Thursday, September 22, 2011

On the Killing of Troy Davis

Last night the state of Georgia executed a man who was almost certainly innocent. It didn't matter whether he had committed the crime, it only mattered that the rules had been followed. Troy Davis lay on a gurney with an IV in his arm, ready for the poison to pump into his body, for two and half hours before the Supreme Court sent word that it was okay with them to go ahead.

A black man accused of killing a Georgia cop. Man, talk about the deck stacked against you. He waited on Death Row for twenty two years, and finally the time came when all hope was exhausted, and at 11:08 last night, the state of Georgia put an end to his life.

I don't think anybody believed he was guilty of the crime. He was trapped by a kind of illogic that says that the death of a policeman must be avenged, in a state where the lynching of black men, not that long ago, didn't require a trial at all, not much more than a rumor. I have not heard anyone, even Michele Bachmann, say that Troy Davis was guilty. His case was based on eyewitness testimony and nearly all the witnesses recanted.

There is some irony in that fact that another man was executed yesterday, in Texas, in a situation complementary to Davis'. White supremacist Lawrence Russell Brewer was put to death for killing a black man by chaining him to the back of his pickup truck and dragging him around. Those who found the body in the morning could not tell if it was human or not, body parts were scattered, the head had been torn off. There might have been a time when this crime would have gone unpunished in Texas, the sheriff would have looked the other way. I guess we can call this progress.

29 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

JACKSON, Miss. -- A white Mississippi teenager has been indicted for capital murder and a hate crime on charges he intentionally ran over a middle-age black man with a pickup truck.

Deryl Dedmon, 19, was indicted Monday in the June 26 death of James Craig Anderson, a 49-year-old car plant worker from Jackson.

Capital murder in Mississippi is defined as murder committed along with another felony. It carries the sentences of death or life in prison without parole. The underlying offense in this case is robbery. Dedmon also was charged under Mississippi's hate crime law, which provides for enhanced sentences. This is the first announced indictment in the case.

Dedmon's lawyer, Lee Agnew, didn't immediately respond to a message Wednesday. He has suggested it was an accident.

Authorities say seven white teenagers were partying in Rankin County the night of Anderson's death when Dedmon suggested they go find a black man to "mess with."

Detective Eric Smith testified at a hearing in July that Dedmon had been robbed in the weeks before Anderson's death and that he was looking for "some sort of revenge," though there was no evidence Anderson was responsible for the robbery.

Prosecutors say seven teenagers loaded up in two cars and headed for nearby Jackson where they found Anderson in a hotel parking lot on Ellis Avenue.

Dedmon and another teen allegedly beat Anderson before Dedmon jumped in a green Ford F-250 and ran over the dazed man. Authorities say Dedmon also robbed Anderson, but they haven't said what he took.

Authorities said Dedmon later bragged that he had run over Anderson, using a racial slur to describe him.

The case got significant attention across the country when a video of the incident was made public.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/21/miss-teen-indicted-for-ca_n_973893.html

September 22, 2011 9:52 AM  
Blogger Priya Lynn said...

I've noticed this irrationality in many conservatives. Rules are intended to help achieve good outcomes but to many conservatives the rules become more important than the good outcomes they were intended to achieve and so they believe if they follow their interpretation of the rules thats more important than the wrongful execution of an innocent man.

It's also largely motivated by the unwillingness to admit that a mistake has been made - to conservatives its a greater crime to admit one made a mistake than it is to execute an innocent man.

The insane part of this is that conservatives rant all the time about how incompetent government is and how it should be eliminated and yet somehow they think that when it comes to judging and executing people the same government they loath magically becomes infallible.

September 22, 2011 12:51 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

inconveniently enough for a hopeless fringe fanatic like nasty Priya, this is more a regional issue than a conservative one

capital punishment in America is is both arbitrary and irreversible and should be ruled unconstitutional

indeed, once upon a time, it was ruled so by the Supreme Court, only to be reversed a few years later

I'm up for a constitutional amendment to end it for good

anyone else?

September 22, 2011 1:56 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

September 22, 2011 2:26 PM  
Blogger JimK said...

And you were doing so well!

Please stay on the topic, Anon.

JimK

September 22, 2011 2:37 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I think the contrast between capital punishment in Iran and the U.S. in a valid aspect of this topic

in the U.S., you can be executed for doing nothing

in Iran, you have to commit a serious crime, like homosexuality

why aren't our Canadian contributors focusing on Iran instead of the most favorable conditions homosexuals have here in the U S of A?

as for blame for the economy, it's always a relevant topic, like the weather

and a TTFer randomly brought up the Elizabeth Warren race this week without provocation, so I was just providing them with an update

my only concern is the welfare of the blog

I do and do and do

and what do I get?

not it

I don't and don't and don't

September 22, 2011 3:10 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

You can't stop murder with murder.

