Murderer Executed Unjustly? Lies Persist.

Recently, we were treated to breathless "news" reports about the pending execution of convicted murderer Troy Anthony Davis. After multiple appeals, including a last-minute unsuccessful appeal to the US Supreme Court, the State of Georgia was finally allowed to perform its duty and sent Davis off to his final reward with a lethal injection.

Death penalty opponents and far too many news reporters used the argument that Davis was convicted and sentenced to death based solely on eyewitness testimony that later proved to be faulty. Any lawyer will tell you that eyewitness testimony is notoriously unreliable, and counting on that and the public's ignorance of the actual facts of the case, Davis supporters created and then perpetuated a complete lie. First, he was not convicted solely on faulty eyewitness testimony. Second, the revisions, recantations and contradictions of the eyewitneses on which Davis supporters rely were neither substantial nor timely, let alone credible.

Let me establish before proceeding that this is not a discussion of the rightness or wrongness of the death penalty. I personally support the death penalty, and believe the circumstances which trigger capital punishment should be expanded rather than contracted. But as the DA played by Sam Waterston who supported the death penalty on Law and Order said: "One can believe in the death penalty without being sanguine about it." Moreover, I disagree with, but have great respect for those who argue against the death penalty on deep moral or religious grounds. But that has very little to do with the Troy Davis case.

Davis supporters say that seven of the nine civilian witnesses who testified that they saw Troy Davis cold-bloodedly shoot and kill police officer Mark MacPhail have recanted or modified their eyewitness testimony. This is largely untrue, and where it is true, it is misleading and generally irrelevant. In fact, none of the "recanting" eyewitnesses actually rejected their testimony concerning MacPhail's murder. Instead, those who say that they "didn't say that" at the time of the investigation are claiming that the investigating police officers typed up their statements and interviews and presented them to the eyewitnesses for signature. In a murder case, we're supposed to believe that eyewitnesses didn't read the statements they signed.

Even if that were true, they must have read the statements some time, since they testified to exactly the same facts and identification at trial and in front of the jury. The eyewitnesses were neither actors memorizing lines, nor were they trained professional witnesses. Yet each testified in open court to what they had seen, and with no hint of memorization, what they testified to was absolutely consistent with their written statements.If they had doubts, why didn't they express them much earlier, since the trial occurred two years after the statements were signed and further interviews conducted? They were specifically asked by the prosecutor at trial if they had read their statements and if they were accurate, and in each case the answer was "yes."

The "recantations" began concurrently with the filing of the first appeal and after pressure from defense counsel, starting nearly three years after the conviction by a jury of his peers. We must now believe that the eyewitnesses didn't know what they were saying during the investigation, two years later at trial, and for three years thereafter until the defense/appellate attorneys and the anti-capital punishment advocates got hold of them.

Having discussed the seven non-police witnesses "recanting" their testimony, what about the remaining two? Well, they both stick adamantly to their original statements and testimony. One of the two (a man named Coles) was rewarded for this by being accused by the defense attorneys of being the actual murderer. MacPhail was shot in the face and the stomach from in front. All the eyewitnesses, including those allegedly recanting, testified that Coles was standing behind MacPhail when the shooting took place. None of them have changed their version of that testimony.

So unless Coles borrowed the magic bullet from the Kennedy assassination, it would have been impossible for Coles to have shot officer MacPhail. Coles was a known associate of Davis's, and possibly a partner-in-crime with him. But unless Coles was also capable of being in two places at the same time, all testimony, including the "recantations" place him where he could not possibly have shot MacPhail.

Coles initially fled from the crime scene on foot, but as soon as the police arrived, he quickly returned to give officers his version of what happened. This included his seeing Davis shoot officer MacPhail, which was, and still is, consistent with the statements and testimony of the other eight eyewitnesses. If he was protecting himself from prosecution for murder, it's a bit more than coincidental that eight other people also said Coles was behind the police officer, on the spot, in the heat of the moment, and without any coaching or threats from Coles. Eyewitness identity testimony becomes more reliable when multiple eyewitnesses tell nearly identical versions of the incident and when several personally knew the accused murderer from a time prior to the murder.

All of the appellate courts, including the Supreme Court, ultimately held that the prosecution had acted properly, the witnesses were reliable, and the jury acted properly by determining that Davis was guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. Whether one agrees or not, the legal and constitutional issues were litigated at length, and Davis lost.

Now you're saying to yourself, "but that still indicates that there was no physical evidence of Davis's guilt." Not correct. There was no physical evidence that the trial jury saw. But there was plenty of conclusive evidence that they didn't see. The over-used and dubious "exclusionary rule" came into effect prior to trial. All the damning hard physical evidence that proved Davis's guilt was excluded from the trial, and the jury never heard it. Police officers allegedly did not obtain the proper search warrants before seizing the physical evidence which conclusively tied Davis to the murder and as the murderer.

Coles's testimony becomes more believable when you know that Davis went to Coles's house after the murder, and exchanged his bloody shirt before fleeing to Atlanta. Davis also left behind a gun he had used to shoot another man earlier on the day of the MacPhail murder. Ballistics tests absolutely confirmed that the bullets removed from officer MacPhail and the victim of the earlier shooting matched each other, and came from Davis's gun, which the officers had seized. But the police did not obtain search warrants for either the gun or the bloody shirt (clear blood-spatter evidence) before seizing them, so the jury never saw or heard about them.

One can argue that the jury reached its verdict improperly on mere eyewitness testimony, and that therefore his execution was unjustified. The Supreme Court and the Georgia Pardons and Parole Board found otherwise (multiple times), but opinions can still come down on either side. However, anyone who continues to advocate that Davis was innocent is either delusional or simply lying to support a cause. Even if one argues that the law was violated or the Constitution misinterpreted, it is morally irresponsible and factually insane to continue to argue that Davis was not a murderer. A murderer whom I believe received both his legal punishment and his just reward.

There is one further pro-Davis argument that is easily dismissed: Davis was tried and convicted by a jury that was consistent with Georgia's alleged white prejudices against black defendants. Well, the jury was comprised of seven whites and five blacks. This fact is also bolstered by the other fact that the race-baiters don't want you to know. The large majority of convicts on Georgia's death row are white males, and the only female convict on death row is also white. Quod erat demonstrandum.