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Obama Silent As US Murders Troy Davis
Obama deflected calls for him to get involved
JACKSON, Ga. -- Georgia executed Troy Davis on Wednesday night for the murder of an off-duty police officer, a crime he denied committing right to the end as supporters around the world mourned and declared that an innocent man was put to death.
A woman holds a protest sign outside President Barack Obama's campaign headquarters in Chicago, on September 16, 2011, calling for action to stop the execution of Troy Davis. Defiant to the end, he told relatives of Mark MacPhail that his 1989 slaying was not his fault. "I did not have a gun," he insisted.
"For those about to take my life," he told prison officials, "may God have mercy on your souls. May God bless your souls."
Davis was declared dead at 11:08. The lethal injection began about 15 minutes earlier, after the Supreme Court rejected an 11th-hour request for a stay.
The court did not comment on its order, which came about four hours after it received the request and more than three hours after the planned execution time.
Though Davis' attorneys said seven of nine key witnesses against him disputed all or parts of their testimony, state and federal judges repeatedly ruled against granting him a new trial. As the court losses piled up Wednesday, his offer to take a polygraph test was rejected and the pardons board refused to give him one more hearing.
Davis' supporters staged vigils in the U.S. and Europe, declaring "I am Troy Davis" on signs, T-shirts and the Internet. Some tried increasingly frenzied measures, urging prison workers to stay home and even posting a judge's phone number online, hoping people will press him to put a stop to the lethal injection. President Barack Obama deflected calls for him to get involved.
"They say death row; we say hell no!" protesters shouted outside the Jackson prison where Davis was to be executed. In Washington, a crowd outside the Supreme Court yelled the same chant.
As many as 700 demonstrators gathered outside the prison as a few dozen riot police stood watch, but the crowd thinned as the night wore on and the outcome became clear. The scene turned eerily quiet as word of the high court's decision spread, with demonstrators hugging, crying, praying, holding candles and gathering around Davis' family.
Laura Moye of Amnesty International said the execution would be "the best argument for abolishing the death penalty."
"The state of Georgia is about to demonstrate why government can't be trusted with the power over life and death," she said.
About 10 counterdemonstrators also were outside the prison, showing support for the death penalty and the family of Mark MacPhail, the man Davis was convicted of killing in 1989. MacPhail's son and brother attended the execution.
"He had all the chances in the world," his mother, Anneliese MacPhail, said of Davis in a telephone interview. "It has got to come to an end."
At a Paris rally, many of the roughly 150 demonstrators carried signs emblazoned with Davis' face. "Everyone who looks a little bit at the case knows that there is too much doubt to execute him," Nicolas Krameyer of Amnesty International said at the protest.
Davis' execution has been stopped three times since 2007, but on Wednesday the 42-year-old ran out of legal options.
As his last hours ticked away, an upbeat and prayerful Davis turned down an offer for a special last meal as he met with friends, family and supporters.
"Troy Davis has impacted the world," his sister Martina Correia said at a news conference. "They say, `I am Troy Davis,' in languages he can't speak."
His attorney Stephen Marsh said Davis would have spent part of Wednesday taking a polygraph test if pardons officials had taken his offer seriously.
"He doesn't want to spend three hours away from his family on what could be the last day of his life if it won't make any difference," Marsh said.
Amnesty International says nearly 1 million people have signed a petition on Davis' behalf. His supporters include former President Jimmy Carter, Pope Benedict XVI, a former FBI director, the NAACP, several conservative figures and many celebrities, including hip-hop star Sean "P. Diddy" Combs.
"I'm trying to bring the word to the young people: There is too much doubt," rapper Big Boi, of the Atlanta-based group Outkast, said at a church near the prison.
The U.S. Supreme Court gave Davis an unusual opportunity to prove his innocence in a lower court last year, though the high court itself did not hear the merits of the case.
He was convicted in 1991 of killing MacPhail, who was working as a security guard at the time. MacPhail rushed to the aid of a homeless man who prosecutors said Davis was bashing with a handgun after asking him for a beer. Prosecutors said Davis had a smirk on his face as he shot the officer to death in a Burger King parking lot in Savannah.
