Go To:
Contact:
Advertisements
Order your 'Vote Out Incumbents' window - bumper sticker.
Just $3 each. Each order helps Vote Out Incumbents Democracy (VOID) raise funds to spread the message around the country.
Polls:
Other Notable Sites
[Update: U.S. Supreme Court issues stay of execution until they take the case-or not-next Monday]
Will an innocent man in Georgia be put to death today by the state?
Opponents and supporters of the death penalty should be united in opposing such a possibility. But it appears that only Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue, and Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas stand in the way of this very real possibility. Troy Anthony Davis, likely innocent of the murder of which he is accused, watches the minutes pass as last minute appeals to grant a stay or retry his case go unheeded.
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=1e64bfcc-2bcb-4ad6-af88-18d3d181dda0)
The Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles has denied Davis a stay of execution, and just yesterday the Georgia Supreme Court denied clemency in a 6-1 decision. In March, that body had rejected by a 4-3 vote, his request for a new trial.
Davis was sentenced to die for the 1989 murder of a Savannah, Georgia police officer. He has maintained his innocence from the outset, 7 of 9 witnesses have recanted their testimony, no physical evidence tied him to the murder, and there is a credible different suspect for the crime. Georgia's Chief Justice Leah Ward Sears wrote the dissenting opinion in March, but agreed with the majority yesterday that now the "jurisdiction is properly in the [U.S.] Supreme Court, not this Court." In March she agreed with the majority that recantation testimony is inherently suspect, but maintained that:"If recantation testimony, either alone or supported by other evidence, shows convincingly that prior trial testimony was false, it simply defies all logic and morality to hold that it must be disregarded categorically."
The catch is that the case isn't scheduled to come before the U. S. Supreme Court until next Monday, but Davis is scheduled to be executed at 7 PM this evening. It strikes me that yesterday's decision also "defies all logic and morality". As New York Times editorialist opines: What's the Rush?
Clarence Thomas remains one of Davis' last dim hopes, because he is the designated justice for intervening in the circuit which includes Georgia, which happens to be Thomas' home state.
So proclaims the website dedicated to the exoneration of one death row inmate in Georgia. Whether one believes that the death penalty is ever appropriate, or in the innocence or guilt of that particular inmate, we should all agree that indeed innocence does matter.
As we examine the case of Troy Anthony Davis, we should care very much whether an innocent man was convicted of a crime which substantial evidence seems to indicate was committed by someone else. It is also worth examining several broader questions. Does the desire to gain convictions skew investigations to buoy the first plausible solution to the exclusion of other possibilities? Once convicted of a crime, are the barriers to considering continued claims or evidence of innocence too steep? Should the certainty of guilt be even higher for the application of the death penalty? When if ever is the death penalty appropriate, or as the American Bar Association claims, do inconsistencies and flaws in our system of justice warrant a moratorium on capital punishment?
I believe we have a compelling need for re-examination of the process for granting new trials in cases where either faulty investigations, over zealous prosecution, coerced testimony, recantations, or new evidence casts doubt on former convictions - whether or not the death penalty is involved. That doesn't mean opening every case where an inmate claims innocence, or making it too easy for outside organizations to force trials when the case is not strong. But justice is not served by keeping the innocent behind bars in the name of having "someone" pay for the crime, upholding the standing of police or prosecutors, or appearing tough on crime.
The Innocence Project is doing great work in using DNA testing from former convictions to exonerate many who have been unjustly imprisoned. But physical evidence is not always available, as in the case of Davis, and common sense suggests that wrongful convictions are at least as high in such cases where eye-witness testimony is likely to have played a major role.
I am not claiming to know that Troy Davis is innocent. My window on the case is limited to what I've heard on radio, read online, and heard in conversation with Laura Moye, who is deputy director of Amnesty International's Southern regional office. I acknowledge that I am a long way away, and may have been swayed by the fact that "Davis' supporters were good at 'marketing' their cause", as DA assistant David Lock told Georgia's justices. Still, based on what I have learned, it seems more plausible that alternative suspect Sylvester "Redd" Coles is the actual perpetrator. And it is very difficult to accept that a new trial should not be granted in light of the recantations of 7 of the 9 original eyewitnesses. From a Savannah Morning News account
"If the prosecution witnesses are recanting to that extent and that they possibly perjured themselves, then the Supreme Court is doing the right thing [in considering whether to grant a new trial]," said William "Rusty" Hubbarth, vice president of the pro-death-penalty Justice For All in Austin, Texas. "I have never heard of a case like this where you have five or six witnesses recanting."
