by Jonathan SpringstonAfter having “narrowly avoided execution three times since July 2007,” Troy Davis got the barest whiff of justice when the U.S. Supreme Court ordered a Georgia federal judge to consider his claims to innocence in the killing of a Savannah police officer. Speaking for the majority, Justice John Paul Stevens wrote it "would be an atrocious violation of our Constitution and the principles upon which it is based to execute an innocent person." Dissenting Justice Anton Scalia called the decision "a fool’s errand," and "a confusing exercise."
US Supreme Court Orders New Hearing for Troy Davis
by Jonathan Springston
“Justice Stevens argued it "would be an atrocious violation of our Constitution and the principles upon which it is based to execute an innocent person."
The Supreme Court of the US, in a 6-2 decision, ordered a federal judge in Georgia on Monday, August 17, 2009, to consider and rule on innocence claims brought by Georgia death row inmate Troy Anthony Davis. The majority opinion, written by Justice John Paul Stevens, calls on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Georgia to "receive testimony and make findings of fact as to whether evidence that could have been obtained at the time of trial clearly establishes [Davis'] innocence."
"The substantial risk of putting an innocent man to death clearly provides an adequate justification for holding an evidentiary hearing," Stevens wrote.
A jury sentenced Davis to death in 1991 for the murder of Savannah police officer Mark Allen MacPhail in a Burger King parking lot in 1989. Chatham County prosecutors used only eyewitness testimony to obtain a conviction. Since that time, seven of nine state witnesses have either changed or recanted their testimonies in sworn affidavits. The other two, Stephen Sanders and Sylvester "Red" Coles, have not recanted.
Sanders was hanging with Air Force friends at the Burger King at the time of the incident. He told police two hours after the incident he could only recognize those at the scene by their clothes but implicated Davis two years later at trial.
“Seven of nine state witnesses have either changed or recanted their testimonies in sworn affidavits.”
Coles, who told police he possessed a .38 caliber revolver on the night of the murder and who was with Davis at the time of the shooting, always maintained Davis was the killer. Yet three witnesses now say Coles confided to them on different occasions that he in fact pulled the trigger.
Davis supporters applauded Monday’s Court decision. "We are grateful the nation’s highest court has seen the wisdom in granting a new evidentiary hearing to Troy Davis," Laura Moye, Director of Amnesty International USA’s Death Penalty Abolition Campaign, said in a statement. "For years, Amnesty International has maintained that this man’s compelling case of innocence needs to see the light of day. Finally it will."
Moye, who previously served as Atlanta-based Deputy Director in Amnesty USA's Southern Regional Office, recently moved to Washington, DC, to accept the new position.
As previously reported by Atlanta Progressive News, Davis has narrowly avoided execution three times since July 2007 while seeking relief from the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles, the Georgia Supreme Court, and the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals.
A three-judge panel of the Eleventh Circuit in April denied Davis’s request for an evidentiary hearing, arguing they were bound by procedural requirements of the Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996. Justice Antonin Scalia, writing the dissent, called Monday’s Court order "a fool’s errand," and "a confusing exercise."
"The Court proceeds down this path even though every judicial and executive body that has examined petitioner’s stale claim of innocence has been unpersuaded, and (to make matters worst [sic]) even though it would be impossible for the District Court to grant any relief," Scalia wrote. "Transferring this case to a court that has no power to grant relief is strange enough," he added. "It becomes stranger still when one realizes that the allegedly new evidence we shunt off to be examined by the District Court has already been considered (and rejected) multiple times."
“Davis has narrowly avoided execution three times since July 2007.”
However, in APN's analysis of the legal history of this case, this news service found that no court actually considered the evidence in the context of innocence claims, even though it was presented to them.
Stevens argued it "would be an atrocious violation of our Constitution and the principles upon which it is based to execute an innocent person."
"Imagine a petitioner in Davis’s situation who possesses new evidence conclusively and definitively proving, beyond any scintilla of doubt, that he is an innocent man,” Stevens wrote. “The dissent’s reasoning would allow such a petitioner to be put to death nonetheless. The Court correctly refuses to endorse such reasoning."
Justices Stephen Breyer and Ruth Ginsberg joined Stevens in his opinion while Justice Clarence Thomas joined Scalia in dissent. Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who was only confirmed in recent weeks, played no role in Monday’s decision, Stevens noted.
Attorneys for Davis filed what was considered at the time a long-shot writ of habeas corpus, a lawsuit that allows an inmate to bring a constitutional claim with the Supreme Court, in May 2009.
Later that month, 27 former judges and prosecutors, including former Georgia lawmaker Bob Barr and FBI Director William Sessions, filed an amicus brief in support of Davis.
The Court surprised many in June 2009 when it remained quiet on the Davis writ as its previous term expired. Legal groups had expected the Court to wait until at least later this fall when it returned for a new session to make a decision. "Given the lack of hard evidence tying Davis to Officer MacPhail’s murder, it would be nothing short of unconscionable to put him to death as a means of conveniently tying up loose ends," Moye said Monday. "Finally there is an opportunity for justice to truly be served."
Due to efforts by groups like Amnesty International and Georgians For Alternatives to the Death Penalty, support for the Davis case has garnered international attention. Former President Jimmy Carter, Pope Benedict XVI, and Archbishop Desmond Tutu are among the noted figures calling on clemency for Davis.
Jonathan Springston is Senior Staff Writer for Atlanta Progressive News, reachable at jonathan@atlantaprogressivenews.com.
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