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I kind of agree. Vivien Send a noteboard - 24/09/2011 12:05:27 AM
It's going too far to demand incontrovertible physical evidence (multiple eyewitness accounts, DNA evidence, a videotape of the crime taking place, etc) before a conviction. I think it's because of stuff like CSI and Law and Order that we demand physical evidence. However physical evidence is a fairly new thing and it's also not foolproof. However I am not touching the death penalty thing, that's a separate issue.

whether or not Troy Davis was guilty, the fact that someone can be executed with ZERO physical evidence tying them to the crime is beyond the pale.

For the vast majority of human history people were executed by the most fair and just legal systems with ZERO physical evidence. Why don't you show me the law or Constitutional provision that sets out the evidentary requirements for a captial conviction?

it has long been established that eyewitness accounts are not 100% reliable as evidence, but yet not only did a jury decide that the eyewitness accounts were enough to convict, they handed down a death sentence as well. then when 7 of 9 eyewitnesses recanted their testimony, it still wasn't enough to prevent the execution.

Nor should it. Their testimony was offered in a court of law and cross-examined by the defense and it failed to sway the jurors. There is no evidence that the trial was conducted improperly and the failure of multiple appeals suggests that it was, in fact, not. The recantations are not given in any detail, nor are the circumstances of them set forth. The testimony was given in the most fair circumstances possible and the jurors had the chance to ignore it, but chose not to. The defense had the chance to get the testimony dismissed but failed to do so. The convicting testimony was offered much closer to the actual occasion of the crime than the recantations, and so was much more likely to be accurate. Any number of things could have effected the witnesses, including memory diminishing or even pressure from the defense and other advocates of Davis. No one bothers to ensure AFTER the trial that witnesses and jurors are no longer tampered with or influenced.

