Troy Davis - Guilty or Innocent?
 

Troy Davis is scheduled for execution this week. He states he is innocent. There are many who have been working and continue to work toward keeping him from execution and getting him freed. I don't know enough about the case to feel confident about his innocence or guilt. So I'm trying to research the information that's out there. Is anybody else following this case? I'm hoping to use this thread to post info as I find it. It's a lot to sort through so if anybody has been studying this case, I'd love to know your take. I don't believe in the death penalty and I have little faith in our justice system - especially when the convicted is a black man in a Southern court - so my bias is strong in the direction of not executing him. However, I would really like to try to evaluate the evidence available without my feelings taking the front seat.

A statement from Troy Davis

Statement by Troy Davis' mom

I am anti-death penalty and hope the execution is not carried out.

Victim's Mother Talks About Troy Davis Execution


ATLANTA - The mother of a murdered police officer talks to FOX 5 about the case against death row inmate Troy Davis, his impending execution and the hundreds of thousands of people asking Georgia to spare his life.

The mother of a Savannah police officer shot and killed 22 years ago is speaking out about the effort to stay the execution of his killer.

Supporters of Troy Davis say the Georgia parole board should spare the convicted murderer’s life because of new evidence, but Mark MacPhail's mother tells FOX 5 she believes the right man has been convicted.

For more than a decade, Annelise MacPhail says she and her family stayed silent about Davis and his efforts to overturn his murder conviction.

She says she is speaking now out to ensure there is justice for her murdered son.

“They make it look like we after blood, but we are not. We are after justice,” Anneliese MacPhail said.

It's been 22 years since Anneliese MacPhail's son Mark was shot and killed on the job as a Savannah police officer.

Twenty years ago, Troy Davis was convicted of the murder and sentenced to death.

“My son was a young man with a young family,” Anneliese McPhail said. “My grandson was just seven weeks old, my granddaughter just 24 months. He was just starting his life and he was just doing his job.”

On the day that Troy Davis supporters delivered 600,000 signatures asking that his life be spared to the Georgia parole board, Anneliese MacPhail says she believes her son and his violent murder are being forgotten.

“I'm disgusted. I love to ask them when was the last time one of their sons got shot and killed and murdered,” MacPhail said.

Davis was also convicted of shooting another man that night. His supporters say witnesses have recanted and changed their testimony, but after hearing the new evidence a federal judge last summer said it was not enough to overturn a murder conviction.

MacPhail said she never doubted Davis' guilt.

His whole family will travel to Atlanta on Monday for Troy Davis' clemency hearing before his scheduled Wednesday execution.

“I really don't know what to expect next week. It has happened so many times. The last time it was an hour before he was supposed to be executed,” MacPhail said.

MacPhail said if the execution takes place as scheduled, it would give her some peace, but not closure.

“That hole in my heart will be there until the day I die, but it may give me some peace and quiet. That is really what I would like to have," MacPhail said.

MacPhail says she feels like with all the international attention on Davis and his legal battles, the loss of her son and the pain of her family are being overlooked.

Nat,

I have been following his case as well. I am absolutely 100% against the death penalty, for reasons such as this. New evidence has come into play - there is a really really STRONG and probable case this man is innocent and has been wrongly incarcerated all of these years - MY GOD! Now, whether or not the pride of the justice system will allow it all to come forward, is another question.

I pray this man is found innocent and does not get executed.

Julie

Here is the information from Amnesty - as well as the petition to take action and stop Troy's execution.

http://takeaction.amnestyusa.org/sit...rce=WPSGTL2970

Remember there was NO physical evidence. There was simply witness testimony. He was SO YOUNG!

Julie

Bloodied shorts among Davis hearing evidence (article from over a year ago)

Physical evidence prosecutors were barred from presenting at Troy Anthony Davis' 1991 murder trial will be allowed this week before a federal judge hearing defense claims of innocence.