No gun was ever found, but prosecutors say shell casings were linked to an earlier shooting for which Davis was convicted.
Witnesses placed Davis at the crime scene and identified him as the shooter, but several of them have recanted their accounts and some jurors have said they've changed their minds about his guilt. Others have claimed a man who was with Davis that night has told people he actually shot the officer.
"Such incredibly flawed eyewitness testimony should never be the basis for an execution," Marsh said. "To execute someone under these circumstances would be unconscionable."
State and federal courts, however, have repeatedly upheld Davis' conviction. One federal judge dismissed the evidence advanced by Davis' lawyers as "largely smoke and mirrors."
"He has had ample time to prove his innocence," said MacPhail's widow, Joan MacPhail-Harris. "And he is not innocent."
The last motion filed by Davis' attorneys in Butts County Court challenged testimony from two witnesses and disputed testimony from the expert who linked the shell casings to the earlier shooting involving Davis. Superior Court Judge Thomas Wilson and the Georgia Supreme Court rejected the appeal, and prosecutors said the filing was just a delay tactic.
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, which helped lead the charge to stop the execution, said it considered asking Obama to intervene, even though he cannot grant Davis clemency for a state conviction.
Press secretary Jay Carney issued a statement saying that although Obama "has worked to ensure accuracy and fairness in the criminal justice system," it was not appropriate for him "to weigh in on specific cases like this one, which is a state prosecution."
Dozens of protesters outside the White House called on the president to step in, and about 12 were arrested for disobeying police orders.
Davis was not the only U.S. inmate put to death Wednesday evening. In Texas, white supremacist gang member Lawrence Russell Brewer was put to death for the 1998 dragging death of a black man, James Byrd Jr., one of the most notorious hate crime murders in recent U.S. history.
Davis' best chance may have come last year, in a hearing ordered by the U.S. Supreme Court. It was the first time in 50 years that justices had considered a request to grant a new trial for a death row inmate.
The high court set a tough standard for Davis to exonerate himself, ruling that his attorneys must "clearly establish" Davis' innocence – a higher bar to meet than prosecutors having to prove guilt. After the hearing judge ruled in prosecutors' favor, the justices didn't take up the case.
The execution drew widespread criticism in Europe, where politicians and activists made last-minute pleas for a stay.
Spencer Lawton, the district attorney who secured Davis' conviction in 1991, said he was embarrassed for the judicial system – not because of the execution, but because it took so long to carry out.
"What we have had is a manufactured appearance of doubt which has taken on the quality of legitimate doubt itself. And all of it is exquisitely unfair," said Lawton, who retired as Chatham County's head prosecutor in 2008. "The good news is we live in a civilized society where questions like this are decided based on fact in open and transparent courts of law, and not on street corners."
Associated Press reporters Russ Bynum in Savannah, Kate Brumback and Marina Hutchinson in Jackson, Eric Tucker and Erica Werner in Washington and Sohrab Monemi in Paris contributed to this report.
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93 Comments so far
Show AllHere's the email I sent her:
Dear Ms. Freeseman,
I want to congratulate you for murdering a man tonight. Now you have the rare knowledge of what it feels like - something the rest of us decent people can't imagine.
You truly have become Troy Davis by murdering a man, yourself - if indeed he even murdered someone. Your murder however is not in question.
Are you sleeping well tonight? I hear lack of guilt defines sociopaths so you must be sleeping soundly.
It's disconcerting to know that you will go to work tomorrow and continue in your public service position - because you, mam, belong in prison with the rest of the murderers.
Let me alter a war quote for you:
Never think that killing someone - no matter how justified, is not a crime.
You have failed humanity tonight.
The wonderful thing is that by the outcry on internet I see that most of humanity is far above you, so there is hope for the human race yet.
Good night, you animal.
My name,
Seattle, WA
----------
Her email address:
pfreesemann@chathamcounty.org
You should include A copy for Clarence Thomas and his crimminal Cronies at the Supreme Court...
