Previously published by The Huffington Post
Troy Davis was executed in Georgia a couple of weeks ago right
after a flurry of attention that led to a brief stay ordered by the
Supreme Court. I was one of many attorneys, judges and others --
including former FBI chief William Sessions, Pope Benedict XVI and
former President Jimmy Carter -- who had urged the Georgia Board of
Pardons and Paroles to reconsider his case because the evidence
against him had become rife with doubt, including recanted
testimony from seven of the nine witnesses who had originally
fingered Davis as the killer, and because there was some
questionable police behavior. Of course, I did not know and still
do not know if Davis was, in fact, guilty of the 1991 murder for
which he was convicted. But that is not the point. So long as our
society continues to sentence people to death (a practice I have
abhorred my entire life), it should only do so when there is no
doubt as to the guilt of the convicted
