I have no words…so I will let the article speak for itself…

A federal judge Tuesday denied Georgia death row inmate Troy Davis’ innocence claim after a rare hearing.

The ruling against Davis sets the stage for Georgia officials to move forward with executing him for the 1989 shooting death of Mark MacPhail, an off-duty Savannah police officer.

In June, U.S. District Court Judge William T. Moore Jr. heard two days of testimony from witnesses seeking to cast doubt on Davis’ conviction. The Supreme Court ordered the hearing for Davis a year ago.

Davis has been spared from execution three times as his attorneys pushed their argument that new evidence showed police ignored MacPhail’s real killer as they rushed to pin the shooting on Davis.

For more than a decade, Davis has sought to present in open court his claims of innocence, including the testimony of seven key prosecution witnesses who have recanted or contradicted their trial testimony.

Davis’ innocence claims have attracted international attention, including former President Jimmy Carter and Pope Benedict XVI urging that he be spared from execution. In recent years, Davis’ scheduled execution has been halted three times — on one occasion just two hours before he was to be put to death by lethal injection.

…and we call this system just?

This is a follow-up in a conversation I was having on Tumblr about the case with supersoygrrrl where she asked about the man covered in blood who was seen the night of the killings in the area where it all happened. The man was dubbed Mr. Bojangles after the restaurant he was seen in. Here are a couple of mentions of him from the case chronology:

8:50pm: Officer Regenia Meek arrives at Bojangles Restaurant to investigate a report of a bleeding black man who has made a mess in the ladies restroom.
Police Documents, 5/5/93 WMPD Station Logs, 3-11 shift, p. 5

Now the man could have easily been a victim of an attack himself, hence the bleeding and disorientation, but the police failed to tie up this loose end:

9:00pm: Dets. Allen and Ridge, still wearing the same clothes in which they handled bodies at the site where they were found, visit the nearby Bojangles restaurant. Ridge allegedly takes “blood scrapings,” which are later lost.
Police Documents, Bojangles Restaurant, 5/6/93 Report regarding incident

Now I am not saying that the police should have jumped to any conclusions, but waiting over 24hrs to return and get samples which were lost before they could be tested, and in clothes from the murder scene where they could have tracked ‘evidence’ into Bojangles was irresponsible in my opinion. Granted at the time of the initial Bojangles report, the bodies of the three boys had yet to be discovered, but I still feel like was a major ball dropped in the investigation because the police had their minds made up upon discovery of the bodies that this was occult related.

With that in mind, Damien Echols (someone whom the WMPD had been seemingly trying to pin something on for some time due to his supposed ties to satanism) became the focus of their investigation. Even without sufficient evidence to link Echols to the crimes.

supersoygrrrl mentioned the stepfather as a possible suspect, Hobbs (whose now ex-wife, mother of one of the slain boys) has also indicated could be involved. Now this is where more of my leanings go these days due to a recent 4 part article in the Jonesboro Sun dealing with the case. The most damning evidence I have seen to date, indicates that Hobbs and his friend Jacoby both were linked to the murder scene via hair samples. Samples that were dismissed by the WMPD as being transferred to the scene accidentally. I call bullshit. Here is an excerpt from the article:

DNA testing

In 2007 the state did DNA tests of dozens of pieces of evidence collected from the scene where the bodies were discovered. Several DNA profiles were found, but none of them matched Echols, Baldwin or Misskelley.

“Test everything,” Echols said. “Test. Test. Test. I want them to test every damn thing.”

The Arkansas Supreme Court is set to hear oral arguments Sept. 30 about the new DNA evidence and allegations that Echols-Baldwin juror foreman Kent Arnold introduced inadmissible evidence into the jury room, according to court documents.

DNA collected did not match the convicted, but a hair pulled from the ligature binding Michael was a mitochondrial match for Stevie’s stepfather, Terry Hobbs, court documents state. Another hair found on a tree stump near the crime scene was a possible mitochondrial match for Hobbs’ friend, David Jacoby — the man Hobbs said he was with when the boys disappeared.