We should all remember to boycott Georgia, and all products from Georgia. Wikipedia has an entry for "List of Companies in Atlanta", including headquarters for Arby's, AT&T Mobility, CNN, Coca-Cola, Delta Air Lines, Hooters, InterContinental Hotels, NAPA Auto Parts, NCR, Rubbermaid,
Novelis, Popeye's, Sony Ericsson, and UPS. Spend your money elsewhere.
I think the real problem is the judge and the supreme court justices.
I Totally Agree...They failed once more...The only difference from the lynchings of the Old South and Jim Crow Law days was the method of murder...
And Home Depot. That Zionist pig Bernie Marcus deserves a double boycott.
I think it was a supreme Court justice who once said something to the effect that he couldn't articulate an exact definition of obscenity, but he knew it when he saw it.
The state-sponsored murder of Troy Davis is obscene.
Yes, obscene is a good word for it. When I saw it come across the news, I was shocked for a moment - because it is obscene. I thought it would have been stopped. Gotta wonder how those judges live with themselves.
Lawton: "The good news is we live in a civilized society"
No, that statement is quite untrue.
I zeroed in on that as well. The hypocrisy of this country knows know bounds. Murder is murder and because the state or society in general believes their justice is moral or deserved, that is the only difference between killing the killer. This country kills innocent people all the time and you can see the cheering and hooting/hollering in other places besides Georgia. Perry is cheered for overseeing 234 (5?) executions while in office. Letting people die from lack of health care is cheered. Executing Afghans, Iraqis and fill- in-the blank others by our hero troops is cheered. Dropping atom bombs, fire bombs and cluster bombs on civilian populations is cheered. Using robotic drones to kill without trial or oversight is cheered. Witch burning, lynching, settling the the country - all killing and most of it is cheered while they call themselves Christians. This country is no different than "civilized" Rome in the coliseum, cheering the death and slaughter of people and animals as it spreads death and slaughter around the known world. A very civilized society indeed.
Obama should have stepped in and pardoned Davis. That man Obama is such a disgrace to America! He lacks fortitude, character and courage. He is a joke.
Disgusting! Worse than Bush the younger.
Don't be too hard on the guy. After all, he was busy at the UN endorsing the Israeli occupation and genocide of the Palestinian people. That's more important and much more moral, of course.
Obama has far too much innocent blood on his hands to worry about the Lynching of another African American by a Southern State.
Disgusting. What a country the United States is. What a state Georgia is.
The execution murder of Troy Davis is nothing more than eye for an eye barbarism.
Oilbomber, anything but a man of courage, loyalty, justice, peace, or principle. An utterly morally corrupt individual. A Judas, indeed. Chris Hedges is right.
This land is frightening.
Incidentally, I know that our prez does not have the legal powers to stop the execution, but that is not the point.
Spencer Lawton, Chatham County's former prosecutor and the person who said he "has no doubt about Troy Davis' guilt", claims that justice is "decided based on fact in open and transparent courts of law, and not on street corners."
But he, and the three kill-him voters on the Parole Board, and the members of the Supreme Court, and the President, and the "people of Georgia" are guilty of unequivocal faith in the "judicial system" of America--a system that has utterly failed in innumerable circumstances.
Prosecutors tell stories about the circumstances of the crime that have no basis in factual evidence; judges command that juries not be told circumstances of the penalty phase nor the guilt phase of the cases before them. We all come to "see" the crime from the point of view of the story told by the prosecutor because it is told and retold innumerable times, so much so that the tellers begin to believe the story has more truth in it than anything else.
What does it take to have no doubt about Troy Davis' guilt? We are erring human beings all. We should be more humble about what we think we know "beyond a doubt" to be true.
A trite but accurate example is to recount the statement of witnesses and people involved in an automobile accident. Nearly every speaker has a different story--and the cameras that photographed the accident have only a single point of view. Who controls the story? What matter who speaks?
Our societal attitudes toward the homeless are a consequence of what we see and hear from the highest places. Who to blame for the group's mistreatment of the homeless man? The attempts by Officer MacPhail to help the homeless man seem heroic, but who is it who created _that_ story? Everybody wants to believe in Mr. Bush's bifurcation fallacy, that the bad guys are easily distinguishable from the good guys. But it is certainly wrong to indulge in that thinking which we know is prone to error.
