Friday 24 October 2008

EU legislature protests US death sentence


Troy Davis's scheduled execution, and Georgia's broken death penalty, continue to draw scrutiny. Here are a couple of
articles worth reading:
*EU legislature protests US death sentence
*Supreme Court Justice Stevens Calls Georgia Death Penalty Reviews "Utterly Perfunctory"

EU legislature protests US death sentence

8 hours ago

STRASBOURG, France (AP) — The European parliament is strongly protesting plans to execute a man in the United
States who has been sentenced to death for killing a police officer.

Troy Davis is scheduled to be executed in Georgia on Oct. 27, despite calls from his supporters to reconsider because
seven of nine key witnesses against him have recanted their testimony.
EU parliament head Hans-Gert Poettering says all executions are violations of human rights. He says the condemned
American symbolizes the fate of all death row inmates, and vows the EU legislature "will fight against the death
penalty under any circumstances everywhere in the world."
The 40-year-old Davis was sentenced to death for the 1989 murder of 27-year-old Savannah police officer Mark
MacPhail. His case has also attracted support from former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and South Africa Archbishop
Desmond Tutu.

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______________________________________________
Justice criticizes the way Ga. court reviews cases
By GREG BLUESTEIN - Associated Press Writer
ATLANTA --A U.S. Supreme Court justice criticized the way Georgia's
top court reviews death penalty cases, saying Monday that the court
has carried out an "utterly perfunctory" review of a capital
punishment case.

Justice John Paul Stevens' opinion Monday criticizes the Georgia
Supreme Court's practice of reviewing each case to determine if the
punishment is proportional. The process aims to ensure that a capital
punishment sentence isn't disproportionate to penalties in similar
cases.

Stevens' opinion come as part of a ruling released Monday that denied
a review of the death penalty against Artemus Rick Walker, a black man
who was sentenced to death for a 1999 murder of a white banker.

Stevens said he worries that "there's a special risk of arbitrariness
in cases that involve black defendants and white victims," and that
the Walker case is "particularly troubling" because the court's review
appeared to consist of only a single paragraph.

The Georgia court, he said, "must take seriously its obligation to
safeguard against the imposition of death sentences that are arbitrary
or infected by impermissible considerations such as race."

The opinion drew a strong response from Justice Clarence Thomas, who
noted that Georgia's proportionality review is not required by federal
law or the high court's precedent.

"There is nothing constitutionally defective about the Georgia Supreme
Court's determination. Proportionality review is not constitutionally
required in any form," he wrote. "Georgia simply has elected, as a
matter of state law, to provide an additional protection for capital
defendants."

Stevens announced during the last Supreme Court term that he has come
to believe that the death penalty is unconstitutional. He had been one
of the authors, 30 years earlier, of the opinion that allowed states
to begin executing inmates again after a hiatus of several years.

He is not the first person who has criticized Georgia's death penalty
procedure, as criminal defense lawyers have argued before that the
state has failed to ensure that the death penalty is evenly applied.

But the criticism, the first from a Supreme Court justice, could
encourage more challenges to Georgia's death penalty procedures.

The Georgia Supreme Court declined comment on the rulings, saying the
opinions speak for themselves.

The underlying case involves Walker, who was convicted of murdering
Ray Lynward Gresham, a vice president of a bank that had turned down
Walker's application for a loan.

Walker and a man he hired to carry out the killing rode bicycles to
Gresham's home on May 12, 1999, rang the doorbell and drew Gresham
outside. Walker then took a knife and stabbed Gresham 12 times in the
chest and back, according to court records.

After trying unsuccessfully to break into his house, the two men fled
on bicycles. Walker was found guilty and sentenced to death, and the
Georgia Supreme Court unanimously upheld the sentence in 2007, finding
it was "not disproportionate."

Walker's attorneys asked the Supreme Court to take a look at the case,
arguing that the Georgia court failed to conduct a meaningful review
of the case. The court denied the motion on grounds that his attorneys
failed to bring the argument up in lower court.

In a concurring opinion, Stevens criticized the Georgia court's
process for vetting death penalty cases.

Although the court cited 21 cases in supporting the death penalty,
Stevens questioned why the court didn't cite cases similar to Walker's
in which the jury imposed a sentence of life in prison. And he
suggested the court failed to fully vet the case.

