At a Monday news conference, White House spokesman Jay Carney, when asked about Davis’ case, declined to weigh in. “Well, as you know, the president has written that he believes the death penalty does little to deter crime but that some crimes merit the ultimate punishment,” Carney said. He referred questions about the pending Davis execution to the U.S. Justice Department. The case was one of the most popular topics throughout Wednesday on the social media Twitter site. MacPhail, 27, was moonlighting on a security detail shortly after midnight on Aug. 19, 1989, when he rushed to help a homeless man who had cried out while he was pistol-whipped in a Burger King parking lot. MacPhail was shot three times before he could draw his gun. One witness said the killer wore a “smirky-like smile” and stood over the fallen officer, firing again and again, including once in MacPhail’s face. Sylvester “Redd” Coles, who accompanied Davis to the scene, was the first to implicate Davis to police. Other witnesses said they either saw Davis fire the fatal shots or identified Davis as the killer by the clothes he wore. Davis was tried, convicted and sentenced to death during a 1991 trial. In ensuing years, however, several key prosecution witnesses renounced or backed off their trial testimony, while others issued sworn statements that said Coles had told them he was the actual trigger man. Coles, once asked by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution about the accusations, declined to comment. At trial, he testified that he left the immediate crime scene before he heard shots fired. The new testimony and evidence gained notoriety because the murder weapon was never found, and no DNA, fingerprint or blood evidence tied Davis to the killing. At least three jurors who sentenced Davis to death recently signed sworn statements that said they now had doubts about their verdicts and asked that Davis be spared execution.



http://www.clarkprosecutor.org/html/deat/US/davis1269.htm




No hard evidence tied him to the killing. It was all strictly 'eyewitness' recanted later.

With the State's 'Star Witness' Sylvester “Redd” Coles fingered as well.

This case is one that I can't feel 100% satisfied that the burden of proof was met to hand down a death sentence.

I can agree with the conviction. You can't ask that there be DNA or a substantial amount of physical evidence in every single criminal case or the defendant walks free. That's not realistic or a reasonable expectation.

You cant say that this particular defendant didn't get a chance to prove his assertions.

He had the chance to prove his innocence by the courts allowing the recanted witness statements to be heard and considered.

Whether or not you agree with the death penalty in this case it is very hard to argue that this guy wasn't given every avenue available to have it overturned.

In 2009, the Supreme Court of the United States, voting 7 to 2, ordered the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Georgia to consider whether new evidence "that could not have been obtained at the time of trial clearly establishes [Davis'] innocence". The evidentiary hearing was held in June 2010, during which affidavits from seven prosecution eyewitnesses from the trial whom the defense contended changed or recanted their previous testimony were presented. Some of the affidavits implicated one of the original prosecution witnesses, Sylvester "Redd" Coles, in the crime, and other affiants asserted they had been coerced by police. The State presented witnesses, including the police investigators and original prosecutors, denying coercion. Evidence that Coles had confessed to the killing was excluded as hearsay because Coles was not subpoenaed by the defense to rebut it. In an August 2010 decision, the conviction was upheld, and the court described defense efforts to upset the conviction as "largely smoke and mirrors", and found that several of the proffered affidavits were not recantations at all..

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troy_Anthony_Davis

I'm not outraged about them either, they both deserved to be executed also BUT if they were black there would be more of a public outcry about it.

Lawrence Russell Brewer was one of the executed, I will have to find the other name again.

I can, they had bullistics, and DNA(the DNA and the shorts were thrown out because they were obtained without a warrant.)

or not, in researching the THREE executions spoken of 2 have been black men and one a white man

so,, that means the other BLACK man also didnt spark outrage, probably because he never denied doing it and apologized FOR doing it

No, it was two white men and one black man.

nope

Derrick Oneal Mason (executed for killing store clerk during attempted robbery)


Lawrence Russell Brewer (executed for tying and dragging a man to death behind his truck)


Troy Davis (executed for the shooting death of an officer)


Mason and Davis are black men, Brewer was a white man

I'm still interested in hearing answers to the question.

How many innocent people is it acceptable to execute to ensure that all of the guilty are also executed?