CASE STUDY #3: TROY DAVIS On September 21st of 2011, Troy Davis; a black man from Savannah, Georgia was executed for a crime he did not commit. Troy Davis was charged with the murder of Savannah police officer in 1989. On August 19, 1989, officer Mark Macphail, was going home when he tried to break up a fight between Sylvester “Redd” Coles (a neighborhood thug), and a homeless man. Officer Mark Macphail was shot twice and was found dead at the same scene. Troy Davis was found to be a bystander of the fight and the shooting but denied being a part of the murder. Troy Davis was taken into custody, as Coles implicated Davis as the shooter. The entire case against Davis was based on Eyewitness testimony, Davis’ attorneys obtained recantations …show more content…
There was no evidence which supported that Davis was responsible for the crime, In fact, the only physical evidence collected from the scene were some bullets and shell casings (no DNA or fingerprints). The only evidence present is the eyewitness, and all but 2 of the witnesses have since altered their testimony, citing police coercion in accusing Davis. Nine of those individuals have implicated the principle alternative suspect, Sylvester Coles. In Davis’ case, it seems that some witnesses may have been affected by straight up coercion rather than misinformation or lineup procedures. The fact that witnesses have changed their testimony indicates that they were not merely mistaken about the shooter’s identity but felt compelled to implicate him for other reasons. This shows that the argument against Davis had doubts, the eyewitnesses were not sure themselves. Davis had multiple execution dates which kept being postponed, the reason was the doubt. How can we execute someone if we have no strong evidence against the person? Eyewitness testimony was so strong back in the days that finally …show more content…
Research provided by the Innocence Project shows that Hundreds of people are accused of crimes they have never committed just because of eyewitness testimony and factors which distorted memory. Can we even trust our memory after knowing so many innocent people have been convicted? Coming back to the question: How does crime affect memory? Looking at the studies of Ronald Cotton and Bennett Barbour, they tell us that crime distorts the memory of a victim. In both cases, the victim identified the wrong person as their assailant. They were so confident and sure of their assailant but they turned out to be wrong. This shows us that our memory is not like a recorder that it records everything it happens, there are certain parts which are left blank. We use conformity and schemas to fill in the
He spent nineteen years on death row and, after three set execution dates, was executed in 2011. Given that almost all of the witnesses who testified against Troy Davis at his trial withdrew or contradicted their testimony, there were serious questions surrounding
Troy Anthony Davis October 9, 1968 – September 21, 2011 was an American man convicted of and executed for the August 19, 1989, murder of police officer Mark MacPhail in Savannah, Georgia. Troy was working at Burger King and he got accused of murder. There was another worker with Troy at Burger King. Troy Davis was convicted of murder and various lesser charges, including the earlier shooting Troy death day is August 1991. He was not guilty but everyone thought he shot the police officer Mark MacPhail and did not.
Robert Grizzard and Steven Sander, two Air Force personnel, also testified. Sanders identified Troy as the cop killer, while Grizzard said that he cannot identify the killer. Two additional witness that testified against Troy were Michael Cooper and Benjamin Gordon. That testified that Troy was the person that was shooting at the pool party. The seven witnesses all recanted when between 2006 and 2010, around the time his execution date was being finalized, and he was preparing to die.
Law enforcement personnel immediately thought of Wayne Williams as a suspect for the murder of Nathaniel Clark. The ligature marks around the neck of Nathaniel Clark were indicative of a rope that law enforcement recalled seeing in the back floor of the vehicle Wayne Williams was driving. Additionally, law enforcement personnel felt Wayne Williams favored a composite drawing of their suspect. The evidence at that time was purely
Will there ever be Justice for Michelle O’Connell? Melvin Valimattathil Houston Community College Abstract The shooting in St. Augustine was a tragic event. An event that led to dishonesty and a loss of trust towards the Sheriffs Department. But most importantly; a loss of a human life.
In season one episode six of the Serial podcast titled “The Case Against Adnan Syed”, there are many inconsistencies and false memories as the story is unfolding through the interviews made by the police and Koenig. During interviews, the majority of the answers received from witnesses did not add up or make sense. Also, individuals involved with the case claim they either did not recall what transpired or said something completely different from their previous statement. The above statement proves that the human memory is imperfect and cannot be reliable.
