GA - Troy Davis fails to prove his innocence to Supreme Court

believe09

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This case is eye opening and a must read for those who are both proponents of the death penalty and against the death penalty, IMO.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100824/ts_alt_afp/usjusticeexecutiondavis

Mr. Davis was convicted in 1989 of shooting to death a GA police officer. Since that time, 7 of the 9 witnesses against him have recanted their testimony by stating they were coerced by police to place Davis at the scene of the shooting. There was no physical evidence that placed him at the scene.

snip
Even if Davis had proved his innocence, the law was unresolved on whether that would have saved him from the death penalty if his original prosecution did not violate constitutional fair trial standards.
snip

Come again??
 
This case is eye opening and a must read for those who are both proponents of the death penalty and against the death penalty, IMO.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100824/ts_alt_afp/usjusticeexecutiondavis

Mr. Davis was convicted in 1989 of shooting to death a GA police officer. Since that time, 7 of the 9 witnesses against him have recanted their testimony by stating they were coerced by police to place Davis at the scene of the shooting. There was no physical evidence that placed him at the scene.

snip
Even if Davis had proved his innocence, the law was unresolved on whether that would have saved him from the death penalty if his original prosecution did not violate constitutional fair trial standards.
snip

Come again??


"The court concludes that while executing an innocent person would violate the United States constitution, Mr. Davis has failed to prove his innocence," a judge on the court in Savannah wrote.

This case is disgusting on many levels, starting with police officers who would coerce false witnesses to accuse someone of murder, but you know what really burns me up?

That statement I quoted from the article has me sitting here with a dropped jaw and a bruised sense of belief in our justice system. If a judge on the Georgia Supreme Court is stupid enough to believe that someone must prove their innocence rather than the state prove guilt, we are in a bad, bad spot. It is a constitutional right to be assumed innocent until proven guilty. This man's problem was that he was found guilty due to the lies of nine men, and the GSC should have overturned the verdict because if the witnesses lied, then he was hardly "proven guilty."

I don't know if this man is innocent or guilty, but I do know there were serious problems with the prosecution of the case, and JUSTICE deserves better than this.

It is cases like this that have forced me to come to the knowledge that our justice system is way too flawed to be trusted with the right to inflict the death penalty.
 
Troy Davis case

[ame]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troy_Anthony_Davis[/ame]
 
http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/08/24/georgia.death.row.denial/

"Mr. Davis vastly overstates the value of his evidence of innocence. ... Some of the evidence is not credible and would be disregarded by a reasonable juror. ... Other evidence that Mr. Davis brought forward is too general to provide anything more than smoke and mirrors," the court found.

Outrageous!

Davis can still appeal to the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, and if that fails, to the Supreme Court again.

The Innocence Project (Scheck, Neufeld, et al) has been tracking this case and providing updates.

http://www.innocenceproject.org/news/Blog.php
 
Quote from Yahoo article.

"Even if Davis had proved his innocence, the law was unresolved on whether that would have saved him from the death penalty if his original prosecution did not violate constitutional fair trial standards."

How could the original prosecution NOT violate fair trial standards. The witnesses lied. They have said they lied. And, EVEN IF DAVIS HAD PROVED HIS INNOCENCE< WTF is that? If he had proved his innocence, he would have won the appeal!! It would have had to save him from the death penalty! Right?!?!?!?
Why do so many appeals just seem to be about who can cover their butt the most, not about the lives they are trying to take?
I am so literally sick of LE and Prosecutors who cannot admit they made a mistake.
This makes me want to cry.
 
Why is it ok for the DA to suggest that the witness' recantations were coerced, but of course the original statements were not coerced? We have all seen too many times where witnesses are threatened with charges if they do not cooperate.
Mr. Davis' attorneys seem to have been negligent in the first trial and also in the hearing on the appeal.
jmo
 
Where do we live again? It amazes me that people who are found innocent through DNA testing, or recanting witness testimony are still behind bars.
 
...snip
Even if Davis had proved his innocence, the law was unresolved on whether that would have saved him from the death penalty if his original prosecution did not violate constitutional fair trial standards.
snip

Come again??

