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The state Supreme Court has voted 6-1 to deny a stay of execution for convicted cop-killer Troy Davis. Davis is scheduled to die by lethal injection tomorrow. Justice Robert Benham dissented.

The stay was requested in order to allow the for the U.S. Supreme Court to rule on an appeal filed in July by Davis’ attorneys.

The Georgia Supreme Court’s decision says that the authority to grant the stay falls on the U.S. Supreme Court:

“Because the Supreme Court of the United States rather than this Court properly has jurisdiction over Davis’s pending petition … and because it appears that Davis has already filed in that Court a motion for a stay of execution, his motion for a stay of execution filed in this Court is denied.”

Writing for the majority, Chief Justice Leah Sears stated:

“I still believe that Davis is entitled to that hearing. Nevertheless, this case is currently pending before the United States Supreme Court … and jurisdiction is properly in the Supreme Court, not this Court.”

The U.S. Supreme Court had scheduled a conference for Sept. 29 — three days after Davis’ scheduled execution — to discuss whether it would consider his appeal. Now, however, a ruling is expected before tomorrow night.

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Last week, Amnesty International began circulating a recorded statement from convicted cop-killer Troy Davis, who is scheduled to die by lethal injection tomorrow.

In the recording, Davis says:

I’ve been sitting on Georgia’s  death row for 16 years for a crime I did not commit. And I struggle for me and my family, as well as the victim’s family, who I sympathize with daily because they have been cheated out of justice just as I have. They deserve justice more than anyone deserves justice.

Evidence that was unearthed after Davis’ conviction of the 1989 murder of Savannah police officer Mark MacPhail suggests he might not have committed the crime.

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The Rev. Marvin Morgan, Sister Pat Sullivan and Steve Woodall showed up at Gov. Sonny Perdue’s office this morning asking to meet with the governor regarding tomorrow’s planned execution of Troy Davis.

According to Deputy Press Secretary Malli McCord, Perdue was not in his office and was unavailable by phone.

“We will let him know you stopped by,” she told the three individuals.

Despite this promise, the three decided to wait until the governor agrees to speak with them. “Our intention is to stay here until the governor comes and sees us or accepts our phone call,” the Rev. Morgan said, sitting on the couch in Perdue’s office.

Morgan presented a letter to Ms. McCord requesting that the state kill him instead of Troy Davis. Woodall has been fasting since Thursday afternoon and has camped out in front of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution building in an attempt to bring more attention to the case.

At 1:15 p.m. the three were still sitting in the governor’s office. The office closes at 5:00 p.m.

(Photo By Joeff Davis)

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Troy Anthony Davis, who is scheduled for execution tomorrow despite a heap of evidence that suggests he might be innocent, has gathered the support of former President Jimmy Carter, Nobel Peace Prize-winner Desmond Tutu, Pope Benedict XVI, the Rev. Al Sharpton, U.S. Rep. John Lewis, Libertarian presidential hopeful Bob Barr, and New York Times columnist Bob Herbert.

But his only really hope lies with the Supreme Court of Georgia, the U.S. Supreme Court, and — yeah, right — George Bush.

Yesterday’s AJC described a visit the Rev. Sharpton paid to Davis on Georgia’s death row:

“He was not overly optimistic or pessimistic,” said the Rev. Sharpton, who visited Davis … at the request of Davis’ family. “He was suprisingly upbeat. He seemed like he was depending on his faith to see him through.”

Herbert, in his Friday Times column, opined:

Putting someone to death whose guilt is uncertain is always perverted, but there’s an extra dose of perversion in this case.

The United States Supreme Court is scheduled to make a decision on whether to hear a last-ditch appeal by Mr. Davis on Sept. 29. That’s six days after the state of Georgia plans to kill him.

And this morning, NPR chimed in, quoting the Southern regional director of Amnesty International, Jared Feuer:

“Troy Anthony Davis’ case symbolizes all that is wrong with the death penalty. You have questions of improper witness handling. You have procedural obstacles that get in the way of the truth. You have issues of race and, ultimately, you have a system that can’t go back and correct its mistakes.”

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AJC.com reports that, after more than 30 days spent questioning a 240-person jury pool, 12 jurors and two alternates have been picked to hear the crazy-long (and crazy-expensive) death penalty case against alleged Fulton County courthouse killer Brian Nichols.

