Troy Davis, the condemned Georgia inmate who maintains that he is not the man who murdered a Savannah Police officer 20 years ago, will stay alive long enough to try and prove his innocence, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Monday. Siding with Davis were Justices John Paul Stevens, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer. Sonia Sotomayor, who was sworn in earlier this month, did not vote on the inmate’s petition. Stevens ordered a federal judge to “receive testimony and make findings of fact as to whether evidence that could not have been obtained at trial clearly establishes petitioner’s innocence.” Davis, whose accusers have recanted their testimony against him in recent years, has found support among a diversity of high-profile figures, including the pope; former President Jimmy Carter; former South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu; actors Susan Sarandon and Harry Belafonte; and a host of current and former lawmakers from across the political spectrum. In recent years, Davis has seen his execution halted three times. In June, his supporters delivered petitions bearing about 60,000 signatures to Chatham County, Ga., District Attorney Larry Chisolm, demanding a new trial. Although there was no physical evidence tying the then 19-year-old Davis to the 1989 killing of Officer Mark MacPhail, he was convicted and condemned to death on the testimony of witnesses. Over the past 18 years, seven of the nine witnesses have withdrawn their claims. As expected Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas, the high court’s only African-American, objected to the court’s decision Monday, calling it a “fool’s errand.” Wrote Scalia, “Petitioner’s claim is a sure loser. Transferring his petition to the [federal] District Court is a confusing exercise that can serve no purpose except to delay the state’s execution of its lawful criminal judgment.” Last October, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to intervene, and a federal appeals court in Georgia granted a temporary stay of execution.

Slain Atlanta Woman Leaves Five Children Behind
Two roommates were found with a single gunshot to the head Sunday in their Atlanta apartment, police said. A third roommate discovered one of housemates in the dining room, the other in the kitchen when she arrived home from work Sunday morning, according to Atlanta Police spokesman Sgt. Eddie Atkins. There were no signs of forced entry, and while authorities say they have no motive, they believe that Lanaetria Renee Butler, 28, and Karida Winkler, 34, were executed. “We’re open to anything at this point,” Atkins told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. It was Lanaetria Butler’s ex-boyfriend that called her family in Jacksonville, Fla., with the news of her murder. Last year, Lanaetria, who was pregnant with her fifth child at the time, called her mother, Lanorita Butler, to say she needed a place for her children to live, the Journal-Constitution reports. “Mommy, would you please come get the children,” Lanorita Butler remembers Lanaetria asking. Lanorita Butler still has the oldest children, ages 7 and 6 in her custody. “Now all five of Lanaetria Butler’s children have lost their mother. Her youngest child will turn a year old next month,” the newspaper writes.

Troy Anthony Davis, the convicted cop killer from Georgia whose life was spared three times so far, was denied a fourth bid to stay alive when a federal court rejected his latest appeal. The U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, in a 2-1 decision, ruled that Davis had not established by clear and convincing evidence that a jury would not have found him guilty of gunning down a Savannah, Ga., police officer 20 years ago. Read more.

Haitians Booted Out
The Obama administration says that it will not stop deporting Haitians, at least not for now. Many advocates for Haitian refugees had hoped that President Obama would have a more lenient policy toward undocumented Haitians than President Bush, but the Department of Homeland Security says it will not stop deporting the group and allow them to legally remain in the United States. “At this time, DHS intends to continue to coordinate the removal of Haitian nationals to Haiti,” wrote Susan Cullen, director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Office of Policy and Planning. Members of the south Florida congressional delegation, expressing disappointment with the administration’s position, say they will continue pushing the matter forward. “We obviously have seen that this issue has not moved forward,” said Lale Mamaux, a spokeswoman for U.S. Rep. Alcee Hastings (D-Fla).  “They’re bright people. They’re fair people,” said Randy McGrorty, chief executive officer of Catholic Charities Legal Services in Miami. “I remain optimistic the policy will change once they understand the need for change.”
 
Afghanistan Region Continues to Claim U.S. Lives
As of Monday, March 9, 2009, at least 589 members of the U.S. military had died in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Uzbekistan as a result of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001, The Associated Press reports, citing Defense Department figures. Of those, the military reports 434 were killed by hostile action, according to AP. In areas outside of the Afghanistan region – in Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, Cuba; Djibouti; Eritrea; Ethiopia; Jordan; Kenya; Kyrgyzstan; Philippines; Seychelles; Sudan; Tajikistan; Turkey; and Yemen – 67 other American military personnel lost their lives to the cause of Operation Enduring Freedom, according to the Defense Department. There were also four CIA officer deaths and one military civilian death.

