My Heart is Heavy

[Kevin Spidel]

By Martina Correia, Amnesty International USA

In 1989, my brother Troy Anthony Davis was accused of killing an off duty police officer and two drive-by shootings in Savannah, Georgia. The people in the city were outraged, my family tormented and my mother in total devastation. In 1991 my brother was convicted of the police killing and one of the drive-by shootings. Even though the man shot in the drive-by testified I don’t know Troy Davis he had no reason to shoot me. It was proven that his shooting was related to the other drive-by shooting they charged Troy with, but we later discover another man confessed to that shooting and is now serving time imprison. You see the witnesses for the prosecution were, known criminals, and undesirables, so the state had to make Troy seem like a deranged bain on society that performed three shootings in different areas of town with different guns, while on foot all within 30 minutes. But the kicker is that the smoking gun was not a gun at all but the main prosecution witness who was the only person that testified he had a gun that he threw away. My brother’s crime was being in the wrong place at the wrong time, Troy tried to stop the man with the gun from pistol whipping a homeless man over a can of beer. The homeless man testified that the man that pistol whipped him was the same man that killed the police officer. The same man that gave the police their smoking gun, he walked into the police department with a lawyer, receiving immunity from prosecution and said, “Troy Davis killed the policeman. The same man who threw away his gun that the police never recovered to test for ballistic matches. The same man who was never tested for gun powder residue.

Well after years of fighting for my brother’s innocence and speaking against the death penalty, we got some breaks. The Atlanta-Journal Constitution did a front page Sunday story on the fact that 6 of 9 prosecutorial witnesses in Troy’s case, Totally Recanted and cited coercion among things. This was September 2003, after which only a few people sent in opinions to the paper that they would not execute with so much doubt. The local Savannah News Press said nothing about the two page story.

I have tried so hard to get national attention to save Troy. I have dedicated my life to saving his, even at the expense of my own health at times. Because I go home and I have to look into the face of my ailing mother who has so much love for the world and for my brother. I have to look at how sad she has become that no one cares about the families on the other side. No one cares about the injustice that has taken place against my family. We can’t want until my brother has an execution date for people to rally behind his case because then it is too late.

But then, I received a call last year a prestigious lawyer In DC, who believes in his innocence and has taken his case after so many years pro-bono. More good news, my family is elated, my brother has a hearing before the 11th circuit court of appeals and we are fighting for his innocence and then I hear this voice of doom from one of the judges,” Counselor are you here to argue actually innocence or the procedural default error?” The attorney Kathleen Behan of Arnold & Porter in DC says, “Both, my client is factually innocent and the procedural error, that states this evidence should have been presented in State Court.” One of the judges held up affidavits and said to the state prosecutor, “Without these original testimonies due to recantations you have no case against Mr. Davis, so why are we here? Then it seemed like I was hearing a language never spoken because I could not understand the response. The state prosecutor, simple said, “Because you don’t have to look at the innocence issue in this case, there was a procedural error. Mr. Davis did not present this information in a timely manner.” This was September 7, 2005 and we are still waiting a decision from the court...

(read more here: http://spidel.net/blog/?p=451)

About the Author: http://www.amnestyusa.org/faithinaction/matina_correia.html

[benburch]

1. We execute innocent men in America ALL THE TIME.

In Illinois the problem was so bad that a Conservative Republican Governor CLEARED DEATH ROW.

Thats right, all of the people on Death Row had their sentences commuted to live without parole because we found out we were killing innocent people.

Sadly, now that they are in for life rather than death, the efforts to prove the innocence of many of these people have slowed markedly, and it is very likely that we have innocent people serving life sentences here now...

And Illinois is not more or less corrupt than any of the other states, so it is absolutely certain that other states are executing people who were railroaded.

[Nordmadr]

2. This should at the very minimum get some exposure for finding

and researching for truth and justice. If it was my brother I would plead for all the help I could get if the facts showed he was innocent. Tell her to get that lawyer to make some noise. I am kicking and recommending.

Olafr

[bemildred]

3. "you don’t have to look at the innocence issue in this case"

So why do we call it the "justice system" if we do not care about justice?

[WhereThereIsFire]

4. New TV show tonight - INJUSTICE

I'm looking forward to this new show, starting tonight at 9PM. I'm hoping it will truly sustain an audience and sway more opinions against the death penalty. So many innocent people have been executed over the years ... and even more are in prison for things they never did. It has also been a big factor of the reaganbush years that imprisoning people has become a "cottage industry." It has been privatized to such an extent that many are making big money via assuring there is always a large prison population. Hear that whirring sound? The founding fathers rotating madly in their graves.

[Chalco]

5. Preview show the other nite was excellent. nt

[Zodiak]

6. Because he wants a conviction

Lawyers like to have a big win-loss record. Who cares if the man is innocent....all that matters is that the prosecutor wins. If the innocent man dies, well, you gotta break some eggs to further the career of a laywer.

Bastards.

[sojourner]

7. it is so sardonic is it not?

I think that it's really a game. A game where the State is on one side and the Accused is on the other. The most skillful player (of the rules and procedures that make up the game) wins. Period. That is what we call justice.

And, to make it worse, there are a lot of people who are satisfied with that game -- when the Accused is convicted they feel that society has been "saved" from evildoers, and when the Accused is acquitted they feel that the State demonstrates its commitment to justice.

There's about as much justice (especially to the poor) as would likely arise from "the lottery". Anyone remember that story?

Okay, so the last statement was hyperbolic. But damn it! With the technology we have today, it would seem that a society focused on truly establishing guilt/innocence would have a better track record than what we have - and I think it's due to our focus on establishing guilt (innocence be damned because in our society there is no such thing. if you're not guilty of THIS crime, well, you are probably guilty of another that you weren't caught for).

[bemildred]

8. Yes, a game, no values or ethics, just to win or lose, like in Las Vegas.

And these same people will whine at you about the corruption of the poor.