Monday, September 19, 2011

Before Troy Davis - "Justice Thurgood Marshall Justice" And "10 Guilty Men Go Free" - The Theories That Imperil The Black Community Today

Note:
I have just finished listening to WRFG (Atlanta's Progressive Information Station) "The Friday Night Drum" show.  (I will post portions of the audio at  a later date)

In as much as they had their "Troy Davis Justice Day" broadcast the assembly of audio interviews from Troy Davis and his family members, unsurprisingly, told the narrative from Troy Davis' perspective.

If I did not have more perspectives of the case beyond what "The Friday Night Drum" had assembled - I would agree that there is too much doubt to go forth with the execution.   However - as the judge that was ordered to re-hear the evidence concluded - their arguments were mostly "smoke and mirrors".

Here are some questions that I have after hearing Troy Davis' death row interview and his mother's narrative:

  1. During Davis' audio interview he said "There remains the real killer of Officer MacPhail on the loose".   Why didn't Davis specifically point out Sylvester "Red" Coles as the killer during this interview since this is what the NAACP, Amnesty International and other "Civil Rights Pharisees" have fixated upon?
  2. What was Troy Davis' actual relationship with Coles beforehand?
    1. Davis' friends testified as if Davis and two other friends were hanging out that night, saw an injured homeless man who was bleeding from the head (he was pistol whipped), they heard gun shots and then this drew the attention of Officer MacPhail who was guarding the fast food place where the incident took place (in the parking lot).   Was Coles a part of this group or was he with the other unnamed man (who hid the guns in the nearby house)?
    2. Did Troy Davis and Sylvester "Red" Coles go to Sylvester Coles' house to change clothing - as the official Prosecution timeline indicates?
  3. Troy Davis' mother said that her son was at home all day long (the Sunday after the shooting).  She asked "Why did the police not go to Troy Davis' house after their officer got shot instead of waiting to the next day?" .
    1. If her son was at home all day long -  how does this mesh with the reports that he absconded to Atlanta after the shooting?
  4. Why did Troy Davis run to Atlanta?
  5. Why doesn't Troy Davis or his family talk about his presence at the party in which Michael Cooper was shot in the face?   Several people at the party confirmed that Davis "had beef" with another man who was riding in the car that was eventually fired upon.

    The Roots Of "Justice Thurgood Marshall Justice" 
    On the more conservative Burger Court, Brennan was a staunch opponent of the death penalty, and a supporter of abortion rights, and joined the majority in landmark rulings on both issues (1972'sFurman v. Georgia on the death penalty and 1973's Roe v. Wade on abortion). With the ascension of the most conservative member of the court, William Rehnquist, to the position of Chief Justice, and the replacement of Warren Burger and the moderate Lewis Powell with conservatives Antonin Scalia and Anthony Kennedy, Brennan found himself more frequently isolated. At times his opinions would be joined only by Thurgood Marshall, as by 1975 the two were the last remaining liberal justices of the Warren Court (Byron White was the third survivor of the Warren Court during Rehnquist's tenure, but he often sided with the conservatives, especially on cases involving criminals and abortion). This likemindedness led to both Brennan and Marshall's clerks referring to them as 'Justice Brennan-Marshall' in the face of the court's heavy conservative opposition to the two. Brennan declared in Furman that he believed the death penalty violated the Eighth Amendment's prohibition on "cruel and unusual" punishment, and for his remaining years on the bench he and Marshall dissented from every case upholding the imposition of the death penalty. He was able to convince no other justice of this view, though Justice Harry Blackmun would eventually agree in 1994—after Brennan's retirement.

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