Troy Davis

Just yesterday this person was executed after over twenty years of trying to obtain appeal.

Thoughts?

SPEED UP | MISSILE | DOUBLE | LASER | MULTIPLE | ?

From what I've heard, there are only two witnesses from his trial that haven't recanted or otherwise contradicted their testimony and one of them was a different suspect.

"It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to open one’s mouth and remove all doubt." - Some guy with a snazzy hat.

I don't think the case got a lot of coverage. I mean, you've got Desmond Tutu, the U.S. Supreme Court, and the Vatican weighing in on this.

Then again, it's just yet another black dude on death row for some cop shooting in the eighties. I, for one, am pretty strung out on stories about death row appeals.

I'm a skeptical squirrel

I was wondering when you people would've thread about this.

He committed a crime, was found guilty in court, and executed; end of story.

As I understand it, witnesses were bribed, and good evidence for his innocence was brought up. I imagine they did not commute his sentence for simple greed—these kinds of trials are expensive. They might also not have wanted to get sued.

I am truly sorry for him and his family. The State Government (Georgia, no?) that did it should be held completely responsible, assuming they dig up enough evidence to utterly prove his innocence. Then, we find any and all wrong-doing in the case and charge all of them with whatever crimes they committed to get him executed, plus something between negligent homicide and first-degree murder.

Then they can find out why we have capital punishment and should have it: to get bastards like them.

I am now known as Flyboy.

This is going to sound cold-blood; but if you are an African-american man in a low income part of town, you have an obligation to cover your ass by not handling guns, staying away from bad elements and keeping a steady job. Troy Davis couldn't handle a steady job, and he didn't have a solid alibi for that night.

I'm a skeptical squirrel

I felt this needed a thread as well.

Anyway, since the OP was pretty brief, I'll give a more detailed account.

Troy Davis was charged for the murder of a police officer in 1989. He was found guilty and sentenced to the death penalty. Over the past 20 years, several of the witnesses (seven out of nine) had formally recanted or otherwise rescinded their testimony. Of the other two, one was someone that many close to the case was the actual murderer, and the other was too far away to positively identify the killer.

The problem with this case is twofold. One: there was never any scientific evidence (DNA, ballstics, etc.) that ever tied Davis to the crime. He was convicted entirely on eyewitness testimony. To further that point, this happened in a parking lot at night (meaning that said eyewitness accounts were probably less than accurate). Furthermore, there was a lot of suspected police misconduct. For one, a lot of the witnesses were either pressured or bribed into giving testimony condemning Mr. Davis, and even worse, the police officers took the witnesses back to the scene of the crime, and allowed them to talk and discuss the case with one another (this is a very bad thing - look up confirmation bias, etc. for more on this).

Over the past 20 years, Mr. Davis had previously received three stays of execution. The Supreme Court gave him an opportunity for a new trial, under the condition that he had to prove his innocence (as opposed to merely giving reasonable doubt to his guilt). Over the past few days, prominent figures, including Democrats and Republicans (many of whom support the death penalty), and the Pope himself, called upon the Board and the Court to grant leniency in this case. His final appeals to the Supreme Court and the Georgia State Board of Pardons and Paroles failed yesterday. At 11:08 PM local time, he was put to death.

R.I.P, Mr. Davis, and condolences both to his family and the family of the police officer who died that night. I hope that never again shall one injustice be done as retribution for another. I think that he's innocent. At the very least, I don't think there's sufficient evidence to have put him to death. Hopefully, this case opens the door for a national dialogue about the Death Penalty, when it should be used, and if we're willing to put more potentially innocent men (and women, though this is rare) to death in the process.

This. I'm pro-capital punishment, but I sure as fuck am not putting anybody in front of a firing squad (well... this is just the placeholder I put in for [insert method of execution here]) on nothing but eye-witness testimony.

Georgia fucked up, at best, and was actively malicious, at worst. They should be ashamed of themselves.

edited 22nd Sep '11 5:22:11 PM by USAF713

I am now known as Flyboy.

No the real bullshit is a guy whose guilt wasn't in question had his sentence commuted to Life while Davis, whose sentence was in question even unto the hour of his execution, was killed.

I have no opinion on the man's guilt or innocence, but I do take issue with the bullshittery of the state government in its consistency.

