Dear N'Landers, pls share your view on Troy Davis Execution,

This is same state/country that advocate the removal of death penalty. Is it because he's a black american? is anything hidden about this case that is not known to us?





JACKSON, Georgia (Reuters) - The U.S. state of Georgia executed convicted murderer Troy Davis on Wednesday in a case that drew international attention because of claims by his advocates that he may have been innocent.

Davis was put to death by lethal injection at 11:08 p.m. EDT/0308 GMT on Thursday at a prison in central Georgia for the murder of a police officer in 1989, prisons spokeswoman Kristen Stancil said. The execution was delayed by more than four hours as the U.S. Supreme Court considered whether to issue a stay.

The case provoked protests and an online petition accumulated nearly a million signatures because of doubts expressed in some quarters over whether he killed police officer Mark MacPhail in 1989.

MacPhail was shot and killed outside a Burger King restaurant in Savannah, Georgia, as he went to the aide of a homeless man who was being beaten. MacPhail's family say Davis is guilty and his son witnessed the execution.

Since Davis's conviction, seven of nine witnesses have changed or recanted their testimony, some have said they were coerced by police to testify against him and some say another man committed the crime.

No physical evidence linked Davis to the killing.

Davis went to his death saying he was innocent, according to journalists who witnessed the execution.

"The incident that night was not my fault. I did not have a gun," Davis said, according to Rhonda Cook of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution newspaper.

"I did not personally kill your son, father and brother. I am innocent," Cook quoted Davis as telling members of MacPhail's family who were present in the death chamber.

Hundreds of protesters rallied outside Georgia Diagnostic and Classification prison earlier, chanting "I am Troy Davis" and other slogans and a cheer briefly went up when it was reported that the execution had been delayed.

But the crowd dwindled as the evening wore on, and by the time the execution took place they were outnumbered by police in riot gear. Most of Davis' supporters slipped away in silence as the execution was announced.

"This is a tragic moment. We were hoping for a different result," said Raphael Warnock, pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, whose church was once led by slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King.

I don't get it. America carried out an execution, so what? Innocent or not, that is America's issue to deal with not mine.

Very sad. I dont know the whole story, but murderers hardly own up. Besides you dont need to own a gun to commit murder, a victims weapon can be used against him.

Obama probably should have brought his influence to the matter, but he would be roundly accused of favouring the blacks because of his colour. A white president could have easily saved him without any accusation of prejudice.

In any case Troy Davis is dead, and may his soul rest in peace.

I however look forward to seeing all those Boko Haramists Terrorists who killed Police Officers and innocent civilians in Nigeria beg for their lives! I hope this happen sooner than later!

May his soul rest in peace and if it was a mistake may God forgive those who are responsible.

I learned 2 things from Troy Davis's situation:

1. The capital punishment has no second chance once the offender is executed.

2. Regardless of your position, situation or circumstance, a law is a law (only if 5% of Nigerians in Nigeria thinks this way, our country would be a better place).
Troy Davis has gone to rest. May God give his family and his folks in general the peace and strength to be able to move on effectively.

What brought racial issues into this execution?

Typical Nigerians will not understand what happened yesterday.
Again, I'm not in a position to judge, but it is what it is. A country that has weak laws usually doesn't do well in anything.
Nigerians in Nigeria should learn 1 or 2 things from what occurred yesterday.
May Troy Davis's soul rest in peace.

I have read his story and I think he did it or at least knows who did. I an a strong believer in an eye for an eye but even then stories like this make me weak.

ChinenyeN:

I don't get it. America carried out an execution, so what? Innocent or not, that is America's issue to deal with not mine.

@ ChinenyeN.
Senseless opinion like yours is not welcome on this matter.

Kx:

What brought racial issues into this execution?

@KX.
Not racial issue but was so surprised that America can carry out an execution on a case that is not so clear.
All indication proved that the guy is not directly linked to the crime. Even if he does, they don't have substantial evidence against him. I will be cleared if they execute a white American in such manner

norrisman:

I have read his story and I think he did it or at least knows who did. I an a strong believer in an eye for an eye but even then stories like this make me weak.

