INTENSITY²
Politics, Mature and taboo => Political Pundits => Topic started by: skyblue1 on September 20, 2011, 04:55:26 PM
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Troy Davis' Execution Eve Sees Last-Minute Efforts To Save His Life
Early this morning, Martina Davis-Correia, her two sisters and her son drove out to the prison in Jackson, Georgia, where her brother, Troy Davis, is set to be executed tomorrow evening.
Word came down from the state pardon board today that Davis, on death row for the 1989 murder of a police officer, would not be pardoned. While the Davis family prepared for the end of what has been a decades-long fight to prove Davis' innocence, another family rejoiced.
"That's what we wanted, and that's what we got," Anneliese MacPhail, the victim's mother, told the Associated Press. "We wanted to get it over with, and for him to get his punishment."
"Justice was finally served for my father," said Mark MacPhail Jr., the son of the dead officer, Mark MacPhail.
But for Troy Davis' family and his supporters, the looming finality of the board's decision to carry out his execution, sent a very different message.
"It is bigger than Troy. It really reflects the attitude of a country and a state that still sees black life as meaningless," said Edward DuBose, president of the Georgia State Conference of the N.A.A.C.P. "That is the only conclusion that you could come away with from the decision made by the parole board."
DuBose and others spent time with the Davis family last night, all hoping that some miracle would come through, or that the board would take another opportunity to review evidence the family claims could vindicate Davis. DuBose said that Davis-Correia and her family set off early this morning for the prison, well before the decision had been made.
"They are hanging on," DuBose said. "But clearly they are emotionally shocked."
Meanwhile, as the state moves closer to Davis' execution, there are still groups fighting to save his life, albeit against improbable odds.
“We’re going to fight to the very end,” said Rashad Robinson, executive director of ColorOfChange.org, a web-based grassroots organization that rallies behind causes that affect African Americans. “Not doing anything isn’t going to get us any type of movement. The only way we are going to have some sort to success is to continue to press forward. The fact that Troy Davis hasn’t already been executed in the state of Georgia is a testament to the activists that have already spoken out and the lawyers and organizations that haven’t given up.”
Robinson said that ColorOfChange and other organizations, including Amnesty International and the N.A.A.C.P "will continue to fight this decision and tell Troy's story as long as we can," in spite of the board's decision.
"It is unimaginable how they could have come to this decision in the face of all the evidence which indicates that Troy Davis didn't commit the crime of which he was accused," he said.
Robinson said that more than 100,000 ColorOfChange members "clearly and strongly said that killing a man who may be innocent is not justice" and that the group intended to ask the board to reconsider.
The N.A.A.C.P said it would consider asking President Barack Obama to intervene, though he has no jurisdiction in the state's decision.
The Rev. Al Sharpton is planning to hold a vigil in Jackson on Wednesday.
"t is incredibly ironic and tragic that this is happening while our first black president is sitting in the White House," said Kevin Powell, an author and activist in a blog on The Huffington Post:
We, America, like to pat ourselves on the back and say job well done whenever there is a shred of racial or social progress in our fair nation. But then we habitually figure out ways to take one, two, several steps back, with this Troy Davis execution, with the rise of the Tea Party and its thinly-veiled racial paranoia politics, to push America right back to the good old says of segregation, Jim Crow, brute hatred of those who are different, while social inequalities run rampant like rats in the night.
Davis, convicted of the 1989 killing of an off-duty Savannah police officer, has steadfastly maintained his innocence. In the decades since his conviction, his case has gained the support of former President Jimmy Carter, former U.S. Rep. Bob Barr, one-time FBI Director William Sessions, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and even Pope Benedict XVI, among others.
Earlier this year the U.S. Supreme Court turned down what likely was Davis' last set of appeals. In 2009, Davis, by filing an original writ of habeas corpus to the Supreme Court, convinced the justices to order a federal court in Georgia to review new evidence that Davis said would establish his innocence. By then, according to reports, several of the witnesses had recanted their earlier testimony that Davis had gunned down officer MacPhail in a Burger King parking lot that night 20 years earlier.
