is Georgia killing an innocent man?

[editec]

The fact that so many of the eyewitnesses recanted their testamony is troubling.

 

[Swagger]

The fact that so many of the eyewitnesses recanted their testamony is troubling.

And the fact that both state and federal judges didn't act on such a glaring cause for re-examination is even more troubling. Seems to me that the judiciary just wanted to sweep this all under the carpet and forget about it.

In any case, the death penalty's the easy way out, for both parties.

 

[Unkotare]

Troy Davis asks Supreme Court to stop execution

This is why I hate the death penalty.........

You hate the death penalty because convicted killers claim they are innocent?

 

[Swagger]

Troy Davis asks Supreme Court to stop execution

This is why I hate the death penalty.........

You hate the death penalty because convicted killers claim they are innocent?

I take it you've never heard or read of unsafe convictions being overturned by conclusive evidence that later comes to light?

 

[Unkotare]

Garsh! I ain't never herd a that!


I guess we should never imprison anyone ever for anything either as new evidence could come to light at any time.

 

[Swagger]

Garsh! I ain't never herd a that!


I guess we should never imprison anyone ever for anything either as new evidence could come to light at any time.

I said/wrote anything to that affect, however which way you imply it.

 

[Dr Grump]

To be honest with you George, I find the US judicial system one of the worst in the Western World...if not the worst....

There's no way that's true or even close to true.

Care to name a judicial system in the Western world that is worse?

 

[Swagger]

To be honest with you George, I find the US judicial system one of the worst in the Western World...if not the worst....

There's no way that's true or even close to true.

Care to name a judicial system in the Western world that is worse?

In terms of cover-ups, witness intimidation, illegally delayed trials, failure to provide adequate translation, etc. Greece, Portugal and Spain feature much higher than anything you'd be likely to find in the US. All three are proud members of the E.U, too.

 

[saveliberty]

Why didn't duh baybee Geeziss intervene ?

Because we have free will Douger. That could be removed and we could be a bunch of drones, but God wants what you feel to be voluntary.

 

[Sunni Man]

He was found guilty in a court of law and sentence to the death penalty.

They need to carry the sentence out and execute this convicted criminal.

Remind me why your religion sucks again?

I fail to see where my religion or anyone else's religion plays a factor in his execution.

 

[saveliberty]

Pretty sure the appeal courts all considered reasonable doubt. For the Supreme Court to give its blessing to the process is good enough for me. I would be curious to know how many of the nine witnesses had felony records or a prior relationship to the accused. His record leaves being an "innocent" person with even one witness highly suspect.

 

[George Costanza]

Pretty sure the appeal courts all considered reasonable doubt. For the Supreme Court to give its blessing to the process is good enough for me.

Funny you should mention that. In 2010, a federal district court judge, acting on orders from the U.S. Supreme Court, reviewed the new evidence (recantation of witness testimony) and determined the much of it was "largely smoke and mirrors," with the recantations being "unreliable, partial or unbelievable."

Consider the requirement of reasonable doubt. Reasonable doubt does not allow for a guilty verdict where the jury finds that "much" of the evidence points toward guilt. If that was the state of the evidence, under a reasonable doubt instruction, the jury would have to return a verdict of not guilty. "Much" of the evidence is simply not enough to overcome reasonable doubt.

Similarly, the district court judge stated that, with regard to that portion of the appeal that comprised "much" of the evidence (already insufficient to justify denying the appeal), it was "largely" smoke and mirrors. "Largely" smoke and mirrors? Largely - but not all. I wonder what percentage of the total made up "largely" for this judge. 75%? 60%? 51%? Once again, "largely" is not enough to overcome reasonable doubt.

I don't know what this federal judge was thinking, but I do know he chose some very inappropriate wording in his attempt to express it. I am left with the conclusion that he was either very inarticulate at best or, at worst, an incompetent judge.

