An innocent man may have just been executed in Georgia after Supreme Court denies stay of execution
171 replies, posted
[img]http://i.imgur.com/0AAHp.png[/img]
Source - [url=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/21/troy-davis-execution-georgia_n_974463.html]HuffPo[/url]
Pre-execution article snippet:
[release]JACKSON, Ga. -- Behind razor wire and thick concrete walls, Troy Davis spent what may be his final hours Wednesday with friends and family, awaiting his execution at 7 p.m. for the murder of a police officer over 20 years ago, a crime he maintains was committed by another man...
Earlier this week, the state's pardons board was bombarded by hundreds of thousands of petitions to spare Davis's life, including calls from former FBI director William Sessions and Bob Barr, a four-term Republican congressman from Georgia and death penalty supporter. [b]Many of those opposed to the execution noted the lack of physical evidence tying Davis to the crime and the [highlight]recantation of critical eyewitness, many of whom told attorneys for Davis that they had been pressured by police to testify that Davis was the shooter.[/highlight][/b][/release]
Unfortunately the Supreme Court denied the stay and Troy Davis was executed. [url=http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2011/09/21/lawyers-file-appeal-to-stay-troy-davis-execution/]CNN Reports:[/url]
[release]Georgia inmate Troy Davis was executed Wednesday night for the 1989 murder of Mark MacPhail, an off-duty Savannah police officer.
Davis died at 11:08 p.m. ET, according to a prison official. The execution was about four hours later than initially scheduled, because prison officials waited for a U.S. Supreme Court ruling on Davis' request for a stay.
After 10 p.m. ET, the Supreme Court, in a brief order, rejected Davis' request. His supporters had sought to prevent the execution, saying [b]seven of the nine witnesses against him have recanted or contradicted their testimony.[/b][/release]
Truly a horrific day for the justice system and for people everywhere.
[quote=Troy Davis]I want to thank all of you for your efforts and dedication to Human Rights and Human Kindness, in the past year I have experienced such emotion, joy, sadness and never ending faith. It is because of all of you that I am alive today, as I look at my sister Martina I am marveled by the love she has for me and of course I worry about her and her health, but as she tells me she is the eldest and she will not back down from this fight to save my life and prove to the world that I am innocent of this terrible crime.
As I look at my mail from across the globe, from places I have never ever dreamed I would know about and people speaking languages and expressing cultures and religions I could only hope to one day see first hand. I am humbled by the emotion that fills my heart with overwhelming, overflowing Joy. I can’t even explain the insurgence of emotion I feel when I try to express the strength I draw from you all, it compounds my faith and it shows me yet again that this is not a case about the death penalty, this is not a case about Troy Davis, this is a case about Justice and the Human Spirit to see Justice prevail.
I cannot answer all of your letters but I do read them all, I cannot see you all but I can imagine your faces, I cannot hear you speak but your letters take me to the far reaches of the world, I cannot touch you physically but I feel your warmth everyday I exist.
So Thank you and remember I am in a place where execution can only destroy your physical form but because of my faith in God, my family and all of you I have been spiritually free for some time and no matter what happens in the days, weeks to come, this Movement to end the death penalty, to seek true justice, to expose a system that fails to protect the innocent must be accelerated. There are so many more Troy Davis’. This fight to end the death penalty is not won or lost through me but through our strength to move forward and save every innocent person in captivity around the globe. We need to dismantle this Unjust system city by city, state by state and country by country.
I can’t wait to Stand with you, no matter if that is in physical or spiritual form, I will one day be announcing,
“I AM TROY DAVIS, and I AM FREE!”[/quote]
:(
A lot of people down here are really fuming about this. I live pretty close to Savannah, everyone has just sort of been talking about how appalled they are by this. It's a sad day in Georgia, guys.
The American Justice System is terrible. It does not deserve to have the word "Justice" anywhere in it, at all.
Justice is never looked for, only evidence of your guilt. They don't care for the truth, they care for your incarceration.
I can't wait to go to the UK or something.
