Tomorrow Georgia May Execute An Innocent Man

As Execution Nears, Last Push From Inmate’s Supporters

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By BRENDA GOODMAN
Published: July 15, 2007

ATLANTA, July 14 — It was a Friday night in a rough part of town when Officer Mark A. MacPhail of the Savannah Police Department showed up to work his second job, moonlighting as a security officer for the Greyhound bus station on Oglethorpe Avenue in Savannah, an area where transients were known to congregate and to drink through the early morning hours.

Georgia Department of Corrections

Troy A. Davis was convicted of killing a police officer in 1989.

A few hours later, early on a Saturday morning in August 1989, Officer MacPhail was shot and killed as he tried to break up a fight over a can of beer. He never drew his weapon.

The man convicted of shooting the officer that night in 1989, Troy A. Davis, is likely to be the focus of an unusual clemency hearing before the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles. On Monday, the board is to hear the case of Mr. Davis, 38, who was sentenced to death in 1991 for the killing.

Though prosecutors have considered the case solved for nearly two decades, a chorus of eyewitnesses say the police arrested the wrong man. Now, on the eve of execution, scheduled for Tuesday, they have joined his family and his lawyers in an effort to get the courts to hear new evidence they say proves he is innocent.

With no physical evidence — the murder weapon was never found — prosecutors relied heavily on the testimony of nine eyewitnesses who took the stand against Mr. Davis.

But since his trial, seven of the nine have recanted or changed their testimony, saying they were harassed and pressed by investigators to lie under oath. Other witnesses have come forward identifying a different man as the shooter.

But because of a 1996 federal law intended to streamline the legal process in death penalty cases, courts have ruled it is too late in the appeals process to introduce new evidence and, so far, have refused to hear it.

full article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/15/us/15execute.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

Just more proof that Georgia sucks. California, FTW.

I live in Georgia, and it does indeed suck. It is a state of entrapment. I myself have been cornholed by the local police departments. I've been convicted and sentenced for something when the officer present had no search warrant, didn't read me my Miranda Rights, never so much as hinted that I was under arrest or handcuff me - I was simply escorted to the station and booked for something I was innocent of. You can't fight it here.

I feel sorry for this man if he is truly innocent; it wouldn't suprise me.

I moved to California in 2005 - before my conviction - and moving back was the biggest mistake of my life. I'm still being sucked dry by the money-grubbing legal system of this state. My advice to anyone reading this is stay as far away from the south, particularly Georgia, as you possibly can.

Then move to a democratic nation.

better him than me.

How can they refuse to listen?? He could be Innocent.

Wow, this makes me hate Georgia even more.

Is the guy black?

Originally posted by Bardock42
Is the guy black?

Yes

Originally posted by Fishy
Yes

ATLANTA — A man convicted of killing a police officer won a reprieve a day before his scheduled execution, after his lawyers argued that several witnesses had recanted or changed their testimony.

The state Board of Pardons and Paroles on Monday granted a stay of execution of up to 90 days to Troy Davis, 38, who was convicted of killing a Savannah police officer in 1989.

He had faced a Tuesday execution date before the board's decision, which came 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 Davis' request for clemency. The board must rule by Oct. 14.

After the decision, defense lawyer Jason Ewart expressed relief. "We are no longer under the gun and we can present the rest of our innocence case," he said.

The officer's widow, Joan MacPhail, decried the ruling. "I believe they are setting a precedent for all criminals that it is perfectly fine to kill a cop and get away with it," she said. "By making us wait, it's another sock in the stomach. It's tearing us up."*

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/huff-wires/20070716/georgia-execution/

*evil cvnt

That woman should be happy it's being delayed. If the guy is innocent she could have been screaming for the death of an innocent man. Doubt that would have made her feel any better. The idiot.

Originally posted by Bardock42
Deserves it.

Truer words have never been spoken.

Why am I not surprised.

Tookie Williams sent to the Chair last year

despite several High Court Judges Civil Rights Activists and Members of Congress going before The Supreme Court in Protest

as I remember the "witnesses" in that trial were lifetime thugs and gangbangers given deals to testify in favour of the prosecution or life in maximum security

decades later when some of the retired Gangbangers stepped forward and confessed how they had committed perjury under pressure their admissions were rejected.

Tookie was drugged out of his skull as he gave his testimony at the murder trial

in prison after the trial he maintained he did not do it even to the parole board when they offered him a deal to walk free.

Modern day Forensics using tecniques not available decades ago established that there was no evidence to link him with the murder charges

and in place of a jury of his peers he had a gallery of Restless RednecksT.M.

Originally posted by Bardock42
Deserves it.

Originally posted by Tengu
why?

Read the post he quoted when saying that, then read the post quoted in that one...

I used to live in Savannah from grades 6-8 and went to DeRenne Middle School, which is near the crime scene. It is a sh*thole, that area. I will agree with that.

I would also like to agree with everyone who says that Savannah and Atlanta are indicative of how the rest of Georgia is. It brings back fond memories of that KMC member who referred to Southeast Georgia as swampland. It's good to see that kind of insight amidst the 11 year old minds who generalize about a place they know little to nothing about. I especially like the art form of browsing a thread, seeing one or two buzz words, and then posting whatever diarrhea happens to be flowing between their ears at the time.

Originally posted by Fishy
That woman should be happy it's being delayed. If the guy is innocent she could have been screaming for the death of an innocent man. Doubt that would have made her feel any better. The idiot.

i think that all she's concerned with is seeing someone die as some token of vengeance. thats all i can logically gather from someone who doesnt care whether or not the guy being killed is innocent. its not like one juror screwed it up. if anything she should be furious at the DA for corrupting the jury through shady practices.

does she want justice or just a dead black guy?

Originally posted by don't shiv
Why am I not surprised.

Tookie Williams sent to the Chair last year

Not sure about the man in this story, but Stanley Williams was nothing more than a murdering gang-banger; that's a fact. So quit your yapping.

Originally posted by Schecter
i think that all she's concerned with is seeing someone die as some token of vengeance. thats all i can logically gather from someone who doesnt care whether or not the guy being killed is innocent. its not like one juror screwed it up. if anything she should be furious at the DA for corrupting the jury through shady practices.

does she want justice or just a dead black guy?