Troy Davis case: The role of witnesses

[struggle4progress]

Seven of nine changed their stories about a 1989 murder.
By Walter C. Jones, The Times-Union

... even of nine witnesses who testified against him when he was convicted of the 1989 murder of off-duty Savannah policeman Mark MacPhail have since changed their story. Attorneys on his behalf have filed more than a handful of appeals, and he was only spared hours short of his execution last year while the U.S. Supreme Court considered whether the methods of lethal injection used in Georgia and other states was unconstitutionally cruel ...

Two witnesses say they no longer stand by their testimony that Davis admitted his guilt to them while in jail awaiting trial. Melton notes that because their original statements would be admissible in a retrial, jurors would merely be faced with a question of whether Davis made an admission. But that wouldn't prove he didn't commit the murder, Melton said.

Then there are the witnesses who now say another person at the scene, Sylvester Coles, actually confessed to them that he was the shooter. One said he heard Coles while they were smoking pot together and another was a woman drinking poolside with Coles ...

"I believe that this case illustrates that this court's approach in extraordinary motions for new trials is overly rigid and fails to allow an adequate inquiry into the fundamental question, which is whether or not an innocent person might have been convicted or even, as in this case, might be put to death," <Chief Justice Leah Sears of the Georgia Supreme Court> wrote <in a dissenting opinion> ...

http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/092808/geo_337722506.shtml

[alphafemale]

1. I live in Savannah. I think it was Red Coles that murdered that young officer.

Seven of nine witnesses have completely recanted their testimony, and say they were coerced by police to lie. An eight is unsure. The ninth is Coles.

Troy deserves a new trial.

This case stinks to high heaven.

I wonder if Coles wasn't some kind of informant or something and there's been some type of cover-up all this time.