[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, GA.

[Rick Halperin]

Sept. 21




TEXAS----impending execution

Stigma lingers in town infamous for dragging death


The bloodstains are long gone. So is the red paint investigators sprayed along 
a nearly 3-mile stretch of bumpy asphalt on Huff Creek Road to mark the grisly 
final moments of James Byrd Jr.'s life.

What remains are the scars from the hate crime more than 13 years ago that 
shocked the nation and branded this Texas town near the Louisiana border with a 
racist stigma after a black man was chained to the back of a pickup truck and 
dragged to his death.

Lawrence Russell Brewer, 44, one of two purported white supremacists condemned 
for Byrd's death, is set to be executed Wednesday for participating in 
fastening Byrd to the truck, pulling him along the road and dumping what was 
left of his shredded body outside a black church and cemetery.

Brewer's scheduled execution puts the spotlight back on a town still trying to 
exorcise the perception of racism that's resurfaced recently with an attempt to 
oust three black city council members who helped confirm a black man as police 
chief. But residents, city leaders and even researchers who have studied the 
infamous community say the dragging death has given Jasper an unfair 
reputation.

"The irony is how undeserved the label they got was," said Cassy Burleson, a 
researcher at Baylor University who has been studying Jasper since the Byrd 
case. "Just looking at the facts, they were one of the most progressive 
communities in Texas."

Jasper, a town of about 7,300, where whites comprise just under half the 
population, has no history of notable hate crimes before or since the dragging 
death that would be indicative of a racially insensitive town. Several blacks 
have served in prominent positions, including mayor, school board president and 
held school board seats.

The rest of the country perceived the town quite differently, fed in part by 
television footage of the Ku Klux Klan rallying on the courthouse square and 
the Black Panthers driving around town, both groups trying to recruit members. 
Neither recruited well in Jasper because the town "did not encourage that 
presence, buy into it or feed it," said Mia Moody, Burleson's research partner.

Byrd's brutal death put Jasper, a typical East Texas town with the obligatory 
Dairy Queen and Walmart and a handful of fast-food places some 60 miles from 
the nearest interstate highway, under a national spotlight.

"Everywhere you went, anywhere in the country, once people found out you were 
from Jasper, Texas, they wanted to ask you about it," says Mike Lout, the mayor 
and owner of the town radio station. "Everybody first was shocked and appalled 
and not proud of it. They talked about it so much in the days past it, I think 
most people wanted to put it out of their minds."

If Jasper was hoping to rehabilitate its sullied image, the squabble over the 
hiring of a black police chief in April won't help. Several rejected applicants 
have sued, alleging reverse discrimination, and 3 of the 4 black council 
members who voted for the appointment are facing a recall election in November. 
Recall supporters say the chief was selected over more qualified applicants, 
including the former second-in-command who is white.

"It's heartbreaking," said Billy Rowles, who was sheriff at the time of Byrd's 
murder. "A lot of effort and hard work and soul-searching went into trying to 
live down the stereotype. It's so easy to get back into that mode."

Besides Brewer, who is scheduled for lethal injection Wednesday, John William 
King, 36, also was convicted of capital murder and sent to death row. His case 
remains under appeal. A third man, Shawn Berry, 36, received a life prison 
term.

Testimony showed the three offered the 49-year-old Byrd a ride in Berry's 
pickup truck early on June 7, 1998. Byrd wound up bound by his ankles with a 
heavy 24½-foot logging chain attached to the bumper, bouncing from side to side 
as he desperately tried to limit his injuries by lifting himself. At a sharp 
left curve in the road, he whipsawed to the right and struck a concrete 
culvert.

A pathologist testified Byrd had been alive until there, where he was 
decapitated. An investigator later would write on the road in spray paint: 
"Head."

Brewer told Beaumont television station KFDM from death row that he 
participated in the assault on Byrd but had "nothing to do with the killing as 
far as dragging him or driving the truck or anything." He told the station his 
execution would be a "good out" and he's "glad it's about to come to an end."

For Jasper, the stigma survives.

"That's what they recognize," said Sheriff Mitchel Newman, who recently was 
arranging a business trip through someone in Colorado who mentioned the case. 
"I'll be glad when it's over. It's not fair. It makes us look like idiots."

