I’m going to be honest. I only began reading articles about Troy Davis in the last few days. I’m no expert on this case. But from what I have read I have come to the conclusion that the preponderance of the evidence is that he is innocent, and there is absolutely no question that there is a reasonable doubt about his guilt. Yesterday, the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles inexplicably decided to deny him clemency, and he is scheduled to die at seven o’clock tonight.
A condemned man set to be executed by lethal injection on Wednesday for killing a Georgia police officer in a high-profile case wants a polygraph test in a last-ditch bid to show his innocence, Amnesty International USA said.
Troy Davis’ case has attracted international attention and an online protest that has accumulated nearly one million signatures because of doubts expressed in some quarters over whether he killed police officer Mark MacPhail in 1989.
Davis’ best hope of avoiding execution, set for 7 p.m. local time on Wednesday, lay with the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles but on Tuesday it denied him clemency following a one-day hearing.
“Troy is so insistent of his innocence that he is willing to take a polygraph. I think it’s a bit of a risky strategy. Polygraph tests are not the most solid type of evidence,” said Laura Moye, a spokeswoman for Amnesty.
I don’t think Laura Moye understands the concept of a ‘risky strategy.’ Her statement makes no sense unless she is thinking only of his posterity. There is no physical evidence linking Davis to the crime. All but two of the eyewitnesses who placed him at the scene have recanted their testimony, blaming coercion by the police. One of the others has actually privately confessed to being the murderer. The attorney general who tried the case has said that if he had it do all over again he wouldn’t charge Davis with a capital crime. And several of the jurors have said that they wouldn’t have convicted him if they knew what they know now.
The New York Times details problems with how the police conducted the investigation, including how they did the lineup where eyewitnesses identified Davis from a crowd.
The Savannah police contaminated the memories of four witnesses by re-enacting the crime with them present so that their individual perceptions were turned into a group one. The police showed some of the witnesses Mr. Davis’s photograph even before the lineup. His lineup picture was set apart by a different background. The lineup was also administered by a police officer involved in the investigation, increasing the potential for influencing the witnesses.
Under these circumstances, it would be surprising if Davis was actually the right guy. And, yet, none of these troubling circumstances were enough to convince the parole board to spare his life. His attorneys are filing one more appeal this morning in in the Butts County Superior Court.
Georgia is at real risk of executing an innocent man.