The trial is expected to last more than three months. Not surprisingly, the AJC reports, jurors didn’t appear thrilled to be spending a quarter of 2008 in the courtroom:

Superior Court Judge James Bodiford congratulated the glum-looking group of jurors at 2 p.m. today when he told them they would be the hearing the case that is expected to last the rest of the year. They will start hearing testimony when they return Monday for opening statements.

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Note to Rejon Taylor: When a federal jury is determining whether you should be sentenced to the death penalty — and when authorities are listening to your phone calls from the county jail — it’s probably not the best idea to call the jurors hearing your case a bunch of “racist rednecks.” Just saying.

Lawyers for Taylor, who was convicted in Chattanooga last week of the murder of Atlanta restaurateur Guy Luck, are trying to suppress the recorded phone calls, according to a story posted today in Chattanoogan.com. As a result, the sentencing phase of Taylor’s trial, which was underway, has been postponed until Oct. 6.

According to the story:

Defense attorneys said they were given no warning about the jail calls and said they are meant to “inflame the jury.”

During 10 hours of recorded phone calls, Taylor also spoke with his co-defendant, Sir Jack Matthews, about Matthews’ testimony in the trial. Matthews, a government witness who pleaded guilty and was spared the death penalty, surprised prosecutors when he took the stand and reversed an earlier version of events — with some wild accusations about the murder victim.

Chattonoogan.com reported that prosecutor Steve Neff offered some insight as to why Matthews offered the story he did:

Neff said Taylor and Matthews talked about a story they felt would get their cases “thrown out of Federal Court.”

(Photo of Rejon Taylor, courtesy of the DeKalb County jail.)

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Convicted cop-killer Troy Anthony Davis, who is scheduled for execution next week — despite evidence that suggests he might be innocent — wants his case heard by the U.S. Supreme Court, according to a press release from the office of the Supreme Court of Georgia.

The Georgia Supreme Court narrowly voted earlier this year to prevent a lower court from hearing new evidence in Davis’ case — including seven of nine trial witnesses who’ve since recanted their testimony. The ruling came down to a technicality.

Now, the state’s highest court must decide whether Davis deserves a stay of execution in order to appeal his case to the country’s highest court.

The decision to appeal comes on the heels of the state Pardons and Parole Board’s decision not to grant Davis clemency — a decision that shocked Davis’ supporters. Last year, the board had indicated it was troubled by questions of Davis’ guilt.

Earlier this year, Davis’ Washington D.C.-based attorney, Jason Ewart, told CL that the odds of Davis’ case landing before the country’s highest court were slim.

“Getting your case heard in the U.S. Supreme Court is kind of like winning the lottery,” Ewart said. “We’re proceeding down that path, but we expect that the real action is going to be in the pardons and parole board.”

Time for Plan B.

(Photo of Troy Davis, courtesy of Georgia Department of Corrections)

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Georgians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, an umbrella coalition for organizations and individuals opposed to the practice, has condemned the Georgia Board of Prisons  and Paroles’ decision to deny Troy Davis clemency.

From Sara Totonchi, chair of the coalition:

“We are horrified and ashamed as Georgians to see our state revealing its bloodthirst by executing Troy Davis, when so many questions remain on whether or not he is innocent. Executing Troy Davis is callous, careless and irreversible.  The state should be slowing down to address the well-documented, serious problems with a system that irreversibly takes human life, rather than rushing to carry out an execution of a possibly innocent man. This case is proof positive that the death penalty should be abolished.”

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From the AJC:

The state Board of Pardons and Paroles on Friday refused to grant clemency to convicted cop killer Troy Anthony Davis even though seven of the nine witnesses against him have since recanted.

This looks like his last chance. He’s scheduled to be executed Sept. 23.

One of the two who did not change their story, Sylvester “Redd” Coles, was at the scene and later told police Davis was the shooter. New witnesses now say Coles confessed to them that he killed MacPhail, and others say Coles had a gun immediately after the shooting —- contrary to what Coles testified at trial.

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After four hours of deliberations today, a federal jury in Tennessee disregarded the testimony of a government witness who changed his story on the stand and convicted the defendant, Rejon Taylor, of the 2003 murder of Atlanta restaurateur Guy Luck, Chattanoogan.com reports.