Spare Him or Execute Him
Did murderer William Thompson, who has been housed in Florida’s death chamber for the past 32 years, already suffer enough, or does his admittedly heinous crime and initial sentence demand execution no matter how long he’s had to endure the harsh conditions of death-row confinement? U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens believes that his “experience during the past three decades has demonstrated that delays in state-sponsored killings are inescapable and that executing defendants after such is unacceptably cruel.” But in the eyes of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, “It is the crime and not the punishment imposed by the jury or the delay in execution that was ‘unacceptably cruel.’” Review the facts, then weigh in on who you think has a stronger argument. In 1976, Thompson and his co-defendant had held Sally Ivester and another woman in a motel room, demanding money from the victim’s families. The men became enraged when Ivester was only able to raise $25, instead of hundreds of dollars, as she had promised. They brutally beat Ivester, causing internal injuries and burned her with cigarettes. The other woman witnessed the savagery but was spared. The men pleaded guilty, but the Florida high court threw the sentence out because his lawyer had said his life would be spared if he accepted responsibility for the crime. Thompson pleaded guilty once again, only this time he got the death penalty. He then filed a series of appeals, all of which were rejected by one court or another. During a third penalty hearing, Stevens pointed out, five members of a state advisory jury recommended against lethal injection; still, the court imposed death. “As he awaits execution, petitioner has endured especially severe conditions of confinement,” said Stevens, “spending up to 23 hours per day in isolation in a 6- by 9-foot cell. Two death warrants have been signed against him and stayed only shortly before he was scheduled to die. The dehumanizing effects of such treatment are undeniable.”

The state has set a time and date to execute Troy Anthony Davis, even as his advocates continue to insist Georgia is about to execute an innocent man, reports The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Davis’ case drew international attention after seven of nine key prosecution witnesses against him recanted their testimony. They claimed they had been pressured to say they saw Davis shoot MacPhail in a Burger King parking lot. On Wednesday  the Department of Corrections said on Oct. 27^th, Davis will be put to death for killing off-duty police officer Mark Allen MacPhail. This is Davis’ third execution date in little more than a year. The State Board of Pardons and Paroles stopped the first one the day before Davis was to die by lethal injection on July 17, 2007. The U.S. Supreme Court stopped Davis’ second execution two hours before he was to die on Sept. 23 so the justices could decide if they would hear Davis’ case. Tuesday, the high court declined to step into the contentious debate over whether Davis is the real killer. Read the rest at BET.com.

J.L. Chestnut Jr., the first Black lawyer in Selma and a prominent attorney in civil rights cases across a half century, has died at age 77, The Associated Press reports A Selma native who got his law degree at Howard University, Chestnut returned to his hometown in 1958 and became a key legal figure in the civil rights battles in Selma. Later, he defended Blacks in major voter fraud prosecutions and helped Black farmers make financial claims against the U.S. Agriculture Department. Read the rest at BET.com.

Ohio is ordered to verify eligible voters. A federal appeals court on Tuesday ordered Ohio’s top elections official to set up a system by Friday to verify the eligibility of newly registered voters and make the information available to the state’s 88 county election boards. Democrats see the move as a way of denying thousands of new voters, many of who are Black, their right to vote. Read more of what the stakeholders have to say here.

Leon David Dorsey inflicted pain until his last days

The violent life of Leon David Dorsey IV came to an end Tuesday when he was strapped to a gurney in a Texas prison and injected with a lethal cocktail, becoming the state’s seventh prisoner executed this year. The twice-convicted murderer was serving 60 years in prison after pleading guilty to killing a woman during a convenience store robbery when Dallas Police nailed him for shooting to death two young men at the Blockbuster where they worked. The 32-year-old self-described “Pistol Pete” pretty much inflicted pain until the end of his life. During his eight years on death row, he amassed nearly 100 disciplinary cases; in 2004, he used a homemade 8½-inch knife to stab an officer in the back 14 times, according to The Associated Press. Only the officer’s body armor spared his life. About two weeks ago, the news agency reports, authorities found another shank in his cell. Dorsey’s appeal went to the U.S. Supreme Court, which upheld his conviction, earlier this year. His case for appeal would likely have gotten more media attention, but prison authorities declined to make him available for media interviews, citing his violent nature. “He’s mean,” said Toby Shook, a former Dallas County assistant district attorney who prosecuted Dorsey for capital murder. He was a “true psychopath. Every day he was looking to hurt someone,” Shook said. “It was the only satisfaction he got in life.”

The condemned man is accused of murder and rape

For the first time in more than a half-century, the president of the United States has approved the execution of a U.S. soldier. On Monday, President Bush OK’d the death of Army Pvt. Ronald A. Gray (above, left), who was convicted of killing four people, including two fellow military personnel, and raping eight women in the Fayetteville, N.C., area during an eight-month period while stationed at Fort Bragg. “While approving a sentence of death for a member of our armed services is a serious and difficult decision for a commander in chief, the president believes the facts of this case leave no doubt that the sentence is just and warranted,” White House press secretary Dana Perino said. “The victims included a civilian and two members of the Army,” Perino said. Military executions must be approved by a sitting president. The last time a U.S. serviceman was executed was in 1961; it had been approved Dwight Eisenhower. In the most recent case, the Secretary of the Army had requested that Bush approve the death sentence. “The President’s thoughts and prayers are with the victims of these heinous crimes and their families and all others affected,” Perino said. Gray remains on death row in Kansas.