The execution of Troy Davis in Georgia was apparently carried out under a unique evidentiary standard. Instead of "beyond a reasonable doubt," as is used in most criminal prosecutions, or "probable cause," which is used in civil trials, the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles used an oft-cited standard in their part of the country: "we know a black man did it, this man is black, so close enough."
The Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles voted 3-2 (does it strike anyone else as barbaric that the clemency board vote doesn't have to be unanimous?) to deny Davis's clemency petition despite the fact that the ballistics evidence presented at his trial was later determined to be faulty, that seven of the nine witnesses who identified Davis at his trial as the shooter had recanted their testimony, that one of the two remaining witnesses who did not recant is suspected of being the real shooter (and had made admissions about being so), and the other remaining non-recanting witness had been up for 24 straight hours at the time he observed the shooting, saying that night that he would not recognize the shooter if he saw him again. In short, this kind of evidence would result in a quick "not guilty" verdict in any functioning justice system, yet in ours it resulted in a guilty verdict, the denial of all clemency petitions, and, as of September 21, the government injecting a lethal dose of Pentobarbital into the veins of one of its citizens.
Interestingly, the same clemency board that denied Davis's petition granted that of another man, who admitted that in 1988 he killed his former boss, a store manager at a lumber company in Douglas County, Georgia, by shooting him three times, beating him with a crowbar and, noticing signs of life persisting, finishing him off with a full paint can. This admitted killer, Samuel David Crowe, is white. The Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles cited the fact that Crowe admitted his crime as one of the reasons for sparing him the death penalty and commuting his sentence to life in prison.
Troy Davis maintained his innocence until his moment of death, in fact reiterating his innocence to the family of the murder victim who, quite tellingly, chose to be present at the execution.
Now that three of the five members of the Georgia clemency board and the family of the murder victim finally have their feeling of sweet revenge, we propose to honor Troy Davis with some new guidelines, called "Troy's Law," which will prevent such glaringly unjust results in our severely broken criminal justice system:
No person shall be executed in any of the following circumstances:
1. If they were convicted in a state that was a member of the Confederate States of America and/or designated a slave state as a result of the Missouri Compromise of 1820 (this means you, Texas);
2. If, at trial, the prosecution relied on any eyewitnesses testimony to prove identity;
3. If any of the prosecution's evidence presented at trial is later discredited in any manner;
4. If the science underlying any of the prosecution's evidence presented at trial is later discredited in any manner;
5. If any misconduct whatsoever by the prosecution in relation to the conviction is later discovered;
6. If any of the jurors from the original trial later express doubts about their decision;
7. And, we shouldn't have to say this, but, if ANYONE on the clemency board thinks that clemency should be granted.
Or, better yet, abolish the death penalty altogether, since our system is terribly dysfunctional and viewed, appropriately, as primitive and barbaric by the rest of the civilized world.