(source: Associated Press)






GEORGIA----impending execution

Davis' case puts Georgia on death-penalty map once again


A landmark Georgia case brought about the abolition of capital punishment in 
the United States, and another landmark Georgia case reinstated it. But even 
with those monumental precedents on the books, no Georgia death sentence has 
drawn as much international attention and controversy as the one scheduled 
Wednesday night for Troy Anthony Davis.

If Davis is put to death as scheduled, the legacy of this bitterly fought case 
could be the persistence of unyielding prosecutors -- and the victim's family 
-- who stared down worldwide criticism and innocence claims to see his 
execution carried out. It will also leave many wondering if the state executed 
an innocent man.

"Justice will be done and that's what we were fighting for," said Anneliese 
MacPhail, whose son was a 27-year-old Savannah police officer when he was 
gunned down 22 years ago. When asked if she thinks Davis killed her son, she 
answered, "There is no doubt in my mind."

Davis sits on death row for the 1989 killing of Savannah Police Officer Mark 
Allen MacPhail, a former Army Ranger who was moonlighting on a security detail 
when he was shot 3 times before he could draw his handgun. Today marks the 
fourth execution date for Davis; on the three prior occasions, he was granted a 
stay.

A decision early Tuesday by the state Board of Pardons and Paroles rejecting 
pleas to halt Davis' execution appears to have all but sealed his fate. The 
board has the sole authority in Georgia to grant clemency to a condemned 
inmate.

Still, Davis' lawyers said they plan to file last-ditch appeals today claiming 
there remains new evidence that shows Davis was convicted and sentenced to 
death based on misleading evidence and testimony. "I am utterly shocked and 
disappointed at the failure of our justice system at all levels to correct a 
miscarriage of justice," Brian Kammer, one of Davis' attorneys, said.

Davis' supporters said they would ask Chatham County prosecutors to void the 
execution warrant. "This is a civil rights violation, a human rights violation 
in the worst way," the Rev. Raphael Warnock, pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church, 
said at a Tuesday press conference.

The 5-member parole board did not disclose the breakdown of its vote. It also 
did not address questions involving Davis' innocence claims or say it was 
convinced beyond any doubt he is guilty.

Instead, in a statement, the board said its members "have not taken their 
responsibility lightly and certainly understand the emotions attached to a 
death-penalty case." The board said it considered all the information and 
"deliberated thoroughly" before reaching its decision.

University of Georgia law professor Donald E. Wilkes Jr. criticized the board 
for not addressing innocence claims that have attracted international concern 
and support for clemency from a former president, the pope, a former FBI 
director and a former chief justice of the state's highest court.

"The state of Georgia will now be exposed to criticism that it will go ahead 
and execute someone even when there is a question about guilt," Wilkes said. 
"That's a tragedy for everybody, including the state of Georgia."

New York attorney George Kendall, who has litigated numerous capital cases, 
wondered if Georgia will someday regret having executed Davis. He noted that in 
recent years, a number of governors commuted death sentences because of 
lingering doubts about guilt.

"In a death penalty case, there should be no doubt about who did it," he said. 
"We need to insist on guilt being very, very clear, not like this. For people 
who support the death penalty, this is not a good day for the death penalty."

Since the 1991 trial, a number of key prosecution witnesses have recanted or 
backed off their testimony and others have come forward saying another man at 
the scene told them he was the actual trigger man. A vigorous public relations 
and social media campaign on Davis' behalf, buoyed by Amnesty International and 
the NAACP, spawned worldwide rallies for his cause.

Davis has mounted repeated challenges to his conviction and sentence, but 
courts never found there was enough evidence to overturn them. In 2009, the 
U.S. Supreme Court stepped in, directing a federal judge to consider Davis' 
innocence claims. But that judge, after hearing new evidence, determined that 
Davis had not clearly established he was an innocent man.

Former District Attorney Spencer Lawton, who prosecuted Davis, said the legacy 
of the case will be the injustice that MacPhail's family has been forced to 
endure.

"There are 2 Troy Davis cases," Lawton said. "The 1st is the case predicated on 
fact and presented repeatedly in court. That battle we have won at every turn 
because it is based on fact."

Lawton said he has respect for the opinions of those who familiarized 
themselves with the actual record of the case and still feel there is 
sufficient doubt to question the outcome. "I have no respect for those who know 
the facts and have chosen to distort them," he added.

