Execution of Troy Davis

[handy]

Now this is a case where I think they should never have put this guy to death. Life imprisonment, OK. But not death. Not under these circumstances.

(AP) JACKSON, Ga. — Strapped to a gurney in Georgia's death chamber, Troy Davis lifted his head and declared one last time that he did not kill police officer Mark MacPhail. Just a few feet away behind a glass window, MacPhail's son and brother watched in silence.

Outside the prison, a crowd of more than 500 demonstrators cried, hugged, prayed and held candles. They represented hundreds of thousands of supporters worldwide who took up the anti-death penalty cause as Davis' final days ticked away.

"I am innocent," Davis said moments before he was executed Wednesday night. "All I can ask ... is that you look deeper into this case so that you really can finally see the truth. I ask my family and friends to continue to fight this fight."

Prosecutors and MacPhail's family said justice had finally been served.

"I'm kind of numb. I can't believe that it's really happened," MacPhail's mother, Anneliese MacPhail, said in a telephone interview from her home in Columbus, Ga. "All the feelings of relief and peace I've been waiting for all these years, they will come later. I certainly do want some peace."

She dismissed Davis' claims of innocence.

"He's been telling himself that for 22 years. You know how it is, he can talk himself into anything."

Davis was scheduled to die at 7 p.m., but the hour came and went as the U.S. Supreme Court apparently weighed the case. More than three hours later, the high court said it wouldn't intervene. The justices did not comment on their order rejecting Davis' request for a stay.

Hundreds of thousands of people signed petitions on Davis' behalf and he had prominent supporters. His attorneys said seven of nine key witnesses against him disputed all or parts of their testimony, but state and federal judges repeatedly ruled against him — three times on Wednesday alone.

Officer MacPhail's widow, Joan MacPhail-Harris, said it was "a time for healing for all families."

"I will grieve for the Davis family because now they're going to understand our pain and our hurt," she said in a telephone interview from Jackson. "My prayers go out to them. I have been praying for them all these years. And I pray there will be some peace along the way for them."

.....

Davis' execution had been halted three times since 2007. The U.S. Supreme Court even gave Davis an unusual opportunity to prove his innocence in a lower court last year. While the nation's top court didn't hear the case, they did set a tough standard for Davis to exonerate himself, ruling that his attorneys must "clearly establish" Davis' innocence — a higher bar to meet than prosecutors having to prove guilt. After the hearing, a lower court judge ruled in prosecutors' favor, and the justices didn't take up the case.

His attorney Stephen Marsh said Davis would have spent part of Wednesday taking a polygraph test if pardons officials had taken his offer seriously. But they, too, said they wouldn't reconsider their decision. Georgia's governor does not have the power to grant condemned inmates clemency.

As his last hours ticked away, an upbeat and prayerful Davis turned down an offer for a special last meal as he met with friends, family and supporters.

"Troy Davis has impacted the world," his sister Martina Correia said before the execution. "They say, 'I am Troy Davis,' in languages he can't speak."

Members of Davis' family who witnessed the execution left without talking to reporters.

.....

Davis was convicted in 1991 of killing MacPhail, who was working as a security guard at the time. MacPhail rushed to the aid of a homeless man who prosecutors said Davis was bashing with a handgun after asking him for a beer. Prosecutors said Davis had a smirk on his face as he shot the officer to death in a Burger King parking lot in Savannah.

No gun was ever found, but prosecutors say shell casings were linked to an earlier shooting for which Davis was convicted.

Witnesses placed Davis at the crime scene and identified him as the shooter, but several of them have recanted their accounts and some jurors have said they've changed their minds about his guilt. Others have claimed a man who was with Davis that night has told people he actually shot the officer.

"Such incredibly flawed eyewitness testimony should never be the basis for an execution," Marsh said. "To execute someone under these circumstances would be unconscionable."


Ga. executes Davis; supporters claim injustice - CBS News

I edited out some of the article, but I just can't feel it's right to execute a man, actually take his life, when the conviction was based on eye-witness testimony alone...and some of the witnesses have recanted their testimony.

I'm not saying that he should have been let free...just not executed.

One thing to keep in mind about appeals is that appeals are not new trials. They simply review the trial that a person had and make sure that there were no violations of rights or egregious mishandling of the case by the judge, prosecuting attorneys or defense team. As long as the trial itself was a fair trial...the outcome is rarely ever overturned.

Even if new facts about the case come forward or if witnesses recant their testimony. About the only thing that will ever cause a fair trial to be overturned is if compelling evidence comes forward proving the guilt of another person or completely exonerating the convicted.

A number of the "witnesses" to the shooting of Officer MacPhail have since recanted their testimony citing overzealous police tactics and also fear of neighborhood gang members. 1 But, because at the time, their testimony was given a fair hearing in the trial...their subsequent recantation doesn't amount to much.

There was no physical evidence linking Davis to the shooting. Casings found at the shooting do match a gun that was used in an unrelated shooting that Davis was convicted of, even though the victim of that shooting didn't think Davis was the one who shot him. 2

I just don't think this case met the criteria that we should have in order to put someone to death.

