On April 16, by a 2-1 vote, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals denied Davis' petition

[ProudDad]

Source: Amnesty International

On October 24, 2008, just three days before Troy Davis' 3rd scheduled execution date, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals issued a stay of execution to consider Davis’s request for a second federal habeas petition. On April 16, 2009, the Court denied Davis' request. The Court extended Troy's stay for 30 days to give him a chance to file a habeas corpus petition with the US Supreme Court.

You can read the Court's 4/16 decision here (http://www.ca11.uscourts.gov/opinions/ops/200816009ord.pdf)


Read more: http://www.amnestyusa.org/death-penalty/troy-davis-finality-over-fairness/troy-davis-background/page.do?id=1121074

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The state of Georgia is about to murder an obviously innocent man. A bunch of Democrats and a few republicans with Clinton signing have essentially said that it's ok for the state to murder an innocent man if the trials and appeals are "technically" correct.

Pay particular attention to Justice Barkett's dissent starting on page 36 of the document. It's refreshing after the deadly blather of the 2 judges denying Mr. Davis' request for an evidentiary hearing.

------------------------------------------------------

10 reasons to abolish state murder:

1 - the death penalty violates the right to life.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) recognises each person's right to life. Article 4 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples´ Rights (ACHPR) states that "human beings are inviolable. Every human being shall be entitled to respect for his life and the physical and moral integrity of his person." This view is reinforced by the existence of international and regional treaties providing for the abolition of the death penalty, notably the second optional protocol of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations in 1989.

2 - the death penalty is a cruel and inhuman death.

The UDHR categorically states that "No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment." All forms of execution are inhuman. No government can guarantee a dignified and painless death to condemned prisoners, who also suffer psychological pain in the period between their sentence and execution.

3 - the death penalty has no dissuasive effect.

No scientific study has proved that the death penalty has a more dissuasive effect on crime than other punishments. The most recent investigation into the links of cause and effect between capital punishment and the murder rate, was conducted by the United Nations in 1988 and updated in 2002. It came to the following conclusion: "...it is not prudent to accept the hypothesis that capital punishment deters murder to a marginally greater extent than does the threat and application of the supposedly lesser punishment of life imprisonment."

4 - the death penalty is premeditated murder, demeans the state and makes society more violent.

By executing a person, the state commits a murder and shows the same readiness to use physical violence against its victim as the criminal. Moreover, studies have shown that the murder rate increases immediately after executions. Researchers have suggested that this increase is similar to that caused by other violent public events, such as massacres and assassinations.

5 - the death penalty is discriminatory in its application.

Throughout the world, the death penalty is disproportionately used against disadvantaged people. Some condemned prisoners from the most impoverished social classes would not have been sentenced to death if they were from wealthier sectors of society. In these cases, either the accused are less able to find their way through the maze of the judicial system (because of a lack of knowledge, confidence or financial means), or the system reflects the generally negative attitude of society and the powerful towards them. It has also been proved that certain criminals run a greater risk of being condemned to death if their victims come from higher social classes.

6 - the death penalty denies the capacity of people to mend their ways and become a better person.

Defenders of the death penalty consider that anyone sentenced to death is unable to mend their ways and could re-offend at any time if they are released. However, there are many examples of offenders who have been reintegrated and who have not re-offended. Amnesty International believes that the way to prevent re-offending is to review procedures for conditional release and the psychological monitoring of prisoners during detention, and under no circumstances to increase the number of executions. In addition, the death penalty removes any possibility for the condemned person to repent.

7 - the death penalty cannot provide social stability nor bring peace to the victims.

An execution cannot give the victim his or her life back nor ease the suffering felt by their family. Far from reducing the pain, the length of the trial and the appeal procedure often prolong the family's suffering.

8 - the death penalty denies the fallibility of human institutions.

The risk of executing innocent people remains indissolubly linked to the use of the death penalty. Since 1973, 116 people condemned to death in the United States have been released after proof of their innocence has been established. Some of them have only just escaped execution, after having passed years on death row. These repeated judicial errors have been especially due to irregularities committed by prosecution or police officers, recourse to doubtful evidence, material information or confessions, or the incompetence of defence lawyers. Other prisoners have been sent to their deaths when serious doubts existed about their guilt.

9 - the death penalty is a collective punishment.

This punishment affects all the family, friends and those sympathising with the condemned person. The close relatives of an executed prisoner, who generally do not have anything to do with the crime, could feel, as a result of the death penalty, the same dreadful sense of loss as the victim's parents felt at the death of their loved one.

10 - the death penalty goes against the religious and humanist values that are common to all humanity.

Human rights are universal, indivisible and interdependent. They are based on many traditions that can be found in all civilisations. All religions advocate clemency, compassion and forgiveness and it is on these values that Amnesty International bases its opposition to the death penalty.

http://www.amnestyusa.org/document.php?lang=e&id=79DB4475B1AFAF6C80256F4A0047ABB8

[pleah]

1. K&R I can't believe they are going to do this.n/t

[Zodiak]

2. I can

Careers are built on killing people in the name of "justice". To admit that the system is at fault invites oversight. Those that build their careers on death do not wish to have oversight.

And so this innocent man must die.

Simple.

