Troy Davis – and 10 reasons why the death penalty is wrong

ON a couple of occasions in the last few years, I have entered into discussion on these pages about the death penalty. Each time, I have faced vigorous opposition from supporters.

Now, in the light of the execution in Georgia of Troy Davis, I have to ask how any person with any sense of justice can possibly support the death penalty (Yorkshire Post, September 23)?

All of the possible safeguards against the execution of the wrong person, usually advanced by supporters to say the death penalty is a safe tool to use, have been wilfully ignored by the authorities. I offer 10 reasons why Troy’s conviction was unsafe, and his execution no better than judicial murder:

1. Of the nine witnesses who testified at Davis’s 1991, seven have since recanted their evidence.

2. One of those who recanted subsequently revealed they had no idea who shot the officer and that they were illiterate – they could not read the police statements that they had signed at the time of the murder in 1989.

Others said they had falsely testified that they had overheard Davis confess to the murder.

3. Many of those who retracted said that they had been cajoled by police into testifying. Some said they had been threatened with being put on trial themselves if they did not co-operate.

4. Of the two who have not changed their story publicly, one has kept silent for the past 20 years and refuses to talk, and the other is Sylvester Coles, the man who first implicated Davis as the killer.

Over the past 20 years evidence has grown that Coles himself may be the gunman and that he was fingering Davis to save his own skin.

5. Nine people have come forward with evidence that implicates Coles.

Most recently, on Monday, the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles was told by one that – in June 2009 – she had heard Coles, who had been drinking heavily, confess to the murder of MacPhail.

6. There was no forensic evidence to link Davis to the killing.

7. In particular, there is no DNA evidence of any sort.

8. No gun was ever found connected to the murder.

Coles did own the same type of gun that had delivered the fatal bullets, but said he had given it away earlier on the night of the shooting.

9. Higher courts in the US have repeatedly refused to grant Davis a retrial on the grounds that he had failed to “prove his innocence”.

This is not how the law works: it is for the courts to prove guilt.

10. Even setting aside the issue of Davis’s innocence or guilt, the manner of his execution was cruel and unnatural. This was the fourth scheduled execution date for this prisoner. In 2008 he was given a stay just 90 minutes before he was set to die. By any standards, this is tantamount to torture.

All of the protections against the execution of the wrong person were in place, and wilfully disregarded. Clemency was denied because of appeals for his death by the family of the victim – did nobody ask how they could be helped by the death of the wrong man?

It is clear to anyone with any sense that the death penalty is always unsafe, always wrong, and should never be part of any civilised society.