if. well i'm telling are going to washington d.c. and here's what's coming up tonight on the big picture the georgia death row inmate who made global press coverage and prompted worldwide protests his death so will the execution of troy anthony davis ignite a battle to end the death penalty in america and the collapse of our judicial system in america is even more evident the recent case of pows of save the idea man labeled as the dirty bomb and tell you how our ports in with an equal justice american so this.

you need to know this troy davis died last night at eleven o eight pm and dine with him was the legitimacy of our criminal justice system it was minutes after the united states supreme court unanimously denied a last minute appeal for a stay of execution davis was stretched strapped into a gurney and wheeled into the death chamber as an eyewitness to the execution noted davis used his final words to once again proclaim his innocence. he wanted to talk to the macphail family and say that despite the situation you're seeing he was not the one who did it he said that he was not personally responsible for what happened that night that he did not have a gun he said to the family that he was sorry for their loss but also said that he

did not take their son to call their brother. he said to them to dig deeper into this case to find out the truth. davis then told his family david that ben told his family keep the faith and keep working he then had a message for the executioners about to take his life. and then he said to the prison staff the ones he said who are going to take my life he said to them they god have mercy on your souls and his last words were to them may god bless your souls and without the lethal drug cocktail was pumped into his arm and davis was dead fifteen minutes later davis is attorney jason you were also witness the execution and said afterward i had the unfortunate opportunity tonight to which is which witness a tragedy to witness a georgia execute an innocent man our sadness the sadness of his friends and his family is tempered by the hope that choice death will lead to fundamental legal

reforms so we will never again witness with inevitable regret the execution of an innocent man as we did here tonight so will that happen will troy davis' death be the spark needed to end the death penalty in america once and for all might fare as an actor and activist and as the president of death penalty focus death penalty dot org he joins me now from los angeles mike welcome thank you tom nice to be with you i'm sorry about the circumstances agreed absolutely agreed in the in the sort of you know mike when our pets are so sick or infirm that their lives are in great pain and toward their and many of us put them to sleep peacefully can you describe the ways that we execute human beings in america. well. in a couple of states we still use the firing squad but generally speaking across the country we have what is now known as lethal injection which typically is

a three drug cocktail the one you described a moment ago the use of a sedative per paralytic and then something that stops the heart which has been under attack legally over the last few years because of the fact that the sedative or anesthetic quite often doesn't work and because of the paralytic the the person being executed cannot demonstrate the pain he or she is in. and as a result it is it is inhumane clearly putting anybody to death is inhumane now that because of the problems with the system as it is being is being practiced they are trying various things first of all because the makers of the drugs that are used for the execution protocol have said they do not want it used as a as a killing. element it was supposed to be used to help people so they've stopped allowing it to its use so as a result other drugs are now being used in

a couple of states ohio being one they're now using a single drug to put people to sleep in a manner that veterinarians say it would be inappropriate for to put an animal down so it's this incredible struggle to find the right way from the point of view of the people who are pro death penalty to actually cute and innocent or not innocent human being and this struggle has been going on for some time to continue you know we go from hanging to a gas chamber to the electric chair to. and the firing squad periodically and now the this lethal injection process and it's been an attempt over the years to try to find something. in that needs the standard of a humane execution a contradiction in terms of there ever was one that's an oxymoron absolutely there were protests around the world against the killing of troy davis how has this

impacted how we're viewed in other countries and particularly young people in those countries who may have seen america as a beacon of morality and honor and do you think also that this may be the trigger point for a major change in america's perspective about its own death. you know tom one can only hope troy davis himself with whom i had some contact and his sister have said that it can't and here don't let it end here the idea that this man this possibly innocent man. was killed by the state of georgia in spite of all of the protest in spite of all the questions about the end of the evidence in spite of all of the recantations on the part of the he of prosecutorial witnesses. cannot simply be allowed to just go away like governor perry is trying to have happen with cameron todd willingham execution another innocent man

so we i think in the abolition movement see to it that it is our job to see to it that the rate of the people of the united states wake up to the fact that we are viewed as barbarians by people around the world as a result of our continued use of the death penalty when life in prison without the possibility of parole is is as. effective if not more effective deterrence and as effective if not more effective a punishment for grievous comment and an even less about side which i was and oh so incredibly less expensive we're wasting one hundred four hundred eighty four million dollars a year here in california as an example every year we have an executed anybody in six years and every year we're wasting hundred eighty four million dollars to simply keep alive this death penalty system and i organization that definitely focused on what you mentioned earlier is going to be part of