The jury will now enter the sentencing phase of the trial, during which it will decide whether Taylor deserves the death penalty.

Luck, who owned Violette on Clairmont Road, was kidnapped in Atlanta and driven to Tennessee, where he was shot to death by his captors — two of whom testified against Taylor in order to be spared the death penalty.

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UPDATE: Feds get conviction

Last week, testimony from one of the star witnesses in the federal government’s death penalty case against Rejon Taylor, the accused killer of French-born Atlanta restaurateur Guy Luck, took an unexpected turn.

The witness, Sir Jack Matthews, had been indicted along with Taylor and a third man, Joey Marshall. Both Matthews and Marshall pleaded guilty to the murder of Luck, who owned Violette restaurant on Clairmont Road, and they agreed to cooperate.

In exchange for their pleas, the two men would be spared the death penalty. For their cooperation against co-defendant Taylor, they stand the possibility of having their mandatory life sentences reduced.

Marshall took the stand first, two weeks ago, and his testimony was what prosecutors expected. According to Chattanooga’s TimesFreePress.com, Marshall described how he, Taylor and Matthews burglarized Luck’s upscale home in the months leading up to his death, then — after finding out that Luck was pressing charges against Taylor — kidnapped him and drove him to Tennessee. Shortly after crossing the state line, Matthews and Taylor shot Luck, Marshall said.

A week later, however, Matthews gave a version of events that dramatically differed from Marshall’s. According to Chattanoogan.com:

Sir Jack Matthews shocked prosecutors on Thursday by completely reversing his earlier statements and saying he, Taylor and Joey Marshall had been on a trip with the restaurant operator to deliver a package of marijuana to a house in Collegedale [Tennessee]. Prosecutor Steve Neff on Friday said that testimony by the government witness was “inherently ridiculous.”

But that’s not all.

(more…)

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Troy Anthony Davis, a convicted cop killer from Savannah who’s been on death row for 17 years, is scheduled for execution Sept. 23 — despite a parade of witnesses who’ve recanted most of the testimony that incriminated him.

AJC.com reports on the execution date, though the story fails to mention that the state Board of Pardons and Parole basically has been waiting for Davis’s execution date to be set so that it can rule on whether to allow it. Already, the board indicated in a statement issued earlier this year that Davis’s death sentence is troubling:

“The members of the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles will not allow an execution to proceed in this State unless and until its members are convinced that there is no doubt as to the guilt of the accused.”

Plus, if the board commuted this guy’s death sentence, it would be a travesty to allow Davis’s execution. Then again, the board did let this guy die.

(Photo courtesy of Department of Corrections)

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In the spring of 2003, French-born Atlanta restaurateur Guy Luck met with a DeKalb County detective regarding a recent burglary at his home. The suspect, 19-year-old Rejon Taylor, had been caught trying to buy high-end electronics with a credit card obtained in someone else’s name. Back at Taylor’s apartment, investigators discovered 40 more credit cards in that person’s name — as well as a briefcase and checks that belonged to another of his apparent victims, Luck (pronounced LUKE).

The detective asked Luck if he wanted to press charges. He did. Little did he know that his decision would cost him his life – and set into motion a chain of events that culminated in a federal death penalty trial that opened in Chattanooga last week.

The trial is expected to last six weeks, and it marks the first-ever capital case to be brought in the Eastern District of Tennessee. Federal death penalty cases are rare. But prosecutors claim the substantial premeditation and planning that precipitated Luck’s death – the details of which are described in more than 600 filings in the case – qualifies Taylor for the ultimate penalty.

Read the rest of this article here.

(Photo by Thomas Wheatley)

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Georgia’s third execution date in less than a month is set for next Wednesday. But lawyers for death row inmate Curt Osborne believe they have enough evidence to spare their client’s life.

Already this month, the state’s blood lust has been tempered by the Pardons and Parole Board. In the case of the second inmate scheduled for execution in May, the board commuted Samuel David Crowe’s sentence to life in prison without parole — three hours before he was to be put to death by lethal injection.

Osborne’s lawyers are hoping for a similar decision from the board. (William Earl Lynd wasn’t so lucky; he was executed on May 6.)

