It’s the end of the line for Troy Davis

You need to know this. It’s the end of the line for Troy Davis. Davis was denied clemency by a Georgia paroles board today in a last ditch effort to save himself from lethal injection scheduled for tomorrow. Davis was convicted of murdering a police officer in 1989 – but today – nearly all of the witnesses who implicated him have recanted their testimony and are now claiming someone else committed the murder.
Not only that – there has never been any hard evidence – be it a murder weapon or DNA - to tie Davis to the murder. Yet – he’s still slated to die. Hundreds of thousands of people have signed petitions to save Davis’s life – and former President Jimmy Carter – as well as the Pope have come forward to stop the execution. So far – nothing has worked. Davis’s lawyer said about the decision today, “I am utterly shocked and disappointed at the failure of our justice system at all levels to correct a miscarriage of justice.”
So with that - our nation could be just hours away now from putting an innocent man to death.
Comments


The Georgia governor does not have the authority to commute or grant clemency. The only option left is to petition the DA to withdraw the death warrant. Check with Amnesty and NAACP (among others) for petitions to sign and other actions to take.
This looks real bad, but let's not give up yet.

Re: Obama has grown a spine...
Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on you!
Fellow Progressives need to take off their rose colored glasses and understand that it is the election coming up next year that is responsible for Obama's "spine". He is simply tickling their ears, telling them what they want to hear in an attempt to get reelected.

Oops. Please excuse the typo.
I meant to say "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on ME!

I think you were right the first time. It seems that con artists evolve a bit faster than the marks.

Gene, You make a vailid point!

Apparently, the South hasn't stopped lynching. They just legalized it.

maybe someone should confess who has no conection to the crime to block the excution.

The death penalty should be abolished. There is no good reason for a government to kill its citizens. If a criminal is convicted of a heinous crime, such as murder, he should spend the rest of his life in prison. If that life is long, then he will be heavily punished. When we use the death penalty the criminal spends the rest of his life in prison, just for a shorter period. Our nation will become grander when we become sensible enough to abolish the death penalty. The death penalty does not make us safer from criminals. Let's stop killing prisoners . . . allow them to live their entire natural life without freedom or liberty. That is enough punishment. Killing the killer will not bring back your loved ones. Killing the killer does not stop would be murderers from their crimes. It is barbaric for us to murder prisoners.
Philip Henderson, ethical magician
We used to play a game that no matter what someone asked, you had to say "Yes".
I think some of you are playing that everytime someone asks any question you must
answer "Obama's fault!
The governor in Georgia does not have the authority to do anything.
It is currently before the U.S. Supreme Court. I don't have much hope they will do anything with the current make-up. (That is why we have to re-elect Obama).
Georgia will put the man to death unless I am wrong about the
Supreme Court and I would like to be wrong in this case.
I have heard that some of the witnesses came forward and said that they lied.
This alone should stop the execution until it can be looked into. Some people are just execution happy and do not care if the person might possiblly be innocent? If it were for a very rich and famous man, this would not be happening. You know,---there are two systems, that for the very rich and famous, and the other for the rest of us.

The thing is, when a government is run by nasty people who are doing nasty things to the entire country (except, of course, to the rich people- they're real nice to the rich people), you have to supply entertainment to the poor and middle classes. And the nastier the government policies are, the nastier the entertainment has to be in order to keep the little people entertained. If Perry is elected it would not suprise me if he started doing public executions. And from there, it would only be a short jog to having a lottery winner BE the executioner, maybe shooting the victim- excuse me, I mean, the "convicted" criminal. Oh yes, very entertaining for people whose minds and hearts are so numbed by lack of education, lack of health care, lack of healthy food, and Rupert Murdoch- brand sensationalist "journalism" and tv programming. You see, military people get to go to exciting places and meet exciting people and kill them, but what about the people back home here in America? They want to have something to do with death, too. So, out of the pathology of his heart, Rick Perry wants to provide that association with death. Whether the victim is guilty or not is irrelevant; just get people into the criminal justice system and allow it to convict them and sentence them to death.
Mentally healthy people do not require executions in order to feel happy. And mentally healthy people do not excuse or condone such barbaric behavior. My guess: in his next life, Rick Perry will be a rabid dog.