A Tragic Night
When off duty police officer Mark MacPhail responded to a commotion near a downtown Savannah Burger King at 1 AM on Aug. 19th of 1989, he discovered a homeless man, Larry Young, being pistol whipped. Before he had a chance to draw his pistol from his holster, Larry Young's attacker, seeing the officer's badge, shot and killed him. Witnesses hearing the shots saw three men fleeing the scene. This account (scroll 1/3 down), two of a series of five articles last year about the case appearing the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, gives what appears to be a fair summary about what is known about the sequence of events that evening, and what Troy Davis and Redd Coles each claim to have occurred. Davis' proximity to the site of two shootings on the same evening understandably directed suspicion his way, but the wantonly murderous behavior he is accused of, seems to fit better with Coles prior and subsequent behavior than with that of Davis. And two of the recanting witnesses have signed affidavits declaring that Coles was also present at the party earlier in the evening near to where another man was shot and injured. Why would Davis brutally assault the homeless man, when even Coles admitted that it was he who had the initial argument (over a beer) with him? Why did Coles show up at the police station with a high paid lawyer to finger Davis in the crime? Why did Davis so readily return from his subsequent trip to Atlanta when he discovered he was the subject of a manhunt, unless he felt confident that he would be absolved of the charges.
7 of 9 Recant
But the most compelling case for granting a new trial comes from the sworn affidavits recanting earlier testimony which implicated Davis, and suggesting police coercion in obtaining that testimony. The unfortunate homeless man who was the victim of the beating was detained by police for over an hour when he most needed medical attention. In pain and somewhat inebriated he finally signed a statement written by police without reading it, in order to gain his own release. Reading the details of each recantation, it is difficult to believe prosecutor's claims that Davis' family was able to pressure all of these witnesses to recant earlier testimony, risking perjury, not to mention the wrath of the still free Coles, simply out of sympathy for a man on death row.
Troy Anthony Davis has been in prison now for 19 years. That alone would be an extraordinary sentence for what, if his story is true, may have been a case of keeping bad company and using poor judgment in the aftermath of gunfire.
The appeals process has been yet another story in this case, where procedural reasoning seems to trump new reasonable doubt, whether in the state's habeas court denial of his petition in 1977, or the impact of provisions of the Anti-terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 signed into law by Clinton, which restricted the power of federal courts to correct constitutional error in criminal cases, or the Federal 11th Circuit Court's denial of Troy's appeal in 2006, or the U.S. Supreme Court's earlier refusal to hear his case, or tardy scheduling of the currently scheduled hearing.
This case has periodically gotten some media attention, yet in spite of the lack of evidence we are now possibly hours away from never being able to turn back. How many other cases languish in obscurity where innocent prisoners will never receive a fair trial when they were originally denied one? In many cases - hopefully a large majority of them - our justice system where one is innocent until proven guilty works beautifully. We have a justice system which on the whole is worth fighting for, and is far better than that which existed in earlier centuries, or does exist in many places around the world. But two factors which stand as a threat to proper justice remain the inordinate influence of money and connections on the process, and the growing simplistic tough on crime attitude which vilifies the accused too early in the process, values numbers of convictions over certainty of justice, and turns a blind eye all too often on instances of police or prosecutorial misconduct.
Process matters. Complexity matters. Motive matters. Truth matters. Certainty matters.
Innocence matters.
Was this article informative?
0 TrackBacks
Listed below are links to blogs that reference this entry: Innocence Matters!.
TrackBack URL for this entry: http://poliwatch.org/cgi-bin/mt-tb.cgi/8975
3:16 PM, 09 23 2008 | Permalink
Walker,
I commend your dedication to writing on this fundamental American issue and challenge.