Unlike death row inmate Troy Davis, who is expected to receive an execution date later this year, neither Crowe’s nor Osborne’s attorneys have raised claims of their clients’ innocence. In Crowe’s case, attorneys asked for mercy due to the fact that Crowe had radically turned his life around in prison. In Osborne’s case, attorneys are claiming that his trial lawyer, the late Johnny Mostiler, was racially prejudiced against Osborne, who is African-American.

According to the AJC:

One of [Mostiler's other clients], Gerald Steven Huey, said Mostiler once said of Osborne, “That little [racial epithet] deserves the death penalty.”

(more…)

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Less than three hours before he was scheduled to die, Georgia death row inmate Samuel David Crowe was granted clemency by the state Board of Pardons and Paroles.

The board released a brief statement:

After careful and exhaustive consideration of the requests, the Board voted to grant clemency. The Board voted to commute the sentence to life without parole.

Since 1995, the State Board of Pardons and Paroles has considered 24 death sentenced inmates, and this is the third sentenced inmate to be commuted.

Crowe pleaded guilty to the 1998 murder of his former coworker, whom he killed during an armed robbery in Douglasville. He was sentenced to death a year after the killing.

The board’s decision to commute Crowe’s sentence could bode well for another death row inmate, Troy Anthony Davis.

Last July, the board granted Davis a stay of execution and issued an order stating, “The members of the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles will not allow an execution to proceed in this State unless and until its members are convinced that there is no doubt as to the guilt of the accused.”

Prior to issuing the order, the board heard from five witnesses whom Davis’s attorney believed could help prove Davis didn’t commit the murder for which he was sentenced in 1991.

The board is expected to hear from more witnesses later this year, after another execution date for Davis is set.

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Convicted cop-killer Troy Anthony Davis, who narrowly avoided his 2007 execution date and has since lost a state Supreme Court appeal for a new trial, is running out of time.

On Saturday, May 17, Amnesty International and the NAACP will attempt to draw more attention to the case with a rally on the steps of the state Capitol. Davis’ pending execution (a new date is expected to be set later this year) already has prompted a huge response from the international media and Pope Benedict XVI.

Evidence gathered after Davis’s 1991 trial in Savannah — and presented to the courts largely after his federal appeals was exhausted — shows that seven of the nine witnesses who testified against Davis later recanted their statements. What’s more, three other people have signed affidavits stating that another man later confessed to the killing of Savannah Police Officer Mark MacPhail.

The rally will be held from 10 a.m. to noon on the side of the Capitol facing Washington Street. Speakers include two state legislators and three death row exonerees.

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William Earl Lynd was executed by lethal injection on May 6 in Jackson, Ga., 45 miles south of Atlanta. He was the first prisoner executed in the United States after the U.S. Supreme Court recently lifted a moratorium on the practice. Dean Poling, a journalist at the Valdosta Daily Times, witnessed and wrote about the event.

From his article:

These are among the last things William Earl Lynd sees.

A gathering of faces in the witness room. Most are strangers, official faces from the state Department of Corrections office. The faces of two of Ginger Moore’s relatives whom he may or may not have known on the front row. Witnesses include former Berrien County Sheriff Jerry Brogdon who took Lynd’s confession and former Alapaha District Attorney Robert Ellis who prosecuted the case against Lynd. He might recognize their faces if he sees them through the glass.

The faces he most likely recognizes are those of the prison’s personnel. Unlike most of the other witnesses, however, they do not look at Lynd.

Strapped to the gurney, Lynd can only move his head and his eyes. There are the uniformed correctional officers, six big men, who press against him to administer the straps. He is in a small room, the chamber, led their by the six officers from a connecting door. There is the window to the witness room. A ringed curtain conceals one wall of the chamber. Behind Lynd is a one-way glass where three officials will each press one of the three chemicals which will put Lynd to sleep, paralyze him then stop his heart.

Read the rest here.

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William Earl Lynd, 53, was executed at the state prison in Jackson on May 6, the first execution in the U.S. in seven months. As it does before all executions, the Georgia Department of Corrections issued a press release describing Lynd’s last meal.

“Lynd has requested as his last meal two pepper jack BBQ burgers with crisp onions, two baked potatoes with sour cream, bacon and cheese, one large strawberry milkshake, from a local restaurant.”

— An excerpt from a May 5 Georgia Department of Corrections press release about Lynd.

