At SCOTUS Blog this morning, Lyle Denniston reports, "No action on Georgia capital case."
The Supreme Court, opening a new Term Monday, took no action on an appeal testing whether it is unconstitutional to execute a death-row inmate who has a significant claim of innocence. The Court’s 82-page list of orders on pending cases contained no word on Troy Anthony Davis’ appeal, Davis v. Georgia (08-66).
The Court will conference this Friday and may make a decision on whether to review Troy Davis' innocence claim.
Yesterday, Atlanta's Sunday Paper featured a lengthy article by Chuck Stanley, "Troy Davis: Justice delayed."
Troy Davis is waiting, and on Sunday morning when you pick up this paper, Troy Davis will likely still be waiting.
What is unsure at this time is whether he will be awaiting a new hearing in his death penalty case, a new date with the execution room in Jackson, Ga., or a decision from the United States Supreme Court on which of these two scenarios to prepare for. The court’s decision may come any time between when this story first goes to press on Oct. 2, and Monday, Oct. 6, as some readers are still skimming these paragraphs. The uncertainty of Davis’ case, now at a crossroads between finality and a return to its beginning, seems oddly appropriate. All certainty seems to have evaporated in the nearly two decades since Savannah Police Officer Mark MacPhail was tragically gunned down while trying to stop an assault on a homeless man.
Davis was convicted of the killing in 1991 based on testimony from nine witnesses—seven placing Davis at the scene of the crime with a gun, two stating that Davis had confessed to the murder. Since then, all but two of those nine witnesses have recanted their testimony. Most allege that they felt pressured by police to testify as they did. The two witnesses who have not changed their story include the man alleged by some to be the actual shooter, and another witness who, when first questioned by police, reportedly said he could not identify the killer.
At the time of his near-execution on Sept. 23, Davis had been unsuccessful in his attempts to convince Georgia’s courts to consider evidence, in the form of sworn affidavits, thoroughly contradicting or calling into question the testimony that originally sent him to death row. For those who fight against the death penalty, Davis’ story, riddled with shady testimony as it is, illustrates why the finality of the death penalty is so problematic. A closer look at the case reveals problems within Georgia’s legal system that go beyond philosophical questions about the morality of capital punishment.
Nonetheless, whether new evidence is heard in the Davis case may have no effect on how most people feel about the death penalty. According to the Gallup Organization, which has polling information on the issue going back to the mid-1930s, the percentage of people who say they support the death penalty for someone convicted of murder has varied only slightly between 2000 and 2007, despite the fact that the majority of post-conviction DNA exonerations—many achieved through the efforts of the Innocence Project—have happened during this time period. The most recent polls by Gallup and ABC News show roughly two-thirds of those questioned are in favor of the death penalty as a punishment.
Martina Correia, who is Davis’ older sister and Amnesty International’s co-State Death Penalty Abolition Coordinator for Georgia, is not familiar with the public polling data. She is confident, though, that if people open their hearts and minds and examine the issue, support for the death penalty will wane.
Earlier coverage begins with this post.
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