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An execution in Georgia
Last night, Troy Davis was executed in Georgia for the murder of an off duty police officer.
In 1989 Davis shot and killed an off duty police officer, Mark McPhail. He was convicted of capital murder in 1991 and spent the last 20 years on death row. His cause was taken up by liberal celebrities (a pretty good indicator that the jury got it right) as well as the usual suspects.
The left wing went nuts, even to the point of threatening Mark McPhail’s 77 year old mother, requiring her to get police protection.
Benjamin Jealous of the NAACP tweeted,” In death, Troy Davis will live on as a reminder of a broken justice system that kills an innocent man while a murderer walks free."
A broken system? Only a far left activist can get paid to make such idiotic statements.
For those who are unfamiliar with the system, here is how the death penalty works. When a defendant is charged with a capital crime, the prosecutor first must make the decision whether or not to seek the death penalty. In most instances, murders are not capital crimes. The prosecutor cannot seek the death penalty just because he wants to. There must be aggravating or special circumstances to warrant a death penalty.
Once the prosecutor makes known his intention to seek the death penalty, the defendant gets two appointed lawyers. Each of those lawyers must have prior experience trying murder cases and go through special training to handle death penalty cases. In addition, the defense gets a mitigation specialist whose job is to go through the defendant’s life, find out that he had a bad childhood and then give that sob story to the jury if the defendant is convicted.
In addition, in capital cases, the defense gets basically a blank check for investigators and experts. In most death penalty cases, the defense has more resources than the prosecutor does.
When the case goes to the jury, the jury must first convict of the crime after receiving evidence that proves the guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. In most states the jury instructions tell the jury that reasonable doubt is the inability of the mind to rest easily on the certainty of guilt. Reasonable doubt is not an imaginary doubt or a possibility.
After the defendant is found guilty, then there is a separate sentencing hearing where the jury must unanimously find there are aggravating circumstances. In some states the jury’s sentencing verdict is only a recommendation that the judge may agree with or overrule. In other states the jury has the last word on sentencing.
Once a defendant has been sentenced to death, he gets to appeal his case, often with new lawyers. A defendant gets to appeal to the state’s intermediate appellate courts (often called the Court of Criminal Appeals) and then to the state Supreme Court and if those are unsuccessful, then they can ask the United States Supreme Court to review the case.
Once the direct appeals are exhausted, the defendant is now given new lawyers (2 of them) and gets to file what is called a post-conviction attack. This is a hearing at the trial court where the defendant claims the reason he was convicted was not the eyewitnesses, the confession and the DNA tying him to the crime, it was his lawyers did not do a good job. Once those claims are denied, he again gets to appeal this through the state system.
Once those appeals are exhausted, then the defendant files a Habeas Corpus petition in Federal Court. Again, the defendant gets new lawyers, investigators and a team at taxpayer expense. He gets a hearing, which can be appealed from the district court to the federal circuit court of appeals and ultimately to the Supreme Court.
Only then does an execution become a realistic possibility. Up until the last minute, lawyers, usually court appointed and paid for by the taxpayers, are filing last minute appeals.
The process usually takes about twenty years.
Troy Davis was on death row for twenty years. He was given a trial by a jury of his peers and then had countless opportunities to relitigate his death penalty.
The justice system was not broken.
On second thought, may be it was. For twenty years, he sat on death row while Mark McPhail’s family had to endure all of the appeals.
Perhaps the question we should be asking is why does it take twenty years and an untold amount of taxpayer money for justice to be delivered?
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Richard Banko on -
Because the liberals - who have to feel good about everything, are in control of this country. It never ceases to amaze me, how they feel more grief for the perpetrtaor than the victim. It would only take one heinous crime against a high profile liberal and maybe at least some of that would change
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Permalink Reply by Lois K. Knoffer on
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Richard - then compare their zeal for killing an unborn child who certainly is innocent! I haven't figured
that one out just yet. Not only do they support the killing, they demand that we all pay for it! ! !
Why aren't the unborn babies granted the same defense? ? ?
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Permalink Reply by Larry Richardson on
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No, liberals would want everybody penalized, not just the person who committed the crime (i.e. gun control)
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Permalink Reply by Debrajoe Smith-Beatty on
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Thanks for the article.
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Permalink Reply by Lois K. Knoffer on
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One may decide from this legal gymnastics that it would be much cheaper to just turn the killer loose
and accept the anarchy of our civilization. This just demonstrates how libs have muttled the system to
enrich a bunch of thieving lawyers all to no avail. NAACP wasn't complaining that the murderer didn't murder
the off duty policeman, they were complaining about his race! ! ! Something like someone (who knows who)
charged that blacks commit more crimes. Well compared to the percentage of blacks to all other races, they
do. Just the facts. And it seems they kill more police.
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Permalink Reply by Vivian Hackler on -
Sorry, but I disagree on this case because of the number of innocent people indicted in Texas by virtue of "eye witness" evidence alone. Joyce Brown comes to mind as well as the case of Lanell Geter, an engineer at E-Systems who was mistaken for a robbery assailant at a Taco Bell and had to endure imprisonment and loss of part of his life on the basis of eye-witness testimony. Colleagues had even testified that he was somewhere else at the time of the robbery but that evidence was overlooked. It was the work of the Dallas newspapers that kept the case alive and he was finally exonerated.
If there is DNA evidence, camera photos or survivor of a crime to substantiate the guilt of a person, then they should be eligible for capital punishment like the killers of James Byrd in Texas or the man on trial for robbing, raping and killing the women and beating the dad in the NE. The Troy Davis case was not cut and dry, and the testimony seemed to be changing as it went along. If he was innocent, he is now in God's hands but I can't just say that justice was served because one life was taken for another. As Tea Party members we need to stand for truth and justice for all and not just accept what someone wants us to believe or support.
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Permalink Reply by Greg Simonds on
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You need o stop watching so much CSI.
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Permalink Reply by Delilah on
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That makes no sense- how is Vivian's statement related to CSI?
Every study shows that eye witness testimony is highly unreliable, and in this instance most of the eyewitnesses recanted, and all were tainted beyond belief (i.e. shown Davis's photo before the lineup, Davis was highlighted in the lineup, the detectives assembled them as a group and told them the story before they saw the lineup, etc).
We will never know whether Davis was innocent or not, but it is clear that this was not anything like the killer of Byrd in Texas. There was way too much doubt and loose ends here.
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Permalink Reply by Rob Long on
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Delilah, Im interested in your information. Could you provide me the source so i can go read it also?
Thanks.
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Permalink Reply by Michael Huston on
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I agree!
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Permalink Reply by John W Evans IV on
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Eyewitness accounts can be suspect but in this case there is an important element that is being overlooked. Many of the eyewitnesses to this murder knew Troy Davis personally. So when he was identified, it was not by someone who was seeing him for the first time. He is guilty as sin and good riddance....
© 2012 Created by Judson Phillips.