@norisman,
I know America to be leading in forensic technology and also have all it takes to unfold crime mysteries. Why are they so fast in executing Troy Davis in an unsure scenerio.

^^ Do you say so fast in a killing of 22yrs?

@ mods

Should this thread not be in the Foreign Affairs section ? what concerns a hard working man/woman in Nigeria with the execution of a Troy Davis in America.

My american friend did not know bout this guy. Wiki d guy u wil c his history, he is criminally minded. A school dropout who would not keep a job. The world is better off without such lousy dimwits.

It's racist and nothing else!
the poor guy did not get a fair hearing

I think they killed an innocent man

I was not directly responsible for the death of the victim, Troy Davis said to the family of the victim, when he was given an opportunity to make his last statement. I think that statement shows that he claimed some indirect responsibility for the murder of the cop. And in America, an accused who killed a cop automatically gets the death penalty unless his sentence is commuted by the governor or the parole board, or the president if it is a federal crime.

if such execution takes place in china or iran, hilary clinton will shout human right, human right. DOUBLE STANDARD.

iykak47:

if such execution takes place in china or iran, hilary clinton will shout human right, human right. DOUBLE STANDARD.

sharap

in Iran the accused will be sentenced today and hung tomorrow, leaving no time for the accused to appeal his conviction and at least try to prove his innocence. This guy had 22 years to do so, and I see no human rights abuse here. He was convicted of killing a cop. He was also executed by lethal injection, which is a painless way to die because the condemned is first put to sleep before being injected with the lethal dose of chemicals. In Iran the accused would be hung or stoned to death.

@ princea12, listen to yourself, 'lethal injection, painless'. what concerns a dead man with painless death. are you sure you are not related to basket mouth.

May his soul respect in peace, Amen.

It is not a new thing that such case exist in American there is no human right anywhere whether someone is killed by stone or by leather or by hanging death is death.

my mind is troubled by his execution i tell ya, it was very disturbing, and made me even closer to God more, may his soul rest in peace.

The Lord knows everything that is hidden to us all.

I laughed. I have been wondering: the comments may (or rather, must) have been pages if the execution took place in Muslim country, say, Saudia. But being it's the mighty U.S, the "most civilized" nation now on earth, it's all well. What is this? I won't jam the gun myself.

Princek12:

sharap

in Iran the accused will be sentenced today and hung tomorrow, leaving no time for the accused to appeal his conviction and at least try to prove his innocence. This guy had 22 years to do so, and I see no human rights abuse here. He was convicted of killing a cop. He was also executed by lethal injection, which is a painless way to die because the condemned is first put to sleep before being injected with the lethal dose of chemicals. In Iran the accused would be hung or stoned to death.

You are not correct.

Iran is far better than America.

The blessed Islamic Republic of Iran.

I'm not interested in American/"African American" business one bit. People are murdered/executed everyday. What should I do about it? R.I.P. his soul anyway!!!

Troy Davis had already eaten his last meal Wednesday night as 7 p.m.--his scheduled execution time--came and went. A few minutes later, Georgia prison officials announced they would delay his execution so that the U.S. Supreme Court could consider the prisoner's last-minute request for an appeal.

Over the next four hours, Davis' supporters in Georgia celebrated and prayed, hoping that the delay meant Davis would stave off death one more time. Davis was no stranger to 11th-hour appeals: Wednesday was his fourth execution date. He had also faced execution on July 2007, September 2008, and October 2008. Each of these earlier appointments with execution produced additional stays so that his case could come under fresh judicial review.

In September 2008, the Supreme Court granted Davis a stay just an hour and a half before he was set to be put to death. Indeed, Davis reportedly declined to request a special last meal because he believed another 11th-hour reprieve was in the offing. He ate the same cheeseburger fare as all the other Georgia inmates did.

But shortly after 10 p.m., the Supreme Court announced it had decided not to hear Davis' appeal, and Davis was then strapped to a gurney and put to death at 11:08 pm.

