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Tag Archives: Troy Davis

Troy Davis: The Lex Talionis

22 Thursday Sep 2011

Posted by michelinewalker in Uncategorized

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justice on the stand, Lex Talionis, Mrs MacPhail, peace, reasonable doubt, sacrifial lamb, Troy Davis, WordPress

The Supreme Court could have saved Troy Davis’s life.  There was reasonable   doubt.  So now two mothers are grieving or, in the case of Mrs MacPhail, attempting to grieve, the death of a son.  The lex talionis (loi du talion) prevailed.  An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth…  except that, in the current case, it was a son for a son, whether or not the son who was executed was guilty of the crime he allegedly committed:  killing Mrs MacPhail’s son.

I watched Anderson Cooper’s interview with Marc MacPhail’s mother.  Mr Cooper wanted to know whether Mrs MacPhail would feel “peace,” after the execution of Troy Davis.

Mrs MacPhail answered that she hoped to feel peace, but will she?  Officer MacPhail, her son, is still dead.  Nothing can bring him back to his family.  And now, compounding  matters, doubt concerning Mr Davis’s guilt lingers and will continue to linger, thus hindering peace.  Therefore, executing Troy Davis is still a tragedy, but a larger one.

Troy Davis’s mother will mourn her son, but it seems unlikely Mrs MacPhail will feel peace.  I hope, for her sake, that she does, but may I repeat that there was reasonable doubt as to Mr Davis’s guilt.

The lex talionis seems little more than sanctioned revenge.  Moreover, what the world may have witnessed is a classic case of scapegoating.  It appears that Troy Davis was the archetypal sacrificial lamb.

What is now on the stand is justice itself.

*   *   *

September 22, 2011

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Scapegoating: Troy Davis

21 Wednesday Sep 2011

Posted by michelinewalker in Uncategorized

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peace, reasonable doubt, Scapegoat, the death penalty, Troy Davis, WordPress

There is reasonable doubt as to whether or not Troy Davis is guilty of murdering Marc MacPhail.

His being executed will bring “peace” to his grieving mother.  But can anyone feel peace if an innocent man is put to death?

Troy Davis is a human being and he has already spent twenty years in prison.  It seems that the courts have found a scapegoat.

Indeed, what I am hearing is:  “Someone has been killed, so let us kill someone, anyone…  It may as well be Troy Davis.”  That’s scapegoating.

But please do not excecute a person if there is “reasonable doubt” as to his guilt.  In fact, do away with the death penalty altogether.

*   *   *

September 21, 2011

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On Troy Davis: reasonable doubt

18 Sunday Sep 2011

Posted by michelinewalker in Uncategorized

≈ 16 Comments

Tags

Barry Scheck, death penalty, justice, Marc MacPhail, reasonable doubt, the finite and the infinite, Troy Davis, WordPress

Troy Davis is scheduled to be executed, by lethal injection, on Wednesday, September 21, 2011. On August 19, 1989, Mr Davis was found guilty in the shooting death of Savannah, Georgia Police Officer Marc MacPhail.  Mr Davis is now 42 and has been in jail for twenty years.  But there is doubt concerning his guilt.

*   *   *

So, let us please go back to the trial of O. J. Simpson, a former football star and an actor, who was accused of killing his wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and an innocent bystander, Ronald Goldman.

It started with a police chase worthy of a Hollywood film.  Mr Simpson tried to escape driving a white Ford Bronco. This was a spectacular beginning to Mr Simpson’s trial and, to a large extent, matters remained spectacular.

The trial of O.J. Simpson lasted nine months, from January 9 to October 3, 1995, and was televised in full.  In a sense it was a forerunner to current “reality” shows.  When the police caught up with Mr Simpson, he had “lawyered up.”  So it was quickly established that, if found guilty, O.J. Simpson would not be executed.

Mr Simpson then gathered a team of lawyers whose names will go down in history for their brilliant defense.  Given his fame and wealth, Mr Simpson could afford Robert Kardashian, Johnny Cochran, Robert Shapiro, F. Lee Bailey, Alan Dershowitz and Barry Scheck, and this “dream team” lived up to its reputation.

Basically, all the “dream team” had to do to save their client was to introduce an element of doubt.  The DNA evidence pointed to guilt on the part of Mr Simpson, so viewers expected a guilty verdict.  However, when Barry Scheck heard the testimony of the DNA specialist, he managed to turn the trial around.  He suggested that the DNA evidence that was being used to establish guilt on the part of O.J. Simpson had been contaminated by the Los Angeles Police Department’s crime scene investigators.

As a result, possible guilt on the part of Mr Simpson was suddenly shifted from the accused to the Los Angeles Police Department.  At that point, the trial gained a surreal dimension and retained this dimension when Mr Simpson tried on the infamous glove. The glove did not fit, but that could be explained.  It had been wetted, causing it to shrink as it dried.  Moreover, sufficient time had elapsed between the day of the alleged crime to the day the glove was brought into evidence for the glove to shrink further.  Had the glove fit, O.J. Simpson’s lawyers may have been surprized.

Marcia Clark, the main prosecutor, was not surrounded by a dream team of lawyers. Consequently, it was not established scientifically that the glove did not fit because wet leather gloves shrink and because leather gloves shrink if they are not worn.
That glove should have been placed in a protected environment. That precious element of doubt had therefore been introduced.  O.J. Simpson was found not guilty.

*   *   *

It appears that there is reasonable doubt in the case of Troy Davis.  However, on August 19, 1989, the day Troy Davis was found guilty of the shooting death of police officer Marc MacPhail, he did not have by his side a lawyer of stature, a Barry Scheck.

Indeed, what of that element of doubt?  It is there.

I have therefore reflected that there may be several cases when a person stands no further than one good lawyer away the death penalty.

Whether or not he has killed, I hope an angel will help Mr Davis cross the narrow distance, a mere thread, between the finite and the infinite.

*   *   *

September 18, 2011

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