Georgia To Execute An Innocent Man?

[Gunny]

You're right, if what the article says is true (that 7 out of the 9 witnesses have recanted their testimony and the 2 that haven't are another suspect and someone who originally said he didn't know who the killer was), then it seems almost blatantly obvious that there should be some sort of review. If this guy is innocent, I think it really is the responsibility of any state with the death penalty to seal all doubt. It's just a really bad precedent not to do so.

But nobody's interested in that, I'm guessing partly because of what I call the "Collins" effect, which usually renders threads useless. It is pretty curious, though, to see some bashing others for derailing a thread and at the same time never getting back on topic themselves.

It's pretty curious too to see such an ignorant statement when it is quite obvious the screeching banshee wouldn't allow it to get back on track.

 

[Epsilon Delta]

It's pretty curious too to see such an ignorant statement when it is quite obvious the screeching banshee wouldn't allow it to get back on track.

How is that statement ignorant?

If he really bothers you that much, why don't you just ignore him?

EDIT: GODDAMMIT, I JUST GOT OFF-TOPIC! @^#&&^#!!!!

 

[I Missthe North]

The argument of the wannabve intellectually elite. "Did any of you read the article?" Of course not. YOU are the only one.

I agree the evidence is shaky and does not warrant the death penalty.

The rest of your post is nothing but speculation on your part, and parroting ignorant, Yankee dogma.

I have seen how the Southern legal system works up close and personal during an internship in Alabama. To say that it is not set up to discriminate against black would be completely untrue. From the way some of the people were behaving, they clearly were not reading the same article as myself, such as the man who said that the man "got what he deserved" and needed to fry, despite a weak case and a serious lack of evidence that was not circumstantial. So the question was not that unreasonable considering who it was directed at. Besides, the thread clearly needed to be brought back onto topic after all the tangents you and the other posters were going on. It sure seemed like a lot of people forgot what the discussion was about.

 

[Gunny]

How is that statement ignorant?

If he really bothers you that much, why don't you just ignore him?

EDIT: GODDAMMIT, I JUST GOT OFF-TOPIC! @^#&&^#!!!!

How about since I am the administrator of the board, it is my responsibility to at least attempt to keep a lid on the chaos?

Since I am the one who cleans up the messes around here, I'd say I'm well within my right to voice my displeasure to the messmakers.

 

[Gunny]

I have seen how the Southern legal system works up close and personal during an internship in Alabama. To say that it is not set up to discriminate against black would be completely untrue. From the way some of the people were behaving, they clearly were not reading the same article as myself, such as the man who said that the man "got what he deserved" and needed to fry, despite a weak case and a serious lack of evidence that was not circumstantial. So the question was not that unreasonable considering who it was directed at. Besides, the thread clearly needed to be brought back onto topic after all the tangents you and the other posters were going on. It sure seemed like a lot of people forgot what the discussion was about.

To say that it is set up to discriminate against blacks would be completely untrue. It would also be unlawful and it would have been addressed in a rather loud, meaningful way by now.

Your post that I quoted and responded to was not in response to any post nor poster in particular. Note that I agree with you insofar as the evidence is concerned in that it is pretty weak to execute someone.

I don't agree with your editorial comments. You're just one of those Yankees who buys off on all the Southern stereotypes and bullshit. Odd isn't it that the largest racist organization that ever existed officially in this nation was Headquartered in Indiana, isn't? Quite the Southern state, that.

Guess I can't win for losing on the derailment thing. I've got a harpy up my ass spouting bullshit I'm picking on her, Epsilon Delta trying to hand out some cyber-xanex, and you acting as if I'm the one who derailed it.

 

[xsited1]

http//www.nytimes.com/2008/09/20/opinion/20herbert.html?hp

 

[I Missthe North]

Is that the original link?

 

[Gunny]

Is that the original link?

looks like it.

 

[MichaelCollins]

2 more days and justice will be served.

You must be such a feeble little coward.

You dont care if he is innocent or guilty... admit it..go on.

You just like to see others suffer...again admit it.

Did you enjoy watching those terrorist US bombs fall on Iraq?...admit it.. i bet you did.


You are a prime example of a jesus freak... bushteam would laugh at you...but be very proud of their work.

 

[AllieBaba]

Of course, one doesn't expect an Irishman to understand the nuances of terrorism. They were steeped in it for too long themselves.

 

[Epsilon Delta]

How about since I am the administrator of the board, it is my responsibility to at least attempt to keep a lid on the chaos?

Since I am the one who cleans up the messes around here, I'd say I'm well within my right to voice my displeasure to the messmakers.

Ohhh, well, yeah, I guess in that case you're right about that.

 

[KGB]

So, do you eat aborted fetus' of chickens?

no, I eat chickens that have already been hatched....thanks for the relevant comment.....

perhaps next time, you'll know what the facts are before wasting electrons.....

