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| Troy Davis |
The ruling against Davis sets the stage for Georgia officials to move forward with executing him for the 1989 shooting death of Mark MacPhail, an off-duty Savannah police officer.
In June, U.S. District Court Judge William T. Moore Jr. heard 2 days of testimony from witnesses seeking to cast doubt on Davis' conviction. The Supreme Court ordered the hearing for Davis a year ago.
Davis has been spared from execution 3 times as his attorneys pushed their argument that new evidence showed police ignored MacPhail's real killer as they rushed to pin the shooting on Davis.
For more than a decade, Davis has sought to present in open court his claims of innocence, including the testimony of 7 key prosecution witnesses who have recanted or contradicted their trial testimony.
Davis' innocence claims have attracted international attention, including former President Jimmy Carter and Pope Benedict XVI urging that he be spared from execution. In recent years, Davis' scheduled execution has been halted three times -- on one occasion just two hours before he was to be put to death by lethal injection.
Source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution, August 24, 2010
Georgia: Judge Remains Unconvinced by New Evidence of Death Row Inmate
A federal judge ruled Tuesday that a death row inmate whose case attracted international support failed to prove his innocence after the Supreme Court gave him a rare chance to clear his name.
The inmate, Troy A. Davis has long claimed that new evidence would clear his name in the 1989 killing of Mark MacPhail, an off-duty Savannah police officer.
A year ago, the Supreme Court granted Mr. Davis a federal hearing to put his claim to the test — a chance afforded no other American in at least 50 years. But Judge William T. Moore Jr. of Federal District Court said the evidence presented by Mr. Davis’s lawyers at a June hearing was not nearly strong enough to prove his innocence. “Ultimately, while Mr. Davis’s new evidence casts some additional, minimal doubt on his conviction, it is largely smoke and mirrors,” Judge Moore said.
The ruling sets the stage for Georgia officials to resume planning Mr. Davis’s execution. His lawyers said they would appeal.
Source: The New York Times, August 24, 2010
Judge: Troy Davis failed to prove innocence
A federal judge ruled Tuesday that a Georgia death row inmate whose case attracted international support failed to prove his innocence after the U.S. Supreme Court gave him a rare chance to clear his name.
Troy Anthony Davis has spent nearly 20 years on Georgia's death row for the 1989 slaying of an off-duty Savannah police officer. Davis has long claimed new evidence would clear his name, if only a court would hear it.
The NAACP, Amnesty International and dignitaries such as former President Jimmy Carter and Pope Benedict XVI have rallied behind Davis. A year ago, the U.S. Supreme Court granted Davis a federal hearing to put his innocence claim to the test - a chance afforded no other American in at least 50 years.
U.S. District Judge William T. Moore Jr. said the evidence presented by Davis' attorneys at a June hearing wasn't nearly strong enough to prove he's innocent.
"Ultimately, while Mr. Davis's new evidence casts some additional, minimal doubt on his conviction, it is largely smoke and mirrors," the judge said.
The ruling sets the stage for Georgia officials to resume planning Davis' execution, though his attorneys vowed to appeal.
Davis, 41, was convicted of murder in 1991 for the slaying of Mark MacPhail, who was shot while rushing to aid a homeless man being attacked outside a bus station.
The Supreme Court's decision to grant Davis an evidentiary hearing was extraordinary because federal death penalty appeals normally look only at questions of due process and constitutional violations, not guilt or innocence.
Witnesses at Davis' June hearing testified they lied at his trial when they said Davis confessed to the killing. Others said another man later told them he, not Davis, shot MacPhail.
The judge said the witness' claims weren't strong enough to have swayed an average juror.
"We strongly disagree with the court's findings and conclusions," said Stephen Marsh, one of Davis' attorneys. "We believe that Troy is innocent."
The victim's mother, Anneliese MacPhail, said she was pleased by the ruling but nervous it may not stick.
Davis has been spared from execution 3 times since 2007.
"I'm not holding my breath," MacPhail said. "We've been through too much to think this is over soon."
Source: Associated Press, August 24, 2010
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL GRAVELY CONCERNED THAT RULING PUTS TROY DAVIS ON TRACK FOR EXECUTION; CITES PERSISTING DOUBTS ABOUT HIS GUILT
Amnesty International USA (AIUSA) today expressed deep concern that a federal district court decision puts Georgia death-row inmate Troy Anthony Davis back on track for execution, despite doubts about his guilt that were raised during a June evidentiary hearing. Judge William T. Moore, Jr. ruled that while executing an innocent person would violate the United States Constitution, Davis didn’t meet the extraordinarily high legal bar to prove his innocence.
"Nobody walking out of that hearing could view this as an open-and-shut case," said Larry Cox, executive director of AIUSA. "The testimony that came to light demonstrates that doubt still exists, but the legal bar for proving innocence was set so high it was virtually insurmountable. It would be utterly unconscionable to proceed with this execution, plain and simple."