"Rather than perform a thorough proportionality review to mitigate the
heightened risks of arbitrariness and discrimination in this case, the
Georgia Supreme Court carried out an utterly perfunctory review," he
wrote.

Thomas, in his opinion, countered that Stevens was "simply wrong" in
his assertion that the high court requires Georgia's justices to
consider cases where the death penalty was not imposed.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

TROY DAVIS, PLEASE REMEMBER THAT AMERICA IS NOT THE OLD SOUTH ~ AFRICA !!!!

A $TATE ECONOMIC BOYCOTT OF GEORGIA INTERNATIONALLY WILL OBVIOU$LY BE THE END RE$ULT OF GEORGIA DECIDING TO MURDER A PO$$IBLE INNOCENT TROY DAVI$ WITHOUT A NEW AND FAIR TRIAL ?

US CONGRESSIONAL MEMBERS WHO ARE ALSO LAWYERS BY TRADE, CONTINUE TO DENY poorer AMERICAN’S PROPER LEGAL REPRESENTATION !!!

THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY NEEDS TO BEGIN A FORMAL INVESTIGATION INTO THESE US CONGRESSIONAL CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY, AND HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS BEING INFLICTED ON poorer AMERICAN’S LIKE MR.TROY DAVIS OF GEORGIA !!!

HAVING BEEN DENIED APPEAL LAWYERS FOR THREE YEARS ON DEATH ROW IN GEORGIA MR. TROY DAVIS IS NOW BEING EXECUTED FOR A CRIME HE MIGHT NOT HAVE EVEN BEEN INVOLVED WITH !!!

SENATOR OBAMA PLEASE LET THIS COUNTRIES VOTERS KNOW YOUR FEELINGS AND THOUGHTS ABOUT A NEEDED FUTURE REPAIR AND RENOVATION OF OUR BROKEN JUDICIAL SYSTEM THAT CONTINUES TO ALLOW THE EXECUTION’S OF EVEN POSSIBLE INNOCENT AMERICAN’S LIKE TROY DAVIS OF GEORGIA ?????

BEING THE WEALTHIEST COUNTRY IN THE WORLD SENATOR OBAMA, DON’T WE NEED AS THE LEADERS OF THE FREE WORLD TO BEGIN ONCE AGAIN TO RE-INVEST THE PROPER MONIE$ IN OUR OWN US JUDICIAL SYSTEM, ASSURING ALL OF OUR CITIZENS THEIR RIGHTS TO FAIR TRIALS WITH PROPER LEGAL REPRESENTATION ???

DOES GOD NEED TO LOBBY OUR US CONGRESSIONAL LEADERS OF THE FREE WORLD ON BEHALF OF OUR poorer american’s SENATOR OBAMA,OR ARE YOU WATCHING OUT FOR THEM ??

***OUR US CONGRESS CONTINUES TO DENY MIDDLE CLASS AND WORKING POOR AMERICANS PROPER LEGAL REPRESENTATION EVEN THOUGH WRONGFUL EXECUTIONS & FALSE INCARCERATIONS CONTINUE ALL ACROSS AMERICA ???

*** 700 BILLION $$$ AVAILABLE FOR US BAILOUT, & NO $$$ FOR ALL POORER AMERICANS PROPER LEGAL REPRESENTATION ? SENATOR OBAMA, THIS JUDICIAL INJUSTICE HAS BECOME AN AMERICAN ART FORM, AND NO LONGER CAN BE KEPT HIDDEN OR SECRET FROM THE AMERICAN PEOPLE EVEN IF CERTAIN (501c3) U$ RELIGIOU$ LEADER$ HAVE BEEN $ILENCED ??

LETS ALL HOPE OUR MEDIA FRIENDS CONTINUE TO SHOW AN INTEREST IN REPORTING ON THIS AMERICAN HORROR FACING THESE (TENS OF THOUSANDS) FORGOTTEN AND TRAPPED POORER AMERICANS, AND HOW THIS PRESIDENTIAL CONTENDER HANDLES THIS VERY SERIOUS ISSUE FACING AMERICA’S LATINO AND BLACK AMERICAN COMMUNITIES ????