 

[xsited1]

Is that the original link?

No. I can't post links so I removed some of the original link until it posted.

 

[KittenKoder]

*still waiting to get back on topic*

So, any updates on the story? Any changes in opinion?

I still think that if the evidence shows he is innocent yet is still found guilty then the justice system there does need work.

 

[Gunny]

*still waiting to get back on topic*

So, any updates on the story? Any changes in opinion?

I still think that if the evidence shows he is innocent yet is still found guilty then the justice system there does need work.

The justice system EVERYWHERE needs work. While some would have you believe it is racially discrminating, it is actually class discriminating. If you're black and wealthy (OJ), you walk. If you're poor and white, you don't.

You get just as much justice in this country as you can afford.

 

[KittenKoder]

The justice system EVERYWHERE needs work. While some would have you believe it is racially discrminating, it is actually class discriminating. If you're black and wealthy (OJ), you walk. If you're poor and white, you don't.

You get just as much justice in this country as you can afford.

True, they all do need work, and you are also right, it is class that they discriminate against.

 

[Stoner]

You dont care if he is innocent or guilty...

I do indeed care if he is guilty or innocent. He's guilty. A jury convicted him. His appeals are exhausted. Time to pay for the crime.

You just like to see others suffer...again admit it.

I absolutely love to see guilty people suffer. As they should.

One more day and this subhuman gets the needle. I think I'll throw a marinated steak on the grill, pour me some Long Island Iced Teas and smoke a few bowls to celebrate.

Will be a great day.

 

[Stoner]

10 minutes until justice is injected.

I see Al Sharpton is there. Hopefully he won't turn this into another Freddy's Fashion Mart where he gets everyone fired up and his protestors kill innocent people.

Jackson — With less than four hours left before his scheduled execution, convicted cop killer Troy Anthony Davis said his good-byes to about 25 visitors Tuesday afternoon and began the final preparations for his lethal injection scheduled for 7 p.m.

Prison officials said Davis did not request a special meal, planning to have what the rest of the inmate population had for dinner, but he declined that as well. Instead, Davis was given a final physical exam and allowed to shower. He will be offered a sedative at 6 p.m.

The relatives of Savannah Officer Mark Allen MacPhail are at the prison but they will wait for news that the execution is complete outside the prison near Jackson with the contingent of state and local law enforcement officers.

Civil rights activist Al Sharpton and two buses with death penalty protesters are expected, so additional officers were called in to provide security at the demonstration areas beside Ga. 36, about a mile up the drive that leads to the Georgia Diagnostics and Classification Prison.

The Davis execution has attracted national and international attention since seven of the nine key witnesses who testified Davis shot MacPhail several times in a Savannah Burger King parking lot in 1989 have recanted.

Neither the state Board of Pardons and Paroles nor the courts have agreed to stop Georgia’s 21st lethal injection.

Earlier Tuesday, about a dozen people picketed Rainbow Medical Associates’ offices in Jonesboro. Rainbow Medical provides two physicians and two registered nurses for each execution, Department of Corrections spokesman Paul Czachowski said. Rainbow’s nurses prepare the intravenous lines for the lethal injection and the doctors are there only if there is an emergency and to pronounce death.

And later in the day, opponents of Davis’ execution staged a “Die-In” at the office building across the street from the state Capitol that houses Parole Board offices. Sunset vigils were scheduled at the Capitol in Atlanta and in Athens, Americus, Jackson, Augusta, Clarkesville, Dawson, Marietta and Savannah.

Davis being prepared for execution | ajc.com

 

[Stoner]

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!

What awful news. Hopefully this is just a speed bump.

JACKSON, Georgia (CNN) -- The U.S. Supreme Court granted a last-minute reprieve to a Georgia man fewer than two hours before he was to be executed for the 1989 slaying of an off-duty police officer.

Troy Anthony Davis learned that his execution had been stayed when he saw it on television, he told CNN via telephone in his first interview after the stay was announced.

He said he was "thankful to God" for the news that came during an emergency session the U.S. Supreme Court convened.

Davis said "everyone should pray" for the slain officer's family.

The 39-year-old also said that he is "very grateful for everything that everyone is doing" for him and that he would "accept" whatever decision the Supreme Court rendered in the coming days about his case.

At the Diagnostic and Classification Prison in Jackson, a crowd of Davis' supporters, led by the Rev. Al Sharpton, erupted in cheers when Sharpton announced the stay. Some shouted "Hallelujah!"

Davis has long said he didn't kill Mark MacPhail, a Savannah, Georgia, police officer, and the U.S. Supreme Court was the last option for Davis to have his execution postponed. It was scheduled to move forward at 7 p.m. ET.

Seven of the nine witnesses who initially testified that Davis was the killer have recanted. There was no physical evidence presented at his trial, and no weapon was found. But Davis' petitions for a new trial have been denied. Learn more about capital punishment in the United States »

The MacPhail family said they were angry about the stay.