This is so unbelievable! I still do not understand why we have the death penalty in the first place, it definetely will not deter people from committing a crime. How many more innocent men and women will be given a death sentence without each one of us holding our judicial, legislative and executive branches accountable? Enough!

Is it possible for the President to give clemency? The Right wing sucking Supreme Court Bastaches are sick.I'm afraid that they will pull the trigger on Mr.Davis.. I can only say a sincere prayer for him and our Justice System!!!!

The topic is about a man's life being at stake.

This is a terrible injustice. Let him live so that he can fight for his innocence.

I think this has something to do with Georgia's ongoing Klan influence- the Invisible Empire. It would be supported by strong Texas, Oklahoma, and Indiana influences. Imagine a meeting of those present day governors of the biggest Klan states, historically, on today's opportunity for a modern lynching.
Since we already have a built in death penalty for everyone anyway, it's hardly a punishment. The Governor and the Parole Board will have to hope their own deaths will be as simple as a lethal injection. There are much worse ways to go.
God will save Troy Davis, one way or the other.

We're in good company in being one of the few countries that kill our citizens. The others include China, Iran, and another mideast country--forget which one now.
I wonder when this country is going to grow up and quit killing people.

Unfortunately, the state of Georgia plays by its own rules. Back in1913 businessman Leo Frank was convicted of murdering one of his factory workers, Mary Phagan. He was sentenced to die but the Governor of Georgia commuted his sentence to life imprisonment. That wasn't good enough for the bloodthirsty Georgians who commandeered him from jail and lynched him on August 17, 1915. Apparently the state of Georgia hasn't progressed all that far

It seems to me that when the collective conscience of a nation calls out for justice and is ignored by
the judicial system we all had better be concerned. Justice is never served by simply arresting and prosecuting a scape goat. And what of the rest of us who rely on a fair and non bias judicature. The possibility exists for any one of us to experience the same miscarriage of justice as Troy Davis.
If Jesus were to ever actually be resurrected, he will be vilified in the south as a progressive hippy and crucified all over again.
Being black in the south for the most part means you are a criminal waiting to fit the crime...
"If he's black, you can't take it back." The verdict that is. The ignorance and hatred born to the southern beaurocrats is astounding and will never change. It is a genetic mind set. yes lynch mobs still rule there and always will. tragic. horrific... and as Southern as hominy and grits.
Ghandi would have been lynched. MLK was.
True story: Two white teenage girls accuse a black 20 yr old of rape. Life in Angola Prison. Fifteen years later at a parole meeting, the man produces evidence that the accusers when examined by doctors , found their hymens intact. They were never raped... Parole board turned down his release. Black, can't take it back... what a country.
4 the record. I'm white, nearly 65 and an atheist or at least a deist (bet hedging here). Happily married 41 years.

Ever since the beginning of time when the world was taken over by wicked ones, a scapegoat was created, an innocent one who "takes on the sins of another." This still occurs world wide, beginning with religions. Religions wish people to forget about cause and effect belonging to no one other than themselves.. No individual should ask of another to pay in any way for his or her mistakes or deliberate acts of wickedness, acts done consciously without respect of another. How utterly selfish can people be?!
Wars are manipulated the same way. These warmongers converse among themselves saying: "We want their national wealth including their lands and the people we hire for pennies a day. We will bomb bomb them, make them sacrifical lambs for our brutality to achieve our objectives. And who can stop us anyway? We make the innocent pay for our religious and political agenda!"
It is to be considered that in this case among many, the man in question must be the sacrificial lamb standing in place of another in order for the courts and the policies of the government to continue in their protection of a friend of a friend of the High Court of Justice in the land - and this may well go straight to the top.
Protecting all those who falsely accused, tried and sentenced this innocent man is a cruel game the courts of all lands engage themselves in in order to hide the stain of blood on their own hands.
There is hardly a court standing now or at any time in history which did not engage in atrocities against an innocence.
It has always been that way: "Make someone pay - anyone!"
But! When it comes to Universal cause and effect, those who wish another to pay for their own sins or crimes will find when they reincarnate they will take the place of those whom they abused and learn their lesson well.
Stories of "sacrificial lambs" are always made up to the detriment of the innocents ones such as this man who was denied clemency, and to the detriment of the religionists who refuse to deal with their own sins or mistakes therein holding up their own progress and that progress of another in their combined life journey throughout the Universal journeys.
The death penalty is obviously about retribution rather than rehabilitation.
If an innocent person is executed what should be the the retribution?
Should we kill the judge, the jury, the governor, the warden? Retribution requires that someone should die. Who?
If the prosecuter witheld evidence should he die or at least be charged with murder?

