The Death Penalty
Byrnzie
Posts: 21,037
"I've been haunted by the men I was asked to execute in the name of the state of Florida. This is premeditated, carefully thought out ceremonial killing."
- Ron McAndrew, former prison warden in Florida
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/se ... don-denied
Troy Davis execution: Georgia pardons board denies plea for clemency
Georgia man who insists he was wrongly convicted of killing a police officer in 1989 set to be executed on Wednesday
Guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 20 September 2011
Georgia's pardons board has rejected clemency for death row inmate Troy Davis, who has attracted high-profile support for his claim that he was wrongly convicted of killing a police officer in 1989.
According to his defence lawyers, the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles on Tuesday rejected Davis's request for clemency after hearing hours of testimony from his supporters and prosecutors.
"I am utterly shocked and disappointed at the failure of our justice system at all levels to correct a miscarriage of justice," Brian Kammer, one of Davis's attorneys, said after the decision was announced.
Davis is set to die on Wednesday for the murder of off-duty Savannah officer Mark MacPhail, who was killed while rushing to help a homeless man who was being attacked. It is the fourth time in four years his execution has been scheduled by Georgia officials.
Davis was convicted at a 1991 trial almost exclusively on the basis of nine witnesses who all said they had seen him carry out the shooting. Davis was present at the scene, but has always insisted that another man, Sylvester Coles, attacked the homeless man and shot MacPhail when he intervened.
The murder weapon was never found, and there was no DNA or other forensic evidence.
In the years since the trial, seven of the nine witnesses have come forward and recanted their evidence, saying they were put under pressure to implicate Davis by the investigating police. Other witnesses have come forward to say they had heard Coles confess to killing the officer.
The parole board heard from one of the jurors who originally recommended the death penalty for Davis. Brenda Forrest told the panel she no longer trusted the verdict or sentence: "I feel, emphatically, that Mr Davis cannot be executed under these circumstances," she said, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
The board also heard from Quiana Glover, who testified she had heard Coles confess in June 2009 to having been the killer, at a party where he had been drinking heavily.
Following the arguments for clemency, members of MacPhail's family and the prosecution side were expected to call for the execution to go ahead.
Brian Evans, a death row specialist at Amnesty International's US branch, said the extraordinary outpouring of support for Davis was partly of a reflection of changing attitudes in America towards executions.
Opinion polls suggest the US has softened its view from its once-hardline, pro-capital punishment position, and is now fairly evenly divided between defenders of the death penalty and those who see life without parole as a satisfactory alternative.
- Ron McAndrew, former prison warden in Florida
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/se ... don-denied
Troy Davis execution: Georgia pardons board denies plea for clemency
Georgia man who insists he was wrongly convicted of killing a police officer in 1989 set to be executed on Wednesday
Guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 20 September 2011
Georgia's pardons board has rejected clemency for death row inmate Troy Davis, who has attracted high-profile support for his claim that he was wrongly convicted of killing a police officer in 1989.
According to his defence lawyers, the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles on Tuesday rejected Davis's request for clemency after hearing hours of testimony from his supporters and prosecutors.
"I am utterly shocked and disappointed at the failure of our justice system at all levels to correct a miscarriage of justice," Brian Kammer, one of Davis's attorneys, said after the decision was announced.
Davis is set to die on Wednesday for the murder of off-duty Savannah officer Mark MacPhail, who was killed while rushing to help a homeless man who was being attacked. It is the fourth time in four years his execution has been scheduled by Georgia officials.
Davis was convicted at a 1991 trial almost exclusively on the basis of nine witnesses who all said they had seen him carry out the shooting. Davis was present at the scene, but has always insisted that another man, Sylvester Coles, attacked the homeless man and shot MacPhail when he intervened.
The murder weapon was never found, and there was no DNA or other forensic evidence.
In the years since the trial, seven of the nine witnesses have come forward and recanted their evidence, saying they were put under pressure to implicate Davis by the investigating police. Other witnesses have come forward to say they had heard Coles confess to killing the officer.
The parole board heard from one of the jurors who originally recommended the death penalty for Davis. Brenda Forrest told the panel she no longer trusted the verdict or sentence: "I feel, emphatically, that Mr Davis cannot be executed under these circumstances," she said, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
The board also heard from Quiana Glover, who testified she had heard Coles confess in June 2009 to having been the killer, at a party where he had been drinking heavily.
