RIP To Troy Davis

[Silcc69]

AT, Pres. Obama can only pardon those convicted of federal crimes. Mr. Davis was convicted under a Georgia state law.

Georgia supposedly took out politics out of killing convicted persons by allowing a group of civilians, working under the entity called Georgia Board of Pardons, the ability to pardon or offer clemency. Not even the political head of the state of Georgia, the govenor, could have stepped in and prevented the killing of Troy Davis. The only thing that could have prevented this killing was a John Brown, George Jackson, Ho Chi Minh, Cinque type of revolt and uprising.

He can overstep state crimes if he'd liek but it's well known that he didn't want to be involved with that case.


Oh yeah and for the racist on here well here is a white guy that murdered somebody got a whopping 12 years, gets out and then gets scholarship from the NAACP.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/tulane-law-...ry?id=14537434

[Buzz]

Well if Troy actually didn't commit that crime it doesn't matter now. The State has murdered him. Abolish the death penalty. Civilised countries did it long ago - but the US continues to line up alongside such other free nations as iran and China in killing people for crime.

Indeed, the United States is so uncivilised that it wouldn't even meet one of the criteria to join the European Union, which is that capital punishment is forbidden. While the civilised world moves on, the US remains backward. It truly has lost its credibility to lecture to other countries about human rights, justice, equality and democracy.

At least in the US the story has been covered very well by http://www.democracynow.org

[MrsKellyPierce]

Great letter Angelina

[Teydyn]

Again a reason against the death penalty. Better to lock 100 guilty people up for life instead of killing them then kill one innocent man.

Was he innocent? I dont know, but the evidence was not strong enough for killing him. Lock them up, then you have at least time and the chance to reconsider in case of new evidence...

[Stavros]

Angelina, you should be ashamed to put such garbage into print.

Getting emotional about the death of someone you have never met, insulting the victim's mother, and calling Judge Freesemann an 'animal' is an injudicious, and futile way of addressing what you perceive to be a miscarriage of justice. You embarrass yourself with this wildly intemperate language.

The process in law which led to the execution may be flawed, the appeals process may also be flawed, and there was evidence that at the very least cast doubt on the original conviction, but what do you achieve by claiming that the Judge, who is fulfilling a legal obligation imposed on her by her office (rather than her personal views of the case) is a murderer?

If you want to achieve something in politics, you need to know how to negotiate -your negotiating skills are zero.

Governor Perry, on the available evidence, sent a man called Willingham to his death after new evidence and a new interpretation of the existing evidence suggested Willingham was not at fault-Mr Perry is running for public office and can be challenged on his record -but if you want to challenge him on Willingham's death and be heard, you will need to learn some manners. Or nobody will listen to you.

[Jackal]

Angelina, you should be ashamed to put such garbage into print.

Getting emotional about the death of someone you have never met, insulting the victim's mother, and calling Judge Freesemann an 'animal' is an injudicious, and futile way of addressing what you perceive to be a miscarriage of justice. You embarrass yourself with this wildly intemperate language.

The process in law which led to the execution may be flawed, the appeals process may also be flawed, and there was evidence that at the very least cast doubt on the original conviction, but what do you achieve by claiming that the Judge, who is fulfilling a legal obligation imposed on her by her office (rather than her personal views of the case) is a murderer?

If you want to achieve something in politics, you need to know how to negotiate -your negotiating skills are zero.

Governor Perry, on the available evidence, sent a man called Willingham to his death after new evidence and a new interpretation of the existing evidence suggested Willingham was not at fault-Mr Perry is running for public office and can be challenged on his record -but if you want to challenge him on Willingham's death and be heard, you will need to learn some manners. Or nobody will listen to you.

Intentionally killing someone who is not threatening another's life is murder. This judge is a cunt and a murderer. I don't give a shit about the Nuremberg defense nor does anyone with a conscience. Just because something is legal does not make it right or in this case, not murder.


Republicans have no manners or negotiations, they filibuster or push forward for what they want. That is why we got over a decade of their policy. Strong-headedness gets respect among the American public. Being wimpy and polite does not win in politics. Americans prefer decisiveness and wrong over the most mediated and fallacious moderation. If these lynchings and Tea Bagger fascism continues, it won't matter as the Republic will either be completely dead or a rebellion will finally occur.

[hippifried]

I also read about the sexual abuse ,racism (naughty naughty) and threats of violence michelle malkin is getting for supporting the killing of the cop killer on her twitter . Wheres the tolerance robert? LMAO.

I'll bet she was gettin all that long before Troy Davis caught her attention.

[Stavros]

Being wimpy and polite does not win in politics. Americans prefer decisiveness and wrong over the most mediated and fallacious moderation.

That is how Dick Cheney thought the US should manage its foreign policy, and is one of the reasons why the USA has been dragged into an unwinnable war in Afghanistan. Its a pity the American 'Can Do' attitude hasn't stretched to diplomacy as it once did -we haven't forgotten the casual way John Bolton dismissed the best opportunity for a rapprochement with Iran through President Khatami's invitations 10 or so years ago. Diplomacy can work, as both Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton proved with their respective treaties between Israel and its neighbours; and Clinton at Dayton; but it doesn't make for good Hollywood.

As to this dreadful case, you do the victims no favours by using the Vin Diesel handbook on negotiations, political change can be helped by street demonstrations, but the grim reality is that it takes years of patient campaigning to get major laws changed, and the best way to do it is to use the law and the legislative process -to call the Principal Law Officer of Georgia an 'animal' or a 'cunt' does nothing to change the law in that state. It does reduce the level of 'debate' to a point where it just becomes you shouting obsenities at a brick wall.

