Innocent Man to be Executed?

Saw this TIME story linked on CNN first but the New York Times article has far more detail:

Though prosecutors have considered the case solved for nearly two decades, a chorus of eyewitnesses say the police arrested the wrong man. Now, on the eve of execution, scheduled for Tuesday, they have joined his family and his lawyers in an effort to get the courts to hear new evidence they say proves he is innocent.

With no physical evidence — the murder weapon was never found — prosecutors relied heavily on the testimony of nine eyewitnesses who took the stand against Mr. Davis.

But since his trial, seven of the nine have recanted or changed their testimony, saying they were harassed and pressed by investigators to lie under oath. Other witnesses have come forward identifying a different man as the shooter.

But because of a 1996 federal law intended to streamline the legal process in death penalty cases, courts have ruled it is too late in the appeals process to introduce new evidence and, so far, have refused to hear it.

Now we hear stories like this from time to time where the story is so full of holes that it may leave a great deal of doubt whether or not the person is actually innocent. But in this case it really sounds like he's getting the shaft.

Here's the description of the events:

Early on the morning of Aug. 19, 1989, a man described as a neighborhood thug, Sylvester Coles, began harassing a homeless man named Larry Young for the beer he was carrying in a paper sack.

A crowd of bystanders, some of whom had spilled out of nearby Charlie Brown’s Pool Hall after hearing the ruckus, followed the fight as it progressed up Oglethorpe Avenue toward the bus station.

Several witnesses later testified that they had heard Mr. Coles threaten Mr. Young with a gun and then saw him pull a pistol out of his pants and then use it to beat Mr. Young on the head.

Fearing for his life, Mr. Young yelled for someone to call the police, and Officer MacPhail responded. He was shot twice and died.

Mr. Davis said he had been one of the bystanders who came out of the pool hall and watched as Mr. Coles tormented Mr. Young. He said that he had run when he heard Mr. Coles threaten to shoot Mr. Young and that he had never looked back.

Mr. Davis surrendered to the Chatham County Sheriff’s Department several days later when he learned the police were looking for him, said his sister Ms. Correia. The family says it trusted that what seemed to be a case of mistaken identity would quickly be sorted out.

With no physical evidence to connect Mr. Davis to the shooting, the prosecutors relied heavily on the testimony of nine witnesses, including Mr. Coles, who identified Mr. Davis as the gunman the day after it happened, with a lawyer by his side.

Now the other witnesses have overwhelmingly recanted saying that police pressed them into fingering Davis. Davis's prior lawyers have admitted how overwhelmed they were due to budget cuts and were unable to properly represent him or properly investigate witness testimony. But the system says it's too late. It doesn't matter that the witnesses have sworn affidavits recanting their testimony. It doesn't matter that his own lawyers are admitting that they failed to represent him properly. It doesn't matter that this guy is very likely an innocent guy who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

“These witnesses, they are calling my brother and asking him to forgive them,” Ms. Correia said. “They thought if they told the truth and signed a piece of paper saying they lied before that’s all it would take. He would go free. They can’t believe he might die because they lied.”

Well we all better believe it. This is the state of our justice system today. Sure it works an overwhelming majority of the time, but that does not excuse situations like this. I think we could all see ourselves in a similar situation. Would we want to be treated this way? I would certainly hope not.

Davis' last hope may be the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles which is scheduled to hear arguments on whether or not to commute Davis' sentence to life in prison the day before he's scheduled to be executed. A decision which could easily go against him. That would be a travesty.

Until the justice system is thoroughly reformed I cannot help but continue supporting moratoriums on the death penalty here in Illinois and elsewhere. I support the death penalty but I can't support it's use with a broken justice system.