Justice, poorly executed
THE US SUPREME COURT'S decision last week to stay the execution of Troy Anthony Davis - 90 minutes before he was to be put to death - does not prove that "the system works." Rather, it is an important reminder of how close the system keeps coming to killing inmates who may be wrongfully convicted.
Davis was convicted in 1991 of the 1989 killing of 27-year-old off-duty police officer Mark MacPhail, who was shot as he responded to the cries of a homeless man being pistol-whipped by three men. Nine witnesses said Davis was the shooter.
Since then, seven of the nine witnesses recanted, some saying they were coerced by police. No weapon or any other physical evidence was recovered from the scene. One of the only two witnesses who did not recant is increasingly being fingered as the actual shooter. The other witness was a man who originally could not identify Davis, but decided at trial that Davis was the killer.
In March, a sharply divided Georgia Supreme Court rejected a request for a new trial by a 4-to-3 margin. The majority said it needed to be convinced without a doubt that the original testimonies were "the purest fabrication."
The state pardons board also rejected Davis's request for clemency.
That exceedingly high bar caused luminaries across the political spectrum, from former President Jimmy Carter to former FBI director William Sessions, to say this case needs a closer look. In his dissenting opinion, the chief justice of the Georgia Supreme Court wrote that if the new testimony in Davis's case were found to be credible, it was probable that "a new jury would find reasonable doubt of Davis' guilt, or at least sufficient residual doubt to decline to impose the death penalty."
The justice system places an understandably high priority on prosecuting cop killers. But it cannot be deaf to the massive collapse of the testimony surrounding Davis. The US Supreme Court is expected to consider tomorrow whether there is sufficient doubt to grant Davis a fresh hearing. Because the death penalty is irreversible, justice demands it. 