Lawton acknowledged the prosecution lost the second Troy Davis case -- "the 
public relations war" -- at every turn. "I am afraid the integrity of the 
criminal justice system will suffer an unfair blow through the creation not of 
fact-based doubt but the appearance of doubt," he said. "The appearance of 
doubt has taken on a life of its own -- as if it is doubt itself."

On Tuesday, members of the MacPhail family said they were anxious to see the 
death sentence carried out.

Mark MacPhail Jr., now 22, was an infant when his father was killed and plans 
to witness the execution. "Most of the people who are focused on Davis are just 
against the death penalty -- they know nothing about the case," he said. "It's 
painful to listen to these people put out out-and-out lies."

(source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

****************

Why death penalty supporters should be campaigning for Troy Davis to be 
reprieved


I tell you what: if I supported the death penalty, I would want to make damn 
sure that everyone who went to the chair, or the chamber or the gurney or the 
noose, was guilty.

In a perverse way, you'd think it'd be more important for the pro-death penalty 
lot than us antis. I think it's wrong for the state to kill anybody in cold 
blood, innocent or guilty; it's a barbaric hangover from an Old Testament 
morality. But if you support the death penalty, surely you want it to be 
credible – a terrible judgment passed down upon the guilty, not a savage 
lottery of murder.

On that basis, I would imagine that supporters of the death penalty would be up 
in arms about the killing – scheduled for later today – of Troy Davis, a 
42-year-old Georgia man who was convicted 20 years ago for the 1989 murder of 
an off-duty police officer, Mark MacPhail. Davis was denied clemency by the 
Georgia parole board yesterday.

There were 9 witnesses in the case who identified Davis as the killer. Of those 
9, 7 have since recanted all or part of their testimony. One, Dorothy Ferrell, 
signed an affidavit in 2000 saying she felt under pressure to identify Davis 
becayse she was herself on parole. She wrote: "I told the detective that Troy 
Davis was the shooter, even though the truth was that I didn't know who shot 
the officer." Another, Darell Collins, signed an affidavit in 2002 recanting 
his testimony and stating that the police scared him into falsely testifying by 
threatening to charge him as an accessory. At a federal hearing in 2010, the 
prosecution witness Antoine Williams said that he did not know who shot 
MacPhail and that he had signed police statements he was unable to read because 
he was illiterate. 2 others, Jeffrey Sapp and Kevin MacQueen, said at the same 
hearing that Davis had not confessed to them, despite saying as much in the 
original trial. In all 6 have said that the police threatened them if they did 
not identify Davis as the killer.

9 people have also signed affidavits stating that Sylvester "Redd" Coles, a 
friend of Davis's who was there the night MacPhail was killed, in fact 
committed the murder. At the 2010 hearing a witness, Anthony Hargrove, 
testified that Mr Coles had confessed the killing to him. Of the two witnesses 
who have not recanted their testimony, one is Mr Coles. Mr Coles was the first 
person to tell the police that Troy Davis was the shooter. There was no 
physical evidence linking Davis to the murder and the murder weapon was never 
found.

As The New York Times reports in an editorial this morning, "the grievous 
errors in the Davis case were numerous, and many arose out of eyewitness 
identification". The police re-enacted the crime with four witnesses were 
present, giving them with group memory of the supposed events rather than 
individual ones; some witnesses saw Davis's photo before being shown the 
identification lineup images, and Davis's lineup image was on a different 
background. The lineup was administered by an investigating police officer, who 
could (deliberately or otherwise) easily influence the witnesses.

I'm not saying that Davis is innocent. I don't know. But it is painfully clear 
that there is, by any standard, "reasonable doubt" about the conviction; enough 
for His Holiness the Pope and for Archbishop Desmond Tutu to appeal for 
clemency, as well as 51 members of Congress, President Jimmy Carter, Britain 
and the EU, and a former FBI director. Yet no reprieve has been granted. Troy 
Davis will, barring dramatic intervention, die today.

It would be far from the first time a major travesty of justice took place on 
death row. Last year Rick Perry, Governor of Texas and now a front-runner for 
the Republican nomination for President, granted a posthumous pardon to Tim 
Cole, who died of an asthma attack on death row after spending 13 years there 
for rape before being exonerated by DNA evidence. In total, according to a 
study by the Northwestern University School of Law Center on Wrongful 
Convictions, at least 39 executions have been carried out in the face of 
serious doubts over their guilt; more than 15 have been exonerated while on 
death row since 1992.