The new hearing in June of 2010 gave Davis a chance to present his new evidence in his defense. He chose not to take the stand or call on witnesses who had given statements on his behalf. The trial judge concluded that Davis' evidence was "largely smoke and mirrors," according to a New York Times article from earlier this year. The Supreme Court refused to review Moore's ruling.
"I wanted to believe that we had abandoned the Old South, but the decision by the parole board not only reflects that we have not abandoned the Old South, but we have not even left the days of Jim Crow," said DuBose, who at 53 said he can recall the last days of cradle-to-grave segregation in Georgia.
"I think it's a message that they said during Jim Crow: Stay in your place. It is a message to every African American, whether you are guilty or innocent, that there is a place for you and you need to stay in it."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/20...72291.html (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/20...72291.html)
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:'( Poor widdle murderer.
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America isn't murdering anyone. The federal government hasn't executed anyone in 20+ years. This is Georgia, a state within the US and not defined as "America".
States rights, and all that. Right Skyblue?
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The Supreme Court could halt all executions
The whole point of the thread:
This may be an innocent man
If you were in his place and were innocent
Well........
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The Supreme Court could halt all executions
The USA could also end all wars and ensure global peace by launching it's entire nuclear arsenal and any set of random targets. :dunno:
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America is murdering a lot of people. I just read a list of people executed in 2011 and it is like 20 people long. Here it is. http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/execution-list-2011 (http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/execution-list-2011)
you can say it is a state doing it but I think that is semantics.
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America is murdering a lot of people. I just read a list of people executed in 2011 and it is like 20 people long. Here it is. http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/execution-list-2011 (http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/execution-list-2011)
Texas and Georgia killed a lot of Americans. America only killed a bunch of Arabs this year.
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America isn't murdering anyone. The federal government hasn't executed anyone in 20+ years. This is Georgia, a state within the US and not defined as "America".
States rights, and all that. Right Skyblue?
the feds executed Timothy McVeigh in June 2001
and I told your dumbass I wasnt alive in the 1800`s, get that through your head. or is that peanut butter in there
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America isn't murdering anyone. The federal government hasn't executed anyone in 20+ years. This is Georgia, a state within the US and not defined as "America".
States rights, and all that. Right Skyblue?
the feds executed Timothy McVeigh in June 2001
and I told your dumbass I wasnt alive in the 1800`s, get that through your head. or is that peanut butter in there
You are right. There have been 3 since 1963. Still doesn't change the argument. "America" is not killing poor Troy.
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The Supreme Court could halt all executions
The USA could also end all wars and ensure global peace by launching it's entire nuclear arsenal and any set of random targets. :dunno:
I vote for your house
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and before you get pissed ...I jest
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I don't think I ever accused you of being alive in the 1800's. You were arguing that southern states had the right to declare war over "state's rights" and that the civil war wasn't about slavery. I don't see how you mesh that opinion with your current opinion that the federal government should stop the southern states from having the death penalty.
This man had due process and years of trials and appeals. He has had every possible chance to prove his innocence. I don't see you on here crying about the 30 civilians we dropped a bomb on in Afghanistan last week, or the tens of thousands we killed in Iraq. Why does this particular case get your dander up? Or is it just a convenient edgy topic?
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and before you get pissed ...I jest
I don't get pissed :)
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I don't think I ever accused you of being alive in the 1800's. You were arguing that southern states had the right to declare war over "state's rights" and that the civil war wasn't about slavery. I don't see how you mesh that opinion with your current opinion that the federal government should stop the southern states from having the death penalty.
This man had due process and years of trials and appeals. He has had every possible chance to prove his innocence. I don't see you on here crying about the 30 civilians we dropped a bomb on in Afghanistan last week, or the tens of thousands we killed in Iraq. Why does this particular case get your dander up? Or is it just a convenient edgy topic?
it is a convenient edgy topic
as far as the first paragraph goes . I wasnt arguing. I stated the history of the south at that time. (southern version).