U.S. District Judge William T. Moore Jr.'s ruling allowing the state to use two Georgia Bureau of Investigation reports on a pair of blood-stained black shorts seized from Davis' mother's home comes days before he is to begin hearings Wednesday to allow Davis' lawyers to try and show that evidence not available at his 1991 trial would have convinced a jury to acquit him.

Moore must find that new defense evidence "clearly establishes (Davis') innocence."

The hearing, mandated by the U.S. Supreme Court last summer, requires that Davis prove his innocence, a reversal of the standard defendant's presumption of innocence.

It tests whether it is unconstitutional to execute an innocent person.

Davis, 38, was convicted in Chatham County Superior Court Aug. 28, 1991, for murder in the 1989 slaying of off-duty Savannah police officer Mark Allen MacPhail.

Davis was sentenced to death, and state and federal courts have repeatedly upheld the verdict and sentence.

Defense attorneys contend those rulings were on technicalities and have fought to get a court to hear what they say is new evidence pointing to Davis's possible innocence.

Black shorts evidence

After months of wrangling over evidence and legal issues, attorneys for the state's attorney general's office last week asked permission to submit Georgia Bureau of Investigation reports concerning "blood examination on pair of black shorts recovered from (Davis') mother's home on Aug. 19, 1989."

They also asked to submit a report of DNA typing of the item.

Davis' lawyers cried foul, urging Moore not to allow the evidence which they called "untimely" and "of questionable probative value."

They argued it would "clearly prejudice" (Davis') ability to rebut the contents of the report.

The jury hearing Davis' 1991 trial never heard about the shorts after Chatham County Superior Court Judge James W. Head barred them from evidence because of what he found was police coercion of Davis' mother, Virginia Davis, when she arrived near her Sylvester Drive home Aug. 19, 1989.

Police seized the shorts from a dryer while searching for the murder weapon.

The Georgia Supreme Court affirmed the ruling.

Davis' lawyers argue six of the nine witnesses who testified against the defendant have recanted their testimony and a seventh contradicted her's.

They blame police coercion for a number of those changes in testimony.

Davis' team is expected to produce 14 witnesses - including those who have changed their trial testimony - and produce 24 exhibits to support claims that Davis is the victim of mistaken identity.

http://www.thenation.com/article/154...e-claim-denied

Davis sits on death row for the murder of Savannah police officer Mark MacPhail, who was gunned down with a .38 caliber weapon in the early morning hours of August 19, 1989, as MacPhail ran to assist a homeless man named Larry Young, who was being pistol-whipped in a parking lot. Davis was convicted based solely on eyewitness testimony, a fact that has given rise to many of the "crucial, unanswered questions" in his case: seven of the nine eyewitnesses later recanted. One who did not was Sylvester "Redd" Coles, who had been seen arguing with Young that night and who implicated Davis the day after the murder. After Davis was arrested, it emerged that Coles had a .38 caliber pistol the night of the murder.

.....

Davis's image was already splashed all over the media and on "Wanted" posters before eyewitnesses were asked to identify MacPhail's killer in a photo spread that included him but did not include anyone else who had been at the scene of the crime, including Coles. In fact, after he implicated Davis, Coles was included in a re-enactment of the crime as a witness rather than a suspect. If this was not "smoke and mirrors," it was, at the very least, inexcusably suggestive, tainting the identification of Davis.

I am vehemently against the death penalty. I don't feel as though it is a practice that reflects a mature,intellectually aware, and Democratic society. That being said, I am not a victim of violent crime... where someone I love has been tortured and brutalized and ultimately killed (which is the only scenario I can imagine the death penalty being at all warranted). However, I still think it is a brutal practice and shows little ability on societies part to rise above to a greater standard of conduct. It is ok for me to pay tax dollars to maintain someone in prison for the rest of their natural lives and suffer the consequences of the conditions there if they are indeed guilty. It is a complicated situation when a society is trying to find a solution to guilt.

I am aware this case is going on... but I have no knowledge of the details so I cannot really express an opinion on it... except to say I think the Death Penalty needs to go away....