“Conklin has requested as his last meal filet mignon wrapped with bacon; de-veined shrimp sautéed in garlic butter with lemon; baked potato with butter, sour cream, chives and real bacon bits; corn on the cob; asparagus with hollandaise sauce; French bread with butter; goat cheese; cantaloupe; apple pie; vanilla bean ice cream and iced tea.”

— An excerpt from a July 8, 2005 state press release announcing the execution of Robert Dale Conklin.

“We do everything within reason to accommodate a prisoner’s request, but it’s a case-by-case basis. Requests have run the gamut, from a steak dinner to what was on the menu for that day at the prison.”

— Susan Phillips, Georgia Dept. of Corrections spokesperson, in a phone interview with Creative Loafing on May 6, 2008.

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MYANMAR CYCLONE: Death toll exceeds 22,000.

CAPITAL PUNISHMENT: Georgia’s the first state to start killing prisoners again, with William Earl Lynd scheduled to be lethally injected at 7 tonight.

GEORGIA AQUARIUM: Adding dolphins, as well as 1.3 million gallons of water for them.

NORREESE HAYNES: Clayton judge says Haynes can’t have his school board seat back and he sued the wrong group, since the school board doesn’t administer elections. Haynes says he’ll appeal and now sue the right group, the board of elections.

MORE IN CLAYTON: New corrective superintendent is making all school administrators reapply for their jobs.

FALCONS: Linebacker Michael Boley arrested in Dacula on charges he beat his wife.

KEPT ON TRUCKING: Disgruntled truck driver drives truck cab into lake.

ARTHUR TESLER: Trial underway for the only cop involved in Kathryn Johnston shooting to plead not guilty; lawyers say he was manipulated by two senior officers.

MAN FROM PLANES: Delta prez explains to surly Minnesota lawmakers that he’s going to be taking their Northwest HQ back to Atlanta.

DOT FIRINGS: WSB-TV open-records request finds reasons why Gena Abraham has fired 43 employees since taking over in December, ranging from theft, pulling a machete on another employee, bringing a gun to work and e-mailing porn.

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PROTEST IN L5P: Despite a chronic police shortage, Atlanta still managed to have three cops available to ticket a peaceful protestor on Tuesday. (Photo by Joeff Davis)

Last Tuesday in Little Five Points, Amnesty International held another of its public “Tuesdays for Troy” rallies – an effort to draw attention to and stop the pending execution of Troy Anthony Davis.

Davis was sentenced to death for the 1989 murder of a Savannah police officer. Although seven of nine witnesses who identified Davis as the killer have changed their testimony and there is no physical evidence linking Davis to the murder, the Georgia Supreme Court ruled four-to-three in March not to grant him a new trial. The day before the rally, the state affirmed its decision. Because of Wednesday’s U.S. Supreme Court decision on Wednesday lifting a nationwide moratorium on lethal injections, Georgia can now set a date for Davis’s execution.

The demonstration was small, only about seven or eight people holding up signs and distributing flyers along Moreland Ave. The event ended abruptly after a protester was surrounded by police and ticketed for standing in the road while handing flyers to drivers in stopped cars.

(Additional text by Andisheh Nouraee)

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DEATH-PENALTY BILL: Voted down in state Senate.

OBAMA: Passport “imprudently” peeped; State Dept. investigating. Also, will be endorsed by Bill Richardson today.

BRACKETEERING: Obama woos N.C. sports radio station by picking UNC to win the NCAA tournament. He also said he picks Stanford over Pitt in the South, but earlier told the NYT he picked UNC, Kansas, UCLA and Pitt in the Final Four. Scandal!

BUSH DECLARES DISASTER: About our tornadoes, not his presidency.

NO MICH-AGAIN PRIMARY: Revote plan falls apart; Obama suggests splitting delegates, Clinton wants a mail-in revote.

QUEEN OF KONG: Zoo Atlanta gorilla headed to Orlando to get knocked up. (The scientific name for a western lowland gorilla, I’m amused to find out, is gorilla gorilla gorilla.)

DEANGELO HALL: Finally gets sent to Oakland; Falcons get second-round draft pick and fifth-rounder for 2009.

FOULED OUT: Former SEC ref sentenced to 12 years in prison for running a $100 million Ponzi scheme.