Pretty amazing that this guy can't get a retrial..............I am not surprised considering it is in the South........

David, I just got around to reading last nights final posts, well said, good job!
Title: THE END OF INNOCENCE? FEDERAL HABEAS
CORPUS LAW AFTER IN RE DAVIS
http://digitalarchive.gsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1019&context=g...

I am about ready to explode over this blatant injustice, about to be perpetrated upon this innocent man!
When Troy Davis is dead tomorrow, we might as well conclude he was murdered by the executioner, the judges or jurors, many lawyers, and the "witnesses" who bore false testimony against him.
He is being sacrificed to save the reputation of all those corrupt officials in the "justice(?)" system who refused to re-open the case for fear of "embarrassment" and face-saving, hopefully being able to say: "Well, someone paid for this crime to satisfy the survivors' lust for revenge. Let's close the case and leave it at that!"
For heaven's sake, STOP!! YOU ARE ABOUT TO KILL AN INNOCENT MAN, AND I SWEAR, THE BLOOD OF TROY DAVIS WILL BE ON YOUR HANDS!!
You corrupt ones, who had the power to stop this man from being murdered, are infested with the notion that just anyone off the street fits the bill to pay for the crime of a white man, particularly if the scapegoat seized is black! HELL WILL FREEZE OVER BEFORE YOU BUNCH OF DEMONIC THUGS WILL GET AWAY WITH THIS ONE!!
Look, you may think the innocent "Jesus" covers for our "sins", and the innocent Troy Davis might as well die like the innocent "Jesus", and be that much better off for it! But I'll tell you this much: NEITHER OF THE TWO HAVE GIVEN THEIR CONSENT TO BECOME SACRIFICED FOR THE SINS OF OTHERS!
Troy is still alive at this hour. So why not just ask him whether he agrees that his blood should flow so that the killer of the policeman can say: I have now seen the Day of my Redeption: TROY DAVIS HAS DIED FOR MY SIN!
Revolting!!

Excellent logic, Imunding!
Is there not a tradition for having parents be accountable for the actions of the children when their children are destructive to public property in any way: I think it is the parents who are ultimately held responsible for the actions of those children.
In this same vein, It seems that when something so serious as the consideration of taking a life is not being considered in a reasonable way, something similar needs to be done. These who are responsible for taking action to end or save a life need to be held accountable for those actions. It'd be nice if this happened before the life was taken rather than afterwards, in my opinion. If they knew there could be personal consequences, maybe they would not be so quick to act. Maybe they would be more willing to listen and not hold fast to their own preconceived/misconceived notions.
Something seems very wrong here. It seems some kind of intervention should take plae.
Philip, I agree completely. As a Quaker, I believe there is "something of God" in everyone (even Republicans!). My state, Wisconsin, does not have the death penalty, although our awful governor, Scott Walker, and his henchment would no doubt be in favor of it. Maybe that isn't on the agenda of ALEC yet, so they haven't gotten around to trying to push that on us. It's probably just a matter of time. But never fear! We are going to recall Scott Walker in just a few short months.