Hobbs vehemently denies killing his stepson and the boy’s friends. Attorneys, forensic experts and private investigators hired by supporters and Echols’ wife, Lorri Davis, have cast a false light on him, Hobbs said.

“These people should be ashamed of themselves,” Hobbs said. “I can’t believe what they’re willing to say and what they’re willing to do.”

Stevie’s mother, Pam Hobbs, divorced from Hobbs, has said her ex-husband could have been involved in the murders.

Pam Hobbs said she thinks her son and the other boys were murdered somewhere else and dumped into the ditch. At a 2009 court hearing Pam Hobbs approached Jason Baldwin and told him, “I hope God grants you a new trial.”

She also corresponds with Echols.

Christopher’s stepfather, John Mark Byers, said Hobbs was involved in the murders, according to sworn affidavits filed in federal court.

Media bombardment

Hobbs said he still remains in contact with his former wife. Intense media coverage and bombardment from West Memphis Three supporters prompted his ex-wife’s most recent accusations, Hobbs said.

The two have a daughter, Amanda, and grandchildren, he said. Amanda has been talking with filmmakers and investigators working to free Echols and has been put under hypnosis, Hobbs said.

“It’s as low-down as it can be,” Hobbs said. “That Lorri Davis is behind this.”

Pressed further, Hobbs said he fears hypnosis might lead his daughter to conjure a false memory that places her and him at the crime scene with the dead boys.

“It’s kind of keeping me on the edge,” he said.

I think the fact that he is worried about the hypnosis bringing up a ‘false’ memory of his daughter and him at the scene with the three dead bodies, just doesn’t sit right with me. Unless that memory is there, I do not see how hypnosis could bring it to the surface.

All in all, the case against the WM3 is weak, and these findings just further support the need for a retrial. If I am not mistaken, Damien has been granted a new trial in Sept. for the DNA evidence. Not sure why it has taken so many years for this to happen, but lets hope that they finally start to view the facts of the case reasonably and objectively.

If you aren’t familiar with the West Memphis 3 and this horrible case of prejudicial justice in the south, then please follow the link and check them out. I was living in the area years and years ago when the murders took place and I remember the way the locals reacted to the three teenagers who were arrested and charged. They were labeled satanists, and the masses minds were made up. These three were guilty…

…only thing is, there are many discrepancies in the case that point to the three men being innocent! Yet, over a decade later, they are still in jail facing the death penalty. Prejudice failed these men and the young boys whose murderer(s) still walks free, and justice still eludes them to this day.

I covered this case a few years ago in the early life of my podcast, and it sickens me that I have yet been able to report that they have been freed and justice has finally been served. But that’s the tricky thing about the concept of justice. For even if the real killer was found and justice came for the murders, the three men whose lives have been effectively hijacked by a broken system, there is no justice for them.

What the system has taken from them, it can never give back. But it can start, and we can all help make that happen by going to the link above and helping the campaign to free the West Memphis 3 in whatever way you can. The more people joining this fight, the more pressure the courts will be facing until they grant a retrial for all three convicted men.

Conditional freedom is not something that I would have thought I would ever be discussing in the United States, given the Civics classes of my youth instilling in me this idea that we are the country where everyone is free. It’s even like ‘guaranteed’ in the Constitution, or so we are led to believe in our formative years. But freedom, we find as we make our way in the world away from the biased books that littered our school days, is not fully granted to everyone in this country, no matter how much we posture and present quite an opposite face.

Freedom in the Real World

It’s not hard to find an example of, especially these days, but freedom seems more and more conditional for various groups in our society and the freedom gaps are only seeming to grow. Let’s take a look at Reproductive Freedom, for an example of this pervasive, oppressive problem that is on the verge of becoming a pandemic. Gender bias has long steered our society, from religious institutions to the corporate world, from Capital Hill to Hollywood, and not surprisingly on down into our homes. (With that much outside influence corrupting the dialog and molding the mindsets, it’s not surprising at all that it pierced the veil into nearly all of our homes.) Hell, it probably feels normal to you at this point. So much so, that you don’t even notice that you are taking part in it.