September 22, 2011 10:41 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I'm not in favor of the death penalty but we should think clearly.

Executing someone as a punishment for killing someone is not murder.

meanwhile, we may be on the way to discovering warp speed:

"GENEVA — One of the very pillars of physics and Einstein's theory of relativity – that nothing can go faster than the speed of light – was rocked Thursday by new findings from one of the world's foremost laboratories.

European researchers said they clocked an oddball type of subatomic particle called a neutrino going faster than the 186,282 miles per second that has long been considered the cosmic speed limit."

September 22, 2011 11:54 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

flying carpets, warp speed, and now this:

"A bill to repeal the federal Defense of Marriage Act now has bipartisan support after Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Florida announced Friday that she would cosponsor the legislation, becoming the first Republican to do so."

September 23, 2011 9:21 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Executing an innocent black man for a murder he was framed for by whites is the most heinous form of murder possible. It's like "sanitized" lynching.

Why are there approximately equal numbers of blacks and whites on death row today when blacks comprise less than 15% of the US population?

Justice is not yet color-blind, 50 years after Civil Right legislation was made the law of the land.

"Facts on Post-Conviction DNA Exonerations

There have been 273 post-conviction DNA exonerations in the United States.

• The first DNA exoneration took place in 1989. Exonerations have been won in 34 states; since 2000, there have been 206 exonerations.

• 17 of the 273 people exonerated through DNA served time on death row.

• The average length of time served by exonerees is 13 years. The total number of years served is approximately 3,524.

• The average age of exonerees at the time of their wrongful convictions was 27.

Races of the 273 exonerees:

166 African Americans
81 Caucasians
20 Latinos
2 Asian American
4 whose race is unknown"
http://www.innocenceproject.org/Content/Facts_on_PostConviction_DNA_Exonerations.php

"Eyewitness Identification Reform Misidentifications are the leading factor in wrongful convictions

* Eyewitness misidentifications contributed to over 75% of the more than 220 wrongful convictions in the United States overturned by post-conviction DNA evidence.

• Inaccurate eyewitness identifications can confound investigations from the earliest stages. Critical time is lost while police are distracted from the real perpetrator, focusing instead on building the case against an innocent person.

• Despite solid and growing proof of the inaccuracy of traditional eyewitness ID procedures – and the availability of simple measures to reform them - traditional eyewitness identifications remain among the most commonly used and compelling evidence brought against criminal defendants."
http://www.innocenceproject.org/Content/Eyewitness_Identification_Reform.php

September 23, 2011 9:33 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

"Executing an innocent black man for a murder he was framed for by whites is the most heinous form of murder possible. It's like "sanitized" lynching."

if done intentionally, yes, that's true

do you have any evidence it has happened recently?

if there was, I'm sure the media would be all over it

"I have not heard anyone, even Michele Bachmann, say that Troy Davis was guilty."

actually, someone did

unusually, the Supreme Court ordered a new trial in 2009

all the evidence was reviewed by a Clinton-appointed judge and Davis was found guilty again

there is a legitimate question about whether capital punishment was warranted in this case when the murder was obviously not premeditated and not particularly viscious and seemed to be part of a confusing incident involving a number of parties

"Why are there approximately equal numbers of blacks and whites on death row today when blacks comprise less than 15% of the US population?"

Do you ever read the papers or watch the news?

A disproportionate numbers of crimes are committed in areas with largely black areas

to recognize that is not racist

"Justice is not yet color-blind, 50 years after Civil Right legislation was made the law of the land"

that's a matter of opinion

September 23, 2011 10:11 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

The judge did not know about the recanted testimonies. And by the way, though Michele Bachmann did not say anything, Ann Coulter sure did: COP-KILLER IS MEDIA'S LATEST BABY SEAL. So there you go, Anon, there's your talking points. Read it carefully.

September 23, 2011 10:22 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

"The judge did not know about the recanted testimonies"

actually, he did know

but he never heard from them because Davis and his lawyers made a strategic decision not to have them testify after the prosecution destroyed, on cross-examination, other witnesses Davis had called

significantly, Davis' lawyers are not now claiming the August 2010 retrial came to the wrong decision because the recanted testimony wasn't heard

they simply say the burden of proof was too high

sorry, but it sounds like Davis was guilty

"And by the way, though Michele Bachmann did not say anything"

no, she didn't

so why did Jim throw her name in here?

meanwhile, Texas is fed up with white racists on death row:

"HOUSTON — Texas inmates who are set to be executed will no longer get their choice of last meals, a change prison officials made Thursday after a prominent state senator became miffed over an expansive request from a man condemned for a notorious dragging death.

