Troy Davis - fewer than 7 hours to live

[bean fidhleir]

"However, {Georgia} yesterday rejected pleas to reconsider its recent decision to deny clemency on the grounds that so much uncertainly exists over whether Davis shot and killed a Savannah police officer.

Georgia's supreme court also denied Davis's request for a stay of execution, and his last hope of avoiding execution at 7pm local time (midnight BST) now appears to rest with the US supreme court, where his lawyers have asked for a stay of execution.

In a case that has attracted international attention, Pope Benedict XVI and the former US president Jimmy Carter have asked for the sentence to be commuted to life in prison without parole."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/sep/23/usa


I don't know what can be done, people, but RIGHT NOW is the time to do it!

[bean fidhleir]

1. K

[FourScore]

4. PLEASE DU!!! LET'S KEEP THIS KICKED TO THE TOP.

DON'T LET THIS DROP.

[dana_b]

2. the US Supreme Court?

Oh God.... I don't think that will work in his favor. If you believe in doing it....pray???

[FourScore]

3. Keep the emails pouring into

your State Death Penalty Abolition Coordinator (SDPAC).

http://www.amnestyusa.org/death-penalty/troy-davis-finality-over-fairness/page.do?id=1011343&n1=3&n2=28&n3=1412

Just click the above link and look on the right side of the screen. Click the blue "contact" link and type your protest. Something like "Stop the execution of Troy Davis!" would do just fine.Then send. It's easy and quick. Please, let's try to stop this injustice.

There is also a petition to sign at the amnesty link or this link:

http://www.troyanthonydavis.org/call-to-action.html

Thank you, fidhleir for posting this.

Let's send this to the top of the greatest page, folks!!!

[Sequoia]

35. Thanks for the link. Just faxed off the sheet.

[kaygore]

5. Kick--I pray we get results!

[Uncle Joe]

6. Capital punishment should be illegal, period.

Life in prison without parole is the most justice humanly obtainable, you can't surpass that limit without the state becoming guilty of murder at some point.

Thanks for the thread, bean fidleir.

Kicked and recommended.

[Rainbowreflect]

7. K&R

[bean fidhleir]

8. Important witness apparently saw killing but was NEVER INTERVIEWED

Attorney Carol Gray:

"Two of the people in that parking lot were Troy Davis and Sylvester Coles. Coles went to the police department the day after the shooting saying that Davis shot the officer. In the decade that followed, Coles confessed to several people that it was he (Coles) who shot the officer. In addition, 7 of the 9 witnesses from trial who testified against Davis have recanted their testimony.

"But no one has spoken with perhaps the best witness of all {emph. added}: the clerk at the motel across from the Burger King parking lot. According to another witness, the clerk screamed when the shooting happened. Her office had a large window facing the lot, so she likely saw the shooting. There is a way to find her: subpoena the tax records for that motel for the year Officer MacPhail was killed. State and federal tax records for the Thunderbird should have this woman listed as an employee, along with her social security number. She can be located."

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/stay-georgias-tuesday-7pm-execution/story.aspx?guid=%7B00246001-715A-4945-A076-4CA102B3CB1E%7D&dist=hppr

[TuxedoKat]

9. Praying for him.

nt

[emlev]

10. Two Arrested at Troy Davis Sit-in at Governor's Office (yesterday)

See more at our website: Click here

Two Activists Arrested at Troy Davis Sit-in at Governor's Office

By Matthew Cardinale, News Editor, The Atlanta Progressive News (September 22, 2008)

(APN) ATLANTA - Two anti-death penalty activists, Rev. Marvin Morgan, First Congregational Church, and Steve Woodhall, were arrested today at the Governor's Office, after refusing to leave the office until speaking with the governor about tomorrow's impending execution of Troy Davis.

Woodall has been fasting since Thursday for Davis, only drinking water, as part of a one-man vigil outside of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution newspaper offices downtown. Meanwhile, Rev. Morgan today issued a letter to the governor asking to let him take the place of Davis....

More at link.

[quiet.american]

11. Keeping kicked for Troy. nt

[bean fidhleir]

12. SCOTUS is scheduled to decide whether to hear appeal --- 6 days from now!

Scalia et al. strike again. "Factual innocence is no bar to execution".

