to plague his conviction," Sessions wrote. He urged a state pardons board to commute the sentence to life in prison.
The unusual plea from Sessions, which appears in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, is the latest high-profile call for clemency for Davis, whose looming execution has become a lightning rod for national and international criticism. Among those who have called for a halt to the execution, scheduled for Sept. 21 at 7 p.m., are Pope Benedict XVI, former President Jimmy Carter and the leadership of the NAACP and Amnesty International.
Davis, 42, was convicted of murdering Mark MacPhail, an off-duty Savannah police officer shot to death while coming to the aid of a homeless man being assaulted in a parking lot in the early morning of Aug.19, 1989. The murder weapon was never recovered and no physical evidence was found linking Davis to the crime, and he has always maintained that another man at the scene was responsible for the shooting.
Since the original trial in 1991, seven of nine prosecution witnesses that linked Davis to the shooting have either recanted or materially altered the stories they told the jury, but Davis' attempts to secure a retrial have been persistently rebuffed by state and federal courts.
In an extraordinary hearing in June 2010 ordered by the U.S. Supreme Court, Davis' attorneys were finally allowed to present evidence of his innocence to a federal judge. In statement after statement, witnesses from the original trial avowed that they had been coerced by police to implicate Davis in the shooting or had lied in order to secure lenience for their own troubles with the law.
"I am not proud for lying at Troy's trial, but the police had me so messed up that I felt that's all I could do or else I would go to jail," one key eyewitness told Davis' attorneys in an affidavit.
Legal experts familiar with the case said the recantations and allegations of police coercion badly undermined the state's case against Davis.
"The record is shredded," said Russell Covey, a law professor at Georgia State University. "What was presented to that jury is no longer valid evidence."
But the judge overseeing the hearing, William T. Moore Jr., decided that in order to overturn the original jury verdict, Davis needed not only to cast doubt on the evidence against him, but to provide "clear and compelling" proof of his innocence. In an August 2010 ruling dismissing Davis' appeal, he declared that while the state's case "may not be ironclad," Davis failed to make a showing of "actual innocence" and thus should not be granted a new trial. The evidentiary hearing was the first such legal proceeding in more than 50 years.
"A federal court simply cannot interpose itself and set aside a jury verdict in this case absent a truly persuasive showing of innocence," Moore wrote. "To act contrarily would wreak complete havoc on the criminal justice system."
The decision was welcomed by state prosecutors and family members of MacPhail, the murdered police officer. But some legal experts said the judge had set the bar for a retrial far too high and had overlooked the weakness of the state's original case against Davis.
At the original trial, for instance, several eyewitnesses that prosecutors used to identify Davis as the shooter had actually seen pictures identifying him as a suspect before being asked to select the shooter from an array of photos, according to Moore's 172-page decision. Another key eyewitness originally told police that he had not seen the shooter's face; at the trial, two years later, he told the jury he was confident Davis was the killer.
This August, the New Jersey Supreme Court issued a landmark decision setting new strict rules on eyewitness identifications. Under the rules, judges must inform jurors of factors that may be responsible for the misidentification of a suspect. Such misidentifications have been linked to numerous false convictions.
"The identifications are really incredibly tainted," said Anne Emanuel, a death penalty expert and law professor at Georgia State University.
Emanuel also noted the prosecutors' reliance on two hearsay confessions at the original trial, including one allegedly given by Davis to a cellmate shortly after his arrest. Both confessions were later recanted by the witnesses in affidavits.
"At the original trial, you've got very dubious eyewitness identifications and a lot of hearsay," Emanuel said. "It's appalling for a death case."
But after the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear a new appeal in March, Davis’ state and federal appeals are essentially exhausted. His last chance for clemency is now in the hands of the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles.
The board granted a stay of execution to Davis in 2007, showing a willingness to hear evidence of his innocence. But in 2008, the board voted to deny a second request for clemency without comment.
The board, now comprised of several new members, has granted clemency only three times since 1991, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.
Bob Barr, a former federal prosecutor and four-term Republican congressman from Georgia, urged the board to grant clemency for Davis in an editorial published in the Savannah Morning News on Wednesday.
In 2007, the five-member board pledged that "it will not allow an execution to proceed in this state unless and until its members are convinced there is no doubt as to the guilt of the accused," Barr noted in the editorial.
"I am a longtime supporter of the death penalty. I make no judgment as to whether Davis is guilty or innocent. And surely the citizens of Savannah and the state of Georgia want justice served on behalf of Officer MacPhail," Barr wrote. "But imposing an irreversible sentence of death on the skimpiest of evidence will not serve the interest of justice."