We already know that the death penalty in America is disproportionately likely 
to be used against black people (a 2007 study conducted by Yale University 
School of Law found that black people in Connecticut are three times as likely 
to receive the death penalty than white people in cases where the victim is 
white) and the poor than against white or rich people who have committed the 
same crime. But it would be nice to think that those people are, as well as 
being poor and black, demonstrably guilty. That seems like a reasonable 
criterion.

If you are pro-death penalty, you should be shouting twice as loud as the rest 
of us about the imminent murder of Troy Davis. Otherwise, you can't claim to be 
supporting a stark but necessary act of justice. You're just a fan of killing 
people in general. There are words for people like that. None of them are nice.

(source: Tom Chivers, The Telegraph)

******************

Not In Our Name: Georgia Must Not Execute Troy Davis----Resisting Troy’s 
Planned Execution with Every Moment Left

We are going into a difficult day. Today the state of Georgia is gearing up to 
execute Troy Davis. However, we have not been sitting quietly by here in 
Atlanta and everywhere worldwide.

When I learned the stunning news Tuesday morning, I paused for a moment to 
absorb the gravity of the two-word text message I had just read: “Clemency 
Denied.” But there was no time for reflection; we called for a “Day of Protest” 
and called on everyone with the power to act to do so. Around 700 people last 
night on the capitol steps for an energetic protest, chanting “Not in my name!”

Today is a “Day of Vigil.” We encourage you to make it known that you will not 
passively accept Georgia’s planned killing of Troy Davis at 7pm. Wear a black 
armband and write “Not in my name!” on it. Tell people about Troy Davis and why 
we must abolish the death penalty. If we have not managed to stop the execution 
by 6pm, gather with others in vigil.

The state of Georgia is about to do something horrific. It is prepared to kill 
a person who may well be innocent. Human life and human rights are on the line. 
The reputation of the state of Georgia is on the line. The confidence of 
Georgians and Americans in their justice system is on the line.

The state of Georgia has proven our point: the death penalty is too great a 
power to give to the government. Human institutions are too prone to bias and 
error to be entrusted with this God-like power. The death penalty is a human 
rights violation whether given to the guilty or the innocent and it must be 
abolished.

While we have time, let us not let the committee of Pontius Pilots off the 
hook! We want to appeal to anyone who has any direct power or influence to act 
to prevent this execution. If those you appeal to try to claim, “I don’t have 
the power to intervene,” Remind them that they do have power, even if it is 
through their influence and not their legal authority.

Here’s what you can do:

Fax or call the Parole Board and ask them to reconsider their decision and 
grant Troy clemency. Fax: 404-651-8502 and 404-651-6670 (try both as they will 
be busy), Phone: 404-656-0693 and 404-656-5651

Fax or call the Savannah District Attorney, Larry Chisolm, and ask him to urge 
the local judge to vacate the execution warrant. Fax: 912-652-7328, Phone: 
912-652-7308.

Call the local judge, Penny Haas Freesman, and ask her to vacate the warrant. 
Phone: (912) 652-7252

Call the Governor, Nathan Deal, and ask him to use his influence to encourage 
the board to grant clemency. Phone: 404-656-1776.

In Georgia, stand with us, saying “NOT IN MY NAME!”

a) Capitol vigil – 6pm

b) Prison vigil – 5:30pm across the street from the prison at Towaliga County 
Line Baptist Church (153 Short Road, Jackson). Take I-75 to Exit 201 and head 
toward the Hess gas station (turn left (east) off the interstate if heading 
south on I-75) on Barnesville-Jackson Rd. (Ga 36) and turn right past the gas 
station.

This is a time to be heard, not a time to submit. And please remain respectful 
to those who answer the phones. There is no need to be rude or to yell – the 
strength of our message will come through the volume of calls we generate, not 
in the decibels of our individual voices.

The thought of what may happen at 7pm tonight is outrageous, but it is all the 
more reason to continue to have hope, to continue to take action, and to 
continue to fight against the unjust death penalty.

(source: Laura Moye, Amnesty International USA blog)

******************

Troy Davis: Execution Day


Hours before Troy Davis' scheduled execution, his attorneys are trying some 
unusual appeals.

Davis is set to be put death at 7 p.m. Wednesday for the 1989 murder of 
off-duty Savannah Police officer Mark MacPhail. This is the 4th time in 4 years 
the state has tried to execute Davis.

