Executing the Innocent?

At 7 p.m. on September 23, the state of Georgia plans to execute Troy Anthony Davis. That by itself is unremarkable; Georgia has carried out 42 executions since 1983, including two since May of this year. What makes this case different are the serious questions that have been raised about Davis' trial -- and therefore about the reliability of his conviction for the crime for which he is to die.

Davis was sentenced to death for the 1989 murder of an off-duty Savannah police officer, Mark Allen MacPhail. Of the nine eyewitnesses who testified against him at his trial, seven have since recanted and now say they are not sure who shot MacPhail. Some say they gave their original statements only after the police pressured them. Three witnesses now say that another man has confessed to the crime.

Even without this new evidence, Davis' death sentence would raise red flags. Studies show that black defendants are more likely to get the death penalty than white defendants, and those convicted of killing white victims are more often sentenced to death than those who kill blacks. Davis is black; Officer MacPhail was white. No physical evidence linked Davis to the crime, and the murder weapon was never found. The prosecution's case rested almost entirely on eyewitness testimony, which can be highly unreliable and has been implicated in many wrongful convictions.

More broadly, many Americans don't realize just how out of step their country is with the rest of the world in its retention of the death penalty. Many of our closest allies -- including Canada, Great Britain, France, Italy, and Germany -- abolished capital punishment decades ago. Their citizens express shock and incomprehension as the United States joins China, Iran, and Saudi Arabia in the ranks of the world's leading executioners. And our attachment to the death penalty has very real costs for our own justice system: many countries won't extradite a criminal suspect to the United States if he or she may face execution.

Human Rights Watch opposes the death penalty in all circumstances because of its inherent cruelty and finality. But even those who support capital punishment must shudder at the prospect of executing an innocent person. And we have come very close, not just once, but many times. Since 1973, 129 persons -- including five in Georgia -- have been released from death rows in the United States because of evidence that they were innocent. Some of these men and women had come within hours of execution.

Davis himself was 24 hours from execution in July of last year, when the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles granted him a stay. Now that stay has expired, and Davis is once again scheduled to die.

Because of strict rules limiting consideration of newly discovered evidence, Davis has been unable to get a court to hear the new evidence in his case. In March, the Georgia Supreme Court voted four to three not to grant him a hearing, and on September 12, the Board of Pardons and Paroles denied his request for clemency. Davis still has a petition pending before the US Supreme Court; that is his last hope. It also may be Georgia's last hope to avoid the unfathomable shame of executing an innocent man.

Comments

[dudleysharp]

The United States is hardly out of touch. The US is more democratic on the death penalty.

Death penalty support is much deeper and much wider than we are often led to believe, with significant percentages of those who say they, generally, oppose the death penalty, actually supporting it under specific circumstances.

This, from the French daily Le Monde, December 2006 (1):

Percentage of respondents in favor of executing Saddam Hussein:
Great Britain: 69%
France: 58%
Germany: 53%
Spain: 51%
Italy: 46%

We are led to believe there isn't death penalty support in England or Europe. European governments won't allow executions when their populations support it: they're anti democratic. (2)


(1) The recent results of a poll conducted by Novatris/Harris for the French daily Le Monde on the death penalty shocked the editors and writers at Germany's left-leaning SPIEGEL ONLINE (Dec. 22, 2006). When asked whether they favored the death penalty for Saddam Hussein, a majority of respondents in Germany, France and Spain responded in the affirmative.

(2)An excellent article, “Death in Venice: Europe’s Death-penalty Elitism", details this anti democratic position (The New Republic, by Joshua Micah Marshall, 7/31/2000).

As of 2006, 72% of South Africans want the death penalty back. ("South Africans Support Death Penalty", 5/14/2006, Angus Reid Global Monitor : Polls & Research).

[dilbarsf]

Ridiculous. What is this country coming too?

[KillTheMessenger]

Fascism. Look it up, it's not exactly a new thing.

[SEQUOIABISON]

America will always be tainted by our antiquated barbaric practice of executing people.

We should never stoop to the level of the criminal and commit pre-meditated executions, we are giving our children a confusing message when we teach them that it is wrong to kill if we ourselves kill as an example of justice?

Obama/Biden

[Whinger]

Some states of America resist adopting civilized standards of behaviour!

They have failed to recognise that the death penalty is no deterrant whatsoever!
They fail to embrace the Christian commandment, thou shalt not kill, embracing instead the rules of men!

A better punishment is permanent loss of freedom, for in time they will die anyway!

[XME]

While a believe there should be a death penalty, I feel very strongly that no one should ever be given a death sentence when the only "evidence" is eyewitness testimony. It's just been proven inaccurate far too often to put someone's life on the line based on someone else's word or memory.

[ToonMoene]

But the number one reason to be against the death penalty is:

IT CANNOT BE REVERSED

when the convicted is later proven to be innocent.

[nopartygal]

Here is the link to Amnesty International's site, if you wish to protest the imminent execution of Troy Davis:
http://takeaction.amnestyusa.org/siteapps/advocacy/index.aspx?c=jhKPIXPCIoE&b=2590179&template=x.ascx&action=11223

Tell everyone you can. Don't let an innocent man be put to death! If it were me: don't let any man (or woman) be put to death!