[Baby Snooks]

5. Thank you Bill Clinton....

"The case of Troy Davis is a reminder of the legal hurdles that death row inmates must overcome in the USA in order to obtain remedies in the appeal courts. In this regard, Amnesty International fears that Troy Davis' avenues for judicial relief have been all but closed off. In particular, he is caught in a trap set by US Congress a decade ago when it withdrew funding from post-conviction defender organizations in 1995 and passed the Anti-terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act in 1996."

http://www.amnestyusa.org/document.php?lang=e&id=ENGAMR510232007

The Congress. And the President. Who was Bill Clinton.

[originalpckelly]

10. Ever since I watched that 60 Minutes piece about the man who was falsely convicted of rape...

based upon being falsely identified by the woman who was raped, I have lost pretty much all confidence in eye witness testimony. I want a security camera or some other hard evidence. Even if people mean well, they may be wrong.

[imdjh]

13. I've read that CSI has made conviction harder to get.

According to some article I read, prosecutors complain that CSI shows have Americans requiring more evidence that is usually available, sometimes evidence that is never or only rarely available. The juries want to be off the hook for the decision.

But that doesn't always make sense, and it works both ways. DNA can't prove guilt or innocence.

[polmaven]

3. Reason number 11...

The death penalty makes all of us murderers.

NOT IN MY NAME!!!!:grr::grr::grr::grr::grr:

[RandomThoughts]

12. Well said

I disagree with death pentalty also.

[Downwinder]

4. The death penalty is ritualistic human sacrifice. n/t

[bertman]

6. After reading Justice Barkett's dissent, it is unimaginable that a court of law would allow

this execution to go forward on the basis of having followed "legal procedure".

Who are these alleged human beings who call themselves Justices, yet don't know the meaning of the word?

[Swede Atlanta]

7. I am ashamed.......

The 11th Circuit is known to be one of the most conservative in the country and this decision is a travesty. I know in my heart that one day these judges will be judged and I think they are going to be very surprised by the sentence they get. I am ashamed to live in Georgia which similar to other red states in the south take pride in the number of inmates they can execute. I don't really think the legislatures, governors or judges in any of these states really care if they execute an innocent person but take glee in 'kill em'. A very sad stain on this nation.

[stevedeshazer]

8. It sets up a momentous decision for the Supreme Court, if they agree to review it.

This has the potential to set a precedent that could have lasting effects for generations to come.

I hope they don't dodge this one.

And, yes, I believe the death penalty is wrong.

[originalpckelly]

9. We can always reverse a life sentence if someone's still alive.

I do not have the ability to review all this evidence, so I can't make any really accurate statements regarding his guilt or lack thereof, but the statement about the death penalty in general is obviously true.

[imdjh]

11. What were the two other crimes?

The articles I have seen say that he was convicted (in his murder trial) of murder and two other crimes. What were the two other crimes?

Normally, I"m a hard sell on appeals and new trials decades later, but this case actually looks like it has something other going for it than a general opposition to the death penalty or political activism capitalizing on someone being condemned. Reasonable doubt is the standard for acquittal, but the fact that there is any doubt ought to be the standard for not invoking the death penalty. This is, of course, the best and broadest reason to eliminate the death penalty.

[Democracyinkind]

14. I AM TROY DAVIS

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08bGrPLPkJM&feature=related

[DissedByBush]

15. I'll take a shot at it.

"1 - the death penalty violates the right to life."

Sometimes your own actions negate your own right to life. Break into my house and threaten my family and we'll see how "inviolable" your life is. My estimate is that the inviolability of your life will be equal to the quality of body armor you're wearing.

"2 - the death penalty is a cruel and inhuman death."

We bend over backwards to make sure it's not cruel. It's always less cruel than the death that the murderer caused.

"3 - the death penalty has no dissuasive effect."

True, but irrelevant.

"4 - the death penalty is premeditated murder, demeans the state and makes society more violent."

"Studies" I'd like to see them. I doubt any are convincing.

"5 - the death penalty is discriminatory in its application."

Often true.

"6 - the death penalty denies the capacity of people to mend their ways and become a better person."

In the US the death penalty is applied to those deemed incorrigible. They are a bad apple that needs to be removed from the barrel permanently, not just sectioned off from the other apples.

"7 - the death penalty cannot provide social stability nor bring peace to the victims."

Whether it brings peace to the families of the victims varies by the family.

"8 - the death penalty denies the fallibility of human institutions."

True.

"9 - the death penalty is a collective punishment."

Pansy BS. Putting them in jail is also a collective punishment then. Who cares? I don't.

"10 - the death penalty goes against the religious and humanist values that are common to all humanity."

The religions comprising a majority of people in the world prescribe capital punishment for what we wouldn't even consider an offense in some cases.


I am completely for the death penalty in theory. But 5 and 8 above make it an impossibility for me to support it in real situations. Humans are fallible so I won't have an innocent human killed in error in my name.

[rasputin1952]

16. I went to Amnesty Int's Action page on this issue and sent a revised

letter to the Governor of GA.

If there is even the possibility this man may be executed, and he is innocent...it is beyond the pale to allow this to continue.

Here's hoping others will take action. At the very least, this man deserves a hearing. Deah is forever. There should be no "time limits" on Appeals.

At the very least, the Governor can commute the sentence. At least this man would be alive.

We seek Justice, we do not seek retribution.