Relevant Article -

http://www.reuters.com/article/2008/05/22/us-usa-execution-idUSN2250765020080522

Final Fantasy, Foreign Policy, and Bollywood. Helluva combo, that...

I guess we need Kill Em All Perry, to make Georgia look good by comparison.

edited 22nd Sep '11 9:24:42 PM by storyyeller

Blind Final Fantasy 6 Let's Play

^^ I see your point, but I don't think Troy Davis' wrongful execution means that it is morally alright to advocate this guy's death as well.

And better than thy stroke; why swellest thou then?

In the Denzel Washington movie The Hurricane, Rubin Carter says it best.

"Of course they don't want to prove my innocence. There are people whose careers were built on locking me up!" (paraphrase)

It's a known fact that the quickest shortcut to advancement in law enforcement is to lock up 'the big bad Black man'. More than that, the United States of America is a country predicated on the belief that no matter what, even if GOD himself asks, you must never ever admit to wrongdoing.

Until the laws become such that the prosecuters and cops in the Troy Davis case who lied or at the least were incompetent are stripped of whatever position they've advanced to in the past 20 years this will always happen.

It was an honor

Well now that he is dead, it's likely he can get exonerated since the political pressure is mostly gone. I think this *could* fall under the 10-25% wrongful conviction rate in death penalty cases.

As far as I'm concerned, it already does. From what I've read in the case, all of the eyewitness testimony (all of it) would be thrown out today for tampering. At that point there's no case at all.

Democracy is the process in which we determine the government that we deserve

And where does that number come from? 100 people were released as innocent between '76 and '03 in the US, which is the only relevant statistic I know off the top of my head for wrongful/correct conviction rates here...

I am now known as Flyboy.

If he was innocent, it's a shame. Honestly, while I support the death penalty, I think it should only be used in cases where there is solid evidence, i.e murder weapon with the accused's DNA on it, surveillance footage, and the like.

@Kino: it not as open and shut as the execution of the white supremacist last week. A lot of the evidence in this case was circumstantial.

Although I'm sure the racial elements are gonna make it just is ugly.

hashtagsarestupid

Surprisingly, there haven't been any riots.

The case for the defense is actually weaker than it sounds; those 7 "recantations", several of them were merely "I didn't read this thoroughly before signing it", not an actual substantial change in their testimony. The bullet casings found at the scene of the shooting matched casings used at another murder, where Davis was the only suspect.

There probably were a number of less-than-ethical methods used by the prosecution, but from what I've read elsewhere about the case, I'm not mourning his execution.

That’s the epitome of privilege right there, not considering armed nazis a threat to your life. - Silasw

@Blue Ninja: Besides the recantations, the prosecution also effectively cooked the witness testimony in several ways (among other things, putting several of them in a room together so their story was consistent). Eyewitness testimony in general is pretty worthless as evidence because the way the brain stores memory is pretty damn corruptable.

And more than seven people say that one of the witnesses, who admits he had a pistol of the caliber of the bullets found at the scene on him at the time of the crime, confessed to them that he did it.

And the other guy Troy Davis is alleged to have shot maintained from the beginning that Troy would never have shot him.

• Amnesty International's page on the case.
• Wikipedia's page on the case.

TLDR there is WAY more than "reasonable doubt" in this case; there's almost no solid evidence tying Davis to the crime. He's no more likely to have done it than any of the other witnesses (except Coles, the aforementioned guy-with-the-.38. And there isn't even enough evidence to convict HIM, ffs.)

---

EDIT: Also, if you'll examine the recantations, none of them imply in any way that the witness still says that Troy Davis did it. Many of them outright say they lied; the rest of them say they didn't know but the police coerced them into pretending they were more sure than they were. None of them are like "I didn't read what I signed but Troy Davis still did it".

EDIT 2: Also it wasn't another MURDER it was another SHOOTING; the guy who was shot has testified pretty consistently that Troy Davis did not shoot him.

edited 25th Sep '11 9:03:10 PM by BlackHumor

I'm convinced that our modern day analogues to ancient scholars are comedians. -0dd1

This whole case just depressed me, but a guy named Nigel Powers on another forum I go to put it best;

go ahead and do every stupid thing you can imagine