Troy Davis gets a stay in Georgia

July 17, 2007

Following up on an item from yesterday, the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles was set to hear an 11th-hour appeal yesterday. I wasn’t optimistic, but the panel surprised a lot of people by granting a stay of execution.

One day before he was to die by lethal injection, convicted cop killer Troy Davis received a 90-day stay of execution Monday from a Georgia clemency board, allowing him time to press his case that he has been the victim of mistaken identity.

The prosecution’s case against Davis, 38, has crumbled in the 16 years since he was sentenced to death for shooting a police officer working a security detail in Savannah. Most of the key witnesses in Davis’s trial have recanted their testimony, and some have said they lied under police pressure.

But none of those witnesses testified during Davis’s appeals — in part because federal courts barred their testimony — and Davis was scheduled to die at 7 p.m. Tuesday.

On Monday, however, five of the trial witnesses spoke before the state Board of Pardons and Paroles, and the five-member panel decided it would be willing to hear more.

In a brief statement, the Board said, “Those representing Troy Anthony Davis have asserted that they can and will present live witnesses and other evidence . . . to support their contention that there remains some doubt as to his guilt.”

Joan MacPhail, the slain officer’s widow, condemned the delay. “I believe they are setting a precedent for all criminals that it is perfectly fine to kill a cop and get away with it,” she told the AP. “It’s tearing us up.”

I can only imagine the pain MacPhail has had to endure, and she has my deepest sympathy, but it’s simply not true to suggest the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles has given the green light to cop-killers. Troy Davis, by all available evidence, didn’t shoot her husband. The only dangerous precedent that can be set here is the execution of an innocent man, after refusing to hear exculpatory evidence.

Mark Kleiman notes an important detail I hadn’t seen.

[A]pparently (I’m just going on newspaper accounts) the Board’s power is limited to commuting his sentence to life without parole. That outcome would make no sense whatsoever.

If Davis is innocent, then he no more belongs on an ordinary cellblock than he does on Death Row. If he’s guilty, then a commutation seems unjustified. Whoever it was that harassed a homeless man to try to make him give up a can of beer and then shot the off-duty policy officer who tried to come to the rescue, it’s hard to see what that person is any less deserving of death than any other capital convict. (The Libby commutation had something of the same flavor; if Libby was guilty as charged, the sentence was by no means excessive; if he was the victim of a rogue prosecutor who never should have been tried in the first place, why leave is conviction in place?)

Agreed. Executing Davis for killed Officer MacPhail would be a travesty, but keeping him locked up until he dies is only marginally better.

Perhaps Davis could seek a commutation from the president? According to Tony Snow, Bush “routinely” spends weeks mulling over these questions, so I’m sure the president would want to give the case his due diligence.

“…so I’m sure the president would want to give the case his due diligence.”

is he upper class republican white male? hmmm, guess georgie won’t be so interested………

  • The Board may only have the power to commute the sentence, but I would think, without having looked into the matter, that the governor has the authority to grant a pardon, and, were the Board to determine that Davis is actually innocent, that would present a compelling case for the use of that authority. Davis might also have the option of filing a federal habeas corpus petition, though there might be some procedural obstacles to that.

  • but keeping him locked up until he dies is only marginally better

    Troy Davis may not agree that it’s only marginally better. They are going to kill him. Nobody wants to die.

    His guilt or innocence is irrelevant to how appropriate it is for the state to murder him. The death penalty is wrong and immoral in all forms and in all cases.

  • I think it would be the GA governor who could offer a pardon.

    This will not happen, regardless of the evidence, before the heat-death of the Universe. Let’s not confuse retribution with justice.

  • if Libby was guilty as charged, the sentence was by no means excessive; if he was the victim of a rogue prosecutor who never should have been tried in the first place, why leave (h)is conviction in place?

    Because if Libby was pardoned, he could be compelled to testify against Cheney.

    Too bad Davis doesn’t have the goods on Cheney, he’d be out in no time.

  • Troy Davis, by all available evidence, didn’t shoot her husband

    No offense, but we haven’t seen all available evidence. We’ve heard exculpatory statements, but seen no evidence. (If there was any.)

  • Whether or not Davis actually was the shooter is not the issue. Whether or not the death penalty is ever ok or should be abolished is not the issue – for now – because the death penalty is currently legal and that isn’t going to change in time for this case. It is a given we deal with.

    It seems to me the real issue here is that (a) death is irreversible, (b) there is a significant and potentially exculpatory change in the evidence, that is, in the testimony on which Davis was convicted, and yet (c) there is a rush to kill him without careful review of the change in evidence.

    This seems just purely irresponsible and gallingly bloodthirsty.

    Yes, allowing this delays justice if he is truly guilty, but it also removes all doubt, all martyrdom issues – and he ends up just as dead in a year as he would have been today.

    Yes, allowing this – whether he is guilty or innocent – encourages other death row inmates to try this same approach (assuming they can get their friends to recant their testimony). But having a death penalty has its costs and the cost of seeking perfection in result should be one of them. It shouldn’t be “efficient.” It should be painstaking.

    And of course allowing this if he is innocent is the only remotely morally-salvaging thing to do.

    Again, I think it is pretty simple. Davis may have really done it, or not. Allowing Davis to live pending further review is a reversible decision should the system reaffirm his guilt. Killing Davis is not reversible should the system ultimately find reasonable doubt. I cannot fathom how this is even a difficult call for any moral being.

  • Bush would never be bothered with any commutation unless he gets something out of it. Never.

    Mrs. McPhail would truly be letting a ‘cop killer’ get away with it if they execute the wrong man. You would think she would want true justice. Perhaps she is unaware of the new evidence. Hopefully she doesn’t just want ‘somebody’ to pay guilty or not.

  • “I believe they are setting a precedent for all criminals that it is perfectly fine to kill a cop and get away with it.” – Joan MacPhail

    Oh, really? Well, I believe Georgia was on the verge of setting a precedent for all governments that it’s perfectly fine to kill random, innocent people, under the color of law, and get away with it.

    Actually, given American history, and that of Georgia in particular, I’d say they weren’t *setting* precedent, but following it, and Joan MacPhail’s comments sound disturbingly reminiscent of southern law enforcement officers/judges/juries who have, more than occasionally, decided that if they can’t punish the culprit they *want*, they’ll punish the culprit they’ve *got* (shades of Rumsfeld, eh?).

    Shorter traditional southern justice: “Some [black guy] did something! Some [black guy] has gotta pay! No, why should we care if it’s the same [black guy]?”

    (and yes, this *is* the same kind of logic that led us to respond to 9/11 by attacking *Iraq*)

  • I feel like if my husband were shot, I would not want to encourage the killing of a potentially innocent man–but maybe that’s just me. To give her some credit, though, she may just want closure–this has been dragging on for everyone involved for a very long time.

    For more information on the Troy Davis case, read the Innocence Project’s Ezekiel Edwards’ blog on the subject from DMIBlog.

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