Troy Davis is dead.

[HAYABUSA-FMW-]

This thread is making me feel dumb.....use smaller words people.

On topic, yeah it was messed up....prayers go out to his family.

He passed on the disease of multi ellipsis or whatever you call everything past period #3. You were doing fine without trying to copy his outbursts in order to possibly make sense of the keyboard diarrhea.

Terrible to hear.

The DA representing "the people" might need to take a look at their death penalty statutes and make revisions for the terms: outright proven guilty versus what we're seeing now, otherwise veil-lifted conspiracy to convict, or circumstances permitting that it wasn't an open and shut case, instead one with many holes and stones left unturned. Even with life in prison as the alternative to any death penalty, knowing how slow the appeals process goes, with whether or not a government official with the ability to overturn a wrong in a pardon will let it come across their desk for the attention it might deserve, it still gives a greater chance to not end in an 'injustice for all.'

[Sinue_v2]

In this society, quite a few people are seen as Guilty right from accusation.

Well, regardless of what a court of law might find in it's ruling, the court of public opinion is a very different matter. More poignantly than Michael Jackson to this, I'd bring up the case of Richard Jewell the suspected Olympic Park bomber from back in 1996. The guy was a hero, a security guard who identified the bomb and notified authorities while trying to get people clear of the area. However, once the FBI leaked the idea that he was a suspect to the news media, their mishandling of the story and furor which they kicked up caused public opinion to demonize and condemn him outright. To this day, many people still consider him guilty - even after the actual bomber confessed after being caught bombing other cites.

Jackson's sex abuse scandals are tainted with schadenfreude, the enjoyment of watching the misfortunes of others - especially of a leader of popular figure who is seen as being punished for their indiscretions. Jewell though... he was an every-man, but despite numerous public exonerations and apologies, he's still in the same boat as MJ because the retraction and the facts of the matter don't grab attention the way the drama of event as it unfolds does.

Troy Davis in many ways is simply the opposite polar extreme of the same phenomena... and I think that most of the outrage at his execution is undeserved in those who don't know the matter in-detail. Even if he was innocent (which I think there's more than enough reasonable doubt to establish that) those who are outraged without knowing the full details of the case - just reading half the story on a internet site or paper fishing for a story without looking into the matter further - are committing the same error, the same sin, as that which destroyed Richard Jewell's life. The safer, preferable side albeit... but still.

The problem is that not everyone knows about this and you if you DARE to make a mention of this, they won't give a damn. Performing a DNA test is actually expensive, but proofing it is even worse and I've never heard any lawyer. state authority or force claim that DNA evidence has been "proofed" aside from it being taken...

Its always "you think we, the authority will make a mistake?"

I think that's a massive over-generalization slanted heavily by a jaded perspective, but yes, I'm sure there are many cases in which that will/does happen. But not all, and most likely not even the majority of cases. It still strikes me as a rather risky position for a zealous authority to take given the risks of being caught later. Even if DNA testing is expensive now, as more powerful and capable technologies become available, the price will plummet. I don't know how much it costs now, and who pays for the testing varies by jurisdiction, but I do know that rape kits have fallen from about 1,000 in 2005 to around 400 this year in my local area. Full genomic sequencing has also had the price bottom fall out recently, with The National Human Genome Research Institute reporting that prices have fallen from about $800 per megabase-pair in 2005 to about 30 cents per megabase-pair in March of this year. While I realize that gene sequencing and forensic DNA testing aren't quite analogous, I don't see the trend for DNA testing in legal cases being very expensive to continue for very long.

I support protesting and picketing and Im the first to help organize a just cause, but to prevent these protests from becoming close to "Clear and Present" Dangers is annoying.

While I also support protesting and picketing (I'm the son of a Union man, after all. Picket lines are sacred), I am also deeply suspicious of protesters and picketers. They too easily condense complex issues down to simplistic mantras and get so wrapped up in their cause that they forget or cherry pick the facts of the matter in order to advertise their position as a moral imperitive. It leads a lot of them to be ignorant and angry without ever being able to really tell you why. Tea Partiers and 9/11 Truthers are major offenders on this issue.

Secondly, as you mentioned, there are at times violent or intimidating elements at these gatherings. I have issues with those who provoke trouble by protesting in areas they have no permit for and picking fights with the authorities so that they can videotape the crackdown and cast them in a negative light. The G8 protest assholes who think lighting dumpsters on fire and rolling them down the street, or raiding neighborhood stores are going to get my sympathies when the po-po come busting their skulls are full of shit. They like to draw Owellian parallels to "Free Speech Zones", but all it sounds like to me is a bunch of narcissistic howling by those with an inflated sense of entitlement. I do respect that the troublemakers are actually fighting for a cause by pressing the issue the only way they know how, rather than standing around with their signs ineffectually like a bunch of little pussies... just don't bullshit me by trying to claim innocence while using duplicitous tactics as a way to generate a crackdown and then cry fascism.