Posted on 09/20/2011 9:17:53 PM PDT by americanophile
ATLANTA (AP) — Yet another appeal denied, Troy Davis was left with little to do Tuesday but wait to be executed for a murder he insists he did not commit.
He lost his most realistic chance to avoid lethal injection on Tuesday, when Georgia's pardons board rejected his appeal for clemency. As his scheduled 7 p.m. Wednesday execution neared, his backers resorted to far-fetched measures. They asked prisons officials to let him to take a polygraph test; urged prison workers to strike or call in sick; asked prosecutors to block the execution and they even considered a desperate appeal for White House intervention.
He has gotten support from hundreds of thousands of people, including a former FBI director, former President Jimmy Carter and Pope Benedict XVI, and a U.S. Supreme Court ruling gave him an unusual opportunity to prove his innocence last year. State and federal courts, however, repeatedly upheld his conviction for the 1989 killing of Mark MacPhail, an off-duty police officer who was working as a security guard in Savannah when he was shot dead rushing to help a homeless man who was being attacked.
(Excerpt) Read more at google.com ...
Troy Anthony Davis was sentenced to death for the murder of Savannah police officer Mark Allen MacPhail in 1989. On August 19, 1989, Troy Anthony Davis was at a Burger King restaurant with friends and and struck a homeless man named Larry Young in the head with a pistol when Young refused to give a beer to one of Davis’s friends. Officer MacPhail, who was working an off-duty security detail at the Greyhound bus terminal next door, heard Young cry out and responded to the disturbance. Davis fled and, when Officer MacPhail, wearing his full police uniform, ordered him to stop, Davis turned and shot the officer in the right thigh and chest. Although Mark MacPhail was wearing a bullet-proof vest, his sides were not protected and the bullet entered the left side of his chest, penetrating his left lung and his aorta, stopping at the back of his chest cavity. Davis, smiling, walked up to the stricken officer and shot him in the face as he lay dying in the parking lot. The officer’s gun was still strapped in his holster and his baton was still on his belt. Davis fled to Atlanta and a massive manhunt ensued. The next afternoon, Davis told a friend that he had been involved in an argument at the restaurant the previous evening and struck someone with a gun. He told the friend that when a police officer ran up, Davis shot him and that he went to the officer and “finished the job” because he knew the officer got a good look at his face when he shot him the first time. After his arrest, Davis told a cellmate a similar story. He was arrested after surrendering a few days after the murder. Trial began exactly two years to the day of Officer MacPhail’s murder. This resulted in Davis’ conviction for murder after less than two hours of deliberation by the jury, and in the imposition of a death sentence after seven hours of deliberation. He was also convicted of obstruction of a law enforcement officer, aggravated assault and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony. One of the two counts of aggravated assault arose from an incident where Davis shot into a car that was leaving a party an hour before the murder of Officer MacPhail. Michael Cooper was struck in the head by a bullet, severely injuring him and leaving the bullet lodged in his jaw. Ballistics tests matched the shells from the murder of the police officer to shells found at a party earlier in the evening where Michael Cooper had been shot. Cooper identified Davis as the shooter. Even though the US Supreme Court rejected his final appeal without dissent in June of 2007, Davis received a 90-day stay from the state pardons and parole board just one day before his July 17, 2007 execution date. The stay was granted to examine claims by witnesses that they had given erroneous testimony or were no longer certain about their identification of Davis. Mark MacPhail’s son, 18-year-old Mark Allen MacPhail Jr. spoke against the 2007 stay to members of the Board of Pardons and Parole. “I told them how it felt having him ripped away from me at such an early age. Picture having Father’s Day and having no one to give anything to,” MacPhail said he told the board. Anneliese MacPhail, mother of the slain officer, commented to a reporter after learning that Davis’s request for a new trial was denied in March 2008. “I wonder, what do all those witnesses remember after 18 years? There is no new evidence. No mother should go through what I have been through.” Mark’s wife Joan MacPhail said she has lost her best friend, the father of her two children and now her peace of mind as appeals for Davis have drawn on for almost two decades. “It’s like another punch in the stomach,” she said. “You have to relive that night over and over. That’s so wrong. Why shouldn’t we have peace in our lives?” About the changing witnesses, the Georgia Supreme Court stated that most of the witnesses who recanted “have merely stated they now do not feel able to identify the shooter.” The majority could not ignore the trial testimony, “and, in fact, we favor that original testimony over the new.” The son of a U.S. Army Ranger, Mark MacPhail was a graduate of Columbus High School in Georgia. His mother, Anne, still lives in Columbus, Georgia. Davis received another stay of execution before his September 23, 2008 execution date.
