Pope's