Post by smokey1 on Oct 14, 2008 22:58:17 GMT -5
I am realy dissapointed in the american judicial system today. Its a dark day for supreme court & troy davis & all people involved in the case.
My thoughts are with martina corriea troy davis sister,she has campaigned tirelessly to keep her brother alive.
shame on the clemency board,they said they would not execute a person if there was any doubt of innocence, realy,how can anybody stand up & say there is no reasonable doubt in the troy davis case.
U.S. Supreme Court rejects execution appeal
By Robbie Brown
Published: October 15, 2008
E-Mail Article
Listen to Article
Printer-Friendly
3-Column Format
Translate
Share Article
Text Size
ATLANTA: Three weeks after temporarily sparing a Georgia inmate from the death penalty, the United States Supreme Court on Tuesday declined to hear his appeal, a decision that will probably lead to a quick execution.
The inmate, Troy Davis, 40, was convicted in 1991 of murdering Mark MacPhail, a Savannah police officer. The court's decision, made without comment or explanation, allows Georgia officials to obtain a new death warrant and schedule the execution, probably in the next few days or weeks.
The case has led to an outpouring of support for Davis, largely because seven of nine witnesses against him have recanted their testimony, with two claiming that the police had pressured them to testify against him. Prosecutors presented no physical evidence and no murder weapon, and three witnesses have said another man admitted to the murder.
World leaders including former President Jimmy Carter, Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa and Pope Benedict XVI have challenged the fairness of Davis's conviction.
"Georgia is willing to risk the credibility of its whole death penalty system in carrying out this one very questionable execution," said Steven Bright, a visiting lecturer at Yale Law School and president of the Southern Center for Human Rights. "The death penalty should really only be enforced in cases where there is no question about guilt, and that just cannot be said about this case."
Today in Americas
Quiet political shifts in U.S. as more blacks are elected
Both campaigns seek the essence of Scranton
Palin's speeches electrify, but her zeal poses risks
Prosecutors have rejected the claims of the witnesses who recanted, and both the Georgia Supreme Court and the State Board of Paroles and Pardons have denied Davis's requests for new trials and clemency.
Members of the family of the slain police officer expressed relief at the Supreme Court's decision on Tuesday.
"My son will always be missed in our hearts," said Anneliese MacPhail, the mother of Officer MacPhail. "But at least we can relax now and don't have to worry about whether justice will be served."
The Supreme Court granted a stay of execution last month, two hours before Davis was scheduled to die by lethal injection. A judge is expected to set a new time frame for the execution by next week, said Spencer Lawton Jr., the district attorney in Chatham County, Georgia, where the case originated.
Davis's lawyers had asked the court to determine whether the Eighth Amendment's ban on cruel and unusual punishment bars the execution of the innocent. They wrote in a petition in July that the case "allows this court an opportunity to determine what it has only before assumed: that the execution of an innocent man is constitutionally abhorrent."
Martina Correia, Davis's sister, said his lawyers were planning another request to the state parole board for a new hearing. "We have to keep on battling," Correia said. "But my brother told me, 'Even if they succeed in killing me, it will dismantle the death penalty system in Georgia because people are tired of injustice.' "
Jared Feuer, the Southern regional director for Amnesty International, said he was "shocked and saddened" by the court's action on Tuesday.
"This decision shows how flawed and immoral the death penalty is," Feuer said. "The court had been asked to rule on the basic question of guilt and innocence and the constitutional right of an individual to not be executed when there is doubt of his guilt. The court ducked its obligation."
Lawton, the district attorney, said Davis received a fair trial and benefited from "an international firestorm of public relations campaigning" on his behalf. He pointed out that Davis's conviction had been upheld by "29 judges in seven different types of reviews, over the course of 17 years, before today's ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court."
Officer MacPhail was shot and killed early on the morning of Aug. 19, 1989, as he tried to break up a fight between two men in a Burger King parking lot. Several witnesses testified that they had heard one of the two men, Sylvester Coles, threaten the other and then begin pistol whipping him over the head.
Officer MacPhail, who was moonlighting as a security guard, interrupted the fight and was shot before he could remove his gun. Davis testified that he had been at a nearby pool hall but had left before Officer MacPhail arrived.
www.iht.com/articles/2008/10/15/america/15execute.php
MacPhail said, however, that she was confident Davis had committed the murder. "He didn't give my son a chance," she said. "He just shot him down in cold blood."