But, really! Who cares?
This is a nation which reelected a president who murdered more than 4000 of our own military troops with lies and a pen, maimed 10's of thousands more, and is responsible for an estimate 100,000 Iraqi deaths, not to mention doubling our nation's tax payer debt on just 8 years.
The world stands on the precipice of global recession or worse as Paulson and Bush seek to reward Wall Street supporters while destroying the resources needed to maintain Social Security and Medicare for Americans who worked hard all their lives and paid into these systems with the "guarantee" that these programs would be there for them if they needed them.
You are talking about justice for one man. Who really cares? The wheels of injustice in this country are very well lubricated and grind people like Troy Davis every day with police brutality, credit card rates of 32%, and bureaucracies that leave Americans without food or water for days after Katrina hit.
I hope and pray Mr. Davis gets a reprieve. But, if he doesn't, his story will be fish wrap, in 48 hours. And that is the plain and simple truth of what America has become. What is one man's life worth in this country when 100 million face mass unemployment if the threat to our economy of the last week is realized?
You've lost your sense of proportion. You have failed the American evolution to founding principles in lieu of expedience and deference to the new King George's of the 21st century. You are the kind of idealist who would no doubt join a tea party in the Boston Harbor, if America could find 3 individuals brave enough to conduct one. You would waste millions in American tea over some guy no one ever heard of, whose innocence can't be proven beyond a shadow of a doubt.
C'mon, Walker, forget Davis and grab what you can while the grabbing is good. It's what Wall Street is doing. It's what Paulson, Bernanke, and Bush are doing. It's what Greenspan, Rumsfeld, and McCain are doing. Hell, even Obama is joining in the sacrifice of truth and honesty at the alter of personal achievement.
Join your countrymen and women, Walker instead of fighting them. C'mon in, grab your piece of the present, the taking water's are fine. Leave your principles and fundamentals where they belong, on the trash heap of American history. I promise, you won't feel lonely ever again.
Reply to this comment
12:20 PM, 09 24 2008 | Permalink
David,
Thank you for daring to ask the salient question! And I do mean that sincerely. Why indeed should I focus on the case of one man? That question is in fact in the back of my mind when I write these articles. With injustice rampant around the globe, wars ravaging hundreds of thousands, millions dying from hunger, fundamental rights denied those who are not in power, and a whole host of issues here in the United States that impact huge swaths of our population, and indeed nearly every one of us ultimately - What does it matter?
Why Troy Anthony Davis?
I am pleased to answer that question.
We tout our system of justice as exemplary and fair and deliberative. "Innocent until proven guilty"; "everyone gets their day in court"; "the blind eye of justice"; "justice will be served"; American justice should be among the best in the world. Now, of course there will be hiccoughs - instances where local corruption perverts the proper delivery of justice.
If the case of Troy Anthony Davis were only that - a rare and local instance, where perhaps overzealous prosecutors coerced witness testimony - then you would be right to suggest that my focusing on it would be a disservice to more important topics for discussion.
I don't believe it is a hiccough.
For me, Davis' case is symptomatic of a number of fundamental problems with criminal justice in the United States. Yes it is extraordinary in bringing together many of these issues in one case, but that is what makes it noteworthy.
Now let me quickly add here that there is also a lot that is right about our system of justice. There are many extraordinarily talented police officers and detectives who follow the book and get good results, and many fine and talented prosecutors and judges who combine knowledge of the law with an earnest desire to serve justice who are a credit to our system.
But I believe there are some systemic issues and prevailing mistaken attitudes which are poisoning our system, and this case highlights a number of them.
Capital Punishment
The most obvious for most readers is the very presence of capital punishment. For me it is not the most important issue here - but it is clearly the one which speaks loudest to the most.
When there is a chance (and there is always a debate in quantifying that) that the convicted person facing extermination might be innocent, would we not be better off simply taking the death penalty off the list of possible punishments, as have most of the worlds nations?
