there was also junk forensic science, and the same thing happened in this case. we had what everybody agrees is a bad ballistic testimony in this matter. if if you recall during the campaign, i was seeking a stay of an execution from a governor bush for a guy, and on your show, governor bush said i will grand that stay. i remember that vaguely. on december 7th, 2000, the last person that jush executed was a man named claude jones. he was sentenced to die after a 3-2 decision where it was said that an accomplice in texas you needed corroborated evidence.
you could argue if there is a case in which a death penalty is justified, that would be a case. talk about premedicated. but mistakes will be made. there will be uncertainly. i agree with you there is no perfection in human endeavor, and this is an irrevocable punishment. you can t say, oops, when new information comes out. you just can t. it s gone beyond discomfort for me. do you think the answer is the old mario cuomo solution. if the juries were convinced that life one of these, you face seven year, on good behavior out in ten, not that kind of thing. and they lost faith in the government basically to do what it promised to do. people wouldn t be so bloodthirsty. the idea of life in prison is so horrible. life means life now.
supporters of capital punishment. now, democrats are mixed on the issue, a balance slightly in favor, but they struggle with this issue. republicans generally don t struggle with it, they re all for it. in this case it looks like governor perry says he has no sleepless nights. the most recent republican president, george w. bush, and there s not an ad hominem on my part, that he never spent more than 15 minutes in studying in case he had to review. it doesn t seem to bother a texas governor with an execution they have to approve, or at least not stand in the way of. what is it in the hard of republicans that seems to not be in the heart of democrats. i want your analysis, reverend, why a difference of heart here? i don t understand the difference of heart. i don t support the death penalty. i don t understand those that do, particularly those that claim to be moral and upstanding in other ways. what is beyond that, and i m
physical or scientific evidence. if somebody seeing somebody shoot somebody at point-blank range, you want what other evidence? i want some ballistics, i want to have something that proves physically they did not in fact mistake what they said they saw. this case is an example of that. when you have 7 of the 9 witnesses you have any number of studies, chris, that say that people think they saw things in questioning they were shown the wrong pictures. there s all kinds of things. if you re talking about a capital case, not a murder case, not a case with life in jail, but a capital case, you should have more than just eyewitness as the basis of prosecuting a capital case, and we re going to washington on that this industry under the circumstances. i want to stay with you. we watched a recent example of public attitudes about capital
at least one witness has come forth under oath and said she heard another man who was actually involved in that scene at the time confess to the actual shooting. still, davis does admit to being at the scene of the crime and shell casings were found linking him to a previous crime. so that conviction in 1991, davis has since then exhausted every legal avenue. in fact his execution has been stayed now by various courts. we ll get word soon that davis has been put to death. we ll be live throughout this whole hour. we ll bring you the reaction from around the country, from our reporters as well, from those moth interested in this very dire case. al sharpton and sin think use talker joins us as well. reverend sharpton, it s 7:00.