Meet at Troy Davis Park at 5 pm, march to the Task Force for the Homeless site at Peachtree and Pine. Bring signs, bring yourselves, bring your will to change the world.
General Assembly will meet tonight at 8 pm at Centennial Park
THE RE-OCCUPATION WILL BEGIN TONIGHT. BRING YOUR TENTS.
A little more research on Anita Beaty and the shelter might be a good idea. For the latest 2 tax years for which she and her husband have filed, they have made more than $300,000 total in their non-profit as advocates. It’s named “Our Fine Arts These” and you con find their IRS 990 on the internet.
Why did we name the park after a convicted murderer?
Because *whether or not you believe he was guilty* he didn’t receive justice. Capital cases should not be based solely on eyewitness accounts which are notoriously unreliable. He has become a symbol for many people of how broken our entire system is.
I understand that the movement is trying to make a point about the system being broken. However, wouldn’t it be better to make that point by renaming the park to someone who was executed but was later definitively exonerated through DNA or some other method rather than someone who, while people can point to plenty of reasons as to why there was reasonable doubt, still has the specter of possibly being guilty hanging over them?
It seems to me like he was chosen just because he was in the news recently, not because he’s really the best icon to make the point.
To me, naming the park is a big deal. We should be naming a park you know for sure represents the ideals we want, not someone who we’re guessing does.
I would not have chosen that name for the park but I was not at the meeting when that was done. I don’t choose to second-guess people. However, I also don’t care to either spend a lot of time defending a decision I don’t particularly agree with OR have it fill up my inbox. As I’ve said, there’s a place on this site for lengthy debates. This isn’t it. Please take this conversation to the Forum.
Well at the very least he did shoot a man twice in the face. That was before that whole savannah police murder. Clearing him of the murder does not make him worthy of having a city park named in his honor.
Obviously, you have no credible evidence or citations to back up that assertion.
You mean, other than his conviction? Do you have any sources than something you read on the internet or saw on TV (like the actual court documents, which I’m sure you have neglected to read)?
His conviction in 1991 AND the subsequent 2010 decision by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Georgia uphold that conviction as the evidence did not merit a retrial.
Have you read the 2010 court ruling? It was not on whether the evidence merited a new trial but whether it proved conclusively that he was innocent so that no reasonable juror could possibly have voted to convict.
You have eyewitnesses saying they were pressured by police to testify falsely. You have someone who supposedly heard Troy Davis confess and so testify at the trial admit he made the whole thing up. The federal judge said that was OK because it was obvious at the time of the original trial that the guy was lying.
However, if that is true, then it was incumbent upon that judge to free Troy Davis, because a prosecutor is not allowed to present testimony s/he knows to be false. Yet if none of the previous judges in the case had made that evidentiary ruling, then this federal judge should not have acted as if they had to say the recantation had zero weight.
You have five separate persons saying the main remaining witness against Troy Davis had said or implied that he, not Troy Davis, was the shooter. The federal judge dismissed those because, since the guy is a thug, a juror might conclude he just said that to enhance his reputation. There was not a trace of physical evidence tying Troy Davis to this event.
That is why even people like William Sessions, a former federal judge appointed director of the FBI by Ronald Reagan, and ultra-conservative ex-Congressman Bob Barr, urged that his death sentence be commuted. Because there was simply too much doubt. WAY too much doubt.
One cannot read the 2010 ruling and possibly think that justice was done in this case. It may well be that the 2010 judge was right in that Troy Davis failed to prove conclusively he was innocent, but is that the legal standard we want to use when someone is being killed in our name?
There is a place on this site for discussions like this. This is not it. Please move this conversation to the Forums.
Just a few questions. I am very confused. You do not like big, greedy corporations, so why are you using very expensive cell phones, lap tops and cameras? Do they not come from big corporations? I heard chants of die pigs the other night to the police. Do you realize they are the ones who run into danger when others are running out.That was a real turn off. The police did nothing wrong. You are breaking laws. This country without laws would be terrifying.It also was very interesting that when the time came to stand firm, most hopped the fence to avoid arrest. My guess is most of you are rich spoiled children who adopted homeless people and are using them as tools to manipulate the government in an attempt to create a socialist country. I saw our flag burned. If you do not like this country please get out. If you do not like police, do not ever call them for help or to make a report for you. If you do not like the big dogs, do not use their products. You are hypocrites, and are wasting the hard working people of Atlantas tax dollars. The police are not wasting our dime, you are. Trust fund babies who needed a good spanking. At least the protesters back in the day knew what their cause was whether right or wrong. You people have no clue. Troy Davis was not convicted based on witness testimony alone. He shot a man before he shot the police officer. He was beating a homeless man. He woukld have shot you too had it benefited him.