Following the arguments for clemency, members of MacPhail's family and the prosecution side were expected to call for the execution to go ahead.
Brian Evans, a death row specialist at Amnesty International's US branch, said the extraordinary outpouring of support for Davis was partly of a reflection of changing attitudes in America towards executions.
Opinion polls suggest the US has softened its view from its once-hardline, pro-capital punishment position, and is now fairly evenly divided between defenders of the death penalty and those who see life without parole as a satisfactory alternative.
Post edited by Unknown User on
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Comments
but even if I wasn't it is clear this man deserves time and a new trial.
There is too much in question.
I can not believe they will take his life tomorrow after 7 of the 9 witnesses
recanted, some saying they were wrongly quoted to begin with.
The family of the slain officer needs truth not revenge, it is what this dead officer would want.
The rightful person to be punished, not an additional miscarriage of justice.
As the defense lawyers have said...
if a prosecutor can not bring the death penalty now, 20 years later,
due to the lack of evidence and witnesses, then how can this man be put to death?
I pray something happens to stop this.
President Obama to the rescue? We are talking about a life maybe an innocent one.
Godfather.
we can all read news on the internet. did you just cut and paste an article to start a new thread with no comment of your own? It's getting old. Please read posting guidelines and use the search function to see if there is already a thread on the topic you wish to discuss.
Try and use your words. I tell that to my two year old all the time when he fusses and cries.
I support the death penalty, Rick Perry and Israel.
cheers
are rethinking this execution as there is a very good possibility they have the wrong man.
This is a case for both sides,
as I'm sure those who are pro do not want an innocent man to lose his life,
that does nothing for the states right to kill.... I would think they would want to be sure.
And for those against, it is pretty much our very worse fear...
that we can not save the innocent from the state.
That word execution really gets to me. It is surrounded in hate, you can feel it.
It gives me chills and not good ones. It is a double negative. Kill and kill again.
do you support it when there are issues like this: The Death Penalty Information Center (U.S.) has published a list of 8 inmates "executed but possibly innocent". At least 39 executions are claimed to have been carried out in the U.S. in the face of evidence of innocence or serious doubt about guilt.
perosnally, I am against the death penalty for many many reaosn, the main one being, if the decision wrong, there is no backing out....
I like the idea of it as a punishment, but hate the idea of anyone wrongly convicted being put to death. Guilt must be 100%, if you cannot prove it 100% than there should be no execution...I would rather have some gulty men living in prison than one man dying who shouldn't have...
It is terrifying when you are too stupid to know who is dumb
- Joe Rogan
I suppose it IS much easier to ignore all of the flaws in the DP.
You forgot the WOOT!
good attorneys got John Gotti off several times and it happens all the time in our court systems in other cases
killers go free on technocalitys more than we know I'd be willing to bet.
Godfather.
I was being a smart ass about the fact tat usamamasan ignored my earlier question to him. I was not inferring that the many flaws of the DP had anything to do with the case of the OP.
You're right to a degree.. Some do go free. Usually the ones with a lot of money to buy good lawyers. hat is also why many many people on death row are very poor.
I agree with Keeponrockin though, if ONE innocent man is killed by state sanctioned murder, its flawed, and not worth it.
unless that person killed one of my family I don't know that could other wise.
this topic always draws a crowd and the end result is always the same,it's almost not worth talking about anymore and maybe best not to because we have run out of arguments for and aginst.
Godfather.
Thanks, but from someone who does nothing but post vacuous slogans and silly pictures, I think I'll ignore your smug advice.
Though for your information, I did search for a thread topic with this heading, and there was one that had been locked. So I started a new one.
And we're supposed to be impressed?
it should be a federal decision ... not a state.
I am here in Georgia against capital punishment and they tell me our
governor can not even step in and stop this execution.
That is a more than a travesty. For me capital punishment makes no sense.
The fact that a higher power can not stop this from happening makes even less.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldne ... ution.html
the latest Troy wants a polygraph test
Godfather.
Death penalty statistics:
– More than 3,200 inmates in 36 states are awaiting execution. The U.S. government and U.S. military also have approximately 67 people awaiting execution.
– As of September 18, 2011 – 1,267 people have been executed in the U.S. since 1976, when the death penalty was reinstated.
