Troy Davis Lives!

If the state of Georgia had its way, somebody would be pronouncing Troy Davis dead about the time I'm typing this. But fortunately, Georgia didn't get its way so Troy Davis is still alive, with at least one more chance to get a court to look at his request for a new trial. The US Supreme Court met late this afternoon and voted to grant a stay until they could vote on whether to grant his cert petition. That conference will be held on Monday. If the Court accepts cert, of course, the stay will remain in effect until they issue a decision on his case. If the Court denies cert, the stay will be lifted.

This is one of those convictions that just hasn't stood the test of time. Now, maybe you'll think that's not a very good reason for granting a new trial, and maybe if we value finality in cases, you're right. But I also don't buy "a jury found him guilty beyond a reasonable doubt 20 years ago" as a justification for keeping his execution date without further review of his innocence claim. The fact is that 7 of the 9 key witnesses at his trial have recanted their testimony. Several new witnesses have come forward to say that a known, plausible suspect confessed to the shooting.

The bottom line is Georgia wants to kill this man. Based on the current state of the evidence, we should be glad that, for this week at least, the US Supreme Court isn't letting them.