WITH 80% OF THE BLACK AMERICAN VOTERS SAYING THEY SUPPORT SENATOR OBAMA IN THIS PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION, IT IS ONLY FAIR FOR EVERYONE TO KNOW PRIOR BEING ELECTED OUR NEXT PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES HOW THIS DEMOCRATIC SENATOR TRULY FEELS ABOUT THIS AMERICAN JUDICIAL INJUSTICE CONTINUING TO INFLICT GRAVE HARM ON THE BLACK & LATINO AMERICAN FAMILIES AND THEIR COMMUNITIES NATIONWIDE ??????

*** WHEN GOD’S FACE BECAME VERY RED *** THE US SUPREME COURT GAVE ENEMY COMBATANTS FEDERAL APPEAL HC RIGHTS LAWYERS AND PROPER ACCESS TO US FEDERAL COURTS,AND POORER AMERICANS (MANY EVEN ON DEATH ROW) ARE DENIED PROPER FEDERAL APPEAL LEGAL REPRESENTATION TO OUR US FEDERAL COURTS OF APPEAL, AND ROTTING IN AMERICAN PRISONS NATIONWIDE ?????????

**** INNOCENT AMERICANS ARE DENIED REAL HC RIGHTS WITH THEIR FEDERAL APPEALS ! THE AMERICAN PEOPLE ARE $LOWLY FINDING OUT HOW EA$Y IT I$ FOR MIDDLE CLA$$ AND WORKING POOR AMERICAN$ TO FALL VICTIM TO OUR U$ MONETARY JUDICIAL $Y$TEM.

****WHEN THE US INNOCENT WERE ABANDONED BY THE GUILTY **** The prison experts have reported that there are 100,000 innocent Americans currently being falsely imprisoned along with the 2,300,000 total US prison population nationwide.

***WHERE ARE AMERICA’S RELIGIOUS LEADERS ??????? Since our US Congress has never afforded poor prison inmates federal appeal legal counsel for their federal retrials,they have effectively closed the doors on these tens of thousands of innocent citizens ever being capable of possibly exonerating themselves to regain their freedom through being granted new retrials.

This same exact unjust situation was happening in our Southern States when poor and mostly uneducated Black Americans were being falsely imprisoned for endless decades without the needed educational skills to properly submit their own written federal trial appeals.

This devious and deceptive judicial process of making our poor and innocent prison inmates formulate and write their own federal appeal legal cases for possible retrials on their state criminal cases,is still in effect today even though everyone in our US judicial system knows that without proper legal representation, these tens of thousands of innocent prison inmates will be denied their rightful opportunities of ever being granted new trials from our federal appeal judges!!

Sadly, the true US *legal* Federal Appeal situation that occurs when any of our uneducated American prison inmates are forced to attempt to submit their own written Federal Appeals (from our prisons nationwide) without the assistance of proper legal counsel, is that they all are in reality being denied their legitimate rights for Habeas Corpus with our US FEDERAL COURTS and will win any future Supreme Court Case concerning this injustice!

For our judicial system and our US Congressional Leaders Of The Free World to continue to pretend that this is a real and fair opportunity for our American Middle Class and Working Poor Citizens, only delays the very needed future change of Federal Financing of all these Federal appeals becoming a normal formula of Our American judicial system.

It was not so very long ago that Public Defenders became a Reality in this country.Prior that legal reality taking place, their were also some who thought giving anyone charged with a crime a free lawyer was a waste of taxpayers $$.

This FACADE and HORROR of our Federal Appeal proce$$ is not worthy of the Greatest Country In The World! ***GREAT SOCIETIES THAT DO NOT PROTECT EVEN THEIR INNOCENT, BECOME THE GUILTY !

A MUST READ ABOUT AMERICAN INJUSTICE:
1) YAHOO 2) GOOGLE
(MANNY GONZALES THE KID THAT EVERYONE FORGOT IN THE CA PRISON SYSTEM.) ** A JUDICIAL RIDE OF ONES LIFE !

***Someone please tell our US Congress that the GED degree that Manny Gonzales acquired in prison is not a LAW DEGREE !!!!!!

lawyersforpooramericans@yahoo.com (424-247-2013)