His lawyers have few options left to try to save his life:

1.Defense attorney Brian Kammer will ask a Butts County Superior Court judge to 
block the execution, arguing the ballistic testing that linked Davis to the 
shooting was flawed. The Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison, where 
Davis sits on death row, is located in Butts County, in the city of Jackson.

2.Davis supporters plan to present more than 240,000 petition signatures to 
Chatham County District Attorney Larry Chisolm to ask him to intervene and 
request that Davis' death warrant be revoked. MacPhail was killed in Chatham 
County.

3.Davis' attorneys will ask the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles to 
reconsider their decision Tuesday to deny clemency.

A request by Davis' lawyers for the Georgia Department of Corrections to allow 
Davis to submit to a polygraph examination in prison to try to prove his 
innocence has already been denied. Defense attorneys had wanted assurances that 
the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles would review the results.

Davis' supporters have also considered asking President Obama or the Supreme 
Court to intervene and stop the execution.

Legal experts call the last-ditch appeals long-shots.

In Georgia, the State Board of Pardons and Paroles has exclusive authority to 
grant clemency to death row inmates. By law, Governor Nathan Deal cannot grant 
a pardon.

Officer Mark MacPhail's son, 22-year-old Mark MacPhail, Jr., plans to serve as 
a prosecution witness to the execution. 5 members of the media will also watch 
as Davis is put to death by lethal injection.

"Death Watch"

Davis is now under what the Georgia Department of Corrections calls a "Death 
Watch" to make sure he doesn't do anything to harm himself.

He will have 6 hours to spend with his family members in a special visitation, 
and he'll have a chance to record a final statement.

Davis declined to request a special last meal and instead will be offered the 
institution's meal tray, consisting of grilled cheeseburgers, oven browned 
potatoes, baked beans, coleslaw, cookies and grape beverage.

If executed, Davis will be the 29th inmate put to death by lethal injection. 
There have been 51 men executed in Georgia since the U.S. Supreme Court 
reinstated the death penalty in 1973. There are presently 99 men and 1 woman on 
Georgia's death row.

Doubts persist

Davis' attorneys and supporters had pinned most of their hopes on his clemency 
hearing Monday, arguing that Davis shouldn't be put to death for a murder he 
didn't commit.

In the years since Davis' conviction, 7 of 9 prosecution witnesses linking 
Davis to Officer MacPhail's murder have either changed or recanted their 
testimony.

"There's doubt here," said Davis' sister Martina Correia. "You can't make 
mistakes. You have to be sure because you can't go backwards."

But a prosecutor who handled the case against Davis 20 years ago said he has no 
doubt.

"The appearance of doubt has been manufactured by the defense," Spencer Lawton, 
who is now retired, told 11Alive's Brenda Wood in a rare interview Tuesday 
night.

"In every case where the issue has been in court, we've won," Lawton said, 
calling the recantations "valueless as evidence."

Supporters speak out

As the clock ticks closer to Davis' scheduled execution, his supporters have 
taken to the streets and social media to speak out.

#TroyDavis and #TooMuchDoubt were trending topics on Twitter Tuesday and 
Wednesday with high profile tweets from the likes of Amnesty International to 
Kim Kardashian.

Atlanta hip hop artist Big Boi of Outkast tweeted, "We don't need a trending 
topic, we need boots on the ground, meet me in Jackson Georgia 40 miles outside 
Atlanta!!! #Troydavis"

Georgia state senator Vincent Fort (D-Atlanta) called for a strike and sick-out 
by staff members at the prison in Jackson.

"I say to the prison staff: If you work on that day, you will enable the prison 
to carry out the execution of a possibly innocent man," Fort said in his 
statement.

The Davis case even came up during Monday afternoon's White House Daily 
Briefing, when White House Press Secretary Jay Carney answered questions 
regarding the president's position on the death penalty in general and the 
Davis case in particular.

"The president has written that he believes the death penalty does little to 
deter crime but that some crimes merit the ultimate punishment," Carney said. 
"Some of you may also recall that when the president was in the Illinois State 
Senate, he worked across the aisle to find common ground. With regard to this 
specific case, I haven't talked to the president about that, and I would refer 
questions about it to the Department of Justice."

The president does not have the power to stop Davis' execution, but he could 
ask the Justice Department to take action.

