Kristine :]

thedailywhat:

Another Follow Up of the Day: Despite a slew of last-ditch efforts, including an appeal to the Supreme Court of the United States, death row inmate Troy Davis was executed by lethal injection at Georgia Diagnostic Prison near Jackson, Georgia, at precisely 11:08 PM tonight.

A moment of jubilation for supporters came and went as the Supreme Court temporarily delayed the execution so that it could issue its ruling. At around 10:20 PM it was officially announced: There would be no stay.

Doubts about Davis’s guilt stemming from potentially flawed ballistic evidence and the recantations of several witnesses who blamed police pressure on their initial statement were not enough to persuade neither Georgia’s Supreme Court nor its national counterpart to halt the execution of the man convicted in 1991 of murdering off-duty police officer Mark MacPhail.

An earlier request for an additional pardons board hearing was also denied, as was a request to allow Davis to take a polygraph test. “He has had ample time to prove his innocence,” said MacPhail’s widow Joan MacPhail-Harris, “and he is not innocent.”

The White House declined to comment, saying “it is not appropriate for the President of the United States to weigh in on specific cases.”

According to the Georgia Department of Corrections, Davis is the 29th inmate to be put to death by lethal injection since the state reinstated the death penalty in 1973. There are presently 99 men and one woman on Georgia’s death row.

[ajc / ap / reuters / @jaketapper / gdc / photo: ap via cbsnews.]

i’d just like to point out that it says “he has had ample time to prove his innocence”

um, last time i checked, we were supposed to have a court system that was based on the idea of innocent until proven guilty. not guilty until proven innocent.

also, to receive the death penalty, the jury is supposed to know BEYOND A SHADOW OF A DOUBT that the person is guilty. how this was decided with no physical evidence is beyond me. and how the Supreme Court allowed this, decided this, is baffling to me.

yet another reason why the death penalty should be abolished. at least some good is coming out of this, people are waking up and realizing that this type of thing happens and that the government STILL follows through with the executions. this isn’t the first time this has happened, people. at least people are starting to pay attention.