3
3
2
Georgia Board of Pardons Affirms State-Sponsored Murder - by Stephen Lendman
Today Georgia will murder an innocent man by lethal injection.
At issue is saving Troy Anthony Davis. On September 21, he'll die by lethal injection, despite clear evidence he's innocent.
On September 20, Georgia's Board of Pardons denied him clemency.
Because Georgia's governor can't stay executions, Davis lost his last hope, barring an unexpected 11th hour reprieve.
Georgia State University Law Professor Anne Emanuel reviewed his case. She found no justification for capital punishment. At this stage, however, she said:
"I don't see any avenues to the Supreme Court," no matter how grave the injustice.
In fact, there's nothing just about state-sponsored murder, especially against falsely accused victims.
In America, they're mostly poor Blacks or Latinos denied due process and judicial fairness by a corrupted prosecutorial system rigged to convict even known innocent defendants like Troy Anthony Davis.
Author Michelle Alexander calls America's mass incarceration "The New Jim Crow." Murdering innocent Black victims highlights it.
Colorblind America never existed. Certainly not in Georgia, a state once infamous for chain gangs.
The 1932 film, "I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang," was based on Robert Elliott Burns' autobiography titled, "I Am a Fugitive from a Georgia Chain Gang."
Their brutality helped turn public opinion against a system that included keeping prisoners in rolling cages to hold them close to work sites. Inmates were also flogged on roadsides, bound head to toe in chains.
New prison repression replaced old Georgia practices. State-sponsored murder existed earlier and today, notably against poor Blacks. Innocence is of no consequence. Only guilt by accusation matters.
Davis was wrongfully charged for killing off-duty Savanah, GA policeman Mark MacPhail. Arrested on August 23, 1989, he was indicted in mid-November despite no evidence proving his guilt.
In August 1991, he was convicted and sentenced to death. Subsequent appeals were denied.