Imunding, you are a thinking man with good solid questions.
When the Judge, jury, procecuter, governor, or warden and all others of those responsible for the man's execution not serve their full sentence for capital murder in this lifestream, then when they leave this earth following their physical death they will come to stand before the Akashic council of enlightened and evolved beings who are human just as we are. Together they and the Akashic council will then review their deeds and be advised upon the lessons they must learn and undergo upon their next series of incarnations.
In addition to learning their next series of lessons, these ones who felt to convict an innocent man will also need to pay a huge karmic debt to the man. So whenever a person has seemed to leave this world without paying for his or her own sins, shall we say, that person will need to face the "debt" owed in the next series of lessons upon the next incarnation, either back upon this world, or upon another world of same or lesser evolved human beings.
If this man is put to death tomorrow, because clemency was denied, then those who kept quiet all those years before confessing (just in time they hope) will undoubtedly have a lesser debt to pay and fewer lessons to relearn upon the next series of lifestreams.
But those who continue to deliberately ignore the man's innocence and have a larger hand in putting him to death, they would certainly be done a favor if they were sentenced to jail for first degree murder. For if that does not become the case then their debt to the man and the series of lessons to be relearned upon the next lifestream will be indeed a far cry from paradise or anything remotely involving a higher standard of living.
The people for the most part on this forum are working in the Oneness and if all humankind would care as much for their brothers and sisters regardless of the colour of their skin or race and live by Univerfsal understanding and principle as each of you do today, then the shackles of all the innocent would fall by the wayside in one fell swoop.
.

Could Troy Davis' possible tragedy be similar to an event that precipitated what happened in Tunisia?
Mohamed Bouazizi (the street vendor) -- his death became a catalyst for inciting demonstrations throughout Tunisia in protest of social and political issues in the country.
Surely the political juice of many Nobel Laureates, including the former governor of Georgia Jimmy Carter, could jump out in front of the movement that has already formed to support human rights and stand up for social justice.
The only way those in power will adhere to the will of the people is through a National Strike. Until the revenue streams dry up for repressive government institutions (Georgia's state government/US federal government) or their corporate masters, they have no incentive to listen to the will of the people. This National Strike should have a list of demands that which can only be satisfied with a completely new constitution.
Can you think of ways to effectively pull off a National Strike?
Can you think of any principles you'd like to put into a new constitution?
NS_NC USA

Enough of the peaceful stuff. This country has gone down the tubes, when no court in the land can stop a questionable execution from going forward. This is precisely why I'm not in law enforcement anymore after 12 yrs of service. It's time to star sharpening the tools and stocking up. We're gonna need them.

Republicans cheered for Perry regarding his Texas death penalty record, so it's no surprise to me a red state like Georgia wants to join the innocent man put to death club. Should Troy Davis be put to death?....of course not!
Can't help but think about James Oglethorpe and his humanitarian philosophy whenever I think about Georgia, wonder what he would say about all this?

Please don't give up -- sign the following last minute pleas to Georgia's Attorney General to vacate the Death warrant on Mr. Davis -- sign here and urgently circulate this new petition -- this has been generated after the Parole Board's decision. And please call the White House and ask the President to intervene.....
Petition Georgia's Attorney General to Save Troy Davis here.

45,000 people are put to death by OUR health insurance system each year because they don't have health insurance. These people die for profit, money, not because they have been convicted (how ever unjustly) of a crime. How about giving them 1 x 45,000 the hype that Troy Davis is getting?

Sailorman, you have brought up a viable and proficient point. The health system in most countries are for profits alone and this is why some governments refuse to pay the health bill out of the people's national and natural resources. Many governments are now also trying to shut down holistic stores who sell alternative natural medicines for the people because pharmaceutical conglomerates would lose a mint if the people were to get well. Preventive medicines are a stockbroker's nightmare and the death rate for a nation based on sale and application of deadly medicines is a boon for the conglomerates and their middlemen.
How about you starting up a blog concerning this issue of the scam of the health system resulting in premeditated murder by those who know exactly what they are doing to the people?
Troy Davis is of course one out of a million this wicked death sentence is happening to and we know that. But Thom Hartmann has asked of us all one question, and that is: "Do you think he (Troy Davis) will or should be put to death?"
We on this forum work in the Oneness of application of petitions as well as other means I am sure. This execution is immediate and therefore immediate action need be taken.
This is only one case among many as I have said before, but if we can save even one innocent person then we have accomplished more in a day than most people do in a year.

Bush commuted Scooter Libby's sentence so that he would not have to go to prison at all. Can't Obama commute Davis' sentence to life? I don't think it has to be an outright release. Though he will be pillaried by the Republicans for doing so, that would happen no matter what he did. He should take this guy off the death watch, leaving him in prison and let the facts be better fleshed out.
Chuck

I beleave in truth and justice but as I get older I find that men cannot attain this goal. so - I can no longer suport the death penalty. Gov. Ryan in Ill. pardoned or stayed the death row people of that state awhile back because something like 60 percent of them was proven inocent by the new genetic testing! Does that tell ya anything.