Davis' execution has rallied death penalty opponents who believe that Georgia had executed an innocent man. But another issue raised by Davis' roller-coaster ride through state-mandated life and death over the past 20 years is whether Death Row itself constitutes cruel and unusual punishment.

Convicts in less high-profile cases have also experienced the same 11th-hour stays. Last week, Texas Death Row prisoner Duane Buck was granted a Supreme Court execution stay two hours into the six-hour window Texas prison officials had set for his execution.

Anti-death penalty activists, including the human-rights group Amnesty International, have compared the dramatic and protracted appeals process to "mock executions"--a practice widely recognized as torture. As of 2008, American Death Row prisoners spent an average of 13 years waiting for their executions. In some countries, waits of more than three years are outlawed as inhumane.

The Supreme Court in the past has tried to prevent the last-minute decisions that come after a prisoner has already been scheduled to die. "Justice [Sandra Day] O'Connor asked the states to change the time of execution to day time so that when the inevitable last-minute appeals come in the justices are at least at work instead of all over, at home or you know around the world," Richard Dieter, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, told The Lookout. "A lot of states did do that, but it really doesn't solve the problem. Whatever decisions are made before, lawyers are going to file something new the day of the execution--that's their job." This time, the court hasn't explained what took so long.

In past Supreme Court rulings on the issue, Justice Stephen Breyer led the charge--together with now-retired Justice John Paul Stevens--in arguing that the Supreme Court should consider whether Death Row itself constitutes cruel and unusual punishment. Such measures are barred under the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution.

In 1995, Stevens argued that leaving criminals on Death Row for long periods of time may be unconstitutional. He cited a comment in a Supreme Court decision from 1890: "When a prisoner sentenced by a court to death is confined in the penitentiary awaiting the execution of the sentence, one of the most horrible feelings to which he can be subjected during that time is the uncertainty during the whole of it." In 1890, the execution waiting period was no more than four weeks.

Stevens also wrote that the court ruled the death penalty legal because the Framers considered it permissible and because it serves as retribution and as a deterrent to crime. Stevens argued that the Framers would never have countenanced decades-long Death Rows in their time, since people were executed promptly after sentencing. Stevens also argued that the longer a prisoner awaits execution, the less likely it is that the sentence will produce a deterrent or retributive effect.

Stevens contended that the lengthy appeals process is necessary, however, since more than 30 percent of death penalty verdicts between 1973 and 2000 were overturned. Stevens argued in a 2009 case that the death penalty should be outlawed altogether in order to resolve the issue of whether the extended appeals of capital cases he saw as constitutionally mandated were nevertheless in violation of the Constitution's Eighth Amendment.

Justice Clarence Thomas disagreed. Convicted murderer William Thompson argued that his 30 years on Death Row were cruel and unusual punishment. But Thomas wrote that it was the prisoner's own fault for appealing his sentence again and again. Thomas also said that the severity of Thompson's crime merited the death penalty. Thompson was convicted of torturing and murdering a woman while trying to extort several hundred dollars from her family.

Death penalty opponents have made the same argument in international courts. Is it cruel to keep a person on Death Row, in perpetual doubt about whether he will live or die? Or is it the prisoner's fault for appealing his sentence in the first place? Most of the decisions have sided with the former argument, reasoning that it's only natural that a condemned prisoner would cling to life by mounting extended and repeated appeals.

In some other countries that still use capital punishment--including Kenya, Malawi and Uganda--a death sentence is commuted to life in prison if execution is delayed by more than three years, according to Reprieve, a London-based anti-death penalty nonprofit. The European Court of Human Rights held in 1989 that forcing a condemned prisoner to endure "the conditions on death row and the anguish and mounting tension of living in the ever-present shadow of death" is inhumane. The UK Privy Council, which is the highest court for former Commonwealth countries, also says long periods on Death Row are inhumane because they add the "additional torture of a long period of alternating hope and despair."

So painful. On his way to execution, he looked at the son of his alleged victim and told him 'i wasn't the one that killed your dad'. So touching.

ATLANTA (Reuters) - Defense attorneys for executed Georgia inmate Troy Davis described on Thursday his final hours, a day after he died by lethal injection for murder amid claims that he may have been innocent.

