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MARY'S COMMENTARY

Hopefully everyone will look at the Troy Davis case for what it is - evidence that we need to repeal the death penalty all across America.  The likelihood of innocent people being executed is too great.  If the justice system is so convinced, unlike most other people, that Troy Davis shot Officer MacPhail, why not have a new trial and allow the evidence to speak for itself? 

I do not think that courts in Georgia care a whit about guilt or innocence, right and wrong.  They make judicial decisions based on a completely difference criterion that has ZERO to do with the law and justice.  I do not base this assessment on the Troy Davis matter, but from my own dealings with courts in this state.  When the judges know that you would win before a jury and they don't want you to win for whatever reason, the judges simply refuse to allow your case to go to jury trial.  That is the Georgia way. 

The same thing happened in our case against The Cochran Firm for its fraud against my family after the secret arrest and wrongful death of Larry Neal in Shelby Co. Jail in Memphis. The Cochran Firm contracted as our wrongful death attorneys, then it worked with the jail and held our lawsuit against the jail INACTIVE FOR 10.5 MONTHS while writing us lying letters about the case going forward, while they did zero. What jury would have trouble deciding in our favor? None.  So Judge Batten of USDC did not allow it to go to jury, because he knew any jury would give us the case - ANY JURY.

The first judge to deny us a trial by jury (an American "right"), was Judge Shoob, in Georgia Superior Court.  She dismissed our case by claiming The Cochran Firm did not exist in Georgia - with the law firm open for business every day not three blocks from her courtroom and advertising on television, MARTA (public transportation), and all over the Internet.  See the information here:

Updated 4-3-09 - The Cochran Firm Fraud Continues Unchecked by the Courts
http://my.nowpublic.com/world/cochran-firm-fraud-continues-unchecked-courts-updated-4-3-09

Troy Davis is to be pitied.  His lawyers researched laws and drafted pleadings and probably did a fine job arguing in Troy's defense, but they failed to realize that it would not matter if Troy could produce irrefutable proof that he was on the moon when the officer was killed.  If Georgia has decided to execute this man, the judges would not pay one bit of attention to proof that Troy Davis was on the moon when the officer died.  None.  Truth matters none in Georgia courts.  None.  The more proof one has, the less likely one is to get before a jury if they do not want you to win.

Support for new trials for convicted persons with substantial new evidence, like Troy Davis, and opposition to the death penalty are two of the 25 justice concerns that will be addressed at the first annual HUMAN RIGHTS FOR PRISONERS MARCH in Atlanta, Georgia on May 16.  See information about that event at this link:

Human Rights for Prisoners March Planned for May 16 in Atlanta
http://my.nowpublic.com/world/human-rights-prisoners-march-planned-mid-may-atlanta 

Background information, videos, and photographs regarding the Troy Davis case and his numerous close calls with execution are available at this link, including a heart-wrenching appeal for a new trial from this condemned man:  http://my.nowpublic.com/search?fulltext=1&type=story&keys=troy+davis+mary+neal

Other justice articles by this writer are available by clicking the dogs icon or using this link:  http://nowPublic.com/duo

Your viewpoint is invited in the comments area below.

Mary Neal
Assistance to the Incarcerated Mentally Ill
http://care2.com/c2c/group/AIMI

For he hath looked down from the height of his sanctuary; from heaven did the LORD behold the earth; To hear the groaning of the prisoner; to loose those that are appointed to death. ~ Psalm 102