Lawrence Russell Brewer, who was executed Wednesday for the hate crime slaying of James Byrd Jr. more than a decade ago, asked for two chicken fried steaks, a triple-meat bacon cheeseburger, fried okra, a pound of barbecue, three fajitas, a meat lover's pizza, a pint of ice cream and a slab of peanut butter fudge with crushed peanuts."

September 23, 2011 10:55 AM  
Blogger Priya Lynn said...

Bad anonymous said "this is more a regional issue than a conservative one".

While there are some states where its not an issue it is an issue in many states and predominantly conservative ones such as Texas. Conservatives overwhelmingly support the death penalty, one need look no further than the recent republican debates where the audience loudly cheered Perry's killing of over 200 inmates and neither showed the slightest concern over the possibility of innocent people being put to death.

Bad anonymous said "capital punishment in America is is both arbitrary and irreversible and should be ruled unconstitutional".

Sentences start with a capital and end with a period bad anonymous - use them. And in proper english each sentence isn't its own paragraph. I know your thoughts are disjointed but try to string at least a few sentences together. This is a red letter day however - for the first time that I can remember you've taken a position on the side of justice. Somehow I doubt that'll last.

Bad anonymous said "why aren't our Canadian contributors focusing on Iran instead of the most favorable conditions homosexuals have here in the U S of A?".

LOL - "most favourable". The most favourable conditions and in Canada and several other countries which have left the States in the dust. Its always been Canada's role to show the States leadership on civil rights issues and the States place to slowly but inevitably follow our lead.

Bad anonymous said "sorry, but it sounds like Davis was guilty".

I knew your being on the right side of justice wouldn't last. You claim to be against capital punishment but are obviously delighted that a likely innocent man was put to death. Your opinion on his innocence of course carries no more weight than that of a magic 8-ball.

September 23, 2011 12:28 PM  
Blogger Priya Lynn said...

And as far as bad anonymous's joke about the death penalty not being a conservative issue goes:

"Eighty percent of Republicans support the death penalty, while 65% of independents and 58% of Democrats support it."

http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/gallup-poll-who-supports-death-penalty

"Americans' views on the appropriate punishment for murder are greatly influenced by their political orientation. Among ideological conservatives, 62% favor the death penalty and 36% life imprisonment. Among ideological liberals, it is nearly the reverse, with 37% favoring the death penalty and 60% life imprisonment."

And as we might expect support varies according to education with poorly educated conservatives favouring the death penalty:

"Perceptions about the death penalty also vary by educational attainment. By a 62% to 37% margin, postgraduates show a definite preference for life imprisonment. College graduates with no postgraduate education are essentially evenly divided, with 48% favoring the death penalty and 50% favoring life imprisonment. Those with some college (57% to 41%) and those with high school educations or less (56% to 40%) show a preference for the death penalty."


http://www.gallup.com/poll/8419/Support-Death-Penalty-Remains-High-74.aspx

September 23, 2011 12:38 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

"Conservatives overwhelmingly support the death penalty, one need look no further than the recent republican debates where the audience loudly cheered"

doesn't prove a thing

any group of Americans would have cheered, nasty Priya

virtually all politicians in America support the death penalty because doing otherwise is political suicide

I'm against the death penalty but not because I think murderers don't deserve it

I just think proof is rarely that strong and we should always be able to right a wrong when we discover someone has been unjustly convicted

you can't unexecute someone

still, if a true murderer receives justice, it might well be a cause for celebration

"Perry's killing of over 200 inmates and neither showed the slightest concern over the possibility of innocent people being put to death"

people in Texas are like that

they want to err on the side of justice rather than mercy

I can tell you something worse

homosexuals think anyone who thinks homosexuality is deviant should be banished from society

"Sentences start with a capital and end with a period bad anonymous - use them. And in proper english each sentence isn't its own paragraph. I know your thoughts are disjointed but try to string at least a few sentences together"

stream of conciousness writing has been with us for over a century

education, nasty

get it

"This is a red letter day however - for the first time that I can remember you've taken a position on the side of justice"

well, it's debatable which side was just

I was just suggesting we err on the side of caution

"Somehow I doubt that'll last"

I thought you said that when you make things up in your imagination, they can last virtually forever

just don't listen to those nasty men in the nice white coats

September 23, 2011 3:04 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

"The most favourable conditions and in Canada and several other countries which have left the States in the dust. Its always been Canada's role to show the States leadership on civil rights issues and the States place to slowly but inevitably follow our lead"

maybe we should deport all our homosexuals to Canada so they can be really gay

if what you say is true, that would be the compassionate thing

"I knew your being on the right side of justice wouldn't last"

you might consider the value of the truth

if Davis couldn't prove he was innocent in a court of law just last year, after being given a rare second trial, why do you think he's innocent?

imagination, nasty

it lasts forever

but isn't there some value in the truth?

