Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Is Troy Anthony Davis receiving justice?

Troy Anthony Davis is currently on death row for the murder of a police officer. However, the fairness of his trial must be challenged. Here are a few facts about Davis’ case:

1. There was no physical evidence against him and the weapon used in the crime was never found.
2. All but two of the state's non-police witnesses from the trial have recanted or contradicted their testimony.
3. Many of these witnesses have stated in sworn affidavits that they were pressured or coerced by police into testifying or signing statements against Troy Davis.
4. One of the two witnesses who has not recanted his testimony is Sylvester "Red" Coles – the principle alternative suspect, according to the defense, against whom there is new evidence implicating him as the gunman. Nine individuals have signed affidavits implicating Sylvester Coles. [*]
How can our courts put this man to death when the evidence is so conflicting, and affidavits have been signed as witnesses declare that their testimony was faulty and the courts should no longer stand by it? How much longer can we let a system like the death penalty exist? It is an inherently evil system which is fallible; yet kills the killers to show that killing is wrong. Possibly the starkest display of the imperfection of the US capital justice system is the reality that ever since the US Supreme Court permitted new death penalty laws in 1976, more than 100 individuals have been released from death rows around the country on the basis of innocence. The cases of citizens akin to Anthony Porter -- who came 48 hours from capital punishment in 1998 subsequent to more than 16 years on death row in Illinois prior to being proved guiltless by a group of journalism students who happened to study his case -- stand as an indictment of a flawed structure.[~]

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[*] Source
[~] Further reading on Troy Anthony Davis

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