The case of Troy Anthony Davis sickens me. This man spent 22 years on death row for the death of a police officer in Savannah, Georgia. He has maintained his innocence from the very beginning. He was convicted of this crime solely on the basis of non-police witness testimony. There was no physical evidence linking him to this crime. Now, 7 of the 9 witnesses have recanted their testimony, claiming that they were coerced by the police. And several of them have even implicated another man. Mr. Davis never saw justice.
Mr. Davis has been scheduled for execution four different times. Three of those executions were postponed by various courts, for various reasons. His lawyers made several last-ditch attempts to stop the fourth and final execution, including petitioning the U.S. Supreme Court just thirty minutes before the execution was scheduled. The state of Georgia granted Mr. Davis a temporary reprieve while the Justices of the Supreme Court decided the fate of a possibly innocent man. Unfortunately, his motion was denied. Mr. Davis was executed on September 21, 2011. He was pronounced dead at 11:08 p.m.
As an American, I am ashamed of the so-called "Justice System" in this country. There was just too much doubt in this case to execute Mr. Davis. Granted, he may not have been innocent. This fact we will likely never know because the state of Georgia and the United States decided to execute him rather than grant a new trial. The court is supposed to ensure that a case has been proven "beyond a reasonable doubt" in all criminal cases, yet this man lost his life due to the court failing to do just that. This is truly a travesty and the greatest miscarriage of justice that I have ever witnessed. The Justice System has failed us all.