they are the same way with polls
hate them as a rule unless they go their way then by Jove polls are a thing of pure wonder
there are actually a few innocent folks in the joint and a fair amount over charged especially on drug cases in the Feds
i don’t know about this guy...let him have his polygraph
You got that right, brother...
Also, you can be guilty, believe your own BS and pass the polygraph.
Kind of like being crazy enough to believe your own lies.
Don’t know the situation here, but often you have something wrong upstairs to kill outside of war. Either through drugs or something else the brain is messed up and could in some cases say they are from Mars and pass the polygragh, so it isn’t that big a deal here.
Not really. From Judge Moore's order:
"To hear Mr. Davis tell it, this case involves credible, consistent recantations by seven of nine state witnesses. (Doc. 2 at 5-11.) However, this vastly overstates his evidence. Two of the recanting witnesses neither directly state that they lied at trial nor claim that their previous testimony was coerced. Supra Analysis Parts III.B.i (Antoine Williams), III.B.v (Harriet Murray). Two other recantations were impossible to believe, with a host of intrinsic reasons why their author's recantation could not be trusted, and the recantations were contradicted by credible,live testimony. Id. Parts III.B.iii (Jeffrey Sapp), III.R.iv (Darrell Collins). Two more recantations were intentionally and suspiciously offered in affidavit form rather than as live testimony, blocking any meaningful cross-examination by the state or credibility determination by this Court. Id. Parts III.B.vi (Dorothy Farrell), III.B.vii (Larry Young). Moreover, these affidavit recantations were contradicted by credible, live testimony. While these latter two recantations are not totally valueless, their import is greatly diminished by the suspicious way in which they were offered and the live, contrary testimony. Finally, Kevin McQueen's recantation is credible, but his testimony at trial was patently false, as evidenced by its several inconsistencies with the State's version of the events on the night in question. Id. Part III.Bii (Kevin McQueen). Accordingly, it is hard to believe Mr. McQueen's testimony at trial was important to the conviction, rendering his recantation of limited value. Ultimately, four of Mr. Davis's recantations do not diminish the State's case because a reasonable juror would disregard the recantation, not the earlier testimony; and the three others only minimally diminish the State's case. these affidavit recantations were contradicted by credible, live testimony."
Judge Moore discusses each of the purported "recantations" in detail in his order.
What is striking in this case is how many statements the police collected in the hours immediately following the shooting, the large number of witnesses to the event and the consistency and detail in these fresh witness statements.
* Because the sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil. Eccl. 8:11
Yes, absolutely. The prosecutor could tear someone apart on the stand, even if they are innocent, and make them look like the worst person in the world. To much of a case relies on the "gut feelings" of jurors.
Also, to be blunt, quite often, the defendants, guilty or innocent, in criminal cases, do not have the best backgrounds. This lets the prosecutor have a field day, just teeing off on them. Going back a couple of hundred years, the framers of the constitution realized this even back then, and its part of the reason we have the 5th amendment.
Looking at the entire story...at the very least, he at least knows who pulled the trigger, if it wasn’t him....which you’d think that he’d want to point fingers, but never does. So I’m not buying this story of his.
Why in the heck did it take 22 years to execute this cold-blooded murderer?
Did that answer your question?
