Hundreds of thousands of activists protest planned execution of Troy Davis

[coma]

Some years back, I was aware of a prime witness who decided to recant her testimony. Charges were pressed against her for perjury. Changing your testimony is one thing, but recanting can cause problems.

Surely this depends upon the circumstances in which she gave her original testimony. In the case of Troy Davis witnesses have claimed that police bullied them into giving false evidence that implicated him. Seven witnesses have claimed that this happened. This is known as ' Noble cause corruption'. When a heinous murder is carried out, (especially when a policeman is the victim), there is enormous public pressure on the investigating authorities to solve the case quickly. Police officers convince themselves that they have found the perpetrator, even though there is no proof whatsoever, and then set about manufacturing evidence to prove their case. I recommend the writings of the late Ludovic Kennedy, a British journalist and broadcaster who devoted his life to exposing miscarriages of justice. He was very much an establishment figure,( Eton, Oxford University), certainly no hand wringing liberal. He spent tireless hours exposing the miscarriages of justice in cases where people were given the death penalty for crimes of which they were completely innocent. Mainly in the UK, but also America, the most notorious of which was the case of Richard Hauptmann, who was framed for the kidnapping and murder of Charles Lindbergh's baby son. The book is called ' The airman and the carpenter' if any one is interested. In the Uk he exposed many cases, including The Birmingham six, The Guildford Four, who although eventually proved innocent would certainly have hanged if the death penalty had still been in place at the time of their trial. The accounts of their ordeal at the hands of the police during their interrogation is truly horrific. Even though a few years after their thirty year sentences the true perpetrators of the crime were caught, ( the IRA active service unit) who were arrested after the Balcombe Street Siege who told the authorities that they carried out the Birmingham and Guildford atrocities and that innocent people were in prison for the crimes, the powers that be did nothing. The Master Of The Rolls, Lord Denning, the top legal officer in the country even went on record as saying that it was better that innocent people were imprisoned for life than public faith in the honesty of the police was undermined. A truly wicked man. Thankfully, due to these and many other cases from thirty or forty years ago, Derek Bentley, Timothy Evans etc, the rules of interrogation and evidence have been tightened up, making it much more difficult for 'Noble cause corruption' to take place. I would ask people to imagine what it must be like to sit in the condemned cell the night before your execution, knowing that you are innocent, knowing that the evidence has been manufactured, and nobody believes you.

It is worth remembering that if 99per cent of all convicted prisoners have been rightly convicted, and 1 per cent not, that means in a prison population of say 50,000, no less than 500 shouldn't be there.

Well said.

[Credo]

Basically, this case when through one heck of a lot of appeals. I doubt that the Judge and the jury in the original case were prejudiced against him. I doubt that the Georgia Supreme Court even met or saw him, let alone had a reason to want to see him executed. The U.S. Supreme Court doesn't know him either.

In between those portions of the judiciary, I am sure his case was reviewed by other courts as well. As far as recanting of the witnesses, it sounds like most of these were his friends. Just how were they coerced by the police? I am guessing that they were threatened with something like being an accomplice and decided to sing like a bird. Surely when they got on the witness stand, a neutral and safe place, they could have alleged coercision, but they didn't. They waited until he was given a death sentence.

He was convicted and now the sentence has been carried out.

[chuckd]

...and that sums it all up very well, Mr. Credo.