Below are two interesting articles discussing post trial contact with jurors that serve on capital cases. In one article, you have the Virginia Bar attempting to stop the state attorney general's office from sending warning letters to former capital jurors that in no uncertain terms discourages those jurors from meeting with defense attorneys or their representatives. In the second article, an AP reporter tracks down jurors from the 1991 Troy Davis case and asks them whether they still believe in their death sentence in light of new evidence calling into question the testimony of numerous witnesses who testified at trial.
Va. Bar Protests Letters to Jurors as Harmful to Defense Efforts
The Virginia State Bar is trying to stop the state attorney general's office from distributing warning letters for jurors in capital cases that it says might discourage them from talking to defense lawyers.
The office represents the state in all appeals by condemned murderers, including civil challenges once criminal appeals are exhausted. For a decade, the office has supplied local prosecutors with a letter to send to jurors once a civil case starts, advising them that they might be contacted by someone representing the convicted killer who "may try to give the false impression that they are working on behalf" of the prosecution or the courts ...Read in full
'91 death verdict splits Ga. jurors
Inside the jury room, seven men and five women huddled around a table to discuss a parade of witnesses in the case of an off-duty police officer shot and killed outside a fast-food restaurant.
In just two hours they found Troy Anthony Davis guilty. In another seven, they said he deserved to die. Both times they were unanimous.
Since then, Davis' attorneys have delayed his execution three times — less than 24 hours before he was to be executed, in one instance — by raising doubts about those witnesses.
Davis has drawn support from the Vatican to the European parliament, from former President Jimmy Carter to Archbishop Desmond Tutu. The NAACP has launched an "I am Troy" campaign.
While the U.S. Supreme Court is expected to decide soon whether to hear Davis' latest appeal, one thing is clear: Those who convicted Davis in 1991 no longer agree on whether they did the right thing.
The Associated Press set out to find the 12 jurors, some of whom are speaking publicly for the first time since the verdict. In interviews or affidavits, at least four said they were having second thoughts, based on claims by Davis' attorneys that key witnesses have backed away from their court testimony. At least two others, including Raleigh W. Powers, stand by the verdict and say Davis should be executed in the killing of police officer Mark MacPhail...Read in full
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