"I am angry as can be. I'm disgusted. It should have been over by now," MacPhail's mother, Anneliese MacPhail, told CNN. "Nobody thinks about what the victims' family has gone through again and again.

"I was hoping it would be over today," she said.

Earlier, she said, "There is no possibility he's innocent, not according to what's been said in court."

MacPhail's sister Anneli Reaves was outside the prison. She said that if witnesses now say that they lied when they testified that Davis was the killer, they should be charged with perjury.

"It should have happened today," she said of the execution.

Davis, 39, was convicted in 1991 of killing the officer as he responded to an altercation in a Burger King parking lot.

Earlier Tuesday, Davis refused his last meal, according to the Georgia Department of Corrections, which will still provide him with macaroni and cheese, pinto beans, green beans, lettuce and tomato salad, corn bread, fruit cobbler and tea.

Prison officials said that he was offered ativan, a mild sedative. But Davis refused to take the drug, he said.

Many had asked Georgia to grant Davis a new trial: celebrities like Susan Sarandon, Harry Belafonte and the Indigo Girls; world leaders such as former President Carter, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Pope Benedict XVI; and former and current U.S. lawmakers like Bob Barr, Carolyn Moseley Braun and John Lewis.

Amnesty International has issued a 39-page report questioning his conviction, and protesters have been gathering at the Georgia Capitol in Atlanta this week. .

Davis' sister, Martina Correia, said she was sleepless Monday night and was spending Tuesday at his side. She said she planned to stay until prison officials told her to leave at 3 p.m.

Before the stay was announced, she said, "We still hope the U.S. Supreme Court will look into my brother's case and give some relief. We will have a lot of family time with him and recall old times and pray together."

The Georgia Supreme Court turned down the plea for a stay in Davis' execution Monday, saying the U.S. Supreme Court "properly has jurisdiction over Davis' pending petition."

Davis was convicted of MacPhail's 1989 murder largely on the testimony of nine witnesses.

"When you only have eyewitness testimony and you have no physical evidence, people have fallacies and people make mistakes," Correia said.

Davis' lawyers and supporters say this is a case of mistaken identity. Seven of the nine trial witnesses have changed their statements, saying they were mistaken, they feared retribution from the man they say actually killed MacPhail or that police pressured them into fingering Davis.

During the trial, witnesses said Davis and two other men were harassing a homeless man and followed him across the street from a parking lot at the Greyhound bus station in Savannah.

MacPhail was off-duty. He saw the skirmish and ran over to break up the fight. MacPhail was shot, and witnesses told police Davis fired the two shots that killed him.

A manhunt ensued. Davis surrendered nine days later.

Monty Holmes is one of the witnesses who said Davis was the culprit. He has changed his story and alleges that police coerced him.

"They were trying to get to me to say that he did it, but I know he didn't do it," Holmes said last year at a rally for Davis.

Savannah police Maj. Everett Ragan headed the MacPhail investigation. He denies allegations of coercion and said he doesn't believe the witnesses who have changed their stories.

Shortly before Davis was scheduled to be executed last year, Ragan told CNN, "There is no doubt in my mind we arrested the right man."

The Georgia Supreme Court also was unimpressed with the witnesses' new stories. In affirming the trial court's judgment in a 4-3 decision, the majority said that the witnesses' new testimony failed to meet the necessary benchmark: that their original testimony "in every material part is purest fabrication."

The court also was unconvinced by allegations that one of the men Davis was with that night, Sylvester "Red" Coles, killed MacPhail.

In a telephone interview in 2007, Davis acknowledged that he never told police that Coles killed MacPhail.

"I didn't because I didn't want to be a snitch," Davis said. "Yes, I know that's stupid."

Coles has never been charged with the murder and, according to court documents, has testified at least twice that he was not the killer.

Davis' lawyers claim that there are other people who saw what happened that night. Those witnesses have never testified in court but have submitted affidavits, the attorneys say.

On Monday, the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles said it typically does not comment on clemency appeals but defended itself because Davis' case has received such widespread attention. The statement noted that the board postponed Davis' execution last year and has studied the case for a year.

"After an exhaustive review of all available information regarding the Troy Davis case and after considering all possible reasons for granting clemency, the board has determined that clemency is not warranted," the statement said.

U.S. Supreme Court stays Georgia execution - CNN.com

 

[MichaelCollins]

I do indeed care if he is guilty or innocent. He's guilty. A jury convicted him. His appeals are exhausted. Time to pay for the crime.



I absolutely love to see guilty people suffer. As they should.

One more day and this subhuman gets the needle. I think I'll throw a marinated steak on the grill, pour me some Long Island Iced Teas and smoke a few bowls to celebrate.

Will be a great day.

YOu are extremely sick.

You must have some serious issues... re..abuse.... have you sought help?

You should seek help before you do some serious damage.