Am I the only one who suspects Troy Davis's case is part of a POLICE COVERUP?

[tblue]

I am not a lawyer, but I smell something fishy. Very fishy.

1) The 7 witness who recanted their testimony say that they were coerced and/or threatened BY POLICE to testify that Troy had confessed the crime to them.*

2) The first victim was a police officer. Police force is doubly motivated to obtain a conviction and punish the perp and close the case.

3) The parole board denies the new testimony, lets the execution proceed the next day. They have closed the case and moved on with without seeking new testimony from the recanting witnesses. Why?

4) Reconsidering this case would be extremely inconvenient and costly and embarrassing. It involves:

• possible charges of perjury by the witnesses
• possible charges of police misconduct at however many levels, maybe complicity of the DA's office, who knows?
• the admission of failure of the police to apprehend the correct suspect, instead mistaking him for a witness*
• possibly another suspect still at large, and the risk of never apprehending him
• (if they do get another suspect) a whole new trial, putting everyone (families, DA, police, courts & the public) through the ringer all over again
• the admission of total failure of Georgia's justice system. Major egg on their face!
• facing the fact of that the wrong man has been in prison for over 20 years

Wouldn't it be just easier to kill the guy?


I understand the desire for closure. I understand about exhausted appeals. But why else, if so many people see reason for doubt, would the state proceed with this execution?

If there was indeed misconduct by the police, the case should be retried at the very least. Don'tcha think???


* Sylvester "Red" Coles, one of the witnesses who testified against Troy and who did not recant his testimony, some suspect to be the perpetrator.

[librechik]

1. that seems totally obvious on its face

one more reason this is such a travesty

[Lint Head]

2. It's because he is not white. It's that simple.

Of course this has happened to Caucasians also but considering where this is located the cover up is definitely racially tinged. If he were white and decimated the economy by stealing billions of dollars there's no problem. If you're black and accused of shooting a policeman your ass is grass.

[tblue]

3. This is a legal lynching.

How many have been through this exact same thing????!!!!!!!

[KT2000]

4. Yes

They cannot let go of their racism and the power that it affords.
This is just sickening.

[Hosnon]

5. Statistically the prejudice is more victim-oriented.

That is, if the victim is white, the accused is likely to get a harsher sentence than if the victim were non-white.

Of course, there is undoubtedly prejudice on the accused side as well.

[DrunkenBoat]

18. if the victim is a white cop -- well, you know.

[ProfessionalLeftist]

6. I suspect there's a WHOLE LOT of that goes on in the U.S.

Our "justice" system is f*cked up.

[WillyT]

7. No... You Are Not The Only One...

;shrug:

[Ilsa]

8. Thom Hartmann is reporting that 8 of the 10 have recanted their testimony.

Eyewitness testimony is notoriously unreliable unless they actually know the accused.

This case sucks. Troy is requesting a polygraph to document his innocence. Not to change the outcome, just to show he is offering whatever proof he can.

[Zax2me]

9. Oh, great. Now he isn't only innocent, but cops are the real bad guys.

This just keeps getting better and better!

[ThomCat]

10. A lot of that happens when racism takes the place of real

police work.

[Gemini Cat]

13. There you are again.

You keep showing up again and again in these threads. What's your point?

[ScreamingMeemie]

14. Sometimes, unfortunately, the cops are bad guys...they too, are just

human. No one is perfect. Trust me. I have been there, to hell, and back. Because of less than "good" cops. I also count, among my very good friends a Harris County Sheriff's Deputy. They are just people. My heart breaks all over again for the victim's family (because this won't bring closure-I know about that as well) and for the family of Troy Davis.

[tblue37]

15. Like the cops who were just convicted of murdering schizophrenic

homeless guy Kelley Thomas, even though he was not guilty of anything but being homeless and schizophrenic?

Yeah, cops have been known to be bad guys.

[EFerrari]

16. Yeah, when you blackmail someone into giving false testimony, you're a bad guy.

When you have illiterate people sign written testimony, you're a bad guy. When you keep the press away from a prisoner because you're a retired cop, you're a bad guy.

[NNN0LHI]

17. Google "Chicago Police Commander Jon Burge" once

Then try telling us about the real bad guys.

Don

[donheld]

11. No

[sfpcjock]

12. Yes because the 8th witness was 120 feet away from the scene

at night and scientifically could not have recognized the face of Davis.

The police brought all the witness together for the reenactment which is never done, and they showed single pictures of Davis for identification which also should never be done.

In addition, the other suspect confessed to his friend of having committed the murder.

It seems that doubt cannot be recognized with these police or the ignorant Georgia Supreme Court.

I hope we can stop this from ever happening again.

[DrunkenBoat]

19. no. & not because they recanted later, but because some recanted at the trial,

some had their testimony impeached during the trial, and some some who supported davis's case were excluded from the trial.

Cole's witness & the witness of the jailhouse informer should have been given little creedence.

Davis;s friend, though he signed a statement for the police, in court actually said that he *told* the police he didn't see davis shoot & didn't see davis with a gun -- implying if not stating outright that the police had coerced his statement.

The military guy who said he saw davis shoot was impeached by the defense, who introduced his statement on the scene: that he COULD NOT ID anyone except by their clothes.

About half of the witnesses had problems like this AT THE TRIAL ITSELF, NOT JUST AFTERWARDS.

the more i read about the case, the more it stinks.

at least two witnesses ID'd coles as shooter. one (the one closer to the scene with a clear view) was excluded from testifying on the basis that he was just saying the same as the other one.

then at trial the prosecution impeached the other's testimony on the basis that his view was obstructed.

same thing with two women whom coles had asked to go check if the police were still at the burger joint. they excluded the woman whose testimony tended to make coles look guilty & admitted the one whose testimony tended to make him look innocent -- supposedly because the one was just duplicating the others testimony. but it wasn't the case.

There was a lot more wrong with the trial than we are reading in the media.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=439&topic_id=1982859&mesg_id=1983672

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=439&topic_id=1982859&mesg_id=1983538