Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, May 7, 1995 TAG: 9505080093
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: The New York Times
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
A convicted murderer, Davis is scheduled to die May 17. Most of his legal appeals are exhausted. His supporters say Davis' confession was coerced, and he continues to assert his innocence.
As often happens just before an execution, supporters and opponents of the death penalty have begun airing their arguments in the Davis case. But with executions becoming more common, the press tends to pay less attention each time.
Against that backdrop, two lawyers at Jenner & Block, the Chicago firm representing Davis, had a conversation. David A. Schwartz, a first-year associate working on the Davis case, wondered how to get the word out. Brian K. Murphy, another first-year associate, knew the Internet.
Murphy said, ``Particularly when time is so short, the Internet provides a form and medium that are perfect for the case.''
Murphy set up a home page, or location, on the Worldwide Web (http://www.mcs.net/bkmurph/girvies.htm) on April 24. In the ensuing week, it recorded more than 30,000 visits, he said. The home page includes a 34-second sound bite from Davis, in which he professes his innocence of murder while acknowledging ``wrongs I have done in the past.'' There is a color photograph of Davis. Large blinking numerals show a countdown to the execution date. The full text of his clemency petition is available, along with a sample of his handwriting, contrasted with a handwritten confession used against him at trial that his attorneys say is not his writing. The site also has a button for sending electronic mail to Gov. Jim Edgar, who could grant clemency, or to Jenner & Block.
About 35 people a day have sent E-mail to the governor, his office said.
Using the Internet for advocacy is a logical extension of the technology, said Norman Siegel, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union's New York chapter. Siegel said organizers planning a June 4 rally in New York against the death penalty were using e-mail to reach high school students.
Robert B. Haida, the state's attorney for St. Clair County, where Davis was convicted, asserted that use of computer technology in the case ``won't bring anything new.''
Davis was convicted in the 1978 murder of Charles Biebel, 89, in Belleville, Ill. Haida said Biebel was a victim of a ``two-man crime spree'' by Davis and Ricky Holman, a juvenile accused of actually pulling the trigger in the murder of Biebel.
The spree ended in 1979, after Davis was shot during a robbery that killed another man. Illinois law at the time forbade a death sentence unless a defendant had been involved in two or more intentional or premeditated murders. Davis got the death penalty on the grounds that he was guilty of one intentional murder and had possessed ``knowledge that death was likely to occur'' in another.
by CNB