zero physical evidence, 7 of 9 eyewitnesses coming forward to say they were either wrong or coerced by police to give misleading testimony and yet we still put the convicted man to death for it. yay.... :[
On what evidence do you base these "facts"? This is a one-sided article offering no support for those claims, beyond the assertions of the people paid to get him off. The supreme irony here is that you are denouncing the justice system for allowing an execution on insufficient evidence or proof of guilt, yet you offer no evidence to the contrary, beyond an article that only lists a very partial and suspect source for those claims, and headlines the article with the absurdly fallacious argument from authority, by citing famous people who supported Davis (and many of those listed are notoriously the sort who would not be remotely interested in the facts of the case, and would have supported him even with a conviction and multiple angles of video footage showing him commit the crime - they are racial advocates and opponents of the death penalty, regardless of the certainty of guilt). In other words, you are committing the exact same error you accuse the legal system of committing. Unlike you, however, the jurors actually heard the testimony of those eyewitnesses and had the opportunity to hear both sides of the case and weigh the evidence. You have a very short and factually-deficient article that offers no support for any of the claims made therein, beyond the FACT that multiple courts heard the case and upheld it, despite a system strongly weighted in favor of the defendant.
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i'm proud to live in a country where you can be executed based on circumstantial evidence... - 22/09/2011 04:06:07 PM 1471 Views
Yeah it's pretty damn disgusting and frustrating... - 22/09/2011 04:08:05 PM 782 Views
Well - 22/09/2011 06:57:37 PM 821 Views
And yet the Supreme Court didn't stop it. You're a lawyer right? - 22/09/2011 04:19:05 PM 843 Views
Well, that right there was an ignorant thing to say. - 22/09/2011 04:32:49 PM 907 Views
But they get all the media attention - 22/09/2011 04:45:03 PM 782 Views
Er. - 22/09/2011 05:09:44 PM 795 Views
What about the t-shirts? *NM* - 22/09/2011 05:47:49 PM 325 Views
Heh... you should perhaps Google 'The West Memphis 3' - 22/09/2011 05:29:06 PM 867 Views
And this is a typically illogical argument. - 22/09/2011 11:11:48 PM 819 Views
You're kidding, right? - 23/09/2011 02:55:44 PM 771 Views
Re: You're kidding, right? - 23/09/2011 07:36:38 PM 791 Views
Juror bias. *NM* - 23/09/2011 08:35:10 PM 310 Views
the jury was majority black *NM* - 23/09/2011 09:03:48 PM 318 Views
In this instance, yes. *NM* - 23/09/2011 09:30:10 PM 277 Views
Your evidence for that? *NM* - 23/09/2011 11:33:58 PM 316 Views
Twenty-one years of life in the American South. - 24/09/2011 12:40:10 AM 744 Views
Of course I'm interested - 24/09/2011 04:03:51 AM 686 Views
From me being too involved with the subject material. I apologize. - 24/09/2011 11:16:06 AM 664 Views
No worries - 24/09/2011 07:10:40 PM 653 Views
While I largely agree with your argument, I agree more with Cannoli on the NAACP. - 23/09/2011 07:46:06 PM 727 Views
Wow - 23/09/2011 07:50:06 PM 630 Views
It happens. - 25/09/2011 03:09:00 PM 678 Views
yes the "you born white what more do you want" argument *NM* - 23/09/2011 09:03:04 PM 309 Views
From what I've read it is pretty disturbing - 22/09/2011 04:27:44 PM 855 Views
Huh. - 22/09/2011 04:47:20 PM 852 Views
That jumped out at me too. - 22/09/2011 04:50:52 PM 773 Views
What really confuses me - 22/09/2011 04:58:32 PM 726 Views
Well... - 22/09/2011 05:18:54 PM 881 Views
So if I understand you correctly... - 22/09/2011 05:23:00 PM 819 Views
almost - 22/09/2011 08:25:06 PM 722 Views
Re: Well... - 22/09/2011 05:29:03 PM 778 Views
I know one reason is that - 22/09/2011 08:27:41 PM 778 Views
it is only confusing because the evidence isn't really that shaky - 22/09/2011 08:54:21 PM 764 Views
you are innocent until proven guilty - 22/09/2011 05:34:57 PM 799 Views
You must change your perspective..... - 22/09/2011 07:33:20 PM 775 Views
Well said *NM* - 22/09/2011 08:49:56 PM 340 Views
If I understand the Supreme Court correctly, the reason they denied the stay of execution was - 22/09/2011 08:25:14 PM 801 Views
On its face, that is a good reason. - 22/09/2011 10:07:44 PM 820 Views
I completely support the Death Penalty without question..... - 22/09/2011 08:27:54 PM 705 Views
Unreasonable doubt is impossible to eliminate. - 22/09/2011 09:54:43 PM 783 Views
Doubt can be eliminated.....any question about Dalmer? - 23/09/2011 01:00:52 PM 771 Views
Maybe he was framed by an enemy, government conspiracy or aliens. - 23/09/2011 01:54:21 PM 724 Views
Jigga what? *NM* - 23/09/2011 03:36:07 PM 347 Views
Circumstantial evidence is not, I believe, a bar to conviction. - 22/09/2011 09:43:56 PM 675 Views
Regarding the salvation thing, that is an argument FOR the death penalty, in my mind. - 22/09/2011 11:37:16 PM 754 Views
That motive is seflish and thus fatal. - 23/09/2011 01:17:00 AM 683 Views
Bullshit - 25/09/2011 03:53:05 AM 916 Views
Thank God you're not an evangelist. - 23/09/2011 02:59:06 PM 720 Views
And I pity the souls you have ministered to. They're in for a rude shock at their judgement - 25/09/2011 04:01:05 AM 710 Views
lol roman catholicism *NM* - 25/09/2011 04:39:55 AM 289 Views
You really don't understand irony, do you? Particularly as it applies to your post about this case. - 22/09/2011 11:26:49 PM 802 Views
. - 23/09/2011 08:21:38 AM 745 Views
I kind of agree. - 24/09/2011 12:05:27 AM 754 Views

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