a coalition that will put on the ballot for the next year's election. an alternative saying let's end the death penalty replace it with life in prison without possibility of parole and take some of the money that we're saving and use it for putting more police on the street use it for doing the kind of good work that needs to be done to prevent crime and or. solves some of these issues of these social issues instead of using this heinous ugly. unbelievably wrong process that politicians continue to tell us is somehow effective and safe and not racist and not classist and it's just a stunning thing i did want to make the point though in terms of your question about is this going to be a game changer. jimmy carter president jimmy carter who i think i feel has always been as always question but definitely came out as a result of troy davis's execution and said if we cannot in this country stop the

execution of a potentially innocent man based on significant evidence pointing in that direction then we ought to just simply give it up. at the great pleasure of giving an award to rosalynn carter who has always been an opponent of definitely a few years ago one of our events and i'm hoping to be able to do the same thing now to president carter given its its declaration good good mike farrell thanks so much for being with us tonight. my pleasure. besides the death of troy davis there was another failure of our criminal justice system last week this one having to do with the case of was a dia so-called dirty bomber but dia who is an american citizen was arrested back in two thousand and two labeled as an enemy combatant and imprisoned for three years without charges and without access to a lawyer again this is an american citizen we're talking about here during those three years but it was denied any contact with the outside world he was abused he was tortured finally put it was given his day in court but none of the evidence of

his abuse was permissible in the trial so in the end but he was found guilty on very little evidence and he was sentenced to seventeen years in prison on the basis that he was tortured pretty appeal that conviction but on monday a federal court appeals court issued a ruling denying everyone and put he is appeals and then the court did something unusual increased pretty as seventeen year pro. and sons arguing that it had been too young to lean too lenient so how can something like this happen in our criminal justice system for an answer to that i'm joined from brazil by go by glenn greenwald attorney in calmness of salon dot com or the author of several books including his latest due out next month with liberty and justice for some how the laws used to destroy quality and protect the powerful one welcome good to be here when when the bush administration was being criticized investigated for the way it was the it was a position but it was treated how did they change the topic from them to him and stop the investigation. well what happened was it was

a pretty it was the victim of probably one of the most radical aspects of the war on terror which is the bush administration claimed as you suggested that it had the right the power to imprison even american citizens arrested on u.s. soil without charges of any kind indefinitely and not only imprison them without charges but any part of them from any contact with the outside world including even a lawyer and that's what they did to india and so patea sued the government lawyers who he never met sued on his behalf and as the case was going to the supreme court and the bush administration was baze away from having to justify to the supreme court how they could possibly claim that kind of a tyrannical power that we all are a number of children is something that other dictatorial countries do not the united states they suddenly announce after more than three years of due process for imprisonment that they were going to indict him in an actual court and interestingly although as you suggested they accused him originally of being the

quote dirty bomber of somebody trying to detonate a radioactive weapon in an american city i mean david had nothing to do and those charges it didn't charge him with engaging in a plot to kill american citizens it simply accused him of supporting a foreign terrorist group may be being involved with a foreign terrorist group and then it then the bush administration after indicted him went to the supreme court and said well now that we've invited him we trudged on with the crime there's nothing else left for you to consider the question is now moot whether we broke the law or whether he had a right to charges all those years and the supreme court agreed and dismissed and he has case never decided whether the bush administration have that power and they then proceeded to prosecute him in a federal court in miami and ultimately convict him mind boggling put his lawyers once described him as being so mentally destroyed by the torture the bush administration inflicted on him but he was functionally quoting his attorney

mentally a piece of furniture what happened to him and why wasn't anybody ever prosecuted for. well not only was he held for more than three years without any charges of any kind he was how a military parade in south carolina he was held in extreme conditions of sensory deprivation so this cell in which he was kept not only did he have no human contact of any kind extreme solitary confinement there were no windows in the cell they could if you waited the temperature and the light you just orient him to render him more susceptible to interrogation when they would move him from one room to another or even to court they would put goggles over his head over his eyes that were completely dark and so that he couldn't see where he was going see where he was in the world and he had absolutely no contact not only with the outside world but even with his own senses and there's lots of studies that just solitary confinement by itself after a few months drives somebody insane solitary confinement without ameba extra. means

that i just described is considered torture in many parts of the world many countries want extra date people to united states unless there's a guarantee that they won't be held in solitary confinement and he had all these other aspects put on to him that really were designed to psychologically destroy him and that succeeded in doing so and his lawyers as you suggested were very clear that he was basically incapable of providing any assistance whatsoever to them as they tried to defend him how does politics play into the torture and railroading of an american citizen and ultimately what looks to me from reading your article like a cover up i know you didn't use that phrase. well let's keep in mind one thing which is once the bush administration was no longer in power the obama administration was they were every bit as much devoted to shielding the wrongdoers namely the people who tortured and abused and by lated the legal rights was at the dia as the bush administration was so pedia sued several bush officials such as