Just because a man has a white hat (is a police officer) does not mean that he's the good guy, the hero, the moral upholder of the law. Troy Davis should still be breathing and thinking and speaking today. But so should Osama bin Laden and millions of others who used to be among us.
Lawton, who's apparently named for the Law, is wrong not to entertain doubts about Troy Davis' "guilt".
I am curious...are all of you who are outraged so because there is reasonable doubt in his guilt or because he was capitally executed irrespective of quilt or innocence? Where are all the "I am Lawrence Russell Brewer" expressions?
How about both? And rather than scorning everyone for not specifically mentioning Lawrence Russell Brewer or any of the other hundreds of death penalty victims the very morning after Troy Davis has been murdered, why not tell us about him?
I am also of the opinion that the execution of Mr. Brewer was a travesty, as was a member of Mr. Byrd's family. Although clearly, Mr. Brewer was not the sympathetic figure that Troy Davis was. To the extent that Mr. Brewer's guilt was not in doubt, I would be loath to proclaim, "I am Lawrence Brewer." Nevertheless, Mr. Brewer should have been able to live out his days in reflection and growth, his execution benefits no one.
Such knee-jerk reactions here based on personal hate (against Obama). How about think before you post? I personally believe there was plenty of reasonable doubt and that the death penalty is outrageous. But honestly, do you expect the POTUS, any POTUS whether it's Obama or Bush Jr, to weigh in on matters like this?
Can you imagine what the result would be? Utter legal gridlock. For every legal matter considered high-stakes, whether concerning individuals like Davis, or corporations (!!), every lawyer would then consider it ok to try to raise the matter all the way to the SCOTUS and POTUS. That would turn the office of POTUS into a legal office.
Nobody -- well, nobody with at least three functioning brain synapses -- EXPECTS Oblahblah to do anything besides serve the will of American's moneyed interests. That answer your question?
Totally non-thinking knee-jerk response. Did you even read what I wrote?
Yes. I wasn't much impressed, sorry. Especially because POTUS and SCOTUS have the unlimited ability to ignore requests, and nobody has proposed changing the system to force them to render judgments in all cases (battling straw men much, aren't we?).
Above all lets avoid legal gridlock! Don't change the system. So you kill a few potentially innocent people here and there. Who gives a shit? The important thing is to avoid legal gridlock!
Animus against Obama or Bush is well justified but it should not come at the expense of recognizing the systemic problems invovled. They could, if they wanted to, expose the BS that passes for governance.
Stop apologizing for the system.
Utter legal gridlock could have saved Troy Davis.
Anyway, O de-facto pardoned the Bush Crime Family ... for crimes they openly and brazenly confessed to, and are apparently proud of.
Why not pardon Troy Davis, or have his sentence commuted, for a crime that has plenty of reasonable doubt surrounding it? Surely the executive has the power to do that ... or the pull to make it happen ... if he cared.
POTUS SCOTUS SHMOTUS. Obama might have at least said something, even if he had no power to grant a stay or amnesty. His silence on the whole matter reveals an indifference to the fate of anyone but the super-rich that has become one of his hallmarks.
Confucius advised us to look within at our own faults whenever we encounter a man of lesser moral standing than our own.
I can think of two reasons Obama ignored Davis: 1) it was too much of a risk to his reelection campaign 2) it's just not the sort of thing that he's into, like wall street and wars and other things he makes his millions from.
It might not be the case with the typical rabid or racist, but Obama's flaw comes down to his worship of money. This might be a good opportunity to look at our own lives and see how much harm we are willing to inflict on others because of the same trait, whether we take a job we know to have negative effects on the environment or public health, or whether we can let our families go to ruin over an estate. Sorry if this doesn't seem relevant or hateful enough but every tragedy that's occurred lately makes me realize how insane we all are in general.
If that's the AP's headline, thanks for not mitigating the rhetoric. Part of the reason governments get away with all their crimes is that the media are afraid that calling a spade a spade seems biased.