I read some articles on this case and I agree with you. It seems to me like the original “witness” the guy who ran to the cops to turn this guy in, is a highly likely suspect.
Very, very rarely but not never. I believe the DP should be reserved for only those very rare cases. Again, death is not reversible. There are real-world cases where executed people have been found not-guilty when new evidence or the true perpetrator is discovered.
In those cases the person is dead and the state takes no responsibility. The state is far from perfect and final but death is. How do you not see this is a great failure in justice? These failures make me question the justice system far more than not executing enough people.
Think about it. If they are willing to wrongly kill someone without even an apology, do you think they care at all about wrongly locking you up?
“Videos can be doctored. Confessions can be coerced. Witnesses can be bribed.”
This is just a short list of the reasons for false convictions. There should be a set minimum number of independent witnesses and unquestionable independent pieces of forensic evidence to even consider death.
“You can explain to a father whose daughter was raped until she dies as to why the inmate,whose conviction is almost certain why he gets to live and others do not.”
Sure. Two wrongs do not make a right. Continuing a wrong does not make a right. “Almost certain” is not certain enough for death.
If my daughter was raped/killed, it would cause me additional life-long pain if I had any part in executing an innocent man. If there was ANY doubt, I would use all my power to not execute. I have a strong sense of honor, even if someone out there terribly wronged me. I would have to be 100.0000000% sure to recommend the execution of someone.
Personally, I believe life in prison to be a far worse punishment than death. Being forced to stay alive in a cage your entire life is far worse than falling asleep with a needle in your arm or getting shot. Hypothetically, if I was truly guilty of something so evil, I would demand death. If I was innocent, I would want to stay alive and hope to beat my conviction.
For a reversible and compensate-able punishment such as jail time, the burden should be a “reasonable doubt”. For death there should be NO DOUBT. Even one innocent person executed is forever a blight on the state and justice system.
The Judeo-Christian ethic demands that an accused is put on the same plane as the victim. To not be willing to mete out an equivalent punishment to the convicted runs against any sense of fairness.
I would rather run the risk of 1/100 accused of being wrongly convicted of a death penalty crime than have 100 percent of all murder victims having been given a worse punishment, for merely being innocent, than the convicted receives after having a fair and just trial.
Meh!
He's guilty.
Fry him,
Well, this is where we disagree. I was going to call you “Friend” but this is honestly one of the most disgusting posts I’ve ever read on here.
At least you are honest and admit you are OK with 1/100 executions being innocent people. You admit you are OK with punishing innocent people and creating another wrong. I, for one, would not be able to sleep at night having any part of it.
The rule of law is more important than the life of one man.
And that AGENDA is to sell laundry detergent.
The rules of evidence prevent many prior bad acts evidence from being admitted or asked about. The jurors are always going to think the defendant had something to hide if he doesn’t testify. Although I’m not a criminal attorney (only one criminal trial in my career), I’ve tried a few dozen cases — hundreds of jurors — and have a pretty good feel for how they behave.
My fiance happens to be a criminal defense attorney, before that, she was an ADA. One of the things she talked to me about, was what a mistake it is, for defense lawyers to put their clients on the stand (guilty or innocent).
There is also the whole issue with making the defendant look like a liar, by tripping him/her up on details when you hit them rapid fire, to the point, where you confuse them, while the jury thinks the defendant is trying to hide something.
There are tons of ways to make someone look bad on the stand, she has made it appear that cops are lying or hiding something, taken apart witnesses, and shredded "experts". A prosecutor that does that to a defendant, has pretty much won their case.
You also get into the 5th amendment side, the way she sees it, once someone invokes their 5th amendment, the jury takes it or acts like its a confession of wrong doing (even though they are not supposed to do so), and the whole point of anything is now wasted, and your guy looks guilty as sin, with nothing to show for it.
Sidenote: She actually once won a case, where her client attacked a lesbian couple during a gay pride parade, with hundreds of witnesses, I still can't believe she pulled that off.......lol
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