Amnesty International representatives, including Cox, attended the hearing in Savannah, Ga. The organization noted that evidence continues to cast doubt over the case:
· 4 witnesses admitted in court that they lied at trial when they implicated Troy Davis and that they did not know who shot Officer Mark MacPhail.
· 4 witnesses implicated another man as the one who killed the officer – including a man who says he saw the shooting and could clearly identify the alternative suspect, who is a family member.
· 3 original state witnesses described police coercion during questioning, including one man who was 16 years old at the time of the murder and was questioned by several police officers without his parents or other adults present.
"The Troy Davis case is emblematic of everything that is wrong with capital punishment," said Laura Moye, director of AIUSA's Death Penalty Abolition Campaign. "In a system rife with error, mistakes can be made. There are no do-overs when it comes to death. Lawmakers across the country should scrutinize this case carefully, not only because of its unprecedented nature, but because it clearly indicates the need to abolish the death penalty in the United States."
Since the launch of its February 2007 report, Where Is the Justice for Me? The Case of Troy Davis, Facing Execution in Georgia, Amnesty International has campaigned intensively for a new evidentiary hearing or trial and clemency for Davis, collecting hundreds of thousands of clemency petition signatures and letters from across the United States and around the world. To date, internationally known figures such as Pope Benedict XVI, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and former U.S. President Jimmy Carter have all joined the call for clemency, as well as lawmakers from within and outside of Georgia.
For more information visit www.amnestyusa.org/troydavis.
Source: Amnesty International, August 24, 2010
Georgians Say There is "No Room for Doubt" in Troy Davis Case
Georgians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty (GFADP), Georgia's statewide coalition of organizations and individuals opposed to the death penalty, reacted to the decision by Federal District Court Judge, William T. Moore to deny relief for Troy Anthony Davis even though grave doubts permeate the case.
The burden imposed on Mr. Davis by the Federal court to prove his innocence was impossibly high. But any fair reading of the evidence and testimony presented at the historic evidentiary that was held in Savannah on June 23 and 24 only strengthened doubts of Davis’ guilt. The testimony of the witnesses called by the defense team underscored the fragility of the state’s case against Troy Davis. "The case of Troy Davis underscores the multitude of problems that permeate Georgia’s death penalty system, most troubling the reality that all who on death row are in fact not guilty of the crimes of which they were convicted, "said, GFADP Board Chair, Sara Totonchi. "It will be a travesty of justice for Georgia and our nation if an innocent person is executed. Proceeding with the execution of Troy Anthony Davis is callous, careless and irreversible."
At the June hearing, the Court heard testimony from witnesses that affirmed their original testimony implicating the case against Davis was built on lies. Witnesses explained their recantations in moving ways, recounting the pressure they felt to point the finger at Davis in 1989. Kevin McQueen, 1 of the 7 witnesses who recanted his testimony, testified that he implicated Troy because he was mad at him. When asked what he hoped to gain by his testimony, he simply stated, "peace of mind." When pressed about his earlier – now recanted – testimony, McQueen said adamantly, "The man did not tell me he shot anyone. Period."
No physical evidence ties Mr. Davis to the crime and a weapon was never found. He was convicted solely on the basis of faulty eyewitness testimony – the single greatest cause of wrongful convictions nationwide. Eyewitness misidentification accounts for 75 percent of wrongful convictions in over 200 DNA exonerations. Georgians have become increasingly aware of just how unreliable eyewitness identification evidence is as we have watched seven men exonerated – all convicted on the basis of eyewitness testimony – after spending years in prison for crimes they didn’t commit.
Across the nation states are moving away from the death penalty because of growing concerns about innocence, unfairness, discriminatory application, lack of efficacy, and other reasons. The death penalty was intended to be reserved for the worst offenders, but in practice, it is arbitrary and unfair. The system is fraught with error, plagued by poor legal representation, and discriminates on the basis of income, race and geography - with the majority carried out in the South- among many problems that leave it too broken to be fixed.
"Knowing what we know now-recanting witnesses, perjured testimony and who the likely shooter is-I cannot see any jury ever convicting Mr. Davis." said Kathryn Hamoudah, Vice Chair of GFADP. "Troy Davis still has strong innocence claims. There is no room for doubt when a person’s life is on the line."
By choosing to deny Mr. Davis' claims, Georgia state courts have ostensibly declared that it is permissible to execute a convicted person who is likely innocent. GFADP believes that this is a standard civilized society should not accept.
Source: GFADP, August 24, 2010
Related coverage: "Innocence Wins, Innocence Still Loses", Gamso - For the Defense, August 24, 2010
Source: GFADP, August 24, 2010
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