Troy Davis Execution
Published by TheColonel October 15th, 2008 in Uncategorized
The decades-long, law-and-order-fueled trend toward restricting appellate avenues in criminal cases may be reaching its gruesome but inevitable conclusion in the case of Troy Davis, a death row inmate who apparently will be executed soon despite a series of post-trial revelations about his lack of culpability that ought to shock the conscience of even the most ardent supports of capital punishment.
Davis, who is black, was charged, tried and convicted in Georgia for murdering a white police officer. He was sentenced to death in 1991. There was no physical evidence linking him to the crime. There was no DNA. There was no murder weapon found on him. Since his trial, seven of the nine main prosecution eyewitnesses against him have recanted their trial testimony. Some of these witnesses claim police coercion or harsh interrogation tactics caused them to be untruthful at trial.
Moreover, a handful of witnesses have stepped forward to claim that another man has confessed to the crime. This “other man,” according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, is one of the two remaining trial witnesses who, not surprisingly, still claims that Davis shot the officer. The final eyewitness (of the nine we are concerned with) initially told the police that he could not identify Davis at the crime scene before later changing his tune at trial and incriminating Davis. Even during this new age of DNA there has been no great movement to resolve these legal and factual conflicts.
How messed up is this? Do you think he should be executed with such a lack of evidence? Does this make you rethink your stance on the death penalty or are you against it to begin with?
this is unacceptable and everyone knows it. how can a man with no evidence, physical evidence be put to death. this will only make racial issues heavier.
yeah i agree with you jamasian. i don’t feel that if this guy was white he would be in the same position at all.
I don’t believe any of this will ever get any better until black people stop bull shitting and come up…
what do you mean ctaylor?
ctaylor….i’m guessing you mean stop doing things that keep us in a bad light….
i agree that more black people need to step up into the world’s honorable roles and lifestyles but people shouldn’t use that to justify this situation.
yeah exactly ^. even if black people need to step up sometimes, there isn’t any reason this man should be killed becuase other people need to step up…………..
He should NOT be executed. The prosecution clearly has not made its burden of proof.
Always been anti-death penalty and a story like this is one of the many reasons why.
Well if you guys actually read verbatim what I said, in no way does it say that I am some how justifying what is happening to this man. I merely stated a “fact” that this kind of thing will proliferate unless black people pull their heads out of their asses. That’s just straight truth and we all know it. It’s too bad that some people here can’t read and put words in my mouth. I guess that’s why we (black people) do what we do…sigh.
That’s funny ctaylor. I wasn’t trying to imply that YOU were justifying it. I was referring to that court…
no need to add me to your “we (black people)” category. I read quite well.