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Killing a POS like Davis isn't murder IMO. Sucks to be him.
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Why is this news? There's always a bunch of bleeding hearts pleading to the legal system to not punish a criminal. :wanker:
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Why is this news? There's always a bunch of bleeding hearts pleading to the legal system to not punish a criminal. :wanker:
I agree. The only reason that some cases make mention news and others dont is sensationalism. Im just glad I dont have to hear the name "lacy peterson" anymore. i cant tell you if I agree or disagree with the death penalty, what I really believe doesnt really exist in those terms. I do think that states really ARE individual when it comes to crime and I dont see anything united about those states. But I can see how it is also "america" as a whole with the problem.
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There is a lot of kinda iffy things in this case which heavily relies on eye witness testimony. Which raises a lot of questions http://www.slate.com/id/2304221/ (http://www.slate.com/id/2304221/)
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The Supreme Court could halt all executions
They did in 1972. See Furman versus Georgia. Poor little innocent Kenneth McDuff was taken off of death row as a direct result (along with Charles Manson and a bunch of other scum) of Furman versus Georgia. As a direct result of another lawsuit involving prison over crowding McDuff was released. Upon release he begin murdering people again. Who would of figured? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenneth_McDuff (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenneth_McDuff)
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Don't agree with the death penalty, but this article doesn't really seem to be about that. The racial statments are so loud in this article they can't even be called overtones.
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Here is another it seems many think it's a poor decision to go ahead with this due to doubts of his guilt because of inconsistencies and recantations of witness testimony
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/15/troy-davis-execution-william-sessions_n_963366.html (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/15/troy-davis-execution-william-sessions_n_963366.html)
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The fuck does his race have to do with anything?
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I have been hearing about this all day courtesy of the local news.
I will say this regarding the death penalty: Before you answer any question about the death penalty, you have to answer this with a simple yes or no: Is it OK to kill another human being?
Another observation about the death penalty: The various Judiciaries in the US that use capital punishment are showing its wrong to kill people, by killing people.
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I have been hearing about this all day courtesy of the local news.
I will say this regarding the death penalty: Before you answer any question about the death penalty, you have to answer this with a simple yes or no: Is it OK to kill another human being?
Yes, there are circumstances where it is okay.
Another observation about the death penalty: The various Judiciaries in the US that use capital punishment are showing its wrong to kill people, by killing people.
That is a premise that you accept. I do not accept that premise. I am quite comfortable discerning a huge qualitative difference between Richard Allen Davis http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Allen_Davis (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Allen_Davis) and Polly Klaas http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polly_Klaas (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polly_Klaas). Can you discern such a difference? Will you attempt to argue that both of their lives are of equal value? I know which one I would have preferred as a neighbor.
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I have been hearing about this all day courtesy of the local news.
I will say this regarding the death penalty: Before you answer any question about the death penalty, you have to answer this with a simple yes or no: Is it OK to kill another human being?
Yes, there are circumstances where it is okay.
Another observation about the death penalty: The various Judiciaries in the US that use capital punishment are showing its wrong to kill people, by killing people.
That is a premise that you accept. I do not accept that premise. I am quite comfortable discerning a huge qualitative difference between Richard Allen Davis http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Allen_Davis (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Allen_Davis) and Polly Klaas http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polly_Klaas (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polly_Klaas). Can you discern such a difference? Will you attempt to argue that both of their lives are of equal value? I know which one I would have preferred as a neighbor.
Yes there is a difference, I will not deny that. One was an innocent child that had her life taken from her, and the other is a criminal that violated the laws of an orderly society. OK, with that being said, I still oppose capital punishment, because there are a lot of better alternatives. I will come clean, i'm a proponent of torture. What would be better for Richard Davis, a painless death by Lethal Injection, or a Folsom Corrections Officer taking his ASP and beating the asshole within an inch of his life on a regular basis?
