Posted on 09/21/2011 9:10:07 PM PDT by Borough Park
(CBS/AP) JACKSON, Ga. - Georgia executed Troy Davis on Wednesday night for the murder of an off-duty police officer, a crime he denied committing right to the end as supporters around the world mourned and declared that an innocent man was put to death.
Defiant to the end, he told relatives of Mark MacPhail that his 1989 slaying was not his fault. "I did not have a gun," he insisted.
(Excerpt) Read more at cbsnews.com ...
This took place in a Burger King parking lot, in front of a couple of dozen people, after Davis and his buddy had attracted everybody's attention by pistol-whipping a homeless man who was screaming for help. The eyewitnesses did not know each other, but all of them independently described to a 't' Davis's clothing and appearance, and picked him out of a lineup. A couple of them knew him by name. When you get consistent, independent statements, that's a pretty good indication of truthfulness. See Susanna and the Elders (Daniel ch. 13).
Forensic evidence: Davis just a short time before shot somebody at a party. The shells recovered from that shooting scene matched the shells recovered from the shooting of the police officer. The pistol was never found because Davis threw it away (and told a friend he threw it away).
More forensic evidence: police found the officer's DNA on Davis's bloody clothing, which he had discarded at his mother's house. That evidence was not introduced at trial because his mama lied after the fact and said she had not given permission to search the house. But there it is.
Additional evidence: Davis admitted to two friends that he had shot the police officer because he got a good look at his face and could identify him. That doesn't include the jailhouse rat who retracted his not-very-believable statement (the details didn't match up with any of the eyewitness accounts).
Finally, the officer identified Davis over the radio before he was murdered. Identification from beyond the grave good enough for you?
Two bloated faces, two bloated egos, two bloated wallets.
Two blond x's.
I’m torn on this not because I don’t believe that trash should be exterminated but because my belief in the USA justice system is one of cynicism and little confidence. You don’t think justice can be bought? Ask the NBA, NFL or Lindsay Lohan or others with money. Ask the Duke
Lacross players how they would have fared without one of their parents being affluent and connected.
Capital punishment in a nation that has proven beyond all reasonable doubt that justice in the USA can be easily bought by fame, politics, money or ethnicity, and in fact is bought regularly by sports moneymakers and celebrities, is that cap punishment should be limited to only cases where the perp (such as in Connecticut home invasion) is proven guilty beyond all possible doubt by multiple objective means such as DNA and other techniques.
Witnesses have been proven to be unreliable and can be influenced by police promises. It’s happened too many times. We don’t have a perfect trustworthy system.
An individual sentenced to capital punishment should be found guilty totally based upon objective analysis and irrefutable evidence. My concern with the current system is because of politics, and politics by nature is 100% corrupt and self serving. DAs are elected. Judges are elected. The DA at Duke was willing to send up those boys for raping a girl just so he could gain political advantage.
I had been trying to find if the guy had a record, but couldn't find any stories about that.
My wife's ancestors came over on the Mayflower and has done extensive genealogical investigation and on the witch executions in Mass. She is convinced that many of these executions were carried out for political reasons where women received inheritances and others wanted it. One of her relatives with wealth was executed as a witch. We should never underestimate the evil and power of politics and the willingness of those without ethics and with ambition to do whatever it takes to advance their own interests. I agree if one is actually caught in the act of a crime then kill them outright, otherwise capital punishment needs to be applied only if the crime is nailed down 100% by facts, not just witnesses.
Leni
Then the mainstream media did a horrible job, by not telling us these things.
No, I haven’t read any of the actual trial documents. The mainstream media failed to do its job properly. Everyone should have been told about those things.
as well as revoking any tax exempt status they have, the law should make them and similar groups have to list all the evidence and all the details of the crime against a death row inmate,either that or the US seizes all their assets in this country with it going in to a crime victims fund
victims families or victims advocates should be able to sue for conspiracy to violate the victims civil rights and/or obstruction of justice when these groups bring frivolous lawsuits destined to inpeade the judicial process
Not a single conviction after that point.
If there had actually been a conspiracy, a point of evidentiary law wouldn't have stopped it. Rev. Mather was a pompous ass, but he was an honest man.
Another problem is that these people actually believed in witches, something we find hard to fathom. As C.S. Lewis noted, if we still believed that people could sell their souls to the devil in exchange for the power to make their neighbors sick and kill them and their livestock, "if anybody deserved death, then these filthy quislings would."
They simply reprint the press releases without the least curiosity about investigating for themselves. It's either journalistic malpractice or complicity. The media don't seem to realize that they are trashing their own reputations and destroying themselves, at least once people catch on.
I don’t know if he had a record. It wouldn’t have been introduced at trial because it was irrelevant both to the issue of guilt (not a similar transaction) and sentencing (not relevant to DP issue). I do recall some discussion of a gang affiliation at some point.
Stand-by for the crazies to encourage the deaths of conservative candidates in 2012.
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