Pressure to Gain Convictions
Next there is a pervasive attitude which prioritizes conviction over justice. Whether it is haste and impatience, or an ego driven desire to run up the number of convictions one can claim, there is little denying that many in law enforcement and prosecution succumb to the pressure to solve every case, and are too willing to overlook contravailing evidence which might suggest that their first suspicion was wrong. Now some of that is just human nature, which is bound to show up in any system of justice. But I contend that a renewed emphasis on the deliberative intent of our justice system, and a reduction in incentive to just find somebody to charge and convict, could go a long way toward reducing the haste which often results in wrongful convictions.
This is the area where I see the issue as being far broader than just the case of Troy Anthony Davis. In fact the capital punishment aspect of his case unfortunately obscures a much broader issue. How many innocent people (regardless of whether Davis is innocent or not), are suffering the grave and extraordinary punishment of spending years or the rest of their lives behind bars, simply because some cop, or prosecutor, or judge, or jury, or combination thereof, was too impatient to come to a conclusion which resolved the case? How much have we as a society lost by not having these people be productive members of society rather than a drain on our resources?
This is not just the fault of law enforcement and the courts. We really are all to blame for bringing this pressure on the system to come up with convictions, no matter whether they are correct.
Resistance to Correct Miscarriages of Justice
It has always been one of my pet peeves, that once convicted, justice usually becomes anything but swift when newly uncovered contravailing evidence suggests that we might have locked up the wrong person. Troy Davis' case highlights this concern strongly. It is plain to me that there was sufficient contravailing evidence early in this case to suggest that a new trial should have been granted at any of numerous points along the way. When such evidence is strong enough, I believe that is cause for the immediate release of the prisoner. We now have technology such as electronic ankle bracelets which could serve as a precaution against the suspect skipping town before their new trial. If Davis gets a
new trial, and his conviction is overturned, then assuming that he is innocent, he still would have suffered a very grave injustice. Based on the percentage of cases which have been overturned with exonerating DNA evidence as a result of the Innocence Project, we have every reason to suspect that there are a large number of prisoners who are wrongly incarcerated in these United States.
Racism / Classism / Influence
Finally it is never wrong to point out that we must always struggle to keep justice blind, and avoid the influence of race, class, and position in both who law enforcement suspects, and how we administer justice, and how we sentence the convicted. It is impossible to eliminate influence, no matter how perfect a system of justice might be. But eliminating such influence should be the beacon for which we aim, and evidence as shown by the statistics of who is incarcerated, and who isn't, strongly indicates that we fall far short of the mark.
In Conclusion
Individual stories make for compelling cases which individual readers can comprehend. I find the case of Troy Anthony Davis to be compelling. No doubt that is partly because I am a native Georgian, and also because I have heard the compelling testimony of his sister broadcast on my community radio station here in the Seattle area. I am pleased that the U. S. Supreme Court has given him a reprieve from his sentence, at least until next Monday when they decide whether or not to hear his last appeal, and if they do until they resolve the case.
The individual story allows the reader to connect at a more personal level with issues which we all should be concerned with. The media often gives undue attention to certain cases because of their celebrity or sensationalism, whether that be O. J. Simpson, Jon Benet Ramsey, or Paris Hilton. Those cases often distract us from more important issues.
I contend that in contrast to those, the case of Troy Anthony Davis has the potential to bring our attention to issues worth facing. If we care about our system of justice, then we all should care.
Reply to this comment
David R. Remer replied to Walker Willingham Jr at :
6:50 PM, 09 25 2008 | Permalink
Walker asked: "would we not be better off simply taking the death penalty off the list of possible punishments, as have most of the worlds nations?"
Yes. But, where is the political will to undertake such changes? Where is the public uproar to move politicians?
Davis will capture the public's attention and sympathy after he is executed and a heart tugging moving covering the circumstances of his case is made and rerun on StarZ TV.
Of course, that will be too late for Davis. But, not too late for Americans to then say, how horrible, what a great movie, what's for dinner, hon?
I commend you Walker. This article is similar to one I might have written just a few years ago. But, nearing 60 years of age, I have grown a bit cynical, and now look to my daughter and wonderful folks such as yourself, for whom ideals still have the potential of being realized, to take up the fight to make it so.
Keep hope alive. All great things in human history began with one person's hope and effort to share that hope with others.
Reply to this comment