I’m going to be honest. I only began reading articles about Troy Davis in the last few days. I’m no expert on this case. But from what I have read I have come to the conclusion that the preponderance of the evidence is that he is innocent, and there is absolutely no question that there is a reasonable doubt about his guilt. Yesterday, the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles inexplicably decided to deny him clemency, and he is scheduled to die at seven o’clock tonight.
A condemned man set to be executed by lethal injection on Wednesday for killing a Georgia police officer in a high-profile case wants a polygraph test in a last-ditch bid to show his innocence, Amnesty International USA said.
Troy Davis’ case has attracted international attention and an online protest that has accumulated nearly one million signatures because of doubts expressed in some quarters over whether he killed police officer Mark MacPhail in 1989.
Davis’ best hope of avoiding execution, set for 7 p.m. local time on Wednesday, lay with the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles but on Tuesday it denied him clemency following a one-day hearing.
“Troy is so insistent of his innocence that he is willing to take a polygraph. I think it’s a bit of a risky strategy. Polygraph tests are not the most solid type of evidence,” said Laura Moye, a spokeswoman for Amnesty.
I don’t think Laura Moye understands the concept of a ‘risky strategy.’ Her statement makes no sense unless she is thinking only of his posterity. There is no physical evidence linking Davis to the crime. All but two of the eyewitnesses who placed him at the scene have recanted their testimony, blaming coercion by the police. One of the others has actually privately confessed to being the murderer. The attorney general who tried the case has said that if he had it do all over again he wouldn’t charge Davis with a capital crime. And several of the jurors have said that they wouldn’t have convicted him if they knew what they know now.
The New York Times details problems with how the police conducted the investigation, including how they did the lineup where eyewitnesses identified Davis from a crowd.
The Savannah police contaminated the memories of four witnesses by re-enacting the crime with them present so that their individual perceptions were turned into a group one. The police showed some of the witnesses Mr. Davis’s photograph even before the lineup. His lineup picture was set apart by a different background. The lineup was also administered by a police officer involved in the investigation, increasing the potential for influencing the witnesses.
Under these circumstances, it would be surprising if Davis was actually the right guy. And, yet, none of these troubling circumstances were enough to convince the parole board to spare his life. His attorneys are filing one more appeal this morning in in the Butts County Superior Court.
Georgia is at real risk of executing an innocent man.
One of the major positive achievements of George Ryan as Governor of Illinois was putting all death sentences on hold due to real questions about the possibility of executing an innocent person after evidence turned up to exonerate a few of the sentenced persons. Now, the death penalty is gone from Illinois.
When I was growing up I was taught that the American justice system was based on the principle that it is better that 100 guilty people go free than one innocent man be imprisoned. It didn’t work in practice, obviously, but this case is so abhorrent that to allow the execution to take place under this cloud calls into question the very meaning of the word justice.
I can’t see the harm in keeping this man in prison. Even that seems highly questionable to me.
And when even imprisonment is questionable, how much more so is execution. I don’t believe in the death penalty, but since it exists, there should never be a shadow of a doubt as to the legitimacy of the guilt of the person being executed.
My recollection of George Ryan and the folks on death row in Illinois is:
There were 25 people on Death Row in Illinois when Governor Ryan suspended all executions. Subsequent investigations exonerated 13 of the 25. Prosecutorial misconduct, police lying under oath, incompetent defense counsel were some of the reasons the people were set free.
Amnesty International has a page with phone numbers and emails you can send. I’ve been trying to get through on the phones but all I’m getting is busy signals, so hopefully that’s a good sign!
I keep thinking that after Troy Davis is dead, then they will find out he was innocent.
The death penalty need to be abolished.
Obviously in the Georgia culture executing an innocent man is not a risk, it’s an opportunity.
Could the Federal Government stop this or what? Does the President of Congress have any powers to use? Pardon him maybe? Letting an innocent man die is Fd up.
Nope. It’s completely out of the president’s or the Congress’s jurisdiction.
The system is rigged. The prosecutor does not care about guilt or innocence. S/he just wants a conviction. And once a conviction is obtained, the prosecutor will fight like hell to keep it from being over turned.