The 990 Account, “Our Fine Arts These”, referred to by Sound Reason was set up in 2003 at the instigation of B Wardlaw, the long-time benefactor of Peachtree-Pine. It pays out $52,000 a year to Anita Beaty, and $52,000 a year to Jim Beaty. Those are gross figures; after taxes the Beatys each receive $32,000 a year. Compare this with the $435,962 that United Way of Atlanta paid its CEO, Milton Little, in 2008. Our Fine Arts These also has also provided financial support for the Task Force’s staff, resident volunteers, and homeless people. When the Beatys were first hired as the Task Force’s co-coordinators in 1985, they each made $16,000 a year. Since then they have gone deep into their own pockets to pay Task Force bills; Anita and Jim are still making monthly payments on a $17,000 personal loan that was used to cover staff salaries, utility bills, etc. It was precisely the Beatys’ open-handedness and their inability to say no to people in desperate need that convinced B Wardlaw to create a retirement account that would prevent Anita (age 69) and Jim (age 75) from ending up on the streets themselves. Shame on you, Sound Reason. You might not agree with the Beatys’ position on homelessness, but even their most venemous enemies will tell you that Anita and Jim are incorruptible. That’s why they have been targeted by the city’s political and corporate elites.
So now it is a shame to ask a question? Nothing said was venemous or accusatory.
How many 12 step meetings do they conduct per week? How much does it cost to sponsor those?
There is a place for discussions like this on this site. This isn’t it.
It’s the Achilles Heel of the entire Ocuupy Atlanta movement. It was a bad decision made very early on without enough consultation and agreement amongst everyone who was there. And now, out of sheer pride I guess, no one will drop it. I know a lot of sympathetic people who are not supporting OA mainly because of the Troy Davis issue, and its not even part of the core message of Ocuupy Together. The reoccupation that will happen very soon is the perfect chance to right this wrong and DROP THE TROY DAVIS issue from the OA message. Otherwise, you’re getting right back into the same leaky boat.
“A lot of sympathetic people” would hopefully not be ignorant enough to take everything you’re saying at face value, and research the facts of the case themselves.
Fact: the state of Georgia executed somebody in spite of overwhelming doubts about his guilt. That’s an injustice. It doesn’t matter if you believe the death penalty is a just (or sensible) punishment. If you were in the same circumstances, you would want justice for yourself. You would want appeals. You would want to have the new evidence presented and doubt cleared. If you’re saying you don’t want these things, then you’re either a sociopath or completely dishonest, either which carries no credibility.
I guess you want me to take your claim that there were “overwhelming doubts about his guilt” at face value too, eh?
Sorry. The facts do not supprt that assertion.
Troy Davis was convicted and sentenced to death in 1991. Three times he was given a dte of ececution, and three times that executed way stayed. In 2009 the U.S. Supreme Court ordered a evidentiary hearing to see if the evidence merited a new trial. It did not. In 2010 his conviction was upheld, and he was executed in 2011. If that’s not Due Process of the Law, I don’t know what is.
Meanwhile, Officer Mark MacPhail is still dead. Has been since 1989. Which park are you going to name after him?
That’s about as far from the facts as it gets. Overwhelming doubt? I 100% guarantee you haven’t read the case documents (here they are, which I’m sure you will continue to ignore: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=KR1I5QDX).
Summary:
“Mr. Davis’s new evidence does not change the balance of proof from trial. Of his seven recantantions, only one is a meaningful, credible recantation. The value of that recantation is diminished because it only confirms that which was obvious at trial-that its author was testifying falsely. Id. Part III.B.ii (Kevin McQueen). Four of the remaining six recantations are either not credible or not true recantations and would be disregarded. Id. Parts III.B.i (Antoine Williams), III.B.iii (Jeffrey Sapp), III.B.iv (Darrell Collins), III.B.v (Harriet Murray). The remaining two recantations were presented under the most suspicious of circumstances, with Mr. Davis intentionally preventing the validity of the recantation from being challenged in open court through cross-examination. Id. Parts III.B.vi (Dorothy Ferrell), III.B.vii (Larry Young). Worse, these witnesses were readily available-one was actually waiting in the courthouse-and Mr. Davis chose not to present their recantations as live testimony. Mr. Davis’s additional, non-recantation evidence also does not change the balance of proof from trial.