Georgia executed Davis late on Wednesday for the 1989 murder of police officer Mark MacPhail, who was shot dead outside a Burger King restaurant in Savannah as he went to rescue a homeless man.

The execution became one of the highest profile in the United States in years because of doubts expressed by civil rights leaders, death penalty opponents and others over his guilt.

Seven of nine witnesses on whose testimony Davis was convicted in the absence of physical evidence later changed or recanted their testimony. Some of those said they were coerced by police to testify against him and some said another man committed the crime.

Hundreds demonstrated outside Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison on the night of the execution, an online petition gained nearly a million signatures, and France and the Council of Europe both called for a stay.

The execution was delayed for around four hours from its scheduled time of 7 p.m. because of a final appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

But one of Davis' lawyers played down speculation, rampant on Twitter and circulating among protesters outside the jail, that he was strapped down during that time.

Davis said goodbye to his family at around 3 p.m. but then was able to speak with them by phone until around 6.40 p.m., said lawyer Danielle Garten, who acted as intermediary during the call.

Davis had maintained a supportive relationship with his family despite being on death row and at the end of the final call they gathered round and yelled "I love you" into the phone, Garten told Reuters.

After that, he made at least one more call to lawyers, she said. A spokesman for Georgia's Department of Corrections declined on Thursday to give details of Davis' execution.

EXECUTION "THEATRICAL"

Davis had some optimism on his last day because since 2007 three previous death warrants had been stayed, said another defense attorney, Jason Ewart, who witnessed the execution.

Click image to see more photos


AP
"I think he had high faith that he was going to be able to avoid this one," Ewart told Reuters, adding that Davis' main preoccupation was with his family.

Ewart described the 15 minute execution as much more theatrical than he had expected.

"He was on display and the whole thing was set up for the audience and that's what disturbs me now. He was not on a flat gurney. It's a gurney that was tilted toward a giant picture window with a spotlight on him," he said.

"They filled him up with a paralytic and he was looking at me and I could see him go limp. I thought he was dead but then I saw him breathing. He could tell what was going on but couldn't move," he told Reuters.

"The nurse walked up to him and opened his eyes and put the flashlight into them" before a lethal shot was administered, Ewart said.

Davis went to his death protesting his innocence, according to journalists who witnessed the execution. Members of MacPhail's family said Davis was guilty and deserved death.

A federal evidentiary hearing in 2010, granted by the U.S. Supreme Court in an unusual move, upheld the original trial and sentence.

America is known for double standard.Troy was executed without clear evidience and even when 7 out of 9 witnesses recanted their words.They are the on clarmouring for democracy but they want it to happen in the middle east,they want them to remain forever under the implanted puppet regime see what's happenning in Yemen,Bahrain e.t.c.Iran that's practicing democracy has be isolated by the european countries.May God save us from their hypocracy,

Every day, kids are being driven out of their homes in parts of Akwa Ibom over allegations of witchcraft. Newsweek even did a cover story on 'Africa's witches' recently. Yet all you cretins can talk about is the killing of some American under US justice?

julioralph:

It's racist and nothing else!
the poor guy did not get a fair hearing

The original jury that sentenced him to death has 7 blacks and 5 whites. Racism my arse.

Na wa ooo. How did this make it to the frontpage.
Imagine the execution of a nobody in the US and someone is asking for opinions from nigerians. Somebody responded that it does not matter to himself and the poster is making insulting comments.
Do the poster know how many innocents persons that has been killed/executed in Nigeria? Talking about a nobody being executed after 22 years! Why didn't you post this since?
This poster sef. Playing d race card again?
We have serious issues here in Nigeria. *long hiss*

America is known for double standard.Troy was executed without clear evidience and even when 7 out of 9 witnesses recanted their words.They are the on clarmouring for democracy but they don't want it to happen in the middle east,they want them to remain forever under the implanted puppet regime see what's happenning in Yemen,Bahrain e.t.c.Iran that's practicing democracy has be isolated by the european countries.May God save us from their hypocracy,