The Day After

I'm no expert on the case of Troy Davis. I have not been following his story since his first stay of execution in 2007. In fact, I didn't know of Mr. Davis at all until last week, when I stumbled quite by chance onto a  local protest staged by his supporters. 

But I've been watching the doings of my fellow humans with keen interest for nearly a half century. And so I decided to conduct a little experiment.

After several detailed Google searches for unsolved murders of US police officers turned up no comprehensive list, or in fact any list at all, I embarked upon my own search.  I used search terms like "unsolved," "unsolved murder," "open case," and "remains unsolved" paired with terms like "officer," "police officer," and "officer killed." I came up with a list of  nine names. Nine US officers whose murders have never been solved. Coffey, Garnier, Stathers, Stephens, Cain, Johnson, Edwards, Brenton, and Bailey. Let's assume that my search turned up only 20% of the actual open US homicide cases in which an officer was the victim. That gives us 81. For perspective, the corresponding number in the UK is 211 unsolved cop killings. In an island country, and one far smaller than the US.

In 2009, 117 police officers in the US were killed in the line of duty (a standard-setting low). In 2010,  that figure rose to 160 (a noteworthy high). So, if we average those two years we get about 136 US police officers per year who are killed in the line of duty. Go back about 25 years (a time frame embracing the 9 cases I found) and you get 3400. That's 3400 US police officers killed in the line of duty over the last 25 years. 

Assuming again that my search yielded only a 20% success rate (81 unsolved police murders), that means that police were able to make an arrest in 3319 of 3400 cases in which an officer was murdered. That yields a 97.6% arrest rate.  That figure alone is impressive, perhaps too much so. Let's say that there are 200 unsolved murders of police officers in the US over the last 25 years, a number similar to that in the UK. That still yields a 94% arrest rate. 

Although I've never heard of anyone being acquitted of the murder of a police offcer, let's assume that some cases do go that road, for whatever reason (actual innocence, prosecutorial errors, procedural errors, etc.) I'll be generous and say that 10% of those trials resulted in acquittals. So, from our 3200 homocides resulting in arrest, we deduct 320, leaving 2880 convictions (90%) for felony murder of police officers in the last 25 years.

For perspective, if the nation's police forces and district attorneys were as efficient in catching, prosecuting, and convicting, say, sellers of narcotics,  there would be virtually no drug problem inthe United States.

OK, by now you know where I'm going with this. And you're saying,"Wait, the police are very protective of their own. Of course they're going to use all manpower resources to solve the murder of one of their own." And that is true. But we're also talking about officers who are, shall we say, extremely motivated to arrest someone in these cases. Perhaps so much so that nearly anyone even remotely connected to the time and place of the murder would suit them just fine. Are we talking about detective work or just an old-fashioned torch and pitchfork witch hunt? The desire for retribution is a powerful thing. It clouds the judgment. It makes questions of guilt or innocence seem less important than the frightening prospect that this murder may go unsolved. It creates the vengeful imperative that someone--anyone--must pay for this terrible crime that strikes at society's heart.

They key word in the Troy Davis case was: Doubt. There was substantial doubt about his guilt. Doubt that the police had gotten the right man. Doubt among the witnesses, many of whom recanted their prior testimony.

Doubt.

Troy Davis was executed last night. But that doubt remains.

 

Comments

[Fred]

I think that maybe the focus should be more on the appeals process and not the police work done here. If you can't get a retrial or prove the reasonable doubt required in the 20+ years since a conviction and death sentence are handed down, then perhaps you did it. Of course police are going to work overtime to solve cases involving the death of their own, but the Supreme Courts at the state and federal level are dispassionate professionals who've devoted their lives to the process and the law itself. (At least they should be.)
And to your point about the unusually high arrest rate for police officers who’ve been killed, I think it warrants mentioning that these folks’ whereabouts are accounted for at all times. If the average citizen were required to check in by radio or their cars where equipped with dashcams and GPS, I think we’d see a big difference in the statistics for arrests related to random murders. I think we’re seeing that now with the advancements/intrusions that come with the cell phones we all carry today.
-None of that changes the fact that we’re asked to place our faith in a justice system whose superior design is immediately corrupted by asking human beings to conduct it. (Thanks for your take on this, Charlie... I enjoyed reading your post.)

[Charlie]

Fred - I think that my point can and should be extended to the appeals process. That is, when faced with two options (1) execute the person we have already in custody, or (2) admit we fucked up, release this person, and start from scratch... any DA worth his/her weight in donuts is not only going to choose (1) but is going to do everything to make it stick. As I said elsewhere, DAvis and his attorneys would have had to solve the case themselves in order to get his conviction tossed. Now, as far as clemency goes, it's just harder to get a capital sentence commuted when the victim was a cop. In fact, the State of Georgia only 2 days after the DAvis execution commuted the sentence of a confessed murderer who shot & beat his former employer to death. Two big differences: this guy was white and his victim wasn't a cop.

As for the argument that 20 years of appeals should have revealed the truth...perhaps. But some forms of more sensitive DNA testing have only become available recently. And I have no idea what evidence was permitted or excluded in the course of any of those appeals.

My response to this mess: I've chosen to donate money to The Innocence Project. Let's be sure that we get it right before another Troy Davis is put to death.