Time Magizine’s David Von Drehle sheds some much-needed light on the Troy Davis story. Von Drehle projects a world-weary and slightly cynical view of the legal world. You don’t get the impression that he would shed a tear if Davis met his death at the hands of a Georgia executioner. Consider this, for instance:
Like most death-penalty cases, this story is maddening and convoluted. Davis was convicted in 1991 of a tawdry and pathetic 1989 murder. On a hot Savannah night almost exactly 20 years ago, Davis and two acquaintances were hassling a homeless man at a Burger King parking lot next to the bus station. They wanted his beer, and one of the bullies — either Davis or a fellow known as Red Coles — clubbed the victim with a handgun. As it happened, an off-duty police officer, Mark MacPhail, was providing security at the restaurant. When he came running to the scene, the man with the gun shot the officer to death.
Coles pointed the finger at Davis; Davis pointed the finger back at Coles. The state of Georgia had to side with one story and provide witnesses to back it up.
Investigators built a case from the available materials: ambiguous ballistics, jailhouse snitches, witnesses with grudges and the often unreliable observations of the sort of folks who need a burger at 1 a.m. The amalgam was enough to persuade 12 jurors that Davis was guilty, and because the dead man wore a badge, the sentence was death.
Nobody was really sure about anything in this case, but a police officer was dead and somebody had to pay the price. Then, one by one, the trial witnesses started recanting their original stories. Witness recantation isn’t unusual, especially when the state twists arms and brokers sweetheart deals to get people singing in harmony with the official story. But you rarely see the kind of recantation avalanche that has transformed the Coles case into a cause celebre.
How does the state of Georgia respond? Thanks to strict new federal laws they didn’t have to. Five years after the McPhail killing, “Congress, exasperated by the seemingly endless nature of death-penalty appeals, passed a law intended to speed the death-row journeys of prisoners like Davis. Optimistically called the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act (AEDPA), the new law attempted to limit death-row prisoners to one set of appeals in federal court.”
The practical result of AEDPA was that you get one bite ofthe federal apple. Which is why Judge Antonin Scalia can’t understand why his judicial colleagues decided to send the Davis case back to a federal district court. Davis already had one apple bite and AEDPA rules out bite number two. Scalia isn’t arguing that Davis is guilty; he’s saying that, innocent or not, federal law has deprived Troy Davis of further appeals and that means the State of Georgia has the right to execute Troy Davis at a time of its choosing. It may be immoral or unethical to execute an innocent man; but it’s perfectly legal.
Legal and constitutional. There is nothing in the US Constitution barring the states from executing innocent people if that is their desire.
If you believe that Troy Davis deserves a federal evididentiary hearing you are declaring AEDPA null and void. Even if the hearing finds the evidence for evidence to be compelling, Scalia asserts, there are no legal provisions for doing anything about it. That’s why he calls the hearing “a fool’s errand”.
Here’s the conclusion of the Time piece:
The court’s August eruption highlights once again the fundamental screwiness of America’s death penalty. In the marble halls of our rational humanity, we demand absolute clarity and justice. As one of the many judges who has reviewed Davis’ case puts it, “I do not believe that any member of a civilized society could disagree that executing an innocent person would be an atrocious violation of our Constitution and the principles upon which it is based.”
But most murders don’t happen in the precincts of the rational or the just. They happen on the late-night mean streets, where truth is often a figment, and memory is as slippery as the greasy pavement.
In other words, we frequently send people to death row on the basis of hopelessly muddled facts. Nothing is nailed down. Nothing is certain. But a police officer is dead and somebody has to pay. Then we pass a law (AEDPA) restricting Davis’s right, even after a recantation avalanche, to take his innocence argument to the federal level.
The Supreme Court’s decision in the Davis case is just one more indication that AEDPA went way too far and needs to be revised.
Friends of Justice 
Re: State of Georgia vs. Troy Davis
TO: Speaker of The House Of Representatives of The United States Of America; United Staest Senate; Preisdent Of the UUnited Staes of America
Dear Ms. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Speaker;
U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV);
U.S. Senator Diane Fienstien, D-Ca;
U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer, D-CA;
President Barack H. Obama
As a citizen of the U.S.A., a resident of the State of CA., a person of faith, a believer in justice, a registered voter (life-long Democrat), I respectfully request that you immediately introduce in the Congress of the United States legislation amending or repealing a Federal statute known by the acronym of AEDPA, which limits death-row Federal Appeals to a single round of appeals. This abomination of a “rational law” disrespects and denies the civil rights of any person convicted of a capital offense, where there are clear and convincing errors of evidentiary procedure; a denial of a defendant’s right to a trial by a “jury of one’s peers”; or punitive prosecution arising from racial or other unconstitutional basis. I further submit to you, our esteemed elected public servants that to knowingly, indifferently or capriciously allow any State or jurisdiction under control of the Constitution of the United States of America to execute any person whose guilt has been unfairly recorded or whose innocence could be reasonably established through a re-trial, in a different venue, where racial bias is less probable, is immoral, unjsut and intolerable. I further ask that in the above-referenced case, a stay of execution be issued to the Stae of Georgia by the President, until such time as the afore-mentioned Federal Statute can be re-examined by the Congress of The United States of America.
Since the inception of this republic, African-American, people in poverty, and various other “expendable” or “undesirable” persons have historically and categorically denied true due process and “equal treatment under the law”. For this nation to have articulated the noblest aspirations of humankind as its foundational reasons for existence and then to institutionally, repeatedly, and shamelessly mis-applied them to various residents and citizens unequally is to call into question the legitmacy and the validity of this nation, its governments and its system of jurisprudence. On behalf of future generations who will judge us, on behalf of the hundereds of falsely convicted persons in the past and on-going, I beg you to give serious and righteouus examination of my humble request. If you value this nation and its people ; if you value truth and justice; if you are truly men and women of conscience and real leadership, you cannot ignore my plea on behalf of a man I do not know, but whose plight could become mine or that of my friends , family or neighbors. Such an action will indeed unravel all that you claim , collectively, to have aspired to do. There can be no justice without mercy, nor peace without compassion. Please choose wisely, for we the people have placed our collective faith and hope in you…do not fail us now.
Respectfully yours,
David S. Sims, Sr,
Elk Grove , CA, USA
Peace be upon you,
Thank U for keeping us informed.I had been following Troy Davis case through Amnesty,Intl and taking action there.
Can you explain or elaborate on the statement
“There is nothing in the US Constitution barring the states from executing innocent people if that is their desire.”
Are you saying this because AEDPA was passed as a law? or what ?
Does this mean – The Constitution doesnot uphold ethical,moral, civil or equal rights?
I know historically and even now humanrights have been/ are being violated ,so is there no written statements (even if not being upheld) to protect us?
Is this why the criminal justice system is in such horrible shape?
Its’ amazing to me to witness the Fear that is continuously played out through unjust laws, trials, actions, and behaviors of people who claim they want a democratic society that establish ideals expressed in the Preamble of the US Constitution. (It has been so long since I read the US Constitution, maybe …’establish justice,…and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity… was amended and no longer apply to us as citizens??)
I’m hopeful that as more citizens recognize they can make a difference , the demand for changes of laws and rules will succesfully repair the broken criminal justice system for ALL humanbeings
Thank U for sharing this well spoken letter to President Obama and the other gov’t. officials. I will write a letter to them also.
Peace