Will Georgia Kill an Innocent Man?

[brentspeak]

Source: Time Magazine

By BRENDAN LOWE Fri Jul 13, 4:20 PM ET

The pending execution of Troy Anthony Davis, scheduled to take place on July 17, is raising serious questions about his guilt - and about the Newt Gingrich-era federal law that has limited his appeals options and prevented him, say his supporters, from getting a fair shake.

Davis, 38, a former coach in the Savannah Police Athletic League who had signed up for the Marines, was convicted in the 1989 murder of Mark Allen MacPhail, a Savannah, Ga., police officer. MacPhail was off-duty when he was shot dead in a Savannah parking lot while responding to an assault. Davis was at the scene of the crime, and an acquaintance who was there with him accused Davis of being the shooter. Since his conviction in 1991, Davis has seen each of his state and federal appeals fail. But in the court of public opinion, Davis presents a compelling argument. Seven of the nine main witnesses whose testimony led to his conviction have since recanted. The murder weapon has never been found, and there is no physical evidence linking the crime to Davis, who has asserted his innocence throughout.

Earlier this month, two of the jurors who sentenced Davis to death signed sworn affidavits saying that based on the recanted testimony, he should not be executed. "In light of this new evidence," wrote one juror, "I have genuine concerns about the fairness of Mr. Davis' death sentence."

One of Davis' major obstacles has been the federal Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act (AEDPA), legislation championed by former House Speaker Newt Gingrich as part of his Contract with America and signed by former president Bill Clinton. The act was passed in 1996 as a way of reforming what Gingrich called "the current interminable, frivolous appeals process." Its major provisions reduced new trials for convicted criminals and sped up their sentences by restricting a federal court's ability to judge whether a state court had correctly interpreted the U.S. Constitution.

Troy Anthony Davis:



Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/20070713/us_time/willgeorgiakillaninnocentman

---

I'm not sure what the juror means by the "fairness of Mr. Davis' death sentence"; the only thing that's relevant is Davis' guilt or innocence. In any case, there's legitimate questions surrounding his conviction.

[snappyturtle]

1. How sad.

[Selatius]

2. I don't expect Bush to grant this man a pardon like his friend I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby

I fear the only way the death penalty will be abolished in America is if some high profile innocent person were wrongly put to death.

[Davis_X_Machina]

5. Bush can't pardon -- not a federal beef. n/t

[wuushew]

3. That's the night that the lights went out in Georgia...

n/t

[phusion]

4. So what can we do???

I can't stand by and let this guy be executed.

[Name removed]

6. Deleted sub-thread

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Ilsa]

7. Hey Newt, would it be "frivolous" if it was your brother? There is

nothing frivolous about this.

[Louie the XIV]

8. How much has this law really affected the appeals process?

The guy has been on death row for 16 years.

[struggle4progress]

11. And during his time on death row, almost all of the witnesses against him recanted their testimony

Machinery of death grinds ahead
This man may be innocent. Georgia wants him dead
Sunday, July 1st 2007, 4:00 AM

~snip~ Six of the nine witnesses have since recanted their testimony, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. A witness named Antoine Williams, who originally testified that he saw Davis pull the trigger, signed a sworn statement in 2002 that he had "no idea what the person who shot the officer looks like," and now says he was pressured by cops to finger Davis.

Another witness, a woman on parole named Dorothy Ferrell, also signed a sworn recantation of her original testimony. "I don't know which of the guys did the shooting because I didn't see that part," she now says. "I was still scared that if I didn't cooperate with the detective, then he might find a way to have me locked up again."

A man named Jeffrey Sapp, who testified to hearing Davis brag about the shooting the day after the murder, also signed a recantation and says cops pressured him. "None of that was true," he now says of his original testimony. ~snip~

But none of these facts can change Davis' sentence, thanks to the federal Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996, which puts a time limit on when evidence can be admitted in state death penalty cases. ~snip~

http://www.nydailynews.com/opinions/2007/07/01/2007-07-01_machinery_of_death_grinds_ahead.html

The so-called "Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996" is a travesty

[Orsino]

9. In a heartbeat.

American democracy runs on death and misery, and Georgia's especially so.

[struggle4progress]

10. A chance of innocence (AJC editorial)

State parole board must intervene in death row inmate's case
Published on: 07/13/07

~snip~

• Davis is caught in an untenable procedural bind. Because of a 1996 law aimed at speeding up death penalty appeals, federal and state courts have ruled they can't consider new evidence in a death penalty case if the defendant should have brought it to the court's attention during the appeals process. But in the Davis case, most of the witnesses didn't recant their testimony until years later. Moreover, to get the courts to reopen the case, the defendant must be able to show that given the new evidence, no reasonable juror would convict him. That's an impossibly high standard.

• Some of the witnesses didn't get a chance to recant because the initial appeal in the Davis case was handled by attorneys from an underfunded state defender's agency that lacked the resources to track witnesses down and investigate what they told police, as opposed to what they testified to at trial.

The case has generated an exceptional amount of interest. Groups and individuals opposed to the death penalty support Davis, including Amnesty International, Nobel Prize winner Desmond Tutu, Sister Helen Prejean and Harry Belafonte. Archbishop Wilton Gregory has asked Catholics in the Atlanta archdiocese to pray for clemency for Davis.

The case has also drawn the attention of the Constitution Project, a bipartisan group that seeks consensus on difficult legal issues. William S. Sessions, a former federal judge and FBI director under three presidents, a death penalty advocate and a member of the project's Death Penalty Initiative, has researched Davis' case and strongly believes more investigation is needed. ~snip~

http://www.ajc.com/opinion/content/opinion/stories/2007/07/12/deathpened_0713.html