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Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Death Row Inmate's Appeal Rejected By Supreme Court

Charged with murdering a Georgia Police Officer, Troy Davis has been incarcerated and sentenced to death.  A recent appeal has been rejected by the Supreme Court according to CNN. According to court records, 21 years ago, Davis and a couple other men were harassing a homeless man, when off duty officer, Mark Macphail intervened. Witnesses said that was when Davis shot the officer twice and fled.

Ever since his arrest, Davis has stuck to the story that he is innocent of the crime.

This case is different from other inmates pleading innocent because the evidence against Davis is very minimal. Nine witnesses testified which led to the arrest of Davis, however, seven out of the nine withdrew their eye witness accounts because under further review, they felt they made a mistake.

When convicted, there was very little evidence proving the inmate guilty of murder. The reason why the appeal was rejected was because the Supreme Court said that there wasn't any evidence that proved against it. According to CNN, even though there was no physical evidence presented in linking Davis to the murder, it was not enough to prove his innocence.

In 2008, two hours before he was to be executed by lethal injection, the Supreme Court granted a "stay of execution" and ordered that the case be looked at again.

The Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles, has the opportunity to commute his sentence to life, to avoid possibly executing an innocent man.

Davis has grown a following of public officials and celebrities, supporting for the court to overturn their judgement. Some of his supporters include, the pope, former president Jimmy Carter and Susan Sarandon.

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Are you for or against the death penalty? Do you think in this particular case, with the lack of physical evidence and room for error, should the death sentence be changed to at least life in prison?

This entry will be a topic for the next "This Week In News" podcast. Listen in to hear more details on this case and discussion over the topic of capitol punishment in the U.S.

1 comment:

Andrew said...

I personally think the death penalty is necessary...honestly In my opinion if you take someones life that is innocent you yourself should have to forfeit yours. People are always saying "thats not right, who are we to play God" but hey you got to look at the other end of it, they took "playing God" into their hands and I'm supposed to feel good about them getting a place to stay, 3 meals a day, and all the workout time in the world...Heck no!

That being said in this particular case and many cases like this one, the evidence needs to be reviewed throughly. We shouldn't be sending people to death row just because "he said she said" type senarios.