[dana_b]

14. wha wha WHAT??!!

did Scalia actually say that? If this is true, they will have this innocent man's blood on their hands.

[Freddie Stubbs]

15. It must be true if someone wrote it on the Internet

;)

[dana_b]

18. well, these days I trust some anonymous person on the internet as much as I trust

our politicians, judges, etc.

[bean fidhleir]

16. Some SCOTUS clown said it. I think it was Scalia, but it might have been Kennedy

It wasn't about Davis, this was several years ago. The statement was, basically, that as long as the procedure was followed correctly, the state has no obligation not to kill the person even if post-process evidence supports their claim of actual innocence.

[bean fidhleir]

19. It was the Gang of Five (or three of them anyway) in Herrera v Collins

and what I wrote as a quote is actually a paraphrase.


Held:

Herrera's claim of actual innocence does not entitle him to federal habeas relief. Pp. 398-419.

(a) Herrera's constitutional claim for relief based upon his newly discovered evidence of innocence must be evaluated in light of the previous 10 years of proceedings in this case. In criminal cases, the trial is the paramount event for determining the defendant's guilt or innocence. Where, as here, a defendant has been afforded a fair trial and convicted of the offense for which he was charged, the constitutional presumption of innocence disappears. Federal habeas courts do not sit to correct errors of fact, but to ensure that individuals are not imprisoned in violation of the Constitution. See, e.g., Moore v. Dempsey, 261 U.S. 86, 87 -88. Thus, claims of actual innocence based on newly discovered evidence have never been held to state a ground for federal habeas relief <506 U.S. 390, 391> absent an independent constitutional violation occurring in the course of the underlying state criminal proceedings. See Townsend v. Sain, 372 U.S. 293, 317 . The rule that a petitioner subject to defenses of abusive or successive use of the habeas writ may have his federal constitutional claim considered on the merits if he makes a proper showing of actual innocence, see, e.g., Sawyer v. Whitley, 505 U.S. 333 , is inapplicable in this case. For Herrera does not seek relief from a procedural error so that he may bring an independent constitutional claim challenging his conviction or sentence, but rather argues that he is entitled to habeas relief because new evidence shows that his conviction is factually incorrect. To allow a federal court to grant him typical habeas relief - a conditional order releasing him unless the State elects to retry him or vacating his death sentence - would in effect require a new trial 10 years after the first trial, not because of any constitutional violation at the first trial, but simply because of a belief that, in light of his newfound evidence, a jury might find him not guilty at a second trial. It is far from clear that this would produce a more reliable determination of guilt or innocence, since the passage of time only diminishes the reliability of criminal adjudications. Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307 , Ford v. Wainwright, 477 U.S. 399 , and Johnson v. Mississippi, 486 U.S. 578 , distinguished. Pp. 398-407.

(b) Herrera's contention that the Fourteenth Amendment's due process guarantee supports his claim that his showing of innocence entitles him to a new trial, or at least to a vacation of his death sentence, is unpersuasive. Because state legislative judgments are entitled to substantial deference in the criminal procedure area, criminal process will be found lacking only where it offends some principle of justice so rooted in tradition and conscience as to be ranked as fundamental. See, e.g., Patterson v. New York, 432 U.S. 197, 202 . It cannot be said that the refusal of Texas - which requires a new trial motion based on newly discovered evidence to be made within 30 days of imposition or suspension of sentence - to entertain Herrera's new evidence eight years after his conviction transgresses a principle of fundamental fairness, in light of the Constitution's silence on the subject of new trials, the historical availability of new trials based on newly discovered evidence, this Court's amendments to Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 33 to impose a time limit for filing new trial motions based on newly discovered evidence, and the contemporary practice in the States, only nine of which have no time limits for the filing of such motions. Pp. 407-412.

(c) Herrera is not left without a forum to raise his actual innocence claim. He may file a request for clemency under Texas law, which contains specific guidelines for pardons on the ground of innocence. History shows that executive clemency is the traditional "fail-safe" <506 U.S. 390, 392> remedy for claims of innocence based on new evidence, discovered too late in the day to file a new trial motion. Pp. 412-417.

