As you may recall, Davis awaits execution in Georgia for a crime of which he is almost certainly innocent. Davis was convicted and sentenced to death for the 1989 murder of Officer Mark MacPhail, an off-duty police officer. There is no physical evidence and no murder weapon has been found. The only evidence against Davis is the testimony of witnesses. Seven of the nine nonpolice witnesses have recanted or contradicted their trial testimony. Of the two witnesses that did not recant, oneis an alternative suspect.
During the last general election there was much discussion about the power of the executive branch. One great power that the executive branches of the federal government and most states have is the power to grant clemency.
The ability to examine a person's life and decide to grant him or her mercy is awesome. This ability is even more incredible in the capital punishment context. It gives the executive the chance to save a life. In 2003, Gov. George Ryan (R-Ill.) commuted the death sentences of all 167 death-row inmates and pardoned four men. He did so because he believed that the state's capital punishment system could no longer be trusted given the numerous exonerations and the documented cases of law enforcement misconduct.
Clemency can make things right when the complicated and convoluted procedures of the judicial system prevent justice from being done because, for example, a death-row inmate has missed a deadline. It can also make things right when a death-row inmate has shown that he has reformed and deserves the mercy of a life sentence without parole.
Late last week, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals rejectedTroy Davis’s petition for a hearing to prove his innocence. Although seven of the nine non-police witnesses against him have recanted or contradicted their trial testimony, that evidence will not be heard unless the United States Supreme Court decides differently. Troy Davis still has a 30-day stay of execution to file a petition with the Supreme Court.
Amnesty International recently released its annual report about capital punishment in the world, entitled Death Sentences and Executions in 2008 (PDF). While the report contains some reasons for concern, it shows that the world is continuing to reject the death penalty.
So you've heard the cliché: "Today is the first day of the rest of your life." Well, for New Mexico, today is the first day the criminal justice system will value life. Last night Gov. Bill Richardson signed a bill that repealed the death penalty and replaced it with the sentence of life without parole. (The bill does not commute the sentences of the two people on death row or stop the state from seeking death for people who had already been charged with a capital crime.)
If a scientist were to testify that he saw a person commit a crime because he went to the scene in the Way Back Machine with Peabody and his pet boy Sherman, everyone would know it was untrue. Unfortunately, innocent people have been convicted of crimes based on science just as unbelievable as the Way Back Machine. Junk science and incompetent forensic technicians are at least two reasons that people are charged and convicted of crimes they did not commit.
Editor's Note: Jurist asked Christopher Hill, State Strategies Coordinator for the ACLU's Capital Punishment Project, to comment on Italy's recent abolition of the death penalty. The following is his response.
Italy's decision on March 3 to completely abolish capital punishment is yet more proof that the world is moving away from this ineffective and unjust system. There has not been an execution by a member of the Council of Europe in over 10 years, and 41 out of the 47 members of the Council of Europe have ratified Protocol No. 13 (PDF) to the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, which outlaws the use of the death penalty. Like many nations of the world, these 41 European nations recognize that the death penalty is a violation of human rights.
This state legislative session has seen a flurry of activity regarding capital punishment. There has been plenty of reason for hope, but also some disappointment for death penalty opponents.
We'll start with the bad news: Alaska has proposed to reinstate its death penalty, which it abolished in 1958. Anti-death penalty groups are rightly stating that the risks of an innocent person being sentenced to death are high, as is the cost for the capital punishment system.
One of the greatest rappers of all-time, Rakim said: "it ain't where you're from/it's where you're at." This statement is magnified when discussing capital punishment. Article 2 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) states that "[e] veryone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration…no distinction shall be made on the basis of the …jurisdictional …territory to which a person belongs…"
In July 2008, the ACLU's Capital Punishment Project Director John Holdridge was interviewed on Pacifica Radio about the California Commission on the Fair Administration of Justice report on the death penalty. John was interviewed with Bill Babbitt(PDF), whose brother Manny was executed by California in 1999.
They discussed how the death penalty in California is broken. There was also a discussion about the problems throughout the rest of the country.
