I am reminded of a story related by the late Michael Musmanno, the flamboyant, controversial, and brilliant Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justice. In his dissenting opinion in Washington Park, Inc. Appeal, 425 Pa. 349 (1967), Justice Musmanno related the following, about one of the most famous injustices ever perpetrated by an American court:
"Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, two workingmen in Massachusetts, were sentenced to death after a trial admittedly saturated with error. As one of the attorneys in the case I filed a petition for certiorari in the Supreme Court of the United States. The date of execution was set for August 22, 1927. The Supreme Court was not to meet until the following October. A stay of execution was imperative if the Supreme Court was to pass on living litigation. I applied to the Chief Justice and two Associate Justices of the Supreme Court, all of whom refused to grant the stay. I made application to the Governor of Massachusetts, he refused the stay. I turned to the President of the United States because by this time the Sacco-Vanzetti case had taken on international significance and the heads of many governments had indicated they feared a great injustice would result if the two doomed workingmen went to the electric chair with half of the world believing them innocent. The President declined to intervene.
"On August 22, 1927, the men, who were undoubtedly innocent, were executed. Two months later the Supreme Court met and one of the first items of its business was consideration of the pending petition for writ of certiorari, the one I had filed. The Court was formally advised that the petition was now moot because Sacco and Vanzetti were dead."
We will never be able to undo what is going to happen tomorrow. "In the end, I am not concerned so much with whether or not Davis is guilty or innocent. I am concerned with the uncertainty of his guilt." http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2011/09/20/troy-davis-and-the-history-of-injustice-in-america/
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4 comments:
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Two masked bandits stole money and the gun of a security guard, then shot the guard dead. Sacco and Vanzetti were later arrested because they were mistakenly thought to be trying to steal a car. One of them was carrying the murder weapon, which was posirively identified based on the recovered bullet and expended casing. The other was carrying the gun stolen from the murdered guard. Sacco and Vanzetti may have been the bandits, or they may have acquired the guns innocently after the bandits disposed of them.
If they acquired the guns after the murder, and were not involved in it, they were obligated to tell the authorities how they came to posess the guns. This would be important evidence that could help the police track down the real killers. They lied about how they got the guns, then admitted they lied and refused to tell the truth. By withholding evidence, they were, under Masssachusetts law of the time, guilty of murder as accessories after the fact, even if they were not present at the murder scene.
There was other evidence that Sacco and vanzetti actually were the bandits. The height, weight, voices, accents, and clothing of the masked bandits match Sacco and Vanzetti. Sacco and Vanzetti also lied about where they were when the murder occurred.
A jury found them guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. Judges found no reason to stay the execution. Leftists proclaimed that Sacco and Vanzetti were innocent because it benefitted them politically, but probably didn't believe it.
Of course judges and juries make mistakes. I am opposed to the death penalty in general, so I think they should not have been executed. However, the question of their guilt is a best questionable. I am not confident in saying they were innocent.
R.I.P. Troy Davis. IMO another innocent man was murdered in the name of justice.
CBGirl
Troy Davis has been unjustly executed.
http://www.wtqr.com/cc-common/news/sections/newsarticle.html?feed=104668&article=9145378
http://www.cnn.com/2011/09/22/justice/georgia-execution/index.html?eref=rss_us&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+rss%2Fcnn_us+%28RSS%3A+U.S.%29
I am white, I am not a liberal and I signed the petition to demand clemency for Mr. Davis.
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