All events are biased toward or against some social group, and the news can't avoid this. However, they can avoid being biased for or against the truth.
You know, I'm sure Mr. Obama gets numbed out to all the murder he oversees. And sometimes he even gets applauded for it. He oversees the murder of Troy Davis, Osama bid laden, Drone strike victims, families in Iraq, Afghanistan and the other countries we war on. The list goes on and on. The question is really what will it take to awaken his conscience--and ours?
Can't awaken a conscience that doesn't exist.
Linda, on www.bagnewsnotes.com, has a Great Idea: "Why not have an actual Reality TV show called "Who Wants to Date an INNOCENT Death Row Prisoner." The prize? Front row seats to the execution. Make it a nightly show so that voyeuristic America can get their daily bloodlust fed from the comfort of their own living rooms while hundreds of innocent men are strapped to tables where they are "humanely" executed via Lethal injection."
Hey Linda, what's a great idea! It would go a long way towards convincing the rest of the world that American Freedoms should rule the world!
Just think of the money that could be made, the volunteers who would step up to date the prisoner, the volunteers who would step up to be stage the crime so their name would become history. Best of all the economy and stock market would go up as America moves proudly forward!!!
First and foremost, this cowardice act by the Georgia courts remains an unspeakable and unforgivable tragedy. It was full blown murder which is why the next statement is laughable in the face of our dirty justice system: "Press secretary Jay Carney issued a statement saying that although Obama 'has worked to ensure accuracy and fairness in the criminal justice system,' it was not appropriate for him 'to weigh in on specific cases like this one, which is a state prosecution.'
What an abominable statement. President Obama has not worked to ensure justice prevails in this country. In fact, if anything, he is as complicit in the deterioration of our criminal justice system as the Bushes, the Cheneys, the Rumsfelds and the Supreme Court Justices. The fact that the former three are still walking free, and that Wall Street continues to loot Main Street, is the kind of evidence WORTH convicting. But as we all know, there are two justices in this country; one that protects the rich criminals and one that murders innocent people.
Barack "Mr. Appropriate" Obama thought little of blurting out, regarding the case of Bradley Manning, "He broke the law" before ANY verdict had been handed down. How "appropriate" was that for a constitutional law scholar?. I might guesss that Obama's "presidential" restraint in this case is purely politically motivated, afraid that batshit crazy Tea Party logicians would use his weigh-in on the case to fuel hate and bigotry by claiming that Obama intervened because Davis is Black, not because he cares about justice, as in "all them Blacks stick together" in their murderous hatred of white people. This makes it ever so clear that, black or white, if you are not wealthy and powerful, this brother does not have your back, except maybe to stick another knife in it . . .
As always, Obama is a coward except in his speeches.
I don't think he's so much a coward as he only has focus on a few key issues that he champions - like the rich not getting taken "advantage" of in a "class war".
White House Press secretary Jay Carney's statement that "It is not appropriate for the President of the United States to weigh in on specific cases like this one" is pure bullshit. Obama sure didn't have any problem "weighing in" on the case of Bradley Manning, pronouncing him "guilty" even though he has yet to be tried or convicted.
See: http://fdlaction.firedoglake.com/2011/04/22/obama-on-manning-he-broke-the-law-so-much-for-that-trial, and: http://www.forbes.com/sites/andygreenberg/2011/04/22/video-of-obama-on-bradley-manning-he-broke-the-law, and: http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2011/04/23/manning/index.html.
Honest John and poetic justice21
Your incisive comments are right on point.
Those fuckers don't even care if they got the right guy. They just want to see someone get killed. There is no justice.
Well, I beg to differ what Obama was silent while Troy Davis was murdered. He was asked to intervene and declined because he felt it was not proper for him to interfere. Of course, at the same time, he was at the UN condemning the Palestinians "unilateral" bid for statehood and cheering for Israel. That, of course, is not improper. We all know that while pleading on behalf of a man who may have been wrongfully convicted is clearly inappropriate cheering for a foreign colonialist and genocidal nation is not.