Genuine question: Doesn't the President have the power not just to pardon, but to commute sentences? Where is Obama on this? Is he afraid to weigh in because it's a black man's life on the line, and he doesn't want to appear "too black"?

We may want to think about this, Chuck: When Obama took the seat in the White House he surrounded himself with the money people who very much helped in putting him there.
You will notice that whenever President Obama makes a statement for example concerning the Middle East it is always overthrown by his own people, no matter what it is.
He told the public he was for change. And undoubtably he was until he hit the White House. Then he was told exactly what to do, what to say, and whose itinerary he was to follow. He, for some reason, is avoiding the black American people when he visits certain states. He, therefore, will most likely ignore the poor man who is to be put to death instead of giving him his deserved freedom and compensation.
President Obama is not any longer his own man and it has little to do with either the Democrates or Republicans.
Let me ask you this, Chuck: What foreign leader has full unsupervised access to the Pentagon, even over the President of the United States of America?
Only one:
Ans: Mr. Netanyahu of Israel
President Obama has to toe the line just as every other President and if he does not then he will find himself there along with Abraham Lincoln and JF Kennedy who of course tried to create their own money to put in circulation for the citizens of the United States to benefit from.
In other words, Chuck, President Obama has become the same as those who rule over him and the White House, and those ones really do not concern themselves with the death of either one American prisoner on death row; of the death of American soldiers; nor of the deaths of foreigners in other occupied nations.
All that matters to them is their agenda.

Jimspy, you hit the other nail on the head. Both issues make a compact picture
The people who put Obama in the White house are going to get paid. First the money then the favours. Everything else takes the back burner no matter how crucial it is.
As President or even as an ordinary citizen of the United States of America, skin colour should not be any kind of an issue, but President Obama is drawing a serious line between the two peoples, the white and the black, as well as many other dictated lines. When the oneness of a nation has been so seriously eroded as has been the United States and its former constitution then nothing of value can survive. You must throw out the soup with the poison throughout it and stop looking toward the same corrupt system to repair itself. A system so rotten that it taints and kills everything in its path. People continue to place blame on both the Congress and the Senate. However those two institutions are threatened and compromised, including those members of course who as members of the the house are not there for their own profits.
People need to look at the real source of the problem before anything can be turned around.

If I believed that it was possible for our justice system to never make a mistake, if I believed that they never convict and sentence innocent people to die, I can see how some people would be in favor of the death penalty. But the problem is that governors, prosecutors, judges, and police are human beings and therefore imperfect, capable of making mistakes in refusing a pardon, mistakes in prosecuting the accused, mistakes in passing judgement, and mistakes in gathering or presenting the evidence on which people are convicted. And there are also a fair number of people in the justice system who are like Rick Perry, who actually have a lot in common with murderers because they like murdering people. And according to Perry's own words, he sleeps just fine at night knowing that he has refused to pardon innocent people who were then executed. In other words, Rick Perry has no consience. In other words, Rick Perry is a sociopath, he is mentally ill and unfit for public office.
Here is my question for the people who like the death penalty: what if it was your father, your brother, your son, or you, who was wrongly convicted and sentenced to death, and Rick Perry refused a pardon and the courts refused to give you or your family member a new trial when new evidence would prove that you didn't do the crime? Would you be against the death penalty if it was you or someone you care about, but in favor of the death penalty when it's someone you don't care about because you don't know them?
You see, that part of the Bible where Jesus says, "As you have done unto the least of these, you have done unto me," it's not just just a scripture, not just something that someone said a long time ago. It's a plain fact that if you treat others badly, it's like treating yourself badly. And if you treat others fairly, it's like treating yourself fairly. So, do you republicans want to be treated fairly? Because if you do, you better be very careful what politicians and laws you vote for. Because Rick Perry would just as soon execute you as look at you. Unless, of course, you have so much money that you can buy Rick Perry the way that the corporate interests have bought him.
The solution to people living in poverty in the US: redefine the poverty level.