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Ga. inmate wants polygraph test before execution
AP via Google News ^ | September 20, 2011 | GREG BLUESTEIN

Posted on 09/20/2011 9:17:53 PM PDT by americanophile

ATLANTA (AP) — Yet another appeal denied, Troy Davis was left with little to do Tuesday but wait to be executed for a murder he insists he did not commit.

He lost his most realistic chance to avoid lethal injection on Tuesday, when Georgia's pardons board rejected his appeal for clemency. As his scheduled 7 p.m. Wednesday execution neared, his backers resorted to far-fetched measures. They asked prisons officials to let him to take a polygraph test; urged prison workers to strike or call in sick; asked prosecutors to block the execution and they even considered a desperate appeal for White House intervention.

He has gotten support from hundreds of thousands of people, including a former FBI director, former President Jimmy Carter and Pope Benedict XVI, and a U.S. Supreme Court ruling gave him an unusual opportunity to prove his innocence last year. State and federal courts, however, repeatedly upheld his conviction for the 1989 killing of Mark MacPhail, an off-duty police officer who was working as a security guard in Savannah when he was shot dead rushing to help a homeless man who was being attacked.

(Excerpt) Read more at google.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Miscellaneous
KEYWORDS: execution; georgia; polygraph; troydavis
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To: americanophile

The problem with reading death penalty cases in the media is that one practically has to actually examine the trial record in order to get a fair understanding of the case.

This is because the MSM and their favorite sources such as Amnesty International have an agenda beyond reporting in an impartial manner the key facts of a case which is opposition to the death penalty, so one cannot trust their reporting on these types of matters.


21 posted on 09/20/2011 10:37:10 PM PDT by Meet the New Boss (Obama has created more jobs in soup kitchens than anyone since Jimmy Carter)
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To: Jonty30
"The system calls for reasonable doubt, not a smidgon of doubt."

No, it calls for proof, beyond a reasonable doubt.

22 posted on 09/20/2011 10:41:10 PM PDT by americanophile ("this absurd theology of an immoral Bedouin, is a rotting corpse which poisons our lives" - Ataturk)
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To: nickcarraway

A polygraph cannot be used against you but it can be used to support your case.

That is my non-law degree understanding anyway. 8)


23 posted on 09/20/2011 10:41:16 PM PDT by freejohn ("Never argue with a fool; onlookers may not be able to tell the difference." --- Mark Twain)
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To: RitchieAprile

It’s not just “some witnesses,” it’s 7 of the 9 whose testimony convicted him.


24 posted on 09/20/2011 10:43:20 PM PDT by americanophile ("this absurd theology of an immoral Bedouin, is a rotting corpse which poisons our lives" - Ataturk)
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To: samtheman

7 of the 9 witnesses recanting their stories is unusual.


25 posted on 09/20/2011 10:44:20 PM PDT by americanophile ("this absurd theology of an immoral Bedouin, is a rotting corpse which poisons our lives" - Ataturk)
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To: 1L
When you’re charged with murder and you really didn’t do it, can there EVER be a justification to not testify?

Yes, the client is seldom smarter and better educated than the prosecutor. Putting a rambling, semi-literate person with a history of violence on the stand is not likely to exonerate themselves in the eyes of the jury.

26 posted on 09/20/2011 10:45:19 PM PDT by Valpal1 ("IÂ’ll work every day to make Washington DC as inconsequential in your life as I can." Rick Perry)
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To: americanophile

Fine. He’s had multiple chances at the reasonable doubt, and he was convicted on all of them.

You can’t keep holding trials until you get the outcome that you want. At some point, the sentence must be carried out.

And let God figure out the absolutes.


27 posted on 09/20/2011 10:46:06 PM PDT by Jonty30
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To: freejohn

Well, it was a good try anyway. Try introducing a polygraph that was not ordered by the prosecution in a criminal trial. Let me know how that goes.....


28 posted on 09/20/2011 10:46:06 PM PDT by labusiness
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To: labusiness

No kidding. Conservatives rightly don’t believe a word the government says, unless it’s a prosecutor who is about to take someone’s liberty or life! It’s perplexing to me.


29 posted on 09/20/2011 10:47:18 PM PDT by americanophile ("this absurd theology of an immoral Bedouin, is a rotting corpse which poisons our lives" - Ataturk)
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To: Meet the New Boss

True.


30 posted on 09/20/2011 10:48:00 PM PDT by americanophile ("this absurd theology of an immoral Bedouin, is a rotting corpse which poisons our lives" - Ataturk)
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To: labusiness

Well, I did say that it was only my non-law degree opinion.

I watch a lot of CSI! 8)


31 posted on 09/20/2011 10:49:00 PM PDT by freejohn ("Never argue with a fool; onlookers may not be able to tell the difference." --- Mark Twain)
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To: Jonty30
That's might cavalier.
32 posted on 09/20/2011 10:49:49 PM PDT by americanophile ("this absurd theology of an immoral Bedouin, is a rotting corpse which poisons our lives" - Ataturk)
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To: americanophile

Here is Judge Moore’s order, for anyone who does not want to rely on the MSM to describe the evidence in the case:

http://www.gasd.uscourts.gov/pdf/409cv00130_92part1.pdf

http://www.gasd.uscourts.gov/pdf/409cv00130_92part2.pdf


33 posted on 09/20/2011 10:51:11 PM PDT by Meet the New Boss (Obama has created more jobs in soup kitchens than anyone since Jimmy Carter)
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To: Jonty30

I really hope you are someone you love are never in a spot where G-d must figure in your absolutes, especially where a man/women is the arbiter.


34 posted on 09/20/2011 10:51:11 PM PDT by labusiness
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To: americanophile

What’s the point in holding a trial if you’re going to stand by the verdict, but throw a sissy fit if it doesn’t go your way?

He was duly convicted on the same evidence three times.


35 posted on 09/20/2011 10:51:13 PM PDT by Jonty30
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To: labusiness

Let’s not convict anybody of anything.

Let’s open up the prisons and let everybody out.

There is no point in holding trials if the measure is to be absolute certainty.


36 posted on 09/20/2011 10:54:34 PM PDT by Jonty30
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To: Jonty30
I think the measure for the death penalty should be absolute certainty.

Prison can be stopped any time and the person declared not-guilty can be compensated for any prosecutor/police misconduct.

Death is absolutely final and several people have been declared not-guilty after the fact.

37 posted on 09/20/2011 11:09:22 PM PDT by varyouga
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To: americanophile

That is classic.


38 posted on 09/20/2011 11:11:24 PM PDT by dragnet2 ((Diversion and evasion are tools of deceit))
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To: labusiness

I’d have the death penalty applied for the shooting in the face he admits to, regardless of the death of the policeman.


39 posted on 09/20/2011 11:13:17 PM PDT by Persevero (Homeschooling for Excellence since 1992)
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To: varyouga

You’re never going to have absolute certainty.

Videos can be doctored. Confessions can be coerced. Witnesses can be bribed.

You can explain to a father whose daughter was raped until she dies as to why the inmate, whose conviction is almost certain why he gets to live and others do not.

You are also the sort of person, where because real justice is almost unattainable, that many people cheer inhumane prison conditions or prison rape because they no longer have faith in a justice system that will give them justice.

In all trials, every means should be used to best determine guilt or non-guilt, but once an accused is found guilty, thre should be little hesitation in carrying out the sentence.


40 posted on 09/20/2011 11:20:05 PM PDT by Jonty30
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