William Sessions on Troy Anthony Davis Case

On Sept. 23, the U.S. Supreme Court granted a stay of execution for Troy Anthony Davis less than two hours before he was scheduled to be put to death. A decision on whether or not the court will grant certiorari and hear his case is expected Monday.

Yesterday former FBI director William Sessions, a death penalty proponent, wrote urging the court to grant Cert:

I am a member of the Constitution Project’s bipartisan Death Penalty Committee, which includes supporters of the death penalty, like me, as well as opponents. We are united in our profound concern that in recent years, and around the country, procedural safeguards and other assurances of fundamental fairness in the administration of capital punishment have been revealed to be deeply flawed. Two of our consensus findings from our report on the death penalty apply directly to Mr. Davis’s case. First, we condemned the kinds of procedural barriers that prevented the courts from addressing the merits of Mr. Davis’s case and we recommended that they be eliminated. Second, we insisted that capital defendants have competent lawyers with adequate resources, which Mr. Davis’s own lawyer stated (through no fault of his own) was not provided in his case.

Former Chief Justice William Rehnquist once wrote that the judicial system, “like the human beings who administer it, is fallible.” I agree. Especially when it comes to a human life, the courts should always be able to examine claims of innocence…

I hope the Court will grant certiorari to avoid a miscarriage of justice. At the very least, Mr. Davis’ substantive claims must be examined. The political process has failed Mr. Davis. Let us hope that the court of last resort rises to the challenge.