Urgent Amnesty Appeal - Probably Innocent to be executed tomorrow

[WidowWadman]

Apologies if already posted elsewhere. Please have a look at this appeal

Troy is to be executed on 21st September at 7PM local time despite serious doubts whether he committed the crime he's been accused of.

I've heard about this case and it is shocking. I come originally from Illinois and I am pleased to say that in May of this year, Illinois Abolished the Death Penalty What started the long road to abolition was a group of journalism students started investigating the cases of people on death row 12 years ago as a class project and began uncovering evidence of serious miscarriages of justice.

There seems to be a macabre "one upmanship" however between some state governors where they still have the death penalty, almost a competition to see how many people they can kill, guilty or not. Texas is the most notable, but Georgia seems to be following the lead.

I signed, and hope others will too, and maybe a miracle will come.

As someone pointed out at the Guardian, last time there was a campaign like this to free some poor innocent man, the guy confessed to it just before he was killed and prayed for forgiveness from God.

I don't understand why so many so-called liberals have so much sympathy for criminals and no sympathy at all for the victims and potential victims of horrific crimes.

Troy Davis, by the looks of it, is the victim of a horrific crime.

I think in this case you don't have to be a 'so-called liberal' to understand that the body of evidence against this many was flawed and riddled with doubt.

In the years since his conviction, many of the witnesses withdrew their statements, and there was no forensic evidence evidence against him. They didn't even find the murder weapon. ANother man was even overheard confessing to the crime.

I don't really know where I stand on the death penalty, but I know that I believe that you should be 100% damn sure that the person you are exceuting is guilty before you kill them. It's not like it can be undone , is it?

Really, really sad that they have gone ahead and murdered Troy. The complete absence of physical evidence, the refusal to look again at witness statements once that had been withdrawn ... it's almost unthinkable that this much doubt could exist and yet the execution still go ahead.

I'm a long way from a 'so called liberal' (I've even voted Tory) but I believe that this was an evil act underpinned more by political pressure from within the state than by compelling proof that Troy was guilty.
Amnesty International have been campaigning for Troy for the last 20 years. During the course of yesterday alone, 62,000 people e-mailed the parole board. When the board blocked incoming e-mails we rang and faxed, right up to the bitter end.

Yesterday, Troy said:
?The struggle for justice doesn?t end with me. This struggle is for all the Troy Davises who came before me and all the ones who will come after me.
I?m in good spirits and I?m prayerful and at peace. But I will not stop fighting until I?ve taken my last breath.?
So I won't stop fighting 'til then either

"As someone pointed out at the Guardian, last time there was a campaign like this to free some poor innocent man, the guy confessed to it just before he was killed and prayed for forgiveness from God. "

How is that relevant? There was no compelling evidence, the State of Georgia executed him because he was unable to clearly "establish innocence." Is that a good enough reason to kill someone?

Hoe can a civilized country do this? Surely there was enough evidence to establish doubt.

JLK2, what a ridiculous post. Do you know anything about this case?

How awful that those bastards murdered an innocent man. How can they live with themselves? They are as bad as the cretin who killed the policeman in the first place.

This is yet another officially sanctioned crime which proves that 'civilisation' is a facade which is at times just a hair's breadth away from total disorder.

I am sad to live in a world where justice involves killing someone who might have committed the crime.

I don't know how this could make the victims family feel better.

I know, poster. I heard one family member quoted as saying they'll feel justice is done once Davis is dead. Sheesh.

Speedy, why your 'sheesh' at the family of the murdered cop who have every right to feel how they want about this? I don't support the death penalty and am surprised this went through but I won't be picking on the 'victims' family for their feelings on this.

Beg, because it sounded like they just want someone dead, no matter who.