DON’T MESS WITH TAXES: Faux-IRS scam reported in Gainesville (and AccessNorthGa.com gets to the heart of the story again with another hard-hitting news graphic).

GIRL SCOUT COOKIES SURVIVE TORNADO: Says one scout leader: “Thank God none of our cookies were destroyed.”

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DISBARRED: Scooter Libby.

CITY SEARCH: Dunwoody will likely get to vote on becoming a city. Gov. Perdue will have to sign off on that first, though, and we know how he feels about Georgians’ enfranchisement.

UNDERDAWGS: Fourteenth-seeded Georgia plays No. 3 seed Xavier today at 12:20.

CONFUCIUS INSTITUTE: Chinese government, Emory and Atlanta Public Schools open Chinese cultural institute at Coan Middle School.

DEARTH OF PENALTY? GOP leaders are split over a House vote to let judges sentence a convict to death despite up to two jurors protesting. For now, death-penalty cases are stalled across the state, anyway. (Also, btw, I love AccessNorthGa.com’s news graphics.)

FALLING GLASS: Several downtown streets still closed as broken glass rains down from skyscrapers.

SIREN’S SONG: Not heard before downtown’s twister.

HIT PARADE: Hull woman pleads guilty to requesting three murders from an undercover cop.

COLLEGE TRY: Study projects 70,000 more students at metro Atlanta colleges by 2020.

SENATE RACE: Chambliss campaigns, Jim Martin enters the race.

GOOD SUPERINTENTIONS? Two Clayton interim superintendent candidates lay out salary and contract demands.

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In researching this week’s cover story, I was struck by how several independent forces came together to cause a financial crisis that has left Georgia with death penalty cases that are stalled all over the state.

A state legislator, who also happens to be an attorney, has an interesting theory no one else has brought up.

None of this would have happened — no financial crisis, no stalled death penalty cases, no controversy in the Brian Nichols trial — had the U.S. attorney taken the case. One of Nichols’ alleged victims was a U.S. Customs agent.

Had that happened, the legislator says, Nichols would have been represented by a federal public defender. He would have been tried away from the emotionally charged atmosphere of the Fulton County Courthouse, and it would have saved everyone major headaches.

But is that a realistic possibility?

A death penalty expert I talked to says the case probably wouldn’t fall under federal jurisdiction. They could possibly have prosecuted the death of the agent, but probably not the deaths inside the courthouse.

Any legal wizards out there who can address that point?

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Cobb County Superior Court Judge James Bodiford is determined to get the Brian Nichols trial back on track. Yesterday, he set a July 10 trial date for the man accused of a Fulton County Courthouse shooting spree three years ago that left a judge, a court reporter and two law enforcement officers dead.

There’s just one hitch: How will the Nichols defense team be paid?

The trial has been on hold for months because the Georgia Capital Defenders unit of the state’s public defender system is broke. The program — which handles all indigent death penalty cases in Georgia — has become the favorite whipping boy of Republican lawmakers, who continue to cut funding for indigent defense.

It’s no coincidence that the trial date comes immediately after the state’s new fiscal year starts July 1. That means a fresh infusion of cash into the program.

This week’s CL cover story — which will be online later this afternoon — delves into the issues surrounding the Nichols trial and the crisis that has stalled death penalty cases all over the state. I’ll update this afternoon with the link.

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MARTINA CORREIA SPEAKS AGAINST DEATH PENALTY: Her brother, Troy Davis, is on death row despite seven of nine witnesses against him having recanted.

(photo by Joeff Davis)

Last Tuesday, a coalition of lawmakers, justice activists and religious leaders rallied at the Capitol to call for a death-penalty moratorium in Georgia, at least until major repairs are made to Georgia’s criminal-justice system. The state Senate, organizers say, has gutted the state public defender office’s budget, putting poor defendants at risk. Since 1989, DNA evidence has exonerated 200 people convicted nationwide of crimes they did not commit. Fifteen of them were on death row.

Among the speakers was Martina Correia, sister of Troy Anthony Davis. Davis is on death row for the 1989 murder of a Savannah police officer. Seven of nine witnesses who testified against him have since recanted. If the state Supreme Court does not grant him a new trial or a new evidentiary hearing, he will likely be put to death.

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