(source: 11aliveNews)

**********************

Is Georgia Ready to Execute an Innocent Man?


I read the papers this morning online searching for this story about Troy 
Davis. When I read the news that the Georgia Board of Pardons did not grant 
clemency and that Davis was set to be executed on Wednesday September 21 I 
swallowed hard. I had not followed this case closely until recently. My work in 
the last 19 years has been focused on reforming the justice system through 
advocating for restorative justice. However, in recent years I have met 
innocent men who were on death row for crimes they did not commit. They are the 
lucky ones; they're alive to tell their stories. I have met even more victims 
of violent crime whose loved ones have been murdered around the United States 
who are increasingly raising their voices against the death penalty. Many of 
those same crime victims are strong advocates for restorative justice.

Troy Davis's case is one where doubts remain regarding his guilt. Seven out of 
nine witnesses have recanted their stories fingering Davis as the killer. Some 
of those witnesses apparently testified against Davis due to harassment by the 
prosecution or law enforcement. There is no DNA evidence available to test. 
Even ballistic evidence is questionable. Yet, Georgia is ready to execute this 
man unless another court intervenes.

In June of 2011 I moderated a crime victims roundtable on restorative justice 
at Campbell University School of Law in North Carolina. At that national 
restorative justice conference I met a man named Franky Carrillo. He sat in the 
audience of my roundtable. I looked out at the audience and thought I 
recognized his face. After the event I learned why. His story had been in the 
Los Angeles Times a couple of months before. Franky had been exonerated after 
some 20 years of incarceration in a California prison. He was now a free man. I 
was so excited to see him and rejoiced at his freedom and seeing him at this 
conference. How many more like Franky are there? How many more innocent people 
sit on death row in America? Is Troy Davis one of them?

I think it is hard not to conclude that he is one of those innocent men. Since 
I work with crime victims around this country and globally I am saddened by the 
pain of the victims' family in this case. They seek an end to their pain, pain 
they have felt since their loved one was murdered. They seek peace. But as I 
have learned from so many victims and those who have been exonerated, one thing 
they will not get is peace if the wrong person is executed for a crime he did 
not commit. Those who speak out against this execution seek justice. 
Restorative justice cannot be applied when an innocent man is imprisoned, and 
let alone executed if he is not the guilty party. There will be no restoration 
or healing of the victim. There will be no offender accountability if the wrong 
man is executed. If reading this story makes you anxious and unsettled, it 
should.

(source: Lisa rea, RestorativeJustice.org)

*************************

ABA President Robinson Statement on Denial of Clemency for Troy Davis


Protection of the innocent is one of the legal profession’s most serious 
obligations. That obligation has life-and-death consequences when the death 
penalty is at issue.

The American Bar Association previously urged the Georgia Board of Pardons and 
Paroles to grant clemency to Troy Davis, in part because the ABA has identified 
serious, longstanding concerns with the fair administration of Georgia’s death 
penalty. Many of these problems were present at the time of the investigation 
and prosecution of Mr. Davis’ case, and persisted through every stage of 
appeal. Serious doubts about Mr. Davis’ guilt and the fairness of his trial 
have also been raised by many national and international organizations and 
individuals. Deciding not to execute Mr. Davis will serve justice by 
reaffirming that the justice system does not utilize the death penalty for 
anyone whose guilt is reasonably in question.

The ABA has no position for or against the death penalty itself. But the 
association’s decades of work, its policies and the commitment to justice by 
all its members strongly indicate that Mr. Davis’ execution should not be 
carried out.

With nearly 400,000 members, the American Bar Association is the largest 
voluntary professional membership organization in the world. As the national 
voice of the legal profession, the ABA works to improve the administration of 
justice, promotes programs that assist lawyers and judges in their work, 
accredits law schools, provides continuing legal education, and works to build 
public understanding around the world of the importance of the rule of law.

(source: ABA Now; Wm. T. (Bill) Robinson III, president of the American Bar 
Association)

*******************

Board denies request for clemency reconsideration; Davis denied polygraph test


The Board of Pardons and Paroles received a request from the representatives of 
Troy Anthony Davis requesting the Board reconsider its decision to deny 
clemency to Davis.

The Board denied the request to reconsider the decision made Tuesday, denying 
clemency to Davis.

Attorneys for Davis also requested permission to give him a polygraph test 
before his scheduled execution.

A defense attorney said Georgia prison officials have blocked that request.

