"The evidence produced at the hearing on the merits of Mr. Davis' claim of actual innocence and a complete review of the record in this case does not require the reversal of the jury's judgment that Troy Anthony Davis murdered city of Savannah Police office Mark Allen MacPhail on Aug. 19, 1989," Moore ruled......
Nobody walking out of that hearing could view this as an open-and-shut case," Larry Cox, the group's (Amnesty International) executive director who attended the June hearing, said in a prepared statement. "The testimony that came to light demonstrates that doubt still exists, but the legal bar to proving innocence is set so high it was virtually insurmountable. It would be utterly unconscionable to proceed with this execution, pure and simple."
REPORTER JAN SKUTCH: SAVANNAH MORNING NEWS; Wikipedia informs us that, "The Savannah Morning News is a daily newspaper in Savannah, Georgia."
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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,[6] 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."
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Troy Anthony Davis failed to prove his innocence in the 1989 slaying of off-duty Savannah police officer Mark Allen MacPhail and will not get a new trial, a federal judge ruled Tuesday," the story by reporter Jan Skutch published earlier today in Savannah Now begins, under the heading, "Judge: Troy Davis still guilty: Federal court ruling returns case to U.S. Supreme Court without a new trial."
"This court concludes that executing an innocent person would violate the Eighth Amendment (barring cruel and unusual punishment) of the U.S. Constitution," U.S. District Judge William T. Moore Jr. ruled in a 172-page order," the story continues.
""However, Mr. Davis is not innocent."
His ruling was sent directly to the U.S. Supreme Court, which sent it here last year with instructions that a federal judge determine whether evidence not available at the 1991 trial would "clearly establish (Davis') innocence."
Moore said that while the state's case "may not be ironclad, most reasonable jurors would again vote to convict Mr. Davis of officer MacPhail's murder."
"Ultimately, while Mr. Davis' new evidence casts some additional, minimal doubt on his conviction, it is largely smoke and mirrors," Moore ruled. "The vast majority of the evidence at trial remains intact, and the new evidence is largely not credible or lacking in probative value."
Appeal likely
Moore found Davis' appeals team "failed to make a showing of actual innocence" that would entitle him to a new trial.
"After an exhaustive review of the evidence, the District Court reached the correct decision today," said Russell Willard, spokesman for the state attorney general's office whose attorneys presented the case before Moore.
In Washington, D.C., attorney Danielle Garton, who is co-counsel for Davis' defense, said attorneys there were going through the order.
"Obviously we're really disappointed with the court's findings and conclusions," she said. "We believe that Troy Davis is innocent, and we intend to appeal the District Court's order."
She said attorneys are trying to decide whether their appeal will go before the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals or directly to the Supreme Court, calling the procedural issues "a bit unprecedented. This is sort of new territory."
Chatham County District Attorney Larry Chisolm said Tuesday he could not comment on the merits of the case.
Should a new trial be ordered, Chisolm's office would prosecute it.
"My biggest reaction is the detail of Judge Moore's order and that he did such a complete job of findings of fact," Chisolm said.
He cautioned against assuming the case is over because Davis' lawyers still can appeal.
Families react
Davis' sister and champion, Martina Correia, said Tuesday the fight is not over.
"I believe Troy's innocent," she said. "We're still going to keep fighting."
She said the Supreme Court would not have sent the case back unless there were questions to be answered.
"I don't agree with the judge's decision," Correia said.
Amnesty International USA officials, who have backed the Davis appeals effort, said evidence "continues to cast doubt over the case."
"Nobody walking out of that hearing could view this as an open-and-shut case," Larry Cox, the group's executive director who attended the June hearing, said in a prepared statement. "The testimony that came to light demonstrates that doubt still exists, but the legal bar to proving innocence is set so high it was virtually insurmountable. It would be utterly unconscionable to proceed with this execution, pure and simple."
Mark Allen MacPhail Jr., the victim's son, said he was "ecstatic" to learn of Moore's ruling.
"I was jumping up and down when I heard," MacPhail said, adding news of the ruling left him "very" relieved.
"We were wondering what took so long," he said. After seeing the ruling, "I can see what took him so long."
But MacPhail realizes it is not over.
While relieved, he said, "the fight's not over."
On death row
Moore's ruling comes after two days of hearings in the federal courthouse in Savannah to allow Davis' lawyer to present evidence not available at the 1991 trial to "clearly" establish his innocence.
Davis remains on death row at the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison at Jackson, where the state's execution chamber is located.
A Chatham County Superior Court jury took two hours to convict Davis Aug. 28, 1991, in the MacPhail slaying.
The victim was shot twice with a .38-caliber pistol early Aug., 19, 1989, as he rushed to assist a homeless man, Michael Young, under attack over some beer in the parking lot of the Greyhound Bus Terminal/Burger King restaurant at Oglethorpe Avenue and Fahm Street.
The defendant contended a second man, Sylvester "Redd" Coles, was the gunman and that Davis was the victim of mistaken identity.
They claimed seven witnesses had recanted earlier testimony and an eighth had contradicted her testimony.
But Moore ruled that Davis "vastly overstated the value of his evidence of innocence."
That "new evidence does not change the balance of proof from trial."
"Of his seven 'recantations,' only one is a meaningful, credible recantation.
"The value of that recantation is diminished because it only confirms that which was obvious at trial - that its author was testifying falsely," Moore ruled.
That witness was Kevin McQueen, a "jailhouse snitch" who related Davis' confession to MacPhail's murder.
McQueen testified in June there was "no truth" to his trial testimony.
Nor did Davis' non-recantation evidence change anything, Moore said.
"The evidence produced at the hearing on the merits of Mr. Davis' claim of actual innocence and a complete review of the record in this case does not require the reversal of the jury's judgment that Troy Anthony Davis murdered city of Savannah Police office Mark Allen MacPhail on Aug. 19, 1989," Moore ruled."
The story can be found at:
http://savannahnow.com/news/2010-08-25/judge-troy-davis-still-guilty
PUBLISHER'S NOTE: The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be accessed at:
http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith
For a breakdown of some of the cases, issues and controversies this Blog is currently following, please turn to:
http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2010/08/new-feature-cases-issues-and_15.html
Harold Levy: Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog; hlevy15@gmail.com;