[MikaS]

Thanks for the link.

[citizenoftheworld]

We have no idea how many people we have killed who were innocent.
Texas is the leader in how many people they have put to death.

Charles Hood got a stay of execution on Sept 10th. The district attorney and the
judge were having an affair during his trial in Collin County Texas.
During their affair several people were sentenced to death.
The callousness of these individuals is beyond comprehension.
This is another example like Mr. Davis of a criminal justice system
that not only has a prejudice against poor people but is out and out
racist. The executions mainly take place in the south. They are, as you pointed
out, mostly african-american.
Has anyone ever heard of a rich person getting the death penalty. It never happens.

It is time to catch up with the rest of the world and abolish the death penalty.
For now we need to rally behind the people on death row like Mr. Davis who are
waiting to be executed.

[ThomasDoubting]

Part 2
With about 16,000 murders in America, there are only 65 executions in a given year. There are many reasons why only 65 are chosen for official Government Executions, First among those reasons, is the fact that only a small percentage of the 16,000 murders leads to an arrest. Even when arrests are made many of the suspects establish their innocence at that time. Of those convicted many, with decent legal defense, win on appeal. Of those who remain, although many are condemned, only about 65 people are killed. We can speculate on the 65! Are they rich or poor? White or black ? Male or female ? Yuppies or high school drop-outs ? Average intelligence or less than normal ? Non-drinkers or alcoholics ? Private attorney or public defender ? Rx drug user or street drug user ? Self-supporting or unemployed ? Total 16,000 + 65 = 16,065 . . How does it benefit you, if we kill these people ? . What's really going on?

[ThomasDoubting]

Part 1
I am not willing to tell this government, or any government that it is alright to kill me, if I commit a crime. While some people like to euphemistically call it the "Death Penalty", I prefer to call it, what it is, an Official Government Execution of a Citizen. There are unofficial executions also, killing by police etc., but that is another story. We allow the government to kill any of us, but they choose to only kill certain of us. We all know the profile of those being killed. Is it part of our agreement with our government, that they only kill the poor? One way to deter murder, would be to solve every murder case. Unless we do that, the idea of a deterrent for a crime like murder, is absurd. Murder is almost always, a crime of passion. It is inconceivable that one, would hesitate to commit murder due the threat of being executed, when the alternative is spending the rest of your life in prison.

[larry278]

Maybe this is one of the reasons that "The Crime of Punishment" was written. As I recall the book criticized similar sentences. While I can't spell the author's name, I remember what I read. Senior moments can be a nuisance.

[robXdion]

Fyodor Dostoyevsky

[GrainOSand]

Fyodor Dostoevsky is the author who I think you are trying to recall and the book Crime and Punishment as well as the Brothers Karamazov had many things to say about a variety of topics dealing with human nature, human triumph, and human failing.

As for the penalty of death as a punishment for a horrific crime, I am torn on the subject. Legally I say no to planed execution, since humans are prone to error, cover-up, and conspiracy to defraud, dupe, and be vindictive in and out of law. Morally, I can understand if I walked in on someone who was doing something so vile and evil, that it caused me to lose my mind and take that person's life. I would be wrong for lacking restraint, but such a lapse is understandable in the heat of the moment. The death penalty is a cold calculation however, and thus I say outlaw it. However, a child rapist or a rapist in general, where there is irrefutable evidence, I must say there is a temptation to call for a special brand of painful and lengthy justice for such people. Morally, I would be wrong in calling for sustained torture. Sometimes it sucks being moral.

As for innocents -- free them now, there should be no hesitation in a moral society.

[citizenoftheworld]

Unfortunately there is no such thing as irrefutable evidence.
We are humans, humans are not perfect, therefore; we
should never take the chance of killing an innocent person.

There is only one way to be sure that we do not kill an
innocent person, and that is to abolish the
death penalty.

Child rape and murder is horrific everyone agrees, no one
thinks that those that committ such atrocities should ever
be allowed to walk free again. We have to take the high road.
Violence begets violence.

Texas executes more people than any other state. They also have
some of the highest murder rates. A culture of violence.


«It is better to risk saving a guilty person than to condemn an innocent one.»
Voltaire

[larry278]

Thanks, I thought that the author was a noted American, MD. When the news of the melt down slows a tad I'll look for the book & get a good translation of Crime & Punishment; & the Bros Karamazov.
You've given me nourishing food for thought with 2d & 3d paragraphs. I've bookmarked it; again thanks.
ll

[lisakaz2]

I think Color of Change has a petition on behalf of Mr. Davis. I just keep hoping there is a truth here that will make the situation clear, like those undergrads who proved in one case that a "witness" to another crime was actually the shooter. And he also confessed.

The ambitions and pretentions of prosecutors seems to be at odds with "justice" here. If anything, commute the guy's sentence. Actually, if that many witnesses have recanted and another guy confessed, I don't see how there shouldn't be a new trial.

[mscriblerus]

Prosecutors are not in the business of seeking justice. They are in the business of getting indictments. They will fight tooth and nail to kill this guy no matter what evidence comes to light. They never admit they are wrong unless they can blame it on someone else. Even when they were obviously wrong and end up getting successfully sued, they still contend that they were right.