Moreover, this evidence, whether presented as live testimony or in affidavit form, suffers other serious defects. The two witness identifications of Mr. Coles as the shooter were not credible, and Peggie Grant’s affidavit testimony placing Mr. Coles in a white shirt is widely refuted in the record. Id. Part III.C.iii. The hearsay confessions carry little weight because the underlying confessions are uncorroborated and there is good reason to believe that they were false.FN105 Id. Part III.C.i. Further diminishing the value of this evidence is the fact that Mr. Davis had the means to test the validity of the underlying confessions by calling and impeaching Mr. Coles, but chose not to do so.FN106 Other evidence in this category simply lacks probative value; the munitions evidence and the accounts from April Hutchinson, Tonya Johnson, Anita Saddler, Gary Hargrove, and Daniel Kinsman are either totally inapposite or are of the most minimal probative value. See id. Parts III.C.ii, III.C.iii, III.C.iv. As a body, this evidence does not change the balance of proof that was presented at Mr. Davis’s trial.
Ultimately, while Mr. Davis’s new evidence casts some additional, minimal doubt on his conviction, it is largely smoke and mirrors. The vast majority of the evidence at trial remains intact, and the new evidence is largely not credible or lacking in probative value. After careful consideration, the Court finds that Mr. Davis has failed to make a showing of actual innocence that would entitle him to habeas relief in federal court.”
Troy Davis had appeals… MULTIPLE appeals. The Supreme Court even granted his petition for habeas corpus (look up how often that happens for an inmate on death row). He had two witnesses in the courtroom that allegedly recanted their testimony and he DIDN’T CALL THEM TO TESTIFY. Some “new evidence,” right?
You clearly don’t know what you’re talking about. Keep spouting the media’s narrative as if you know what you’re talking about. The case was tried in the court of law — not in the court of public opinion. It seems a lot less one sided when you aren’t totally ignorant on what happened. I don’t agree that he should have received the death penalty, but that’s another issue that DOESN’T merit demanding a name change for public park which is already named for a huge philanthropist (and a MUCH better man than Troy Davis).
How are we addressing non-sympathetic, aggressive plants in our midst working against our interests? Given the few comments here, clearly some are working against OA to undermine and discredit the movement. Some will do it through lazy anti-activism through these forums. Worse, I’ve seen pictures and heard of people attending the protests carrying anti-99% messages and addressing the media.
Several forces are against us. How are we directing the honest message to the media and to the general public, in spite of these plants?
Marietta 32, have you read the 2010 court ruling? It was not on whether the evidence merited a new trial but whether it proved conclusively that he was innocent so that no reasonable juror could possibly have voted to convict.
You have eyewitnesses saying they felt pressured by police to testify falsely. You have someone who supposedly heard Troy Davis confess and so testify at the trial admit he made the whole thing up. The federal judge said that was OK because it was obvious at the time of the original trial that the guy was lying.
However, if that is true, then it was incumbent upon that judge to free Troy Davis, because a prosecutor is not allowed to present testimony s/he knows to be false. Yet if none of the previous judges in the case had made that evidentiary ruling, then this federal judge should not have acted as if they had so he could say the recantation had zero weight.
You have five separate persons saying the main remaining witness against Troy Davis had said or implied that he, not Troy Davis, was the shooter. The federal judge dismissed those because, since the guy is a thug, a juror might conclude he just said that to enhance his reputation. There was not a trace of physical evidence tying Troy Davis to this event.
That is why even people like William Sessions, a former federal judge appointed director of the FBI by Ronald Reagan, and ultra-conservative ex-Congressman Bob Barr, urged that his death sentence be commuted. Because there was simply too much doubt. WAY too much doubt.
One cannot read the 2010 ruling and possibly think that justice was done in this case. It may well be that the 2010 judge was right in saying that Troy Davis failed to prove conclusively he was innocent, but is that the legal standard we want to use when someone is being killed in our name?
I have read it, and it is damning to the defense in its conclusion that the evidence presented in the trial of Troy Davis proves he murdered Mark MacPhail.
It’s such a reach to find problems in the due process of law in this case. The man was tried, convicted, and had his trial re-evaluated at the request of the U.S. Supreme Court. All of the evidence presented shows that he did it. As Judge Moore says in the conclusion of the 2010 hearing, the evidence presented by the defense’s case for a retrial was “largely smoke and mirrors”.
Trial…Conviction…Evidentiary Hearing…..Smoke and Mirrors….
How in the world does this lead you to “innocent”?
There is a place on this site for discussions like this. This is not it. Please move this to the Forums.