"Justice" gone awry

It is an oxymoron that executing a person for a crime committed by him or her, is all too final.

There have down the years been many cases of people on Death Row spared not only from execution, but actually innocent of the crime for which they were originally convicted.

The NY Times highlights the problem of an execution of someone seemingly innocent - but prospectively unable to prove the fact if he is executed.

"There is no abuse of government power more egregious than executing an innocent man. But that is exactly what may happen if the United States Supreme Court fails to intervene on behalf of Troy Davis.

Mr. Davis is facing execution for the 1989 murder of an off-duty police officer in Savannah, Ga., even though seven of the nine witnesses have recanted their testimony against him. Many of these witnesses now say they were pressured into testifying falsely against him by police officers who were understandably eager to convict someone for killing a comrade. No court has ever heard the evidence of Mr. Davis’s innocence.

After the United States Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit barred Mr. Davis from raising his claims of innocence, his attorneys last month petitioned the Supreme Court for an original writ of habeas corpus. This would be an extraordinary procedure — provided for by the Constitution but granted only a handful of times since 1900. However, absent this, Mr. Davis faces an extraordinary and obviously final injustice."

Continue reading, here, about this extraordinary case and a judicial system not "delivering" what it is supposed to - justice!

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