My thoughts are with martina corriea troy davis sister,she has campaigned tirelessly to keep her brother alive.
shame on the clemency board,they said they would not execute a person if there was any doubt of innocence, realy,how can anybody stand up & say there is no reasonable doubt in the troy davis case.
U.S. Supreme Court rejects execution appeal
By Robbie Brown
Published: October 15, 2008
E-Mail Article
Listen to Article
Printer-Friendly
3-Column Format
Translate
Share Article
Text Size
ATLANTA: Three weeks after temporarily sparing a Georgia inmate from the death penalty, the United States Supreme Court on Tuesday declined to hear his appeal, a decision that will probably lead to a quick execution.
The inmate, Troy Davis, 40, was convicted in 1991 of murdering Mark MacPhail, a Savannah police officer. The court's decision, made without comment or explanation, allows Georgia officials to obtain a new death warrant and schedule the execution, probably in the next few days or weeks.
The case has led to an outpouring of support for Davis, largely because seven of nine witnesses against him have recanted their testimony, with two claiming that the police had pressured them to testify against him. Prosecutors presented no physical evidence and no murder weapon, and three witnesses have said another man admitted to the murder.
World leaders including former President Jimmy Carter, Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa and Pope Benedict XVI have challenged the fairness of Davis's conviction.
"Georgia is willing to risk the credibility of its whole death penalty system in carrying out this one very questionable execution," said Steven Bright, a visiting lecturer at Yale Law School and president of the Southern Center for Human Rights. "The death penalty should really only be enforced in cases where there is no question about guilt, and that just cannot be said about this case."
Today in Americas
Quiet political shifts in U.S. as more blacks are elected
Both campaigns seek the essence of Scranton
Palin's speeches electrify, but her zeal poses risks
Prosecutors have rejected the claims of the witnesses who recanted, and both the Georgia Supreme Court and the State Board of Paroles and Pardons have denied Davis's requests for new trials and clemency.
Members of the family of the slain police officer expressed relief at the Supreme Court's decision on Tuesday.
"My son will always be missed in our hearts," said Anneliese MacPhail, the mother of Officer MacPhail. "But at least we can relax now and don't have to worry about whether justice will be served."
The Supreme Court granted a stay of execution last month, two hours before Davis was scheduled to die by lethal injection. A judge is expected to set a new time frame for the execution by next week, said Spencer Lawton Jr., the district attorney in Chatham County, Georgia, where the case originated.
Davis's lawyers had asked the court to determine whether the Eighth Amendment's ban on cruel and unusual punishment bars the execution of the innocent. They wrote in a petition in July that the case "allows this court an opportunity to determine what it has only before assumed: that the execution of an innocent man is constitutionally abhorrent."
Martina Correia, Davis's sister, said his lawyers were planning another request to the state parole board for a new hearing. "We have to keep on battling," Correia said. "But my brother told me, 'Even if they succeed in killing me, it will dismantle the death penalty system in Georgia because people are tired of injustice.' "
Jared Feuer, the Southern regional director for Amnesty International, said he was "shocked and saddened" by the court's action on Tuesday.
"This decision shows how flawed and immoral the death penalty is," Feuer said. "The court had been asked to rule on the basic question of guilt and innocence and the constitutional right of an individual to not be executed when there is doubt of his guilt. The court ducked its obligation."
Lawton, the district attorney, said Davis received a fair trial and benefited from "an international firestorm of public relations campaigning" on his behalf. He pointed out that Davis's conviction had been upheld by "29 judges in seven different types of reviews, over the course of 17 years, before today's ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court."
Officer MacPhail was shot and killed early on the morning of Aug. 19, 1989, as he tried to break up a fight between two men in a Burger King parking lot. Several witnesses testified that they had heard one of the two men, Sylvester Coles, threaten the other and then begin pistol whipping him over the head.
Officer MacPhail, who was moonlighting as a security guard, interrupted the fight and was shot before he could remove his gun. Davis testified that he had been at a nearby pool hall but had left before Officer MacPhail arrived.
www.iht.com/articles/2008/10/15/america/15execute.php
MacPhail said, however, that she was confident Davis had committed the murder. "He didn't give my son a chance," she said. "He just shot him down in cold blood."
