TROY DAVIS CASE: A VOICE FROM ATLANTA; CYNTHIA TUCKER ASKS WHETHER THE LEGAL HURDLES ARE TOO HIGH FOR DAVIS TO MEET; ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION;

"YESTERDAY, IN A HIGHLY UNUSUAL RULING, THE NATION’S HIGHEST COURT ORDERED A FEDERAL JUDGE IN GEORGIA TO HEAR NEW TESTIMONY AND DECIDE WHETHER IT “CLEARLY ESTABLISHES” DAVIS’ INNOCENCE.

THAT’S A VERY HIGH HURDLE. AND, IN THE ABSENCE OF VIRTUALLY INDISPUTABLE EVIDENCE SUCH AS DNA (THERE IS NONE IN THIS CASE), IT’S UNLIKELY THAT DAVIS CAN MEET THE TEST."

CYNTHIA TUCKER; THE ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION;

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Background: (Wikipedia); The Troy Davis case concerns the case of Troy Anthony Davis, a former sports coach from the U.S. state of Georgia, who was convicted and sentenced to death in 1991 for the August 19, 1989 murder of off-duty Savannah, Georgia police officer Mark MacPhail. Throughout the trial and subsequent appeals, Davis maintained his innocence, claiming he was wrongfully convicted of the crime as a result of false identification. After the trial and first set of appeals, seven of the nine prosecution eyewitnesses who had linked Davis to the killing recanted or contradicted their original trial testimony, claiming police coercion and questionable interrogation tactics. The witness who first implicated Davis and has remained consistent, Sylvester "Redd" Coles, was initially a suspect in the crime. Coles was seen acting suspiciously the night of MacPhail's murder and has been heard boasting that he killed an off-duty police officer. There is only one witness who did not recant his testimony and is not himself a suspect in the murder, but he made an in-court identification of Davis two years after the crime.Davis opponents say Coles came back to the scene of the shooting with a female after police arrived. Davis changed clothes (even asking Coles for a shirt later) and fled to Atlanta with his sister. Davis has repeatedly asked the courts to examine the new exculpatory evidence, but so far has not been successful in persuading a majority of judges to grant him a new trial or conduct a hearing in which the recanting eyewitnesses could be cross-examined to determine the credibility of Davis’ innocence claims. In October 2008, Davis filed a second Habeas petition in the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals on the grounds that it was the first time Davis was presenting a free-standing innocence claim and that no court has yet held an evidentiary hearing on the exculpatory evidence of recanted testimony. On 16 April 2009 the three-judge panel denied Davis' petition on procedural grounds by a 2-1 majority. Amnesty International has strongly condemned the refusal of U.S. courts to examine the innocence evidence, and has organized rallies and letter-writing campaigns to persuade the Georgia and Federal courts to grant Davis a new trial or an evidentiary hearing. Many prominent politicians and leaders, including President Jimmy Carter, Pope Benedict XVI, Nobel laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Presidential candidate Bob Barr, and former FBI Director and judge William S. Sessions have called upon the courts to grant Davis a new trial or evidentiary hearing. On 17 August 2009, the U.S. Supreme Court, over the dissenting votes of two justices, ordered a federal district court in Georgia to consider and rule on whether new evidence "that could not have been obtained at the time of trial clearly establishes [Davis'] innocence."

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Cynthia Tucker's August 18, 2009 column runs under the heading "Troy Davis will get the hearing that j'ustice demands," but raises doubts as to whether that can ever happen.

Wikipedia tells us that: "Cynthia Tucker (born 1955 in Monroeville, Alabama) is an American syndicated columnist, and the editor of the opinion section of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. She was recognized with a Pulitzer Prize for Commentary in 2007 "for her courageous, clear-headed columns that evince a strong sense of morality and persuasive knowledge of the community"; she was a Pulitzer-nominated finalist in 2004 and 2006."

"I have nothing but sympathy for the family of the late Mark Allen MacPhail, a Savannah police officer who was shot dead in August 1989. His family members deserve justice," the column begins,

"But they will receive it only if the criminal justice system has prosecuted and convicted the man who actually murdered MacPhail. Troy Davis, who sits on death row for the murder, may be that man. He may not be. And that’s the problem," it continues.

"Many earlier witnesses have recanted their testimony since the original 1991 trial, so it’s not clear that Davis pulled the trigger. Given the recantations, the U.S. Supreme Court was right to order a lower court to give Davis a new hearing. Yesterday, in a highly unusual ruling, the nation’s highest court ordered a federal judge in Georgia to hear new testimony and decide whether it “clearly establishes” Davis’ innocence.

That’s a very high hurdle. And, in the absence of virtually indisputable evidence such as DNA (there is none in this case), it’s unlikely that Davis can meet the test.

Still, it’s important that Davis be given the opportunity. The most compelling testimony is likely to come from Tonya Johnson, who did not testify at the original trial. She has since implicated Sylvestor “Redd” Coles, the prosecution’s star witness, who came forward to tell police that Davis had pulled the trigger. But Johnson says she saw Coles, whom she feared, come running from the parking lot where MacPhail was murdered and drop two guns behind a screen door at the vacant apartment next to hers on that August night. He seemed “panicked,” she has said.

In May, 27 former justices, judges and prosecutors filed a legal brief asking the high court to let a federal judge hear Davis’ claims. Their pleas have less to do with saving Davis than with protecting the criminal justice system from error. All Americans need to believe that the justice system is fair and impartial. Giving Davis another opportunity to prove his case helps to preserve the system’s integrity."

The column can be found at:

http://blogs.ajc.com/cynthia-tucker/2009/08/18/troy-davis-will-get-the-hearing-that-justice-demands/?cxntfid=blogs_cynthia_tucker

Harold Levy...hlevy15@gmail.com;