Troy Davis Execution Georgia
First Posted: 9/15/11 08:20 AM ET Updated: 9/15/11 11:37 AM ET
React
The execution of Troy Davis, a Georgia death row inmate scheduled to die in less than a week, should be halted because of "pervasive, persistent doubts" about his guilt, said William S. Sessions, a former federal district judge in Texas and FBI director under Presidents Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton, in a sharply-worded editorial on Thursday.
"Serious questions about Mr. Davis' guilt, highlighted by witness recantations, allegations of police coercion, and a lack of relevant physical evidence, continue to plague his conviction," Sessions wrote. He urged a state pardons board to commute the sentence to life in prison.
The unusual plea from Sessions, which appears in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, is the latest high-profile call for clemency for Davis, whose looming execution has become a lightning rod for national and international criticism. Among those who have called for a halt to the execution, scheduled for Sept. 21 at 7 p.m., are Pope Benedict XVI, former President Jimmy Carter and the leadership of the NAACP and Amnesty International.
Davis, 42, was convicted of murdering Mark MacPhail, an off-duty Savannah police officer shot to death while coming to the aid of a homeless man being assaulted in a parking lot in the early morning of Aug.19, 1989. The murder weapon was never recovered and no physical evidence was found linking Davis to the crime, and he has always maintained that another man at the scene was responsible for the shooting.
Since the original trial in 1991, seven of nine prosecution witnesses that linked Davis to the shooting have either recanted or materially altered the stories they told the jury, but Davis' attempts to secure a retrial have been persistently rebuffed by state and federal courts.
In an extraordinary hearing in June 2010 ordered by the U.S. Supreme Court, Davis' attorneys were finally allowed to present evidence of his innocence to a federal judge. In statement after statement, witnesses from the original trial avowed that they had been coerced by police to implicate Davis in the shooting or had lied in order to secure lenience for their own troubles with the law.
"I am not proud for lying at Troy's trial, but the police had me so messed up that I felt that's all I could do or else I would go to jail," one key eyewitness told Davis' attorneys in an affidavit.
Legal experts familiar with the case said the recantations and allegations of police coercion badly undermined the state's case against Davis.
"The record is shredded," said Russell Covey, a law professor at Georgia State University. "What was presented to that jury is no longer valid evidence."
But the judge overseeing the hearing, William T. Moore Jr., decided that in order to overturn the original jury verdict, Davis needed not only to cast doubt on the evidence against him, but to provide "clear and compelling" proof of his innocence. In an August 2010 ruling dismissing Davis' appeal, he declared that while the state's case "may not be ironclad," Davis failed to make a showing of "actual innocence" and thus should not be granted a new trial. The evidentiary hearing was the first such legal proceeding in more than 50 years.
"A federal court simply cannot interpose itself and set aside a jury verdict in this case absent a truly persuasive showing of innocence," Moore wrote. "To act contrarily would wreak complete havoc on the criminal justice system."
The decision was welcomed by state prosecutors and family members of MacPhail, the murdered police officer. But some legal experts said the judge had set the bar for a retrial far too high and had overlooked the weakness of the state's original case against Davis.
At the original trial, for instance, several eyewitnesses that prosecutors used to identify Davis as the shooter had actually seen pictures identifying him as a suspect before being asked to select the shooter from an array of photos, according to Moore's 172-page decision. Another key eyewitness originally told police that he had not seen the shooter's face; at the trial, two years later, he told the jury he was confident Davis was the killer.
This August, the New Jersey Supreme Court issued a landmark decision setting new strict rules on eyewitness identifications. Under the rules, judges must inform jurors of factors that may be responsible for the misidentification of a suspect. Such misidentifications have been linked to numerous false convictions.
"The identifications are really incredibly tainted," said Anne Emanuel, a death penalty expert and law professor at Georgia State University.
Emanuel also noted the prosecutors' reliance on two hearsay confessions at the original trial, including one allegedly given by Davis to a cellmate shortly after his arrest. Both confessions were later recanted by the witnesses in affidavits.
"At the original trial, you've got very dubious eyewitness identifications and a lot of hearsay," Emanuel said. "It's appalling for a death case."
But after the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear a new appeal in March, Davis’ state and federal appeals are essentially exhausted. His last chance for clemency is now in the hands of the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles.
The board granted a stay of execution to Davis in 2007, showing a willingness to hear evidence of his innocence. But in 2008, the board voted to deny a second request for clemency without comment.
