fisharmor
09-21-2011, 04:31 PM
http://www.gpb.org/news/2011/09/21/final-hours-for-troy-davis
ATLANTA —
There are just hours to go before Georgia executes death row inmate Troy Davis. Protesters continue a vigil outside the prison in Jackson, but a last-minute reprieve appears increasingly unlikely. The Supreme Court of Georgia unanimously denied a stay of execution for him late Wednesday afternoon.
Davis will be executed at 7 p.m. The case has become a global sensation. But despite calls for clemency from international leaders including the Pope and former president Jimmy Carter, Davis has likely exhausted all avenues of appeal.
Gov. Nathan Deal doesn’t have the power to grant clemency to death row prisoners so he has no say in halting the execution. Indeed, states rarely grant clemency anyway.
Georgia is one of five states whose governors don’t have the authority to commute sentences. Instead, the state’s Board of Pardons and Paroles has had the final word since 1943. It denied Davis's plea for clemency on Tuesday.
Davis was convicted of killing off-duty police officer Mark MacPhail in 1989. MacPhail was working as a security guard when he was shot to death.
Experts say governors and parole boards in many states are issuing far fewer clemencies than in previous years.
Donald E. Wilkes Jr. is a law professor at the University of Georgia. He says that’s partly because retired police and prosecutors often sit on parole boards.
“They’re stacked with people who are part of the law enforcement establishment and feel sort of a vested interest to uphold the other parts of the law enforcement system,” he said in an interview.
Wilkes says parole boards were once staffed with ordinary citizens in part because they are meant to act as a check on the power of law enforcement agencies. And he says Georgia's parole board said in 2007 it wouldn’t execute an inmate unless the guilt was certain.
“It may be probable, it may be likely but it’s not certain," Wilkes said. "But this time, they denied clemency and they didn’t say anything about whether guilt was certain or not.”
Clemencies have declined and so have death sentences. Richard Dieter of the Death Penalty Information Center in Washington says death sentences have declined 60 percent in the last decade. And because of that, he says it’s less likely a court today would have sentenced Davis to death if he had been granted a new trial.
Seven of the nine witnesses who testified against Davis at his 1991 trial have recanted their testimony. Wilkes of UGA says that's not the only significant problem with the case. He says Davis has not had competent counsel. At a hearing as part of the appeal, his lawyers could have called to testify Sylvester Coles. He's the man some people say is the real killer. But the lawyers failed to subpoena him.
"In my 40 years as a law professor, that's the biggest blunder I've ever seen, and at the time, I said, 'This could be a fatal mistake'," he said.
The state is scheduled to execute Davis Wednesday evening. This is Davis' fourth execution order.
ATLANTA —
There are just hours to go before Georgia executes death row inmate Troy Davis. Protesters continue a vigil outside the prison in Jackson, but a last-minute reprieve appears increasingly unlikely. The Supreme Court of Georgia unanimously denied a stay of execution for him late Wednesday afternoon.
Davis will be executed at 7 p.m. The case has become a global sensation. But despite calls for clemency from international leaders including the Pope and former president Jimmy Carter, Davis has likely exhausted all avenues of appeal.
Gov. Nathan Deal doesn’t have the power to grant clemency to death row prisoners so he has no say in halting the execution. Indeed, states rarely grant clemency anyway.
Georgia is one of five states whose governors don’t have the authority to commute sentences. Instead, the state’s Board of Pardons and Paroles has had the final word since 1943. It denied Davis's plea for clemency on Tuesday.
Davis was convicted of killing off-duty police officer Mark MacPhail in 1989. MacPhail was working as a security guard when he was shot to death.
Experts say governors and parole boards in many states are issuing far fewer clemencies than in previous years.
Donald E. Wilkes Jr. is a law professor at the University of Georgia. He says that’s partly because retired police and prosecutors often sit on parole boards.
“They’re stacked with people who are part of the law enforcement establishment and feel sort of a vested interest to uphold the other parts of the law enforcement system,” he said in an interview.
Wilkes says parole boards were once staffed with ordinary citizens in part because they are meant to act as a check on the power of law enforcement agencies. And he says Georgia's parole board said in 2007 it wouldn’t execute an inmate unless the guilt was certain.
“It may be probable, it may be likely but it’s not certain," Wilkes said. "But this time, they denied clemency and they didn’t say anything about whether guilt was certain or not.”
Clemencies have declined and so have death sentences. Richard Dieter of the Death Penalty Information Center in Washington says death sentences have declined 60 percent in the last decade. And because of that, he says it’s less likely a court today would have sentenced Davis to death if he had been granted a new trial.
Seven of the nine witnesses who testified against Davis at his 1991 trial have recanted their testimony. Wilkes of UGA says that's not the only significant problem with the case. He says Davis has not had competent counsel. At a hearing as part of the appeal, his lawyers could have called to testify Sylvester Coles. He's the man some people say is the real killer. But the lawyers failed to subpoena him.
"In my 40 years as a law professor, that's the biggest blunder I've ever seen, and at the time, I said, 'This could be a fatal mistake'," he said.
The state is scheduled to execute Davis Wednesday evening. This is Davis' fourth execution order.