Sherry Chandler

Death Penalty

That I am opposed to the death penalty probably doesn’t come as a surprise to anyone who has been reading here for long.

Here are two cases that help explain why.

Execution Of Ga. Man Near Despite Recantations

SAVANNAH, Ga. — A Georgia man is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection on Tuesday for killing a police officer in 1989, even though the case against him has withered in recent years as most of the key witnesses at his trial have recanted and in some cases said they lied under pressure from police.

Prosecutors discount the significance of the recantations and argue that it is too late to present such evidence. But supporters of Troy Davis, 38, and some legal scholars say the case illustrates the dangers wrought by decades of Supreme Court decisions and new laws that have rendered the courts less likely to overturn a death sentence.

…

At the heart of Davis’s difficulties is a law passed by Congress and signed by President Bill Clinton in the wake of the Oklahoma City bombing — the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996.

The legislation was aimed at bomber Timothy J. McVeigh but has had far broader consequences: It limits the reasons for which federal courts can overturn death penalty convictions. In Davis’s case, it has helped block the exploration of witnesses’ statements that they had lied at trial.

Before the law, the federal courts intervened to provide “relief” to death row inmates — that is, a new trial, new sentencing hearing or a commutation of the sentence to life imprisonment — in about 45 percent of cases, though the rate was declining. But between 2000 and 2007, federal courts intervened to provide such relief to the death row inmate in about 10 percent of cases, according to a forthcoming study.

“People might say the law makes the system more efficient. But we have significantly increased the likelihood of executing someone who is actually innocent,” said David R. Dow, a University of Houston law professor who co-authored the study with Eric M. Freedman of Hofstra University.

And the impending execution of poet Darrel Grayson in Alabama

Facts:

Darrell Grayson, as a young, poor, African-American, was convicted by an all-white jury.

Darrell Grayson’s trial attorney had no experience in capital cases. He practiced divorece law.

Darrell Grayson confessed to the crime. (Not all persons who confess are guilty of the crime. See “Psychology and Confessions” by Dale Wisely. Read Darrell Grayson’s statement concerning what happened.)

DNA evidence is available which has never been tested. Darrell Grayson, facing execution, has been denied the right to have DNA testing.

Darrell Grayson’s case has been supported by the Innocence Project, yet his execution date is set for July 26th at Holman Prison in Alabama.

You can read Grayson’s poetry chapbook, Holman’s House, online at the Dead Mule School of Southern Literature.

Follow-up: Georgia Board Grants Stay Of Execution to Consider Case

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