(d) Even assuming, for the sake of argument, that, in a capital case, a truly persuasive post-trial demonstration of "actual innocence" would render a defendant's execution unconstitutional and warrant federal habeas relief if there were no state avenue open to process such a claim, Herrera's showing of innocence falls far short of the threshold showing which would have to be made in order to trigger relief. That threshold would necessarily be extraordinarily high because of the very disruptive effect that entertaining such claims would have on the need for finality in capital cases and the enormous burden that having to retry cases based on often stale evidence would place on the States. Although not without probative value, Herrera's affidavits are insufficient to meet such a standard, since they were obtained without the benefit of cross-examination and an opportunity to make credibility determinations; consist, with one exception, of hearsay; are likely to have been presented as a means of delaying Herrera's sentence; were produced not at the trial, but over eight years later, and only after the death of the alleged perpetrator, without a satisfactory explanation for the delay or for why Herrera pleaded guilty to the Rucker murder; contain inconsistencies, and therefore fail to provide a convincing account of what took place on the night of the murders; and do not overcome the strong proof of Herrera's guilt that was presented at trial. Pp. 417-419.

954 F.2d 1029, affirmed.

REHNQUIST, C.J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which O'CONNOR, SCALIA, KENNEDY, and THOMAS, JJ., joined. O'CONNOR, J., filed a concurring opinion, in which KENNEDY, J., joined, post, p. 419. SCALIA, J., filed a concurring opinion, in which THOMAS, J., joined, post, p. 427. WHITE, J., filed an opinion concurring in the judgment, post, p. 429.



Scalia:

it is perfectly clear what the answer is: there is no basis in text, tradition, or even in contemporary practice (if that were enough) for finding in the <506 U.S. 390, 428> Constitution a right to demand judicial consideration of newly discovered evidence of innocence brought forward after conviction. {emph added} In saying that such a right exists, the dissenters apply nothing but their personal opinions to invalidate the rules of more than two thirds of the States, and a Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure for which this Court itself is responsible. If the system that has been in place for 200 years (and remains widely approved) "shock{s}" the dissenters' consciences, post, at 430, perhaps they should doubt the calibration of their consciences, or, better still, the usefulness of "conscience shocking" as a legal test.

[K Gardner]

13. I can't bear that this is happening - and there is NO recourse ?

[bean fidhleir]

17. SCOTUS is in emergency session to hear the appeal

Troy Anthony Davis has long said he didn't kill a Savannah police officer, and the U.S. Supreme Court will decide Tuesday whether to postpone his 7 p.m. ET execution. ... The Supreme Court called an emergency session to hear the petition.

(CNN)

[FourScore]

21. Oh, please please please please please

DO THE RIGHT THING!!!

[orleans]

24. well, good for them. last i heard they were going to hear the case

six days after the execution.

[emlev]

25. Thanks for telling us!

Is it happening right now?

[bean fidhleir]

29. I believe they're in session right now on it, yes. But that's just what I can glean

from the minimalist reports on the net

[pleah]

20. K&R

[bean fidhleir]

22. He now has 3 1/2 hours left to live

No word from SCOTUS

[orleans]

23. these pigs in charge of this in georgia have no fucking conscience!

they certainly are no "christians"--they are all klan members! assholes!

[nc4bo]

26. Signed the petition a while ago but will send email now. nt

[samuraiguppy]

27. kicking.

people need to be more concerned about this poor man's life--instead of whining about their pocketbooks like a bunch of freepers.

[FVZA_Colonel]

28. 7 out 9 witnesses recant, no weapon, and no DNA evidence.

(I may have missed other problems as well.)


Why is this happening?

[bean fidhleir]

30. 3 hours

[riverdeep]

31. Georgia needs a sacrifice.

And it looks like anyone will do. These guys don't want to admit their mistakes, that's basically why this is happening. They'd rather continue with injustice than to have people 'lose faith in the system'.

When you've got people as divergent as Bob Barr (who supports the death penalty) and Jimmy Carter agreeing on this, something is really going on!