john ashcroft and john yoo donald rumsfeld who were directly responsible for the torture and lowest attention to which he was subjected and the obama administration vigorously defended those bush officials and insisted that they not be held liable in a court because they were immune as government officials beyond that it was the bush administration that originally appealed the seventeen year sentence to which could be was subjected but it was the obama administration once the the d.p. was perfected that pursue would be appealing to argued it in court and in the end demanded that he be given an even greater sentence you know and let's be very clear the seventeen year sentence is on top of the five years that he spent in prison with no charges so it's really twenty three years this seventeen years he was sentenced to a supermax president forms colorado which is the worst household that the world owes in terms of how persons function and even though i was twenty three years of

torture and being in the supermax was too lenient for this is how a court and the reason why so few people care is because once you accuse somebody of being a quote unquote terrorist then in the nine eleven era of the post nine eleven era we've decided as a society that anything goes and that there is nothing too extreme that can be done to men no matter how much it violates the law the constitution or our values that's . as you as you suggest in your book we clearly have a dysfunctional and two tiered i guess that if that's a conversation for another time we're out of time here but. just a system one for the rich and powerful and one for everybody else as a preview clearly got caught up in that second one thanks someone else along with us. if you could speaking with it i'll have more on the implications of our inhumane and an even criminal justice system later tonight in my daily take.

it's time for our daily poll your chance to tell us what you think here's the day's question is troy davis' death the start of a movement to end the death penalty your choices are yes as troy davis said to his executioners may god have mercy on your souls or no there's nothing wrong with the death penalty what a time when dot com let us know what you think the poll would be open until tomorrow morning. coming up with the government running out of cash to pay their bills and republicans planning a vacation next week if the central government shutdown be looming. drives the world the fear mongering used by politicians who makes decisions to break through get through to the main who can you trust no one who is you be you with the global machinery to see where we had a state controlled capitalism it's called satchels when nobody dares to

ask we do our tea question more. who's brewed all of us a news coming out of washington speaker that is john boehner has lost control of his caucus last night in a desperate bid to prevent a government shutdown republican leadership brought to the floor

a temporary spending bill to keep the government funded through november without a spending bill the government will run out of money and shut down at the end of this month republicans are planning to go on another vacation next week those are cation plans were put on hold forty eight republicans voted no on the measure because they were unhappy was spending levels in it and the bill failed that brings our nation one step closer to a government shutdown and it also keeps the victims of hurricane. irene still in need of help as republicans hold much needed disaster relief aid until their demands of more job killing and spending cuts are met so what are the political implications of an out of control republican caucus and are we headed for a government shutdown there give his take on this is cliff schecter a national progressive p.r. strategist a nationally syndicated columnist for al jazeera english he's also the author of the book the real mccain cliff welcome and thanks to our you i'm great republicans don't demand offsets for rebuilding iraq and afghanistan those

expenditures don't have to be offset by cuts to schools or cuts to health programs or anything else why do they require offsets to rebuild in america after natural disasters. yeah that's pretty amazing isn't it. a war of choice and iraqis don't fight do you have and it's no problem spending goes on forever in afghanistan currently obviously sixty billion dollars disappears no big deal it comes to taking care of people at home i mean i've really come to the conclusion it and this isn't any more about fiscal austerity or even trying to keep the budget in balance i really honestly think it's literally about people it's just other people i mean it it may seem to hate everything about what made this country great you know the forty three to seventy's any kind of investment in our economy and it just seems like that's how their legislators it's ridiculous i mean again this is disaster relief this is never been controversial before it's all recently with eric cantor making it such and you know what number of billion dollars in this it in this

quarter continuing resolutions for the government can go through november can be funded and they have to offset it with cuts of course to fuel efficient cars because that's something they want to cut funding to any i mean that's it's pointed literally it's all about you know they're very heated in their dislike of what works well i think might there be something more than that or even different than that cliff could it be that there is a power game going on between eric cantor who i guess argued in favor of putting that disaster relief in there his district was the epicenter of the earthquake here and was also hit by hurricane irene and john boehner. between these two guys versus the republicans now one spent another penny even for disaster relief that may put people back to work and help the economy before the twenty twelve election so you've got a banner trying to trying to actually get the bill through even if you can cut spending and then cantor blowing up or cantor trying to get it through is there. does that dynamic play in playing out in this yeah i think so i mean i look at it

