I'm not going to belabor the point, because a) I'm taking advantage of today's odd diary-naming trend as a gimmick, b) I don't have the time to belabor the point, c) I'm not interested in debating it, and most importantly, d) Troy Davis is going to be put to death tomorrow for a crime he almost certainly did not commit.
I've already diaried about Davis a couple days ago, so you can read that for more details, but here's a quick summary of his case: he was convicted for murdering an off-duty police officer in 1989. There was no physical evidence against him, but nine witnesses testified against him anyway. Seven have since changed their stories, indicating that they felt pressured into lying under oath:
With no physical evidence to connect Mr. Davis to the shooting, the prosecutors relied heavily on the testimony of nine witnesses, including Mr. Coles, who identified Mr. Davis as the gunman the day after it happened, with a lawyer by his side.
Mr. Coles could not be found for comment this week.
But in an affidavit filed later, one of the witnesses, Antoine Williams, recalled his testimony that Mr. Davis was responsible for the crime.
"Even when I said that," Mr. Williams said, "I was totally unsure whether he was the person who shot the officer. I felt pressured to point at him because he was the one who was sitting in the courtroom."
And who is this Mr. Coles?
He's the guy who probably did kill the police officer:
Davis' lawyers also say other witnesses have signed affidavits naming another man, Sylvester "Red" Coles, as MacPhail's killer.
"The new evidence does not merely impeach state witnesses, but destroys the prosecution's case and establishes Red Coles' guilt," defense lawyer Thomas Dunn wrote, saying "a grave injustice may result from the execution of Troy Davis."
Sounds like a miscarriage of justice, right? Certainly enough to prevent an execution, right?
Wrong. Although with this evidence, it is unlikely Davis would even be convicted if he were put on trial today, it does not meet the standards in Georgia's courts for review:
Superior Court Judge Penny Haas Freesemann said in her ruling Friday that Georgia courts generally do not favor granting retrials in such cases, and that the evidence presented by Davis' lawyers failed to meet strict standards required by state law.
Prosecutors had argued that most of the witness affidavits, signed between 1996 and 2003, were included in Davis' previous appeals and should not be considered new evidence.
Davis' lawyers say appeals courts never considered any new evidence, instead focusing on whether his constitutional rights had been violated.
Worse yet, the judge indicated that witnesses' sworn statements indicating that they heard Coles confess to the murder were "inadmissible hearsay." That might -- might -- be true when it comes to using them against Coles, but in Davis' case, aren't they exculpatory? Is this not a miscarriage of justice?
And so I ask again: contact your congresscritter and your senators. Contact the White House, even though it's apparent no one there cares about justice -- if Scooter Libby's sentence could be commuted for a crime he did commit, Troy Davis' sentence should be commuted for a crime he most likely didn't commit. Ask them to do something to convince Georgia state officials to do the right thing. Do something to protest this gross miscarriage of justice being perpetrated in the name of the people of Georgia.
I'll close with two questions I asked in my diary on Saturday:
Q: What do you call it when a person kills another person, with full intent and premeditation?
A: Murder.
Q: What do you call it when the government kills an innocent man, with full intent and premeditation?
A: Legally, it's an "accident."
But it's not an accident, is it? It's legalized murder. Let's do something to stop it.
UPDATE: See peagreen's diary, too, and send a fax to the Georgia State Parole Board demanding clemency for Davis. Also see arodb's diary.
UPDATE II: More action links:
Amnesty International
Democracy Now -- call the Georgia State Parole Board at (404) 651-8502
Troy Anthony Davis
UPDATE III: Finally, some good news: the parole board granted a 90 day stay of execution (hat tip to noweasels). Thanks to all who took action -- we'll never know if it helped, but it certainly didn't hurt.