The board, now comprised of several new members, has granted clemency only three times since 1991, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.
Bob Barr, a former federal prosecutor and four-term Republican congressman from Georgia, urged the board to grant clemency for Davis in an editorial published in the Savannah Morning News on Wednesday.
In 2007, the five-member board pledged that "it will not allow an execution to proceed in this state unless and until its members are convinced there is no doubt as to the guilt of the accused," Barr noted in the editorial.
"I am a longtime supporter of the death penalty. I make no judgment as to whether Davis is guilty or innocent. And surely the citizens of Savannah and the state of Georgia want justice served on behalf of Officer MacPhail," Barr wrote. "But imposing an irreversible sentence of death on the skimpiest of evidence will not serve the interest of justice."
Comments
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Good drop! ive been following this case for a few years now, crazy when you got the Pope, former president, and former Fbi agent, pleading for re examination of the case for years now. he's on what now, the fourth execution date? He's one of thousands that didnt make it this far and got executed. ? is crazy out here. im glad more people are paying attention to this, you got people all across the world in sevaral different countries that are holding vigils for Troy. I hope the brother makes it out alive.
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Wait a minute, how in the hell is he supposed to prove he's "innocent" of charges, he was never actually proven "guilty" of in the first place?
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Yeah, this is pretty bogus. RIP to the many men and women that have been convicted and murdered in many ways through America's various wrong systems. I don't know if ? is watching anything or the whole ? theory that's why people must act on there on.
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This debacle disgusts me to no end....hell, disgusting is an understatement for how we're ALLOWING to this go down down as a nation
http://gumbomonster.wordpress.com/blog-stew/fly-with-bats/the-2011-legal-lynching-of-troy-davis/ -
Seems like that's it for old Troy:
Death-row inmate Troy Davis denied clemency
Prosecutor says he has no doubt about Troy Davis' guilt
Troy Davis victim's mom: Justice served
He has a bit less than 12 hours remaining. -
It's never too late to stop the killing of another innocent black man by the system
Laws created on a land stolen &built on murder seems ever confusing to many of it's citizens -
His execution was set for 2007 but was stopped because people like me voiced our support and helped financially. Then again in 2009. And again in 2010.
Where were you? -
@My_nameaintearl wrote: »His execution was set for 2007 but was stopped because people like me voiced our support and helped financially. Then again in 2009. And again in 2010.
Where were you?
he was spared,a few minutes ago too
btw i didnt hear of him until a few months ago.Im fighting just like you bruh -
he was spared,a few minutes ago too
False.
He's been granted a reprieve for the Supreme Court to think about the matter. Again. This is the second time the issue has come to their desk and last time they threw it out quickly. It could be minutes, hours, or maybe a couple days. -
Pray for troy davis.Let ? decide his fate not America's Judicial System
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this country wants to make an example out of this black man
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This country gives you no hope when it comes to justice
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This is bs!!!
GTFOH -
He's in for the shooting and killing of a police officer, correct?
How do you know he is innocent? -
Pray for troy davis.Let ? decide his fate not America's Judicial System
what did he do ? -
think it's a done deal now:(
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They're going through the process of executing this guy right now. The appeal to the U.S. Supreme court has been denied.
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Yeah, they killed him. Unless, 2 people can pull the trigger at the same time it is highly possible that he did not pull the trigger.
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Consistency at it's purest.
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So much for the thread title
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smh...
like the man said in Menace II Society...
"The hunt is on...and you're the prey!" -
So now it's the countries fault? -- WOW! wonders if black people will ever Be thankful for what they got?its over: 2012! wrote: »Oh yes, thank you great Whitefolks for taking us out dat dere jungle ober dere in Aferka....bring us ober here to build up yalls nice plantations and cities and we fill up yer luxurios prisons w/ our NI99ER folks while youz commit 75% of all the crime...while we'z get lied to about Equality!
Oh thankYUH massah' slick! ThankYUH, For fake fucc ? matter in that dadblasted US Constertution and Proclamashun thang there of 'ol Lincoln's & that 'ol rascal LBJ signed one too, but hell they'z jus all lies.
At least that's how them dar heyslick's of da world wanting us to view it as....yep, just shut up and go on home ni99ers! It's was just a bunch of lies, you're still NI99ERS rescued from da African jungle and got civilized plus then got some nice welfare benefits since WW2, so shut the ferk up!
^your own hatred shall be your grave. Hide behind the monitors like your ancestors hid behind sheets.