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NO JUSTICE FOR TROY DAVIS.
Troy Davis will be executed tonight for a crime he most likely didn't commit. Davis was implicated in the murder of police officer Martin McPhail in Georgia. Since Davis' conviction, 7 out of the 9 witnesses in the case recanted. Two witnesses confessed to fabricating their accounts, three of the four who testified at trial have signed affadavits recanting, and others have implicated the ninth witness, a Sylvester "Red" Coles, as the real gunman. The reason witness testimony is so important in this case is that there is no physical evidence and no murder weapon: Davis was convicted entirely by witness testimony, which is what makes this account from one of the witnesses simply chilling:One witness, Antoine Williams, a Burger King employee who identified Davis as the gunman at the trial, later said: "Even today, I know that I could not honestly identify with any certainty who shot the officer that night. I couldn't then either. "After the officers talked to me, they gave me a statement and told me to sign it. I signed it. I did not read it because I cannot read."As is this one:
"I told them it was Red and not Troy who was messing with that man, but they didn't want to hear that," Collins, who was 16 at the time, said in his 2002 statement. "The detectives told me, 'Fine, have it your way. Kiss your life goodbye because you're going to jail.' After a couple of hours of the detectives yelling at me and threatening me, I finally broke down and told them what they wanted to hear."Despite the massive amount of exculpatory evidence and high profiles of Davis supporters (they include Pope Benedict XVI and former President Jimmy Carter) Davis' case faced several serious roadblocks. The first was legislation signed by Bill Clinton in the wake of the Oklahoma City bombing that limits the reasons for which death penalty convictions can be overturned. The second was simply that McPhail was a police officer who left behind a family; there is a tremendous desire to see someone, anyone, punished for McPhail's murder, and it doesn't really seem to matter if the person punished is actually guilty.
This is the logical extension of holding "black people" accountable for urban crime, rather than the individuals themselves. In this scheme of thought, as long as a black man pays for the crime--any one will do. This is, quite plainly, a lynching, of the decidedly more fatal low-tech variety.
--A. Serwer
COMMENTS (9)
But not one of those who rightfully protest are prepared to do anything about it.
Posted by: John Baker | September 23, 2008 3:01 PM
Innocent white losers in the wrong place at the wrong time also get convicted. Getting a psychopathic real killer to testify against a more convenient defendant is also S.O.P.
Posted by: Andrew J. Lazarus | September 23, 2008 3:54 PM
This cop killer is going to fry despite the protests of those same insane liberals who line up to protect black criminals at every opportunity. When the body is carried out, they can hop the bus to Nevada to protest for OJ. More black protesters on TV, more votes down the drain for Obama.
Posted by: v racer | September 23, 2008 4:13 PM
No one need get his knickers in a twist over the pending execution of inmate Davis. The usual five collaborators on the Supreme Court (Ginsberg, Bryer, Stevens, Souter and Kennedy) will, predictably, enter a stay of execution within the coming half hour. Rely upon it.
Prosecutors and police are quite right to be skeptical of the seven witnesses now recanting their testimony. They come, after all, from a segment of the community whose cooperation with law enforcement and whose respect for law and order in general is, historically, less than exemplary.
Nonetheless, it's a foregone conclusion that the United States Supreme Court will intervene, thereby restarting the whole miserable process and guaranteeing it goes staggering on for yet more years as bleeding heart shysters play their games. Add to the mix the usual tiresome complaints of "racism" and one has the very witches brew that magically transformed another street thug and cop killer, Mumia Abu Jamal, into a hero of the left to be fawned over by Hollywood knuckleheads like Ed Asner and ugly white women with too much time on their hands.
Officer Mark MacPhail was a hero who died a hero's death.
After 20 years worth of lawyer tricks and doubletalk, they deserve what measure of peace and closure they can be afforded by the murderer's long delayed execution. Regrettably, it's not likely.
Posted by: Michaelmas Goose | September 23, 2008 5:41 PM
Every time I find myself reconsidering my lifelong opposition to the death penalty, someone like "v racer" comes along and reminds me what the other side really thinks.
Posted by: laborlawyer | September 23, 2008 5:56 PM
They come, after all, from a segment of the community whose cooperation with law enforcement and whose respect for law and order in general is, historically, less than exemplary.
As Adam said:
This is the logical extension of holding "black people" accountable for urban crime, rather than the individuals themselves.
Straight up racist this commenter is, simple and plain.
Posted by: Matt Weiner | September 23, 2008 11:19 PM
Every time I think I've seen about every sort of human behavior on the internet, and have lost the ability to be disappointed, I read something like the vile comments that got posted earlier above.
How absolutely disgusting.
Posted by: S | September 24, 2008 2:30 AM
"
This cop killer is going to fry despite the protests of those same insane liberals who line up to protect black criminals at every opportunity. When the body is carried out, they can hop the bus to Nevada to protest for OJ. More black protesters on TV, more votes down the drain for Obama.
Posted by: v racer | September 23, 2008 4:13 PM
What a loony.. Talk about party affiliation- sheesh.
Posted by: rc | September 24, 2008 4:15 AM
hey racer,
sounds like you are upset that your robe and your hood are gathering dust in your trailer park. thank goodness that scum like you are going to get used to a black man being the president
Posted by: buddha | September 25, 2008 12:32 AM