by Dr. Boyce Watkins, Your Black World
Troy Davis, a man set to be executed tonight at 7 pm, has remained defiant until the very end. He insists that he did not commit the murder for which he is set to die, and has announced that he would like to take a polygraph test to prove his innocence. Davis is scheduled to receive a lethal injection for the murder of Georgia police officer Mark MacPhail in 1989.
Davis’ case has received international attention and millions of signatures on petitions to fight his execution. But the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles denied the pleas of Davis’ attorneys in a hearing that was held earlier this week. Prison officials have also denied Davis’ request for a polygraph test, leading some to wonder why they don’t want to honor one of Troy’s last wishes.
“Troy is so insistent of his innocence that he is willing to take a polygraph. I think it’s a bit of a risky strategy. Polygraph tests are not the most solid type of evidence,” said Laura Moye, a spokeswoman for Amnesty.
In order to take the polygraph test, Davis would have needed permission from the district attorney of Chatham County, where the crime was committed or the state paroles board. The NAACP and other groups are seeking to pressure the Chatham County DA’s office to convince them to review the facts behind Davis’ case.
“There are a number of legal filings at a number of different courts that they (his lawyers) are trying to see what they might be able to do to try and stop this execution,” Moye said.
The term “reasonable doubt” is defined in the following way:
If the jury—or the judge in a bench trial—has a reasonable doubt as to the defendant’s guilt, the jury or judge should pronounce the defendant not guilty. Conversely, if the jurors or judge have no doubt as to the defendant’s guilt, or if their only doubts are unreasonable doubts, then the prosecutor has proven the defendant’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt and the defendant should be pronounced guilty.
In light of the fact that seven of nine eye witnesses have recanted or changed their testimony, the degree of doubt in the Davis case is not just reasonable, it is significant. Someone has even come forward to say that one of the original eye witnesses, Sylvester Coles, admitted years later that he was actually the shooter. Most interesting is that Coles just happened to be one of the first people to implicate Davis in the shooting.
“Given that seven of the nine witnesses in the original case against Davis have either recanted or modified their original testimony, it is quite unlikely that the prosecution would be able to get a conviction today,” said Dr. Wilmer Leon, a Political Science Professor at Howard University. ”That says that Davis should be a free man.”
Dr. Leon and others are not only advocating for Troy Davis in Georgia, but also cite another case in nearby Alabama, where Rodney K. Stanberry has been in prison for 13 years for a murder that he likely did not commit. It appears that Jim Crow justice might be alive and well all throughout the south.
Dr. Boyce Watkins is a Professor at Syracuse University and founder of the Your Black World Coalition. To have Dr. Boyce commentary delivered to your email, please click here.