– Capital punishment is legal in 34 states.
– The legal methods of capital punishment are lethal injection and the electric chair.
– 35 states use lethal injection. New Mexico abolished the death penalty in 2009; however, two prisoners remain on death row and will be executed by lethal injection.
– The state of Nebraska used the electric chair as its sole method until February 2008, when the Nebraska Supreme Court ruled that it was unconstitutional.
– Japan is the only industrial democracy besides the United States that has the death penalty.
– 268 clemencies have been granted in the United States since 1976; 187 were in Illinois.
– Over 75% of the murder victims in cases resulting in an execution were white, even though nationally only 50% of murder victims generally are
white.
– A 2010 national poll of registered voters conducted by Lake Research Partners showed growing support for alternatives to the death penalty compared with previous polls. A clear majority of voters (61%) would choose a punishment other than the death penalty for murder, including life with no possibility of parole and with restitution to the victim’s family (39%), life with no possibility of parole (13%), or life with the possibility of parole (9%).
– Since 1973, over 130 people have been released from death row with evidence of their innocence.
– Texas leads the way in executions with 474 total executions. In 2011 they executed 10 people, in 2010 they executed 17 people and in 2009 they executed 24 people. Virginia comes in with the second highest number of total executions at 109. In 2011 they executed one person, in 2010 and 2009 they executed 3 people each year.
Clemency statistics:
– In sixteen states the governor has the sole authority to grant clemency: Alabama, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Kentucky, Mississippi, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, South Carolina, South Dakota, Virginia, Washington and Wyoming.
In California the governor may not grant a pardon or commutation to a person twice convicted of a felony except on recommendation of the state Supreme Court, with at least four judges concurring. New York and New Jersey no longer have the death penalty. New Mexico no longer has the death penalty for cases after 2009, though two inmates still remain on death row.
– In seven states the governor must have a recommendation of clemency from an advisory group or board: Florida, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania and Texas.
In Florida the governor must have recommendation of Board, on which he or she sits.
– In ten states the governor can get a non-binding recommendation for clemency from an advisory group or board: Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Maryland, Missouri, Montana, New Hampshire, Ohio and Tennessee.
Illinois no longer has the death penalty.
– In five states an advisory group or a board determines clemency: Connecticut, Georgia, Nebraska, Nevada and Utah.
Georgia death penalty statistics:
– Georgia has executed 51 people since 1976.
– In 1972 the case Furman v. Georgia went to the Supreme Court along with two other cases the looked at the constitutionality of the death sentence for rape and murder convictions. The Supreme Court ruled to invalidate all then-existing death penalty laws because it was deemed "cruel and unusual" effectively suspending capital punishment. States then began rewriting their statutes to comply with the Court's ruling.
The death penalty was re-enacted in Georgia in 1973. In 1976 the new law was taken to the Supreme Court where they ruled that Georgia's new capital punishment procedure were sufficient in reducing arbitrary imposition of the death penalty.
– Prior to 1976, Georgia executed 950 people.
– Currently there are 103 people on death row in Georgia. One of them is a woman.
– Georgia's most recent execution was of Andrew Grant DeYoung. He was the third person executed in 2011 by Georgia. His case gained national attention because the execution was videotaped.
– In Georgia, a defendant can get death for a felony where they are not responsible for the murder.
– Five innocent people have been freed from death row in Georgia.
– Seven clemencies have been granted. In Georgia, the State Board of Pardons has exclusive authority to grant clemency. Georgia is one of five states that operates this way.
I wish here in Georgia the Governor could step in ... popular opinion effects a politician.
Five people on a board, I believe, decided this mans fate yesterday,
when hundreds of thousands believe there is not enough
current evidence to kill him for his crime. That he indeed deserves a new trial.
I am praying for this today, praying for Mr. Davis and his loved ones.
Truth is ...Justice... is truth.
Fargo 2003
Winnipeg 2005
Winnipeg 2011
St. Paul 2014
Because some people get a kick out of it:
you must be a lonely person,hay ! there's a guy on the train that like to bake fruit cakes.....never mind he has a boyfriend...
Godfather.
New Hampshire & Washington have hanging as an option as well. In Washington, the inmate gets to choose between lethal injection and hanging.
Personally, I'd choose firing squad if I were sentenced to die...go out with a bang, baby!
yes
Godfather.