If you are serious about this, start campaigning in Georgia for a change in the law. Use all of the cases where the law got it wrong as your evidence and where the process of law got it wrong, build so compelling a case the most diehard supporters fail to get a majority in a vote; but be prepared for hard work and a long haul, also known as politics. This isn't a playground, its the real world.

[Ben]

Thursday, September 22, 2011 by In These Times Troy Davis Executed, While CEO Responsible for Deaths of 29 Miners Sails Free

by Mike Elk

Last night at 11:08, Troy Anthony Davis was executed in the State of Georgia for the 1989 murder of a police officer. Much doubt existed in the case as seven of the nine witnesses recanted their testimony (one even claimed that an eighth murder witness was guilty) and no DNA or other physical evidence linked Davis to the crime.
Former FBI Director William Sessions wrote, “The evidence in this case—consisting almost entirely of conflicting stories, testimonies and statements—is inadequate to the task of convincingly establishing either Davis’ guilt or his innocence.” Davis maintained his innocence up until his death, telling the family of the murdered police officer, “I was not the one who took the life of your father, son, brother.”
Last year on April 5, 29 miners died in a methane explosion caused by poor ventilation at the Upper Big Branch Mine in Raleigh County, W.Va. A report by the Mine Safety and Health Administration ruled that the event that caused the explosion could have easily been prevented by Massey Energy, which was well aware of a long history of safety problems in the mine. In the year leading up to the explosion, the Upper Big Branch Mine was cited 458 times for safety violations, with 50 of those violations being willful violations of the law—nearly five times the national average for citations of a single mine.
An investigation by the Mine Safety and Health Administration also revealed that Massey kept two sets of books—it recorded a clean safety record in one log book, which it provided to mine inspectors, while maintaining a private, internal log of known safety problems and the efforts made to fix them.
Despite this evidence of the willful violation of safety laws that could have prevented the miners' deaths at Upper Big Branch, and despite evidence of widespread lying to federal investigators by Massey officials, CEO Don Blankenship is a free man allowed to enjoy the splendorous life of a multi-millionaire.
Only two Massey Energy officials, one foreman and one former chief of security, have so far been indicted—not for their responsibility in the deaths, but for lying and concealing documents from federal investigators. Another 18 executives, including longtime Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship, refused to be interviewed by federal investigators, pleading the Fifth Amendment as protection from self-incrimination.
Even if company officials like Blankenship are prosecuted, it is unlikely that any will do jail time. Since 1970 more than 360,000 workers have died on the job in safety accidents, while only 84 cases have been prosecuted for the willful violation of safety rules that resulted in a worker's death. Even if convicted, the penalty for wrongfully killing a worker on the job is only 6 months. Quite often company officials are not jailed, but merely fined if found responsible for willfully violating safety laws that lead to a worker's death. The maximum penalty for a major safety violation is a mere $7,000—a price many companies are willing to pay for the death of a worker on the job. In 2010 alone, 4,547 Americans were killed on the job.
While many right-wing politicians, such as GOP presidential contender Rick Perry, will use the execution of Troy Davis to affirm their support for tough penalties for those convicted of killing people, few will say anything about the workers who are killed by corporations in preventable work accidents every year. But as easy as it would be to say that the issue of innocent men being killed is ignored by Republican politicians, the Democrats aren't much better.
President Barack Obama refused to issue a statement on the execution of Troy Davis; likewise, he refused to move steadfastly earlier this year to implement a revision to federal law that would prevent children as young as 12 from operating potentially deadly farm equipment. (Minors working in agriculture are six times more likely to be killed in accidents than minors working in other industries.)
After three years of efforts, the Department of Labor, about a year ago, finally issued an internal proposal to revise federal law to prevent minors from working in dangerous farm occupations. Typically, rules like this are supposed to be reviewed within 90 days of their proposal to allow for quick implementation, especially rules related to life-and-death safety rules. But under heavy industry opposition, President Obama’s Office of Management and Budget held up the rules in review for nearly nine months—an “unnecessary delay,” according to Justin Feldman of Public Citizens’ Worker and Public Health Safety Advocate.
While big agriculture was busy unnecessarily delaying these rules, two 14 year old girls were electrocuted to death working on a farm in Illinois. Finally, only after the deaths of these two children and public protest from worker safety advocates, the OMB allowed the Department of Labor to take its next step.
Power and influence have clearly distorted the scales of the justice system when men like Troy Davis are executed in the face of questionable evidence of their guilt, while corporate CEOs like Don Blankenship, who evidence shows clearly and willfully disobeyed safety laws that caused the deaths of 29 workers, are allowed to go about sailing on their yachts.
I only wonder what would have been the Supreme Court's reaction to a request for stay of execution, had the petitioner been a rich white man named Don Blankenship instead of a poor black man named Troy Davis.

© 2011 In These Times

Mike Elk is a third-generation union organizer who has worked for the United Electrical, Radio, and Machine Workers, the Campaign for America's Future, and the Obama-Biden campaign. Based in Washington D.C., he has appeared as a commentator on CNN, Fox News, and NPR, and writes frequently for In These Times as well as Alternet, The Nation, The Atlantic and The American Prospect.

[Dino Velvet]

Indeed, the United States is so uncivilised that it wouldn't even meet one of the criteria to join the European Union, which is that capital punishment is forbidden.

And you'll never see us put in an application for it either. We are The United States Of America. Not perfect but I'll take us warts and all even with Obama. Enjoy being civilized. I feel it's overrated.

My condolences to the family of the slain police officer. Thought they deserve a mention too.