Fresh Loaf

Jim Galloway at the AJC’s Political Insider points us to an op-ed about longtime death row inmate Troy Davis in today’s New York Times by Bob Barr. The former Libertarian presidential candidate and Georgia congressman, who says he’s a death-penalty supporter, says Georgia might be about to execute an innocent man.

This threat of injustice has come about because the lower courts have misread the Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996, a law I helped write when I was in Congress. As a member of the House Judiciary Committee in the 1990s, I wanted to stop the unfounded and abusive delays in capital cases that tend to undermine our criminal justice system.

With the effective death penalty act, Congress limited the number of habeas corpus petitions that a defendant could file, and set a time after which those petitions could no longer be filed. But nothing in the statute should have left the courts with the impression that they were barred from hearing claims of actual innocence like Troy Davis’s.

It would seem in everyone’s interest to find out as best we can what really happened that night 20 years ago in a dim parking lot where Officer Mark MacPhail was shot dead. With no murder weapon, surveillance videotape or DNA evidence left behind, the jury that judged Mr. Davis had to weigh the conflicting testimony of several eyewitnesses to sift out the gunman from the onlookers who had nothing to do with the heinous crime.

…

I am a firm believer in the death penalty, but I am an equally firm believer in the rights and protections guaranteed by the Constitution. To execute Troy Davis without having a court hear the evidence of his innocence would be unconscionable and unconstitutional.

(Photo by Joeff Davis)

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William Mize, the white supremacist convicted in 1995 of killing Eddie Tucker of Hull, Ga., last night was denied a stay of execution and request for appeal by the Georgia Supreme Court.

He’s scheduled to be executed by lethal injection tonight at 7 p.m.

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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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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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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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UNHAPPY AS A CLAM: Mussels, north Floridians will suffer from Corps of Engineers’ new water proposal, says a Florida congressman, while Lake Lanier Association president says the plan doesn’t go far enough.

LEGAL INJECTION: SCOTUS dismisses challenge to constitutionality of Kentucky’s lethal injection procedure, freeing up other states to kill their prisoners again. Two Georgia death-row inmates are now back on track to be executed.

SEPARATE BUT DIESEL: Ga. DOT explains the problems with bringing truck-only lanes to Atlanta, while the idea’s sponsor stubbornly soldiers on.

BURDEN OF PROF: Two still-unidentified Ga. Tech professors are being investigated for fraud and theft.

LEATHERHEADS: Georgia State is expected to announce today its plans to start a football team in 2010. AJC’s Tony Barnhart lists five things the Panthers must do to succeed. Around this time last year, Mark Bradley wrote why they won’t succeed.

LACROSSE-CULTURAL: Toli, the 500-year-old Native American predecessor of lacrosse, is big in Athens, where on Saturday UGA’s team will host the 21-time world-champion Conehatta Skunks, who are Choctaw.

THE PAYBACK: The Augusta Metro Spirit lists what will be available at James Brown’s estate sale in August.

PRO-STRIFE: Yale art student artificially inseminates herself “as often as possible,” takes drugs to induce miscarriages, collects the blood, and presents it along with videos of her miscarriages as her senior art project.

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