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I have been hearing about this all day courtesy of the local news.
I will say this regarding the death penalty: Before you answer any question about the death penalty, you have to answer this with a simple yes or no: Is it OK to kill another human being?
Another observation about the death penalty: The various Judiciaries in the US that use capital punishment are showing its wrong to kill people, by killing people.
What's right or wrong are abstract and for the individual. Oppose the death penalty but that's my view and if the officer's family have a sense of closure and justice from this man's death, that might be more important than what I might think about it. It's a tough and touchy subject.
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I have been hearing about this all day courtesy of the local news.
I will say this regarding the death penalty: Before you answer any question about the death penalty, you have to answer this with a simple yes or no: Is it OK to kill another human being?
Yes, there are circumstances where it is okay.
Another observation about the death penalty: The various Judiciaries in the US that use capital punishment are showing its wrong to kill people, by killing people.
That is a premise that you accept. I do not accept that premise. I am quite comfortable discerning a huge qualitative difference between Richard Allen Davis http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Allen_Davis (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Allen_Davis) and Polly Klaas http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polly_Klaas (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polly_Klaas). Can you discern such a difference? Will you attempt to argue that both of their lives are of equal value? I know which one I would have preferred as a neighbor.
The only issue I have with the death penalty is a philosophical one. By allowing the State to execute criminals, we have given them power to decide if citizens live or die. That is not a power I'm comfortable giving to the state.
I''m certianly not opposed to the guilty getting their just desserts.
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Yes there is a difference, I will not deny that. One was an innocent child that had her life taken from her, and the other is a criminal that violated the laws of an orderly society. OK, with that being said, I still oppose capital punishment, because there are a lot of better alternatives. I will come clean, i'm a proponent of torture. What would be better for Richard Davis, a painless death by Lethal Injection, or a Folsom Corrections Officer taking his ASP and beating the asshole within an inch of his life on a regular basis?
I see the death penalty not as a punishment, more removing an unwanted element from society. They forfeited their basic human rights when they committed inhumane acts.
The only issue I have with the death penalty is a philosophical one. By allowing the State to execute criminals, we have given them power to decide if citizens live or die. That is not a power I'm comfortable giving to the state.
Technically, the State isn't deciding, the people are, with a jury.
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I see the death penalty not as a punishment, more removing an unwanted element from society. They forfeited their basic human rights when they committed inhumane acts.
Same here. It's not about punishing criminals. It's about protecting society from such people.
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penal colony on the moon would be nice
wall street is already full of criminals, no room there.
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The only issue I have with the death penalty is a philosophical one. By allowing the State to execute criminals, we have given them power to decide if citizens live or die. That is not a power I'm comfortable giving to the state.
Technically, the State isn't deciding, the people are, with a jury.
No, the jury are just doing what they're told. They're just a proxy so the state can distance itself from killing and claim that it's following the will of the people. It's the State that has the power of life or death over it's citizens, which I find troubling.
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The only issue I have with the death penalty is a philosophical one. By allowing the State to execute criminals, we have given them power to decide if citizens live or die. That is not a power I'm comfortable giving to the state.
Technically, the State isn't deciding, the people are, with a jury.
No, the jury are just doing what they're told. They're just a proxy so the state can distance itself from killing and claim that it's following the will of the people. It's the State that has the power of life or death over it's citizens, which I find troubling.
Told by who? How many juries have you served on? I have been on two, in one case we had convictions on all but one felony count and the guy received a sentence of 22 years 4 months. In the other case it was an across the board acquittal. In neither case were we told how to vote! You would know that if you had actually been there.
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Can't understand why in that article why they are focusing so much on the colour of the guy's skin? They should be focusing on whether or not he actually committed the crime. Who cares what colour he is?
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Can't understand why in that article why they are focusing so much on the colour of the guy's skin? They should be focusing on whether or not he actually committed the crime. Who cares what colour he is?