 

[George Costanza]

He was found guilty in a court of law and sentence to the death penalty.

They need to carry the sentence out and execute this convicted criminal.

Remind me why your religion sucks again?

I fail to see where my religion or anyone else's religion plays a factor in his execution.

Because so many self-proclaimed Christians (or whatevers) seem to be very big on the death penalty.

 

[George Costanza]

he was convicted of an earlier shooting and pistol whipping a homeless man......lots more to this story than simply his side

I don't think Troy Davis was denying that he was at the scene of the murder. I am not sure that he even denied beating the homeless man. He denied shooting the police officer.

He was convicted on the basis of one of the most unreliable forms of evidence - eyewitness testimony.

 

[Cuyo]

The fact that so many of the eyewitnesses recanted their testamony is troubling.

Additionally and particularly so, because my understanding is that there was no forensic evidence whatsoever; The eyewitnesses were the entire case.

 

[Unkotare]

Russel Brewer was also executed last night.

 

[strollingbones]

The fact that so many of the eyewitnesses recanted their testamony is troubling.

Additionally and particularly so, because my understanding is that there was no forensic evidence whatsoever; The eyewitnesses were the entire case.

you need to study up on this.....there was forensic evidence....he used the gun in an earlier shooting.....

 

[saveliberty]

Pretty sure the appeal courts all considered reasonable doubt. For the Supreme Court to give its blessing to the process is good enough for me.

Funny you should mention that. In 2010, a federal district court judge, acting on orders from the U.S. Supreme Court, reviewed the new evidence (recantation of witness testimony) and determined the much of it was "largely smoke and mirrors," with the recantations being "unreliable, partial or unbelievable."

Consider the requirement of reasonable doubt. Reasonable doubt does not allow for a guilty verdict where the jury finds that "much" of the evidence points toward guilt. If that was the state of the evidence, under a reasonable doubt instruction, the jury would have to return a verdict of not guilty. "Much" of the evidence is simply not enough to overcome reasonable doubt.

Similarly, the district court judge stated that, with regard to that portion of the appeal that comprised "much" of the evidence (already insufficient to justify denying the appeal), it was "largely" smoke and mirrors. "Largely" smoke and mirrors? Largely - but not all. I wonder what percentage of the total made up "largely" for this judge. 75%? 60%? 51%? Once again, "largely" is not enough to overcome reasonable doubt.

I don't know what this federal judge was thinking, but I do know he chose some very inappropriate wording in his attempt to express it. I am left with the conclusion that he was either very inarticulate at best or, at worst, an incompetent judge.

Thank you for this additional information. Regardless of the appellate judge's wording, the US Supreme Court sided with him/her. This was a relatively open-ended stay by the Supreme Court, something like a week? Yet, it took less than a day to affirm the ruling.

 

[pgm]

he was convicted of an earlier shooting and pistol whipping a homeless man......lots more to this story than simply his side

But both of those are fishy as well. He was at the earlier shooting, but there wasn't any evidence he was the shooter. As for the pistol whipping a homeless man, if he shot the cup, he hit the homeless man; if he didn't shoot the cop, he didn't hit the homeless man. It's the same shaky, recanted eyewitness testimony.

Care to name a judicial system in the Western world that is worse?

Italy and Japan?

you need to study up on this.....there was forensic evidence....he used the gun in an earlier shooting.....

There was no gun found. The ballistics expert testified that the bullet that killed the officer was from a .38 and the bullet in the earlier shooting was from a .38 and that they could be from the same gun, but that she had doubts. She was confident that the shell casings matched.

Essentially, the reliable evidence is that there were two shootings with Davis present at both scenes and both scenes had shell casings that supposedly matched. None of the other evidence is any good.

 

[High_Gravity]

To be honest with you George, I find the US judicial system one of the worst in the Western World...if not the worst....

This not true at all, not even close. I can name you 50 countries where this man would have hung outright with pretty much no trial.