Davis professed is innocence until the very end, nevertheless he was convicted regardless of the fact that seven of the nine witnesses recanted their evidence against Davis. These factors caused many people to be skeptical as to who really commited the murder and created reasonable doubt to Davis' guilt. As a result of this, hundreds of individuals took up Davis' cause and sought to have his case reopened. However, the U.S Supreme court
There is Robert Grinder, James Neely, and James Wilkinson. According to “Exhibit D”, Grinder was the one that shot Lewis in the stomach and the back of his head. Grinder left with a great deal of money. Although the judge was saying that there wasn’t enough proof, the district attorney referred to money a lot while the victim was left with none. James Neely is another possible suspect because of his letter.
Second, Katzmann centered on the bullets... The third line of the prosecution’s case was ‘consciousness of guilt’” (Aiuto 5). Prosecution planned to persuade Sacco and Vanzetti’s guilt by placing them on the scene of the crime, proving that the bullets were fired from their weapons, and that they acted guilty. Strangely enough, only one of the eleven witness actually saw the shooting, and even the one ducked for cover once it began.
Many studies have been done over repressed memory and the accuracy of it. In some studies, the repressed memories have proven to be accurate. One pro of repressed memory as legal evidence is that it’s a testimony from the witness of the crime itself, not just a bystander. Another pro is that researchers
There are a significant number of people tried for crimes that they did not commit based off of another’s repressed memory. Elizabeth Loftus made it her goal to find justice for those wrongfully accused. It is hard to say whether or not those accused are truly innocent or not, but what we can say is that too many people are being locked away without all the right evidence; just another’s memory of what might have happened. Loftus found it unlikely that any one person could forget such a traumatic experience, than remember is years later. Plenty of cases have these memory based convictions has their primary source of evidence, however, a repressed memory should not be a legit piece of evidence when attempting to convict another.
In addition to educating jurors about the uncertainties surrounding eyewitness testimony, adhering to specific rules for the process of identifying suspects can make that testimony more accurate. The uncritical acceptance of eyewitness accounts may stem from a popular misconception of how memory works. Many people believe that human memory works like a video recorder: the mind records events and then, on cue, plays back an exact replica of them. On the contrary, psychologists have found that memories are reconstructed rather than played back each time we recall them. The act of remembering, says eminent memory researcher and psychologist Elizabeth F. Loftus of the University of California, Irvine, is “more akin to putting puzzle pieces together than retrieving a video recording.”
On August 16, 1996, Daryl Atkins and William Jones, armed with a semiautomatic handgun, abducted Airman Eric Nesbitt from a nearby convenience store. The pair robbed Nesbitt of money on his person and then drove him in his truck to an automated teller machine where the ATM’s camera recorded them forcing Nesbitt to withdraw additional cash. Atkins and Jones then took Nesbitt to an isolated location where he was shot eight times and killed. Each confirmed most of the details in the other’s account of the incident, with the exception that each man claimed that the other had pulled the trigger. Atkins' version of the events contained many inconsistencies and the jury decided that Jones's version of events was more coherent and credible, establishing
In the book, Murder in the Bayou, Ethan Brown takes the reader through the murky waters of Jennings, Louisiana as he recounts the gruesome history of eight female murders known as the Jeff Davis 8. With police records and witness accounts, Brown uncovers that the murders are anything but your regular killings. Instead, Brown hints at a unnerving and inappropriate relationship shared by The Jennings Police Department and Jenning’s street hustlers and drug dealers. According to Brown (2017), “The Jennings Police Department and the Jefferson Davis Parish Sheriff’s Office shared a long and deep history of corruption” (p. 45). Although Brown never comes right out to say it, there is enough evidence for me to believe that there is no one killer
INTRODUCTION The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao and Bless Me, Ultima are stories told to us years after the fact. In Yunior’s case, enough time has passed for his ex-girlfriend Lola to have borne a daughter by another man. And Lola’s daughter is old enough for Yunior to be able to observe how she has “her mother’s [strong] legs.”