Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Police Misconduct and Troy Davis

Yesterday the Georgia parole board refused the clemency request of Troy Davis, facing execution for the killing of a Savannah police officer. His case is a catalog of error and abuse:

The grievous errors in the Davis case were numerous, and many arose out of eyewitness identification. The Savannah police contaminated the memories of four witnesses by re-enacting the crime with them present so that their individual perceptions were turned into a group one. The police showed some of the witnesses Mr. Davis’s photograph even before the lineup. His lineup picture was set apart by a different background. The lineup was also administered by a police officer involved in the investigation, increasing the potential for influencing the witnesses. . . .

Under proper practices, no one should know who the suspect is, including the officer administering a lineup. Each witness should view the lineup separately, and the witnesses should not confer about the crime. . . .

Seven of nine witnesses against Mr. Davis recanted after trial. Six said the police threatened them if they did not identify Mr. Davis. The man who first told the police that Mr. Davis was the shooter later confessed to the crime. There are other reasons to doubt Mr. Davis’s guilt: There was no physical evidence linking him to the crime introduced at trial, and new ballistics evidence broke the link between him and a previous shooting that provided the motive for his conviction.

The thing is, this sort of behavior by police departments is actually routine, and we only hear about it in these death row cases. Thousands of men are in jail now and will be for decades after even clumsier investigations and trials. I suppose most Americans don't care because the police almost always pick out low-life guys with dubious backgrounds for this kind of treatment, most of whom may well be guilty of something. But to me these case show a very troubling indifference to justice in America.

No comments: