And now for something seriously serious...
Hey y'all... I don't usually do this, but this case just seems too horrible and outrageous to be ignored.
Just got an e-mail from the ACLU asking for letters to be sent for a man named Troy Anthony Davis, who is scheduled to be executed on September 23, 2008 in Georgia for killing an off-duty police office in 1991. According to them, there is new evidence and strong suspicion that he is not guilty of the crime, but so far all of the appeals courts have refused to accept the new evidence. Seven witnesses to the crime have recanted their testimony, saying they were coerced by police officers to identify Davis as the murderer and now they say that another man, who also swore to the courts that Davis was the murderer, actually did the killing. Only two witnesses have not recanted, one of them being the man now named as the killer by the other seven. At least one of the witnesses who now say they were coerced was underage at the time they were originally questioned about the murder by police, and one is illiterate, to this day cannot read, and could not read the statement the police told him to sign. I can't imagine any of them had lawyers with them during questioning, although the ACLU didn't mention that specifically in anything I was able to find at their site about this case.
"[The police] were telling me that I was an accessory to murder and that I would... go to jail for a long time and I would be lucky if I ever got out, especially because a police officer got killed... I was only sixteen and was so scared of going to jail."
"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... I was totally unsure whether he was the person who shot the officer. I felt pressured to point at him... I have no idea what the person who shot the officer looks like."
"The police came and talked to me and put a lot of pressure on me... They wanted me to tell them that Troy confessed to me about killing that officer. The thing is, Troy never told me anything about it. I got tired of them harassing me... I told them that Troy did it, but it wasn't true."
"[T]here was and is no doubt in my mind that the person who shot the officer had the gun in and was shooting with his left hand."
Davis is right-handed.
~ Excerpts from the witnesses' new affidavits
Furthermore, the murder weapon was never found and no physical evidence tying Davis to the crime was ever discovered. He was convicted solely on the testimony of witnesses. I don't know about y'all, but that seems terribly fishy to me to say the least. If someone's going to be executed for something, the evidence had better be beyond a shadow of doubt, and even without the recantations, I'm seeing a lot of doubt here that needs some serious consideration. (I mean, really, if freaking Bobby Joe Long, about whom there is no doubt that he killed at least 10 women, and raped them and God only knows how many more - but at last count it was at least 50 women and girls as young as 12, other than his murder victims, that he is known to have raped in Florida alone - and who was caught by the FBI when I was an infant, can still be alive and well, sitting in his jail cell on Death Row up in Stark, FL, writing crazy-assed letters to the governor about how it isn't fair that he doesn't have cable tv access that's paid for by the taxpayers 24+ years after he committed his crimes, then this guy Davis, who maybe shot one man in 1991 and very possibly didn't do it at all, should be able to have his sentence commuted. Honestly!)
But so far, the appeals courts have not accepted the new signed affidavits into evidence, and so this possibility of police corruption and witness tampering, not to mention that seven of the nine witness have changed their stories, are not part of the facts of the case. The Georgia Supreme Court has even heard the motion for a new trial based on this new evidence and has turned Davis down. All of his appeals have been exhausted. His only hope at not dying on September 23rd is having his sentence commuted to life imprisonment by the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles.
If you will, no matter what country you live in, take a minute to send a quick form letter to the board asking that they consider this new evidence when deciding whether or not to commute Mr. Davis' sentence and spare his life.
Just got an e-mail from the ACLU asking for letters to be sent for a man named Troy Anthony Davis, who is scheduled to be executed on September 23, 2008 in Georgia for killing an off-duty police office in 1991. According to them, there is new evidence and strong suspicion that he is not guilty of the crime, but so far all of the appeals courts have refused to accept the new evidence. Seven witnesses to the crime have recanted their testimony, saying they were coerced by police officers to identify Davis as the murderer and now they say that another man, who also swore to the courts that Davis was the murderer, actually did the killing. Only two witnesses have not recanted, one of them being the man now named as the killer by the other seven. At least one of the witnesses who now say they were coerced was underage at the time they were originally questioned about the murder by police, and one is illiterate, to this day cannot read, and could not read the statement the police told him to sign. I can't imagine any of them had lawyers with them during questioning, although the ACLU didn't mention that specifically in anything I was able to find at their site about this case.
"[The police] were telling me that I was an accessory to murder and that I would... go to jail for a long time and I would be lucky if I ever got out, especially because a police officer got killed... I was only sixteen and was so scared of going to jail."
"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... I was totally unsure whether he was the person who shot the officer. I felt pressured to point at him... I have no idea what the person who shot the officer looks like."
"The police came and talked to me and put a lot of pressure on me... They wanted me to tell them that Troy confessed to me about killing that officer. The thing is, Troy never told me anything about it. I got tired of them harassing me... I told them that Troy did it, but it wasn't true."
"[T]here was and is no doubt in my mind that the person who shot the officer had the gun in and was shooting with his left hand."
Davis is right-handed.
~ Excerpts from the witnesses' new affidavits
Furthermore, the murder weapon was never found and no physical evidence tying Davis to the crime was ever discovered. He was convicted solely on the testimony of witnesses. I don't know about y'all, but that seems terribly fishy to me to say the least. If someone's going to be executed for something, the evidence had better be beyond a shadow of doubt, and even without the recantations, I'm seeing a lot of doubt here that needs some serious consideration. (I mean, really, if freaking Bobby Joe Long, about whom there is no doubt that he killed at least 10 women, and raped them and God only knows how many more - but at last count it was at least 50 women and girls as young as 12, other than his murder victims, that he is known to have raped in Florida alone - and who was caught by the FBI when I was an infant, can still be alive and well, sitting in his jail cell on Death Row up in Stark, FL, writing crazy-assed letters to the governor about how it isn't fair that he doesn't have cable tv access that's paid for by the taxpayers 24+ years after he committed his crimes, then this guy Davis, who maybe shot one man in 1991 and very possibly didn't do it at all, should be able to have his sentence commuted. Honestly!)
But so far, the appeals courts have not accepted the new signed affidavits into evidence, and so this possibility of police corruption and witness tampering, not to mention that seven of the nine witness have changed their stories, are not part of the facts of the case. The Georgia Supreme Court has even heard the motion for a new trial based on this new evidence and has turned Davis down. All of his appeals have been exhausted. His only hope at not dying on September 23rd is having his sentence commuted to life imprisonment by the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles.
If you will, no matter what country you live in, take a minute to send a quick form letter to the board asking that they consider this new evidence when deciding whether or not to commute Mr. Davis' sentence and spare his life.