Speedy, I don't agree with the death penalty but this guy seems to have been very violent and involved in the death of their loved one, whether he pulled the trigger or not (don't some laws class accomplices as guilty as the the main perpetrator?). Think the family have every reason to feel that justice has been done and realise that their emotional involvement is the reason that victims and their families don't get a say in the verdict and sentence. I do have a problem that you are criticising the victim's family who have done NOTHING wrong as did the victim. The death penalty may have been wrong here but Davis was no innocent and played his part the crime by his violent behaviour. You are being very blasé with a grieving families feelings - would you be so blasé if the victim had been a close member of your family.

he is guilty , execute him. we need it brought back here over 88% of people want its return, its time mps did as we say and not what they want.

Beg, I think my posts probably came across as though I don't care about the family's feelings because I was just writing very short posts focusing specifically on their response to his execution. So I'm sorry if I gave the wrong impression.

I do, of course, care very much that Mark MacPhail was killed and that his family will sadly be saddled with the memory and pain of his loss for the rest of their lives. A violent death of any sort is traumatic for the families and so I'm not surprised that they are still scarred by it 20 years on.

However, I do not understand their view about his execution, particularly as the evidence overwhelmingly proves that he was not the killer and that the prosecution set him up just to win the case.

Also I heard that MacPhail's actual killer is a man also on death row who confessed to someone else that he pulled the trigger. And then he conveniently failed to stand up and confess to the authorities, letting Davis die in his place. Nice one.

I do not believe that 'anyone' should die, no matter what their involvement in a killing like this. I certainly believe that in the majority of cases, the death penalty is inappropriate. I suspect it is used in states where they imprison people for the most minor of crimes, which leads to a belief that murders need a more severe punishment to set them apart from the 'milder' crimes.

It is well documented that the USA has many innocent people on death row. Some of them are lucky enough to be released after many years of fighting, but the government does not wipe their false criminal records clean, nor pay restitution, nor enable them to resettle into normal life. So they largely end up becoming criminals, addicts or both. Their lives are ruined.

The unluckier of these innocent prisoners end up, of course, being killed for someone else's crime.

How can anyone sensible see the good in that?

I agree with much of what you say, I just don't expect the family to be sensible or rational that's why it's left to the courts etc. I'd never turn round to Denise Bulger and say 'sheesh' give it a rest, they served their time, be sensible about it.

I don't have much sympathy with murderers who callously kill and think in many cases they should forfeit their life but the system is far from perfect and I 'd hate to see a miscarriage of justice. Also, it's not a fair or equal system where your race and bank balance can be the deciding factor on the verdict, so I'd settle for life imprisonment.

Isn't it strange that every time there's a murder the police go out and get a perfectly innocent family man who never did a thing wrong in his life and frame him for it.

You'd think that once in a while they'd get the real murderer, but no they are part of a big conspiracy to ensure that only really nice christian family men are brutally executed for the crimes.

Beg, I think you're misunderstanding my use of 'sheesh'. It feels rather silly to try and explain such a vague, non-word, but you have made assumptions about my thoughts which simply weren't there.

If I believed in the death penalty, I cannot imagine why I would be happy for an innocent person to be executed for the killing of one of my loved ones. I find that shocking. That is what I was expressing.

You said earlier that Davis was involved in some sort of scuffle which ended up with the gun being fired - I didn't know that; where did you read that? I've read several articles about this case and none of them mentioned that.

I do assume, however, that there is a divergence of opinion among all of MacPhail's family members and that not all of them were in favour of this execution. Perhaps it was the most forthright relative who was quoted as saying they wanted Davis dead.

I agree with you wrt life imprisonment, though. I also think that at the other end of the spectrum, lesser crimes such as petty theft or white collar crimes should not be punishable by incarceration. That UBS fraudster bloke, for example, should be made to work as an office cleaner in an orange boiler suit for a year - in his old office, mwa ha ha harrr. I have to think of what other punishments should follow this...

From what I know of the case, Davis and a friend were beating up some homeless man 'pistol whipping' is the term that was used. McPhail went to help and the gun was turned on him. Seems quite a few witnesses at the time identified Davis as the shooter. There seems to be no doubt that he was there, just some recent doubt as to whether he pulled the trigger.

I can understand if McPhail's family choose to hold him responsible as he was no innocent but I'm surprised the authorities went ahead with the death penalty given the doubts and questions raised.