1 AP Enterprise: '91 death verdict splits Ga. jurors | World news | The Guardian

2 http://multimedia.savannahnow.com/media/DavisMcPhail/1991/08271991DAVISADMITSSHOOTING2.pdf

 

[Asyncritus]

The ancient Jewish practice should be invoked in cases like this.

Deut. 19. 16 If a malicious witness arises to accuse a person of wrongdoing,
17 then both parties to the dispute shall appear before the LORD, before the priests and the judges who are in office in those days.
18 The judges shall inquire diligently, and if the witness is a false witness and has accused his brother falsely,
19 then you shall do to him as he had meant to do to his brother. So you shall purge the evil from your midst.
20 And the rest shall hear and fear, and shall never again commit any such evil among you.
21 Your eye shall not pity. It shall be life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.

So clearly, in a capital case, if the testimony of the witnesses was proved false, then the false witnesses were executed.

That prevented many genuine witnesses from coming forward, in case they could be proved to be false witnesses by the cunning of the lawyers, so they kept silence.

In the Davis case, there seem to have been several witnesses who later changed their statements and contradicted themselves and what they had said.

Witnesses placed Davis at the crime scene and identified him as the shooter, but several of them have recanted their accounts and some jurors have said they've changed their minds about his guilt. Others have claimed a man who was with Davis that night has told people he actually shot the officer.

In such a case they should be executed.

 

[Pebbles]

So clearly, in a capital case, if the testimony of the witnesses was proved false, then the false witnesses were executed.

That prevented many genuine witnesses from coming forward, in case they could be proved to be false witnesses by the cunning of the lawyers, so they kept silence.

In the Davis case, there seem to have been several witnesses who later changed their statements and contradicted themselves and what they had said.

In such a case they should be executed.

According to the indivduals whom recalled their testimony they were pretty much forced to give false testimony by the police whom were persuing a guilty verdict.

Of course you'd never speak ill of the death penalty... a true christian could never refuse a chance at a feed.

 

[handy]

a true christian could never refuse a chance at a feed.

Pretty uncalled for Pebbles. There are plenty of true Christians who struggle with the death penalty and the some of loudest voices out there against the death penalty are Christian voices. The Catholic Church, Quakers, Methodists, Episcopalians, Presbyterians, Reformed Church in America, Mennonites, Brethren, Amish are all against the death penalty. Add to that many churches don't have an official policy statement, but their members are against the death penalty.

Many of Davis' staunchest and hardest working supporters have been Christians.

 

[theLords]

Pretty uncalled for Pebbles. There are plenty of true Christians who struggle with the death penalty and the some of loudest voices out there against the death penalty are Christian voices. The Catholic Church, Quakers, Methodists, Episcopalians, Presbyterians, Reformed Church in America, Mennonites, Brethren, Amish are all against the death penalty. Add to that many churches don't have an official policy statement, but their members are against the death penalty.

Many of Davis' staunchest and hardest working supporters have been Christians.

This book really changed my mind on things. I am against the death penalty. It is mostly accounts of Christians who forgave their loved one's murder, even going so far as beginning prison ministries.

http://www.amazon.com/Dont-Kill-Our-Names-Families/dp/0813531829

 

[Drew]

I am encouraged to read that other believers oppose the death penalty. I have no particular view on whether this one man was guilty of killing that young man.

But I do think that, in the gospel, we see a model of "what it means to be a true human being" set forth by Jesus. And, at every turn, that model is one of love and forgiveness, and renouncing the path of violence, even by the state.

Jesus, at great personal sacrifice, delivered the fateful blow to the great enemy: death. Even in Christian circles, people sometimes speak of death as "a natural thing". Well, it is not.

Death says "No!" to God's wonderful creation - death undoes that creation.

Yes, sometimes death can be a merciful end to suffering - I do not deny that.

But, fundamentally, it is an enemy to be defeated, and not something to accept as 'part of life'.

So when Christians endorse the taking of life, even by the state, they are implicitly sending the message that they are colluding with the power of death, allowing it to claim one more victim.

 

[rgswaim]

a true christian could never refuse a chance at a feed.

I am always amazed at the unbeliever coming to a Christian forum and trying to convince us that we are wrong. If they are right, what does it matter?

 

[jasoncran]

pebbles then kindly answer this what should be done with jeremiah fogle a man who got life probation for murdering his second wife and he killed his last. the judge who sentence that man should also pay a price, disbarment and removed from office.

i am not for the death of this man as his witness recanted. i remain at present pro death penalty. i work and will work in military prisons and i have my reasons why some crimes if feel an expedient and merciful death is better then life in prison where the lifers may execute the pedophile and rapists and the guards wont know till its too late.

 

[WynnieJames]

It's sad. I saw a statement where he said that he told the police whatever they wanted to hear and he signed papers but couldn't read them b/c he was illiterate. They couldve at least allowed him to take that last chance polygraph. They just wanted to kill him so badly.

 

[Lewis]

I am for the death penalty if, you really did the crime that calls for it. And you are the right person