[Dystopian]

32. KandR...please do your part DUers.....time is running out. n/t

peace~

[bean fidhleir]

33. 2 1/2 hours. Still no word.

[bean fidhleir]

34. 2 hours. Still nothing

Amy Goodman interviewing Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga):

AG: Actually, Barack Obama is for the death penalty.

JL: Well, it is troublesome. You know, sometime I just wonder, and I have this unbelievable feeling that maybe, just maybe, some place along the way, some of us must have the courage to say -- and I'm moving closer and closer to this point -- that in good conscience, I cannot and will not support people who support the death penalty. I think it's barbaric, and it represents the Dark Ages. It's not in keeping -- I don't think as human beings, I don't think as a nation, I don't think as a state, we have the right to take the life of another person. That should be left for the Almighty to do.

[EFerrari]

36. KICK

[ColbertWatcher]

37. kick. n/t

[Obamanaut]

38. Another in Florida scheduled for 6 pm today.

Richard Henyard

[EFerrari]

39. Gov's office looks to be closed up early. n/t

[countryjake]

43. Calling there was my last desperate thought...

shit, forgot the three hour time difference!

:cry:

[EFerrari]

44. They closed up early.

Easy, countryjake. If nothing else, promise me we will be the Memories. So if a better, more just time ever arrives, we can tell the story.

:hug:
:grouphug:

[countryjake]

46. CNN Breaking News...He's got a stay!

I missed the report, just had a chance to read the banner!

[countryjake]

47. Did I read it wrong? Jeez, my eyes are not so good anymore...

but I thought sure I saw the word "delayed"!

[EFerrari]

49. NO! You are right! The Supreme Court issued a stay. See below.

:hug:

[EFerrari]

48. link

http://www.wsav.com/midatlantic/sav/news.apx.-content-articles-SAV-2008-09-23-0021.html

:cry:

[EFerrari]

40. . . .

[countryjake]

41. I've already written, both email and snail mail...

do you think calling the governor of Georgia would help?

[EFerrari]

42. I just tried and got a recording. I don't know what else to do. n/t

[bean fidhleir]

45. 90 minutes left

[EFerrari]

50. The Supreme Court issued a stay. n/t

[bean fidhleir]

54. oh this is wonderful!

I was getting sick as the clock kept counting down. I didn't think I could count off the final hour.

Now if only they give him a new trial.

[EFerrari]

55. . . .

:hug:

[bean fidhleir]

57. .

:hug:

[countryjake]

56. He has to get a new trial...

almost all of the witnesses against him have recanted their original testimony, this screams out "Reasonable Doubt"!

They can revoke his stay in an instant, if they refuse his appeal for re-hearing the case.

Work to free Troy Davis is far from done!

:grouphug:

[bean fidhleir]

58. there's so much reasonable doubt there that even scotus should be able to see it

:hug:

[emlev]

51. Troy Davis Granted Stay Of Execution!

LBN

[samuraiguppy]

52. whoo hoo!!!

[emlev]

53. More info

The U.S. Supreme Court’s justices are scheduled to decide Monday whether to hear an appeal of a ruling issued in March by the Georgia Supreme Court. In that 4-3 decision, the state Supreme Court rejected Davis’ request that he be granted a new trial or a court hearing to present new evidence.

In its order, the U.S. Supreme Court said if the justices decline to accept Davis’ appeal, “this stay shall terminate immediately.” If the appeal is granted, the stay will remain in force until the high court issues its ultimate ruling on Davis’ appeal, the order said.

from the Atlanta Journal Constitution

[bean fidhleir]

59. jeez i'm feeling really queasy from the reaction

i think i'm going to go lie down.

i can't begin to imagine how Troy must be feeling. and his sister. this roller-coaster can't be helping her battle with cancer, poor woman.

[FourScore]

60. Breathe. In through the nose...out through the mouth...or something like that.

Throw in an "Om" if you need to.

Thank you for keeping this posted. You did great.



:pals:

[emlev]

61. Celebrating this moment -- Troy Davis is not dying right now!

This is the moment when he was scheduled to be executed.

While the reprieve is currently only for a week, there is still hope.

My gratitude to everyone who has worked to spare his life!