USCC Ruling on Troy Davis

Here is an article from the Associated Press on the USSC's ruling as to Troy Davis. Troy Davis sits on Georgia's death row. His case has received a lot of attention because of what appear to be credible claims of innocence. I have posted on Troy many times before (tag = Troy Davis), and I believe his case is a prime example of why the death penalty should be abolished.*

Sadly, the United States Supreme Court declined to hear Troy's case. The Court had granted him a last minute (quite literally) stay on September 23 when he was last scheduled to be executed to determine whether it should hear his case regarding his innocence claims. It appears that not enough of the Court's members agree that review is necessary.

In light of the USSC's decision, Georgia will now schedule another execution date for Troy. It remains to be seen if there are any more options for Troy. It may be up to the Governor (or perhaps his defense team has another option in mind). I will keep you posted.

*There are many reasons I believe the death penalty should be abolished. The primary reasons are (1) the fact that State killing is bad public policy, generally, and does not jive with any of the theories of our justice system (save for perhaps retribution and revenge); (2) our justice system is full of too many holes to assure that the death penalty is applied only to the guilty or applied uniformly and consistently (i.e. without concerns over race, class, or other "status"); and (3) the killing of any human being is a moral outrage and no person should be murdered by the government, no matter how guilty. Troy's case is a prime example of the failures of the death penalty for all three of these points (and many more).

Paul House Moved to Mother's Home

Hat tip to Emily at Amnesty International for a well-written blog about Paul House's return to his mother's care. As those of you who have read this blog over the years know, I have written about Paul's case and the travesty of his continued confinement many times. Paul is now at his mother's home and is - temporarily at least - out of prison and off death row. The DA is planning to retry Paul but he is out on bail for the time being. I'm so pleased that Paul can be at home in his mother's care. He has credible claims of innocence and has been on death row for over 23 years. The last several of those years, Paul has endured death row while suffering from Multiple Sclerosis. I applaud the donor that assisted Paul's mother in posting his bail.

Please see the Amnesty blog here.