Our lovely Supreme Court has made at least one ruling that seems to say it is constitutional to execute the innocent unless they can prove their trial was flawed. (I know, I know: one would think that the fact that they are innocent would be proof of a flawed trial, but that's not what SCOTUS ruled in the past.)

ETA: For what it's worth, the appellate judge in Davis' case did NOT read the law that way. He wrote that IF Davis had proved his innocence, he could NOT be executed, BUT he ruled that Davis had failed to do so.
 
I think there should never be convictions based on eyewitness testimony alone. They are much too flawed, and the majority of overturned cases (those now proven innocent by DNA evidence after years in prison) were mostly convicted on eyewitness testimony alone.
 
I think there should never be convictions based on eyewitness testimony alone. They are much too flawed, and the majority of overturned cases (those now proven innocent by DNA evidence after years in prison) were mostly convicted on eyewitness testimony alone.

I could not agree more. Even in the cases of confessions, far too many turn out to be coerced. I think the prosecutor should have to provide circumstantial evidence to back up any confessions or eyewitness testimony.

As for the death penalty, however, I have always opposed it on ethnical grounds. But at this point, it is obvious our system is too error-prone to be trusted to deal out the "ultimate" punishment. Ever.
 
I hope something is done before it's too late!

http://www.ajc.com/news/atlanta/parole-board-swamped-with-1181870.html

Davis is scheduled to be put to death by lethal injection at the state prison in Jackson on Wednesday at 7 p.m. He recently declined to request a special last meal, the Department of Corrections said. Instead, he will be offered the prison's meal tray, consisting of grilled cheeseburgers, oven-browned potatoes, baked beans, coleslaw, cookies and a grape drink.
 
So this is the third time he has been within hours of execution? That is extremely cruel.
I understand that this is hard on the victim's family. It is hard on all involved. I just wish they would even entertain the thought that maybe Davis is innocent of this murder. How can they be so sure after all of the eyewitness accounts that are being taken back? Do they really want an innocent man executed? And, what about the other man that some think did it? Is it OK for him to be walking free? This case is screwed up.
 
(BBM)
So this is the third time he has been within hours of execution? That is extremely cruel.
I understand that this is hard on the victim's family. It is hard on all involved. I just wish they would even entertain the thought that maybe Davis is innocent of this murder. How can they be so sure after all of the eyewitness accounts that are being taken back? Do they really want an innocent man executed? And, what about the other man that some think did it? Is it OK for him to be walking free? This case is screwed up.

Most likely because LE is (re)assuring them that they got the right man. Shame on them... JMO
 
I'm ashamed for our country when someone has to 'prove innocence.' :no:
 
From what I understood about this case was that there are two eye witnesses who have NEVER recanted. The Prosecutor also has some evidence of bloody clothing found at Davis's mother's home that was not allowed as evidence into the original trial because they did not have a proper search warrant.

If he were given a new trial, those recanted witnesses would not testify, but the other two who stuck with their story would. It seems weird to me that after all this time (20 years) that they never came forward to recant. The court ruled those witnesses were not credible.

Also, the bullet casings are evidence and this guy is a career criminal and was a felon when he committed this crime.


_______________________________

Troy Anthony Davis failed to prove his innocence in the 1989 slaying of off-duty Savannah police officer Mark Allen MacPhail and will not get a new trial, a federal judge ruled today.

&#8220;Mr. Davis is not innocent,&#8217;&#8217; U.S. District Judge William T. Moore Jr. ruled in a 172-page order.
http://savannahnow.com/troy-davis/2010-08-24/judge-troy-davis-not-innocent-macphail-murder


Begin reading at page 166 in the court's opinion
Balancing of All of the Evidence
http://multimedia.savannahnow.com/media/pdfs/DavisRuling082410.pdf

((I also thought this was interesting too. I know defense attorney's are suppose to create doubt, but these guys are over the top.))


A federal judge today rejected reconsideration of evidence for Troy Anthony Davis, ruling his lawyers did not provide the court with a &#8220;record on which the most accurate determination could be made.&#8217;&#8217;

Those lawyers were &#8220;attempting... to create an incomplete and deceptive record, perverting the purpose of the rule,&#8217;&#8217; U.S. District Judge William T. Moore Jr. ruled in a three-page order.