"You claim to be against capital punishment but are obviously delighted that a likely innocent man was put to death"

why do you say he's likely innocent?

because the Pope and Jimmy Carter said so?

"Your opinion on his innocence of course carries no more weight than that of a magic 8-ball"

unlike you, I actually took the trouble to get the facts

you're just listening to a bunch of media talking heads- and believing what you want to believe

"And as far as bad anonymous's joke about the death penalty not being a conservative issue goes:

"Eighty percent of Republicans support the death penalty, while 65% of independents and 58% of Democrats support it.""

so majorities of all political categories support it

looks like I was right

again

the death penalty is a bipartisan American passion

"Americans' views on the appropriate punishment for murder are greatly influenced by their political orientation. Among ideological conservatives, 62% favor the death penalty and 36% life imprisonment. Among ideological liberals, it is nearly the reverse, with 37% favoring the death penalty and 60% life imprisonment."

"punishment for murder"?

I think most would agree that circumstances vary and so should the penalty

this also depends, of course, on defintions of "liberals" and "conservatives"

it's rare to find a politician that doesn't support the death penalty

"And as we might expect support varies according to education with poorly educated conservatives favouring the death penalty"

well, the poor are the most likely to be victims of crime so they have more pent-up anger

obviously, if you live in some violence-ridden ghetto, you'll be for anything that might deter crime

now, nasty Priya, I thought you said you weren't going to post comments here anymore

something about you can't really "enjoy" a blog unless comments you disagree with are deleted

have you changed your mind like Romney?

September 23, 2011 3:04 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

completely off topic, Jim, but if I send you a table will you post it ?
I just made a table of tax rates, took a family of 5 living in MD MC and ran the numbers in TTAx, iterating state/local till withholding was correct. the numbers are staggering. 200K has effective tax rate of 18%, 100K has 6%, 50K gets a $1581 refund. the person I was arguing with on facebook had to shut completely up that the rates are not fair, because they are SO progressive they are not funny.

So up for continuing this argument ?

September 24, 2011 12:07 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

completely off topic, Jim, but if I send you a table will you post it ?
I just made a table of tax rates, took a family of 5 living in MD MC and ran the numbers in TTAx, iterating state/local till withholding was correct. the numbers are staggering. 200K has effective tax rate of 18%, 100K has 6%, 50K gets a $1581 refund. the person I was arguing with on facebook had to shut completely up that the rates are not fair, because they are SO progressive they are not funny.

So up for continuing this argument ?

September 24, 2011 12:08 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

September 24, 2011 2:56 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

September 24, 2011 3:24 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

September 24, 2011 3:25 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

BAY MINETTE, Ala. -- A civil liberties group said Friday that an Alabama town should not start an alternative sentencing program that would give non-violent offenders a new choice: Go to jail, or go to church.

Starting next week, the program will allow a city judge to sentence misdemeanor offenders to work off their sentences in jail and pay a fine, or go to church every Sunday for a year. Offenders who select church can pick the place of worship but must check in weekly with the pastor and the police department. If the one-year church attendance program is completed successfully, the offender's case will be dismissed.

September 24, 2011 3:31 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

"Offenders who select church can pick the place of worship"

Oh goodie. Let's have the non-violent peeping toms and cradle-robbing polygamists attend FLDS with Mr. Jeffs and his wives to learn about family and marriage.

And let's let all non-violent homophobes learn about showing respect for military funerals by attending the Westboro Baptist Church with the Phelps family or learn about enacting social legislation with the C Street church members who support the Ugandan death penalty for gays.

What a wonderful world it will be!

September 24, 2011 10:16 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

September 24, 2011 10:21 AM  
Blogger JimK said...

Let's at least pretend to stay on topic.

JimK

September 24, 2011 11:04 AM  
Blogger Priya Lynn said...

I pointed out "Conservatives overwhelmingly support the death penalty, one need look no further than the recent republican debates where the audience loudly cheered""

Bad anonymous said "doesn't prove a thing any group of Americans would have cheered, nasty Priya".
Nope, only Republicans.

