Nearly every death penalty case eventually ends up before the United States Supreme Court, and the Court turns down almost every request for a final stay of execution. For over a decade, Justice William Brennan and Justice Thurgood Marshall issued the following dissent to each of those denials:
"Adhering to my view that the death penalty is in all circumstances cruel and unusual punishment prohibited by the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments, Gregg v. Georgia, 438 U.S. 153, 231, 96 S.Ct. 2909, 2973, 49 L.Ed.2d 859 (1976), I would grant certiorari and vacate the death sentence in this case."
That is not the view of a majority of Supreme Court justices today, and the court will not vacate the death sentence imposed against Troy Davis. Mr. Davis's final appeal for clemency to the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles was turned down as well, despite numerous documented flaws in his trial and conviction. Most of the eyewitnesses in the case have since recanted, and others say that they were pressured by law enforcement to help close the case. The jury was misled, according to the Georgia Bureau of Investigations, into believing that the weapon used in the killing matched one belonging to Mr. Davis.
Before the clemency proceeding, thousands of supporters gathered outside to chant, "I am Troy Davis." The death penalty is barbaric, inhumane, discriminatory and unconstitutional. Tomorrow, it will be imposed against a man despite significant doubts about his guilt.