Interview with Troy Davis' oldest sister

I guess my main question is about the bloody shorts found in the dryer because if he's innocent as he claims, it seems like he would want DNA typing results to be known.

http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/wa....Mark.MacPhail



Clemency Denied:Reaction From Families of Troy Davis & Mark MacPhail
Rose Scott (2011-09-20)
Listen Now:

ATLANTA, GA (WABE) -
The Georgia State Board of Pardons and Paroles has denied clemency to death row inmate Troy Davis.
Davis was convicted in 1991 for the shooting death of Savannah police officer Mark MacPhail whom was working off duty at the time.
The board's decision was met with relief from the MacPhail family and sadness from Davis'.
WABE's Rose Scott has more.

It was clear Martina Correia was devastated by the board's decision to deny clemency to her brother.
When reached by phone within the hour of the decision, Correria tried to express her family's reaction.

"I'm just outraged because it's like it doesn't matter what we wanted to present, it's almost like they already had their mind fixated on what the outcome was going to be"

I'm just outraged because it's like it doesn't matter what we wanted to present, it's almost like they already had their mind fixated on what the outcome was going to be

Correia went on to say that she and other family members were preparing to leave Atlanta to visit with Troy Davis before his scheduled execution.

The MacPhail family had a different reaction to the news.
Mark MacPhail Jr, is the slain officer's son.

" we were expecting this, it's right, it's justice, the board looks at the facts and all the facts were there, all the facts say Troy Anthony Davis is guilty"

MacPhail Jr says he and his family members will be present for Davis' execution but he also admits.

"it's going to be tough, yes this is the man that killed my father but he's still a man and we are going to watch him be put to death and that is tough cause it's a human life but, in the law of case that his punishment"

Troy Davis is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection at 7pm Wednesday evening at the state prison in Jackson.

This is truly a travesty and an injustice.
My heart breaks for Troy and his family.

It does not matter that an innocent man will be put to death.
As long as the family of the victim... Has justice.

Who is the victim now?

Truly... I am just so sad.

Georgia uses pentobarbital to murder people. It's an animal tranquilizer not approved for use in humans. Even the manufacturer says it should not be used. The reason is sodium pentathol (the approved drug for state sanctioned murder) is no longer manufactured anywhere in the world.

No state sanctioned murder, period, ever for anyone. It makes us barbarians.

Rick Perry (Gov TX) has murdered 235 people in his time as governor, one of them innocent, and he is very proud of it.

ps: I think I got the name of the drugs correct....I saw this on the news last night.

A lawyer friend of mine says that he'd like to see us change the death penalty in this way. If you are convicted beyond a reasonable doubt then you *can't* get the death penalty. If, on the other hand, you are convicted beyond ANY doubt you can get the death penalty.

So what is beyond any doubt? You are caught, red-handed, with the smoking gun in your hand on CNN or your DNA is all over the crime scene and you are caught on camera. Basically, if someone would have to invent something worthy of a Harry Potter novel in order to plant reasonable doubt in the mind of a juror then if the crime is heinous then that defendant is eligible for the death penalty.

I am not opposed to the death penalty in and of itself. I am opposed to US using the death penalty at this point in our cultural development because we seem to want it too bad. We seem to have no real appreciation--as a culture--for the gravity of the power we have in our hands. When people can cheer a governor who has presided over the death of 234 people in his state in 10 years (that's averaging slightly less than 2 per month) and we know that *at least* one of them was innocent then we have shown ourselves unworthy of the responsibility of administering the death penalty. Only civilized nations should be able to execute criminals and civilized nations recognize two things:

1) Taking the life of a criminal is still taking the life of a human being
2) Better to keep a guilty man in prison for 10 human lifetimes, than it is to take the life of one innocent man.

We do not understand the first and disturbingly large numbers of us disagree with the second.

Cheers
Aj

Troy Davis' request for polygraph denied.

The judge in my sig line has neither a working phone line nor fax line. The governor of Georgia's phone is busy but fax went through. His fax is 404-657-7332. Obama's is 202-456-2461.

Nat???

I believe he is innocent and my heart hurts to hear or read accounts of human suffering such as Troy Davis'.