Additionally, Davis' attorneys have filed a last-minute appeal to halt his 
execution.

The attorneys filed the appeal in Butts County Superior Court, south of 
Atlanta. Butts County is the home of the prison where Davis sits on death row.

The appeal asks a judge to block the execution, which is scheduled for 7 p.m. 
Wednesday. The appeal argues that ballistic testing that linked Davis to the 
shooting was flawed.

Davis was convicted in 1991 and sentenced to death in the 1989 killing of Mark 
MacPhail, an off-duty police officer who was working a side job as a security 
guard in Savannah when he was shot and killed while rushing to help a homeless 
man who had been attacked.

It's not clear whether the appeal in Butts County would be effective. MacPhail 
was killed in Chatham County. All of Davis's appeals there have been exhausted.

Davis' supporters are planning to rally at the prison in Jackson in the hours 
leading up to his death.

Davis didn't request a special last meal. He planned to spend his final hours 
meeting with friends, family and supporters.

(source: WGCL-TV)

*************

Ga DA says he's powerless to stop Davis execution


A Georgia prosecutor being pressured to halt the execution of convicted 
murderer Troy Anthony Davis says he's powerless to interfere.

Chatham County District Attorney Larry Chisolm issued a statement Tuesday night 
saying he has no power to withdraw the execution order for Davis, which was 
issued by a Superior Court judge. Chisolm says the matter is beyond his 
control.

Davis is scheduled to die by lethal injection Wednesday night for the 1989 
slaying of off-duty Savannah police officer Mark MacPhail. Georgia's pardons 
board refused to grant him clemency Tuesday, prompting calls by Davis' 
supporters to call on Chisolm to stop the execution.

(source: Associated Press)

*******************************************************************


US death row inmate Troy Davis issues parting cry


CONVICTED murderer Troy Davis has issued a parting cry to death penalty 
abolitionists urging them to continue the battle after he is executed tonight, 
Amnesty International says.

"The struggle for justice doesn't end with me," Davis said in a letter to 
supporters released to the public via Amnesty International USA, which posted 
it on Facebook and on its website.

"This struggle is for all the Troy Davis who came before me and all the ones 
who will come after me," he said.

"I'm in good spirits and I'm prayerful and at peace. But I will not stop 
fighting until I've taken my last breath."

A US parole board denied clemency today to Davis, clearing the way for his 
execution tomorrow in a racially charged case that has become an international 
cause celebre for death penalty opponents.

Davis, who is black, was convicted 20 years ago of the fatal 1989 shooting of 
27-year-old white police officer Mark MacPhail, a married father of a 
2-year-old girl and an infant boy.

MacPhail had been working nights as a security guard when he intervened in a 
brawl in a Burger King parking lot in Savannah, Georgia and was shot in the 
heart and the head at point-blank range.

There was no physical evidence tying Davis, who was 20 at the time of the 
murder, to the crime and several witnesses at his original trial later recanted 
their testimony.

During two decades of legal jousting, the campaign to spare his life drew 
high-profile support from former US president Jimmy Carter and Pope Benedict 
XVI, helping Davis escape three previous dates with death.

Some 2000 protesters gathered, at Amnesty's urging, at the Georgia state 
capitol today, 24 hours before Davis is due to become the 34th person executed 
in the United States this year.

The family of the victim have insisted the execution go ahead with MacPhail's 
daughter telling journalists emotionally how Davis had robbed her of a life 
with her father.

(source: Agence France-Presse)

************

Did Troy Davis death-penalty case expose flaws in 'executive clemency'?----The 
Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles stood firmly behind the 1991 murder 
conviction that put Troy Davis on death row. But the many doubts in the case 
have raised questions about 'executive clemency' as a fail-safe for the death 
penalty


Unreliable eyewitnesses, the impact of race on a jury in the Deep South, the 
difficulty of proving innocence once convicted: Troy Davis's long journey 
through the US judicial system has hit nearly every sensitive button in 
America's complex relationship with the death penalty.

On Tuesday, the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles declined a final clemency 
bid by Mr. Davis, 42, who has spent 20 years on death row for the murder of an 
off-duty Savannah, Ga., police officer in 1989. The board reaffirmed the 
validity of the original conviction by a jury of his peers. His execution by 
lethal injection is scheduled for 7 p.m. Wednesday.