ever believe there's you know any one you know one reason for their doing these types of things that they're never mutually exclusive do seem to always be a number of demented reasons why. the republican house caucus behaves the way it does i think you're right a lot of why eric cantor is doing what he's doing because there's a battle between himself and dinner but i think something to me at least it kind of the newly elected members a lot of the really sort of the the lower down members of the of the tea party caucus i don't you know months or share with them i mean they may be invested in this fight against danger to i guess you could partially be about that but really a lot of it is about they're declaring war on the way this country's has has done business all the way you know we don't look government that we've had a social contract and you're doing things just right to you things are getting back to new zealand seems john boehner has clearly lost control of his caucus and now he's in a situation with this with this continuing resolution which on the other would go

a budget debate he loses if the agrees with the tea party and shut down the government and get it because he gets blamed for it and he loses a few realigns himself with a few normal republicans and all the democrats to pass the senate version and senate already passed you know with ten republican votes you know a more generous version they're going to sit around a lot of us so could this i mean whichever way john boehner goes he's going to lose which is why i see eric cantor speaker prince all over this could this be the end of his tenure as speaker it could i mean you know there's no doubt that already you know he's being challenged by some key already twenty year old who's attacking him for being for social security. cantor's consciously even attack you know i get i think that there is there can be a couple things going on or there usually are and i think i've been are lost i mean you know during the debt ceiling debate lost control of his caucus i think he lost control a long time ago is just a pretty scary prospect when john boehner seems to be some of the republicans and call a moderate yeah and who is to be the rational guy in the room will the tea party

ever lose it seems as if as if they shut down the government boehner gets blamed if he goes around them they get to be martyrs. i think there are a lot of what the tea party is here is a cultural fad playing on people's paranoia in during a down economic times it's supported by by fox news it's free advertising supported by the koch brothers and billions alike the rest of them like you know the birch society others that ebb and flow i don't see them retain it's kind of power i begin to see where it goes even you know act is election cycle because i think that they just hold it and go do is go further write me crazier and crazier and they're already at a point where you know one minute most issue seventy percent of country thinks they're insane so maybe they need to just you know push away that last ten or twenty percent and get there perhaps cliff thanks a lot for being with us tonight thanks so much tom i appreciate it great talking with back in april republicans nearly shut the government down over planned parenthood funding now looks like they're going to do it again over disaster relief fund and sopa voters are paying attention.

just. the good the bad of the very end glue vias slee ugly good jimmy carter as our nation now deals with the aftermath of a controversy or execution in which troy davis a man who may well have been innocent was killed former president jimmy carter weighed in on the issue and had some harsh words for the death penalty and hope for the future carter told the associated press if one of our fellow citizens could be executed was so much in doubt surrounding his guilt for the death penalty system in our country is unjust and outdated he continued by saying he hopes that this tragedy will spur us as a nation toward the total rejection of capital punishment. so to. the bad rick perry like most republicans these days governor good to hear is dabbling in

some history with vision as his own history that is carrying on fox so called news last night perry was asked about his previous claims about texas says ceding from the union which perry had this response. you used the term once a session that's not it is that something you believe. now i never use that term at all as a matter of fact i was a reporter go at it enough. i have no idea to be real honest with you because it was never a factual bit of reporting it was shouted out by an individual at a at an event at a tea party actually and i said listen america is a great country we have no reason that we would ever dissolve this union but as it . is right he didn't say the word secession but he may as well have there's a very actually did say back in two thousand and nine. when we came in.

we were republic we were stand alone nation and one of the deals was we can leave the town we want. to make it up it. sounds a kind of like a smoking gun to me don't these guys realize that what they say ends up on video and doesn't just disappear and a very very ugly rush limbaugh more race baiting in limbaugh's radio program yesterday. right now it is only obama's skin color that is standing between him and the pitchforks of the congressional black caucus right and it's all a big time radio contract instead stands between rush at a white klan hood and we're back with rudy giuliani was called out for exploiting nine eleven and he was called mr nonverbal nine eleven grosses using the same strategy mr known verb and obama's skin color and it's very very subtle. coming out riots riots everywhere just not in the united states but how much longer until the peaceful streets of america turn violent.

drives the world the fear mongering used by politicians who makes decisions to break through that sort of people who can you trust no one who is in view with the global machinery to see where we had a state controlled capitalism it's called satchels when nobody dares to ask we do r t question more.

about the big picture on job marvin coming up in this half hour bus thirty is causing animosity in greece so will the same sort of austerity in the night. states cause similar problems is social unrest coming to america and from the troy davis execution to the behavior on wall street looks and at times like our nation's we've taken over by psychopaths a break down just fallen same things of god and tonight still it's. in greece a public transit strike brought athens to a grinding halt today that's the drivers air traffic controllers to.