This is sick

From Equal Justice USA:

The Supreme Court has denied the appeal of Troy Davis, clearing the way for a new execution date to be set.

The Supreme Court announced today that they will not hear Troy Davis' case to determine whether it is constitutional to execute someone with a strong claim of innocence. The Supreme Court has essentially said that innocence doesn't matter - Troy Davis can be executed despite the fact that case against him consisted entirely of inconsistent eyewitness testimony and that seven witnesses have recanted their testimony.

If this is all the protection we can expect against executing the innocent, we must stop executions now.

For more on this Georgia case, see Amnesty International. Davis was convicted of killing a police officer at a Burger King based entirely on witness testimonies. There was no physical evidence and no weapon found. All but two of the non-police witnesses have recanted or changed their "recollections" since the trial.

But Davis is up against two big problems:

One of the two witnesses who has not recanted his testimony is Sylvester "Red" Coles -- the principle alternative suspect, according to the defense, against whom there is new evidence implicating him as the gunman. Nine individuals have signed affidavits implicating Sylvester Coles.

Now there's a guy with an incentive to stick to his story.

Davis' other problem is that, in the interest of "steamlining" court proceedings, the "justice" system limits appeals. The Supreme Court isn't saying they think Davis was rightly convicted; they are saying they won't look into the issue in the interests of a smoothly operating system.

Yeah, right -- a smoothly operating conveyor belt to execution for unlucky, poor, black folks...***You can send a letter to the Georgia parole board here.