Habeas corpus and death row
By
Stephen Millies
Published Jun 19, 2008 12:56 AM
According to the Innocence Project, 218 prisoners have been freed because of
DNA testing. Sixteen of them were awaiting execution.
The Death Penalty Information Center has counted 129 death row prisoners who
were found innocent since 1973. With over two million people in jail and five
million on parole, this is still a tiny percentage of those unlawfully
convicted.
Despite this heartbreaking record of frame-ups, Congress in 1995 sped up the
trip to the electric chair or lethal injection by passing the
“Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act” (AEDPA).
This vicious law has severely limited the right of death row prisoners to file
habeas corpus appeals. Among those whose appeals have been cut is the eloquent
political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal.
One of the senators sponsoring this act was the notorious segregationist Strom
Thurmond. As a circuit judge, Thurmond sentenced 17-year-old Black sharecropper
Samuel Osborne to die for defending himself against his white landlord.
As South Carolina governor, Thurmond executed 21 people in the state’s
electric chair. Everyone burned to death was African-American.
President Bill Clinton signed the AEDPA on April 24, 1996, while Mumia
Abu-Jamal was spending his 42nd birthday on Pennsylvania’s death row.
The U.S. Constitution specifically forbids Congress from suspending the right
of habeas corpus. But these rights never applied to those held in slavery.
Slave masters and wealthy merchants wrote the Constitution. They also suspended
habeas corpus in cases of invasion or insurrection. Besides being worried about
slave revolts, they were concerned about the rebellion of poor farmers led by
Daniel Shays in Massachusetts.
The U.S. Supreme Court unanimously upheld the AEDPA. Not a single judge
dissented.
Yet five justices on this court have upheld the right to habeas corpus for
inmates at the Guantánamo concentration camp. That’s because of the
uprisings in the Middle East and Latin America.
Troy Anthony Davis is one of those unlawfully convicted and faces execution in
Georgia. No physical evidence linked Davis to the killing of Savannah police
officer Mark Allen MacPhail. Seven of the nine main witnesses who testified
against Davis have recanted.
The AEDPA has prevented Davis from bringing up evidence that could prove his
innocence in appeals.
His life is in danger. On March 17 the Georgia Supreme Court denied Davis his
appeal. Go to troyanthonydavis.org to see how you can help save the life of
this innocent man.
Articles copyright 1995-2012 Workers World.
Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article is permitted in any medium without royalty provided this notice is preserved.
Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011
Email:
[email protected]
Subscribe
[email protected]
Support independent news
DONATE