I said "Perry's killing of over 200 inmates and neither showed the slightest concern over the possibility of innocent people being put to death"

Bad anonymous said "people in Texas are like that they want to err on the side of justice rather than mercy".
That's not erring on the side of justice, its executing innocent people and allowing real murderers to go free, that's erring on the side of injustice.

Bad anonymous said "homosexuals think anyone who thinks homosexuality is deviant should be banished from society".
Nope, no gay people think that.

Bad anonymous said "stream of conciousness writing has been with us for over a century education, nasty get it".
People with a third grade education know to capitalize the first word of a sentence, end in a period and not to make each sentence a paragraph. That's not stream of conciousnes, that's barely concious.

I said "This is a red letter day however - for the first time that I can remember you've taken a position on the side of justice"

Bad anonymous said "well, it's debatable which side was just".
When you haven't got any solid evidence against a man its just to avoid convicting him.

September 24, 2011 12:07 PM  
Blogger Priya Lynn said...

I said ""The most favourable conditions and in Canada and several other countries which have left the States in the dust. Its always been Canada's role to show the States leadership on civil rights issues and the States place to slowly but inevitably follow our lead"

Bad anonymous said "maybe we should deport all our homosexuals to Canada so they can be really gay if what you say is true, that would be the compassionate thing".
To take people away from their family, friends, and jobs to please bigots is not compassionate. Eradicating the bigotry and oppression where they live is what's compassionate.

I said "I knew your being on the right side of justice wouldn't last"

Bad anonymous said "you might consider the value of the truth if Davis couldn't prove he was innocent in a court of law just last year, after being given a rare second trial, why do you think he's innocent?"
Idiot bad anonymous, its innocent until proven guilty, not guilty until proven innocent. He didn't have any obligation to prove himself innocent, the state had the obligation to prove him guilty and they didn't do so. He was convicted on the basis of notoriously unreliable eye-witness testimony. Just about every witness against him recanted, the witnesses revealed they were pressured into claiming it was him. Just because several people lied at two trials doesn't make him guilty

I said "You claim to be against capital punishment but are obviously delighted that a likely innocent man was put to death"

Bad anonymous said "why do you say he's likely innocent?".
Since his original trial, substantial evidence has come to light pointing to Davis’ innocence. The Georgia Bureau of Investigations has conceded that the ballistics evidence used against Davis was unreliable, and one of the Jurors who sat on the case said that if she had known about that she would not have voted to give Davis the death penalty. Seven of the nine witnesses who identified him as the shooter have recanted their testimony. One of the two witnesses who maintain that Davis was the shooter is thought by many to be the real perpetrator and has made admissions to others that he committed the crime. The other remaining eyewitness had been up for twenty-four hours straight at the time he observed the shooting and reported on the night of the crime that he “wouldn’t recognize [the shooter] again.” Yet two years later, this witness identified Troy Davis in an in-court identification that required him to simply identify the only African-American sitting at the defense table. Misidentification was a factor in 75% of the 273 DNA exonerations. In 38% of these mistaken identification cases, multiple eyewitnesses misidentified the same person.

I said "Your opinion on his innocence of course carries no more weight than that of a magic 8-ball"

Bad anonymous said "unlike you, I actually took the trouble to get the facts".
Obviously not.

September 24, 2011 12:08 PM  
Blogger Priya Lynn said...

I said "And as far as bad anonymous's joke about the death penalty not being a conservative issue goes:
Eighty percent of Republicans support the death penalty, while 65% of independents and 58% of Democrats support it."

Bad anonymous said "so majorities of all political categories support it looks like I was right".
Wrong, to you it looks like the sky is purple. Among ideological conservatives, 62% favor the death penalty and 36% life imprisonment. Among ideological liberals, it is nearly the reverse, with 37% favoring the death penalty and 60% life imprisonment.". It was conservatives overwhelmingly supporting the death penalty we were originally talking about.


"Americans' views on the appropriate punishment for murder are greatly influenced by their political orientation. Among ideological conservatives, 62% favor the death penalty and 36% life imprisonment. Among ideological liberals, it is nearly the reverse, with 37% favoring the death penalty and 60% life imprisonment."

Bad anonymous said "now, nasty Priya, I thought you said you weren't going to post comments here anymore".
You think a lot of things that never happened.

Bad anonymous said "something about you can't really "enjoy" a blog unless comments you disagree with are deleted".
No, it was that you shouldn't be allowed to hijack every thread with your off-topic rants. You'll note I've never asked for any of your on-topic comments to be deleted, its not a matter of me wanting comments deleted simply because I disagree with them.

September 24, 2011 12:09 PM  

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