Whipped Cream Difficulties

Irving Davis is appealing his death sentence again.

Mr. Davis was convicted in 2007 of killing a 15-year old girl and sentenced to death. However, that sentence was thrown out, and Mr. Davis got a new sentencing hearing. He’s upset because, during that hearing, the prosecution brought up his religion. Mr. Davis feels that this unfairly infringes on his right to freely exercise his religion, as well as prejudicing the jurors against him. The prosecution argues that it was okay to introduce this evidence in order to refute claims by the defense that Mr. Davis was “nothing but a pacifist” while on Death Row; and anyway, if it’s appropriate to introduce affiliations with violent gangs, why isn’t it appropriate to introduce religious affiliations? Especially if the religion in question “condones and encourages human sacrifice and other illegal acts.”

Oh, by the way, the particular religion Mr. Davis has chosen to practice is Satanism.

Jurors were shown, over defense objections, Davis’ drawings depicting satanic symbols, books removed from his cell that included “The Satanic Bible” and a pentagram tattoo on his chest. Prosecutors also introduced a grievance form that showed Davis complaining about being denied a gong, candles, chalice, black robes, a vial of blood and other items he said were needed to practice his religion.

What, no goat?

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 6th, 2010 at 12:56 pm and is filed under Clippings, Law. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.