My oldest son (a decorated vet, now rendered undecorated for his valorous behaviors in service due to his current imprisonment), is now serving time in prison for a crime he did not commit... I cannot even articulate the pain I feel for my son or others like him who have been wrongfully adjudicated by the (human) system currently in place.

For the record:

I do not support the death penalty.

I would write more but Troy Davis' situation hits too close to home.

Have to say that the governor of Georgia does not have authority to either stop or do anything as an executive to influence this execution. In GA, the pardons board has full authority over this, not the governor. Not all states give clemency/pardon authority to the governor. Now, it does seem to me that the governor in GA might have some other avenue in terms of investigating any possible "tampering" of this Pardon's Board, if for example there is any evidence that the fact that this was the killing of a police officer has any bearing on the boards decision. Each state has different appeal protocols as well. From 1975 to 2003 Georgia governors have been Democrats. So, for the bulk of time that Mr. Davis has been incarcerated and was convicted, there was a Democrat as Governor. Wonder about this Pardons Board.

I have no idea if this man is guilty of this crime. I have followed this case somewhat over a few years in terms of it getting media attention. I do feel that there has been enough about the initial investigation, the number of witness recantations, a possible confession of another person, data on eye witness testimony not being very accurate at all, to put this case into a re-trial stance. I don't understand why this never happened (or am I wrong about his never being re-tried?). Also, there are some problems with witnesses being only shown one photo of this suspect- not a photo among at least 5 other people with similar features. That right there would put me to a place of throwing out the verdict and a new trial being ordered if I were an appeals judge.

I do support the death penalty for some types of crimes, and view it as a just punishment- and as cold as this sounds, I don't care about the drug cocktail and any suffering. I also know that my years working with victims of violent sexual crimes, including against children has a whole lot to do with my feelings.

But, there is no way I can support this execution. I do not believe this man received a fair trial with an impartial jury of his peers. I keep hoping that a "last minute" stay is ordered and he is re-tried. I keep thinking that even in GA, that if the executive powers of the governor’s office was one in which this was on the single conscience of that executive (due to the preponderance of screw-ups in the investigation and even a GOP in this office), this would a very different set of circumstances at this point. Then again, I have to think about the “blue wall” and the police in cases in which an officer is killed. This does not mean I do not feel for this officer’s family. I do.

I don’t think that even as someone losing a loved one via murder, I could rest easy knowing that there is substantial evidence pointing to innocence of Troy Davis. I would want to know the truth and that the right person was being executed. Although, this murder is not among the type I support the death penalty for even if guilty.

This is one of those cases in which our judicial systems loses.

The us supreme court has at the last minute delayed the execution while the facts are reviewed.

I believe this man is absolutely innocent without a shadow of doubt in my mind. He has been on my mind all day long and am so relieved that he has received a temporary stay. I personally believe in God and can only hope that whatever is up there somehow has some kind of divine intervention in mind.

Twenty two years 16 of them on death row and he still has faith that justice will prevail. I have followed this case for years and hope ultimately he will be exonerated and that the state will have to admit they are wrong. I also hope in all this the police involved as well as the DA for this case is held accountable for their shady dealings

If I am not mistaken it could not have been used in a new trial so I suppose that doesn't really matter.

:( just read that.

[Updated at 10:55 p.m.] Davis’ execution is expected to begin between 11:05 to 11:10 p.m. ET, the Georgia Department of Corrections says.

Basically if it's not over yet it will be in the next two minutes.

updated 1 minute ago
Georgia executes Troy Davis after his last pleas fail

"To All:



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!”



Never Stop Fighting for Justice and We will Win!"

Wow and once again our justice system has failed...another reason for either repeal or reform of the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 needs to be addressed.

Coretta Scott King:
"As one whose husband and mother-in-law have died the victims of murder and assassination, I stand firmly and unequivocally opposed to the death penalty for those convicted of capital offenses," she said. "An evil deed is not redeemed by an evil deed of retaliation. Justice is never advanced in the taking of a human life. Morality is never upheld by a legalized murder".