That’s right, as members of the public, unless we are actively campaigning and speaking out against this gender bias based oppression, also known as sexism, then we are passively partaking in it and allowing it to persist. And the Reproductive Freedom issue is a perfect example of this struggle being ignored as basic freedoms are being stripped from women across the nation. So many passively play into the limitation of freedom because we see it as not effecting us (males), or we believe we are entitled to take these rights away from women because our god has granted us the moral high-ground and we must force everyone to see this miracle through the same god-glazed gaze that we do (religious antis).

The heart of the matter

Either way, you are advocating that one group (fetuses) are more important than another group (women), because you are stripping personal choice and Reproductive Freedom from the entire female gender in order to protect the ‘rights’ and ‘freedom’ of the fetus. So in your eyes, freedom is no longer the guarantee that was once promised, it is conditional on whether or not you are 1) a female and furthermore 2) a pregnant female. Males are unaffected in this quest to control the female reproductive system, and therefore their freedom remains intact. In fact, Reproductive Freedom is an area where there is no counter legislation or issue that impacts the entire male populous in this same way. If there was legislation that forced sterility on males to help stem the overpopulation problem or something along those lines, or even just to prevent unwanted pregnancies, then society would be attacking male Reproductive Freedom, but we never see that.

Why? Because the gender bias that has flawed and fucked our societal foundation teaches us that women are somehow ‘less than’ men, and are not as deserving of full freedom and control of their bodies. We see women as incapable of making these decisions properly and morally (according to the moral code we think they should be aligned with and following) so we take those choices away and begin limiting their freedom, based only on this one factor, this one condition, because they are female. So this ridiculous ideologically and religiously charged ‘dialog’ begins over the reproductive rights of women, when it is solved by a much simpler question. Should freedom be conditional? And that answer is always, an unequivocal, No!

But what about the fetus’ rights? Doesn’t their freedom matter?

The short answer is this. No.

The Bill of Rights does not apply to the unborn. Until the time of birth, there is no guarantee of life, liberty, or the pursuit of any damn thing. Sounds harsh, huh? Well I’m sorry, but given that the laws regarding bodily autonomy are non-negotiable in my book, means to me that until the fetus can survive without using the female host’s body to keep it alive then the female whose body is being used has the right to determine whether or not she wants her body to be used in this way. Therefore, without ever having been a fully sentient, self-sustainable born being, this fetus is not recognized as having ever been, therefore no rights have ever been extended nor guaranteed it. That is not a matter of conditional freedom, given that freedom is not granted until the time of birth.

And he’s at it again! Another ‘ass’ault on masculinity and the Feminist Movement from the ‘Men’s Rights’ Asshat of the Year, Man Manly. The clueless crusader has another podcast in which he returns to spewing the ridiculous reasonings of his fight to bring down the feminist movement (even though he doesn’t have a grip on what said movement is about). He apparently has also uncovered the secret feminist abortion agenda as well, and throws his support behind the FaceBook ‘Man Day’ madness.

It was funny to hear him mention me and my attacks on him in his latest show, apparently I have made his radar…we shall see what develops from there.

The Man’s Man Manly Hour with Man Manly Ep. 2

And just when you thought the ‘fight’ for ‘Men’s Rights’ couldn’t get any more obnoxious, I stumbled across a rare breed of asshat that has just started his own podcast. Man Manly is a self-proclaimed right-wing Men’s Rights advocate that is apparently unhappy about the current state of men in society at the unchallenged hands of feminism, and he means to change that.

There is so much fail in this douche’s Manly Hour podcast (which the first episode is only ten minutes long), that I almost don’t know where to begin, but he talks about Male Studies and Penis Envy in his first episode. If you haven’t had your fill of ignorant asshats making an idiot of themselves today, then take a listen and get ready for the inevitable facepalm!

The Man’s Man Manly Hour Blog