But to many legal experts, doubts raised about Davis's guilt after his 
conviction raise new questions about the Supreme Court's determination that 
so-called "executive clemency" – the power of a governor or review board to 
commute a death row sentence – is an adequate fail-safe for assessing death-row 
innocence claims.

"If a case like this doesn't result in clemency, which is a discretionary 
process that calls a halt to an execution based on doubt surrounding the 
integrity of the verdict, then it suggests that clemency as a traditional 
fail-safe is not adequate," says James Acker, a criminologist at SUNY-Albany. 
"The Davis case raises doubts about the discretionary clemency process and 
ultimately raises doubts about whether the legal system can tolerate this 
potential error in allowing a person to be executed."

While the number of people executed in the United States has dwindled steadily 
over the past 15 years, a majority of Americans – about 64 percent – still 
support the death penalty. At a recent GOP presidential candidate debate, a 
crowd cheered when Texas Gov. Rick Perry, the current Republican frontrunner, 
noted the 234 executions carried out under his watch.

But also this summer, an Arkansas judge allowed a complex legal maneuver to 
free 3 men known as the West Memphis 3, including 1 who was on death row, for 
the murder of 3 boys 18 years ago. Moreover, North Carolina, once one of the 
most active death-penalty states, currently has a moratorium on the sanction.

"The death penalty is really fading in the United States, and there is a lot of 
disagreement about why that is, but certainly, (there are) fewer executions 
than there used to be," said the New Yorker's legal writer, Jeffrey Toobin, in 
a CNN interview Tuesday. "But this one does appear to be going forward, even 
with all the protests."

DNA-based death row exonerations have influenced the public's view, but the 
Troy Davis case rises to the top of the death-penalty debate for several 
reasons. For one, he is arguably the best-known person on any US death row, and 
the show of public support for a new trial has been unprecedented, with nearly 
700,000 people petitioning the parole board. Global figures like Pope Benedict 
XVI, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, former President Jimmy Carter, and even 
death-penalty supporters like former Congressman Bob Barr, all urged the parole 
board to either commute his sentence or give him a new trial.

In an indication of the seriousness of the doubts about the case, the US 
Supreme Court in 2009 transferred Davis's writ of habeas corpus, or request for 
relief from unlawful imprisonment, to a US District Court – the first time it 
had granted such a request in half a century. Two dissenting justices, Antonin 
Scalia and Clarence Thomas, called the ruling a "fool's errand."

The federal judge assigned to the case, Judge William T. Moore of the US 
District Court of Southern Georgia, concluded in 2010 that new evidence and 
testimony, including that 7 of 9 witnesses had changed or recanted testimony, 
wasn't enough to prove his innocence. “The state’s case may not be ironclad, 
[but] most reasonable jurors would again vote to convict Mr. Davis," Judge 
Moore wrote in his ruling.

In 1993, the US Supreme Court ruled in Herrera v. Collins that an individual’s 
provable innocence isn't, by constitutional standards, enough for courts to 
grant a new trial. The ruling put the onus on discretionary state-by-state 
executive clemency procedures – whether by extrajudicial boards or governors – 
as the "fail-safe."

"I really think that the decision made in Georgia puts the assumption that 
executive clemency is a fail-safe in so much doubt that it ought to stimulate 
the legal system … to revise, reform, revisit the formal legal process that 
results in convictions and allows sentences of death," says SUNY-Albany’s Mr. 
Acker. "In this case, the clemency process has failed."

The Georgia parole board noted that it has commuted three death sentences since 
2000, and said in a statement that its five members "considered the totality of 
the evidence" and that members "have not taken their responsibility lightly."

The family of the slain police officer, Mark MacPhail, said that Davis and his 
family had duped people into believing in his innocence. "We know what the 
truth is," MacPhail's widow, Joan MacPhail-Harris, told CNN. "And for someone 
to ludicrously say that he is a victim – we are victims. Look at us. We have 
put up with this stuff for 22 years. It's time for justice. We need our 
justice."

But others believe Davis's claims of innocence and the substantial doubts about 
whether a jury today would find him guilty present the US with a moral quandary 
that could reflect more broadly on the death penalty.

"At its core, I think this case represents a serious moral issue," Rev. Raphael 
Warnock of the Ebenezer Baptist Church told the Christian Post. "If we're able 
to execute a man with this much doubt, that is not good for our moral health."

(source: USA Today)