It's the same shit that was done with scumbag Tookie Williams. Saying "Look he wrote a children's book" to try and distance him from the 4 murders he committed. He wasn't executed for writing a children's book and neither was Dr Seuss. Tookie was executed for committing 4 murders in two separate robberies.
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I realize that Troy Davis was convicted, but in this case, the eyewitness testimony does look shaky to me. Apparently the police sort of coerced some of the eyewitnesses' ID.
The Troy Davis case was staged—pure theater. I do not mean "staged" because the case has attracted worldwide attention and high-profile supporters. Nor do I refer here to the drama surrounding the Georgia Board of Pardons, which at the 11th hour denied clemency again this morning, so that Davis faces execution tomorrow—despite powerful evidence of his innocence. By "staged" I mean that the eyewitness evidence at the core of his original criminal trial was, quite literally, staged by the police.
The federal court that finally reviewed evidence of Davis' innocence agreed "this case centers on eyewitness testimony." Yet that court put to one side the fact that seven of the nine witnesses at the trial have now recanted, and new witnesses have implicated another man. The court did so while failing to carefully examine how eyewitnesses ultimately came to identify Davis as the man who shot a police officer intervening in a fight at a Burger King parking lot. The Troy Davis case—which raises a wide array of flaws in our death penalty system, our post-conviction system, and the politics of criminal justice—is thus also a case about malleability of eyewitness memory and police misconduct.
I still remember the motorcycle accident my husband and I witnessed and then were accused of causing, probably by the man who actually caused it, but the sheriff seemed to totally believe him and didn't even want to listen to my husband and me. We're just lucky that the accident victim didn't mistakenly identify us too.
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Troy Davis was executed.
Here were his final words:
"I'd like to address the MacPhail family. Let you know, despite the situation you are in, I'm not the one who personally killed your son, your father, your brother. I am innocent.
The incident that happened that night is not my fault. I did not have a gun. All I can ask ... is that you look deeper into this case so that you really can finally see the truth.
I ask my family and friends to continue to fight this fight.
For those about to take my life, God have mercy on your souls. And may God bless your souls."
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Troy Davis was executed.
Here were his final words:
"I'd like to address the MacPhail family. Let you know, despite the situation you are in, I'm not the one who personally killed your son, your father, your brother. I am innocent.
The incident that happened that night is not my fault. I did not have a gun. All I can ask ... is that you look deeper into this case so that you really can finally see the truth.
I ask my family and friends to continue to fight this fight.
For those about to take my life, God have mercy on your souls. And may God bless your souls."
I think the key is whether or not he stressed on the words "not". Experts say that when lying and denying an accusation made against you, you tend to stress the word "not" instead of using contractions like "didn't" and "isn't" or at least saying "not" normally.
Of course, this isn't to say that he must therefore definitely been a liar or innocent, but it can be a good indicator.
Also, he never really attempts to give his side of the story here and state what really happened. But then again that could be because he was already on the verge of death anyway so no time or motivation.
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Yeah, "I am not the one who personally killed your son" is an interesting qualifier to use. But hey, it is not like a person on death row would have an incentive to lie. Would they?
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Yeah, "I am not the one who personally killed your son" is an interesting qualifier to use. But hey, it is not like a person on death row would have an incentive to lie. Would they?
Depends on the person. He might have wanted his family and his supporters to keep believing that he was innocent even after his execution for pure narcissistic purposes, or he might have hoped that there'd be a sudden change of heart right at the last minute and have him released.
That, or he really may have been innocent this whole time. Never really bothered to follow this case much.
But one thing's for sure. The human mind is very unpredictable.
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And in other instances, the human mind is very predictable.
Despite him being DEAD, the mass media will keep on stroking this cock long after it has gone flaccid, as usual. :wanker:
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believe it is already off the news
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Don't think that the cretins of the mass media will NOT find an excuse to mention the case again in the near future, just for ratings.
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Don't think that the cretins of the mass media will NOT find an excuse to mention the case again in the near future, just for ratings.
Like they have been doing with Ted Bundy all these years. Despicable.