[quote]Unfortunately the Supreme Court denied the stay[/quote]
Fuck those guys, man.
so not much clear evidence, dodgy witnesses, and they still executed him? You would think that they would only execute someone with 100% solid evidence
I saw a group of people on campus today with signs and posters asking us to call a number to protest this, but I was running late to class so I didn't stop and ask what it was about. Now I feel bad for not calling. :(
DEATH PENULTY IS A GUD IDEA GAIZ AND ITS ALWEYS RIGHT
pretty sad moment for the people who proclaimed his innocence :\
[QUOTE=Trunk Monkay;32420523]so not much clear evidence, dodgy witnesses, and they still executed him? You would think that they would only execute someone with 100% solid evidence[/QUOTE]
or they could, you know, not execute people
why can't they give a reason for not pardoning him :(
[QUOTE=skynrdfan3;32420549]why can't they give a reason for not pardoning him :([/QUOTE]
cough he's black cough
Shit is tragic. Frankly, I'm ashamed of the American "justice" system.
Simple solution, just stop killing people, and keep them in prison. It costs less.
People who disagree have not done their research:
[QUOTE]Here is a specific example: In New York State, the average annual cost to incarcerate someone not on death row is about $35,000 per year. On the other hand, in the years since 1995, when New York State brought back a death penalty law, 7 people were sentenced to death, none had more than one appeal and 3 had not even had their first appeal. New York shelled out well over $200,000,000 for its capital punishment system since 1995. Assuming each of the 7 men lives for 40 years the cost to incarcerate all of them for life would be under 10 million dollars.[/QUOTE]
[QUOTE=TH89;32420595][media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTEbSU1xTdQ[/media][/QUOTE]
I've been using their music to quote certain situations far too often lately, it has me a little worried.
its wunderbar
[QUOTE=Atlascore;32420624]So is about half (give or take) of the south.
What's your point?[/QUOTE]
The people who convicted him weren't?
[QUOTE=TH89;32420657]The people who convicted him weren't?[/QUOTE]
oh i guess we live in a world where you need to be convicted by people of the same race
was [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_Michael_Woods,_Jr."]this man [/URL]executed because he was white?
Does anyone know if the published opinions of the Supreme court are available yet and where? I'd really like to read them.
This is so fucked.
I used to think the US Justice system was fine, but reading this makes me think of how shitty those people are who actually work in that tyrannical system of work.
They can get fucked.
This is one of the biggest reasons why the death penalty is stupid.
[QUOTE=Atlascore;32420624]So is about half (give or take) of the south.
What's your point?[/QUOTE]
Are you not aware of the race discrepancy of death row inmates? 41% of death row inmates are black despite only being 12% of the population. Also, 80% of those executed were executed for crimes involving white victims.
[QUOTE=Atlascore;32420748]In case you haven't noticed it's 2011.[/QUOTE]
Not in Georgia.
it's 2011 that obviously means there can't be racism we're in the 21st century ~~
[QUOTE=HolyCrusade;32420708]oh i guess we live in a world where you need to be convicted by people of the same race
was [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_Michael_Woods,_Jr."]this man [/URL]executed because he was white?[/QUOTE]
Um...
[quote=the ACLU]For many years reports from around the country have found that a pervasive racial prejudice in the application of the death penalty exists.
In January 2003, researchers at the University of Maryland concluded in a study commissioned by the Maryland Governor that defendants are much more likely to be sentenced to death if they have killed a white person.
In August 2001, the New Jersey Supreme Court released a report which also found that the state's death penalty law is more likely to proceed against defendants who kill white victims. [/quote]
[quote=The Oregon Law Review]Before Batson, prosecutors routinely struck black jurors based purely on racism, or gross racial prejudice and generalizations. The history of criminal prosecution in Dallas County, Texas, is illustrative of this point. The prosecutor’s office in Dallas County prepared a jury selection instruction book that included the following instruction: “Do not take Jews, Negroes, Dagos, Mexicans or a member of any minority race on a jury no matter how rich or well educated.” [FN46] Even once the instruction manual was revised to remove the explicitly racist terms, prosecutors were still advised to eliminate “any member of a minority group” from a petit jury. [FN47]
While such blatant and outrageous instructions now seem to be a relic of the past, existing statistical evidence reveals the continuing disproportionate use of peremptory challenges to remove blacks from the venire. [FN48] As one commentator has explained, *25 “the discriminatory use of peremptory challenges is the single most significant means by which racial prejudice and bias are injected into the jury selection system.” [FN49]
[url]http://www.law.uoregon.edu/org/olr/archives/81/81_Or_L_Rev_15.pdf[/url][/quote]
you don't have to be a skinhead to have subconscious racist tendencies
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