&#8220;By intentionally presenting unreliable hearsay while keeping the (witness) out of court, (Davis) was seeking to prevent the court from receiving all of the evidence,&#8217;&#8217; Moore ruled.
http://savannahnow.com/troy-davis/2010-08-12/troy-davis-bid-re-open-hearing-rejected
 
Even if Davis had proved his innocence, the law was unresolved on whether that would have saved him from the death penalty if his original prosecution did not violate constitutional fair trial standards.
snip

Come again??

Respectfully snipped by me for relevance...

Perhaps I can shed a little light on this, having volunteered on several Innocence Project cases in the Commonwealth of Virginia.

Each state (and the federal government) has something called Procedural Rules and these rules have NOTHING whatsoever to do with innocence or facts in the case. If a person is taken to trial, sometimes the jury doesn't always get it right (See Casey Anthony Trial ;)). When the jury does not get it right, the burden of proof is no longer on the state and now shifts to the defendant. However, the defendant needs, not only to prove their innocence, but they must also get around whatever procedural rules are in place.

I admit up front that the procedural rules in GA are something that I am unfamiliar with, but just to give an example, one of the procedural rules in Virginia is Rule 1.1 of the Virginia Supreme Court, also known as the 21 day rule, which states:

"All final judgments, orders and decrees, irrespective of court, shall remain under the control of the trial court and subject to be modified, vacated, or suspended, for twenty-one days after the date of entry, and no longer. Notwithstanding the finality of the judgment, in a criminal case the trial court may postpone execution of the sentence in order to give the accused an opportunity to apply for a writ of error and supersedes such postponement, however, shall not extend the time limits hereinafter prescribed for applying for a writ of error. The date of entry of any final judgment, order or decree shall be the date the judgment, order or decree is signed by the judge."

In a nutshell, without the legal mumbo-jumbo, this means that if there is evidence that proves your innocence then you must find it and have it submitted to the original trial court within 21 days of your conviction. Anything that is discovered after that 21 days is inadmissible in court and forever barred from judicial review. You could be convicted of a murder, sentenced to death and if someone comes in on day number 22 and admits that they committed the crime and gives details that would only be known to the killer, that you did not know...you are sadly out of luck. The US Supreme Court is not even allowed to look at your evidence, because the appeals courts and the state and US Supreme Court are not allowed to look at anything that was not reviewed by the original trial court, which loses jurisdiction (meaning they lose the right to look) after the 21 days have passed.

Recently, there was a case here where two people were convicted of a murder. They each gave a different version of the events and blamed each other for the crime. Years later, one of the defendants claimed to have found God in prison and although he could care less if his former friend spent the rest of his life in prison, he had to come forward so that he could get right with God. He confessed fully to both the murder and framing the other defendant and the story he gave in his new confession matched the original story given by the other defendant. We have since changed the laws to allow a defendant one shot to prove their innocence, however, his request was denied because the VA Supreme court claimed that the innocent defendant could have had nefarious intent to do something to the person later on in the night had she not already been killed. They claimed that the guilty defendant's admission to the entire thing did not mean that a reasonable juror would not have thought that the innocent one might not have been guilty of something else that he wasn't even charged for and therefore, he was still guilty of felony murder and would sit there for the 82 years he was sentenced to--which I might add was 10 more years that the guilty defendant.

We actually used to have an attorney general here who said "Evidence of Innocence is irrelevant!" when speaking of a death row inmate whose evidence of innocence was found more than 21 days after trial.

Like I said above, this is just an example, because I don't know the procedural rules in GA. This is just to show how these things sometimes happen. There are procedural rules in every state that could cause an innocent person to languish in prison for year, if not be executed. Sometimes procedure trumps justice. This is why court appointed attorneys should have lighter cases loads and be able to investigate all of the evidence thoroughly before trial.
 
No code of conduct was breached...so he is due to die on Wednesday because there is no reason to stay his execution.

Well there is that little thing regarding his possible innocence, but again no legal reason to prevent his execution.

:( I am so sorry for all involved.
 

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