Again I say, these are the types of situations that bring doubt, rightly I say, about the justice system in this country.
SAVANNAH, Ga. -- A Georgia man is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection on Tuesday for killing a police officer in 1989, even though the case against him has withered in recent years as most of the key witnesses at his trial have recanted and in some cases said they lied under pressure from police.
Prosecutors discount the significance of the recantations and argue that it is too late to present such evidence. But supporters of Troy Davis, 38, and some legal scholars say the case illustrates the dangers wrought by decades of Supreme Court decisions and new laws that have rendered the courts less likely to overturn a death sentence.
Three of four witnesses who testified at trial that Davis shot the officer have signed statements contradicting their identification of the gunman. Two other witnesses -- a fellow inmate and a neighborhood acquaintance who told police that Davis had confessed to the shooting -- have said they made it up.
Other witnesses point the finger not at Davis but at another man. Yet none has testified during his appeals because federal courts barred their testimony.
"It's getting scary," Davis said by phone last week. "They don't want to hear the new facts."
The circumstances of the case have provoked criticism beyond the usual groups that oppose the death penalty.
"There is no more serious violent crime than the murder of an off-duty police officer who was putting his life on the line to protect innocent bystanders," William S. Sessions, FBI director under presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, wrote recently in an op-ed piece in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. But "serious questions have been raised about Davis's guilt. . . . It would be intolerable to execute an innocent man."
ATLANTA — The Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles on Monday granted a stay of execution for up to 90 days for a man convicted of killing a Savannah police officer in 1989.
Troy Davis had faced a lethal injection tomorrow before the decision by the board after less than an hour of deliberation.
The stay means the execution will be on hold while the board weighs the evidence presented as part of the 38-year-old Davis' request for clemency.
Earlier today, lawyers for Davis spent more than five hours pleading with the board to grant a reprieve to their client.
Prosecutors were given a chance during the closed-door hearing to rebut the request for clemency for Davis, who was convicted of the August 1989 murder of Officer Mark MacPhail.
If these types of things are cases of injustice, then they are examples that are going to be used that will help destroy the civil society of the U.S., and that would not be a good thing.
Here are 2 links about "The Jena Six."
In his May 18, 2007 story, Mr. Witt tells of an incident
that happened at the local high school in Jena where black students
decided they wanted to sit under a tree whose shade had been reserved
for white students only for years. When campus officials gave their
blessing to the students request to sit under the tree, a series of
events began that have apparently launched the town into a downward
spiral.
According to Mr. Witt’s article the following events have occurred
since the initial action by the black students last September:
* The next day three nooses were hanging from the tree
* Once three white students were identified as having hung the
nooses on the tree, the school superintendent suspended them for only
three days. (The principal had suggested expulsion). The superintendent
felt the nooses represented a “youthful stunt.”
* Fights broke out at the high school between black and white students.
* Unknown arsonists set fire to the central wing of the school (November)
* A white youth beat up a black student who showed up at an all-white party
* another young white man pulled a shotgun on three black students at a convenience store
* A group of black students at the high school allegedly jumped a
white student on his way out of the gym, knocked him unconscious and
kicked him after he hit the floor (December)
* LaSalle Parish district attorney, Reed Walters, opted to charge
six black students with attempted second-degree murder and other
offenses (for their involvement in the above incident)
NOTE: The white youth who beat the black student at the party was
charged only with simple battery, while the white man who pulled the
shotgun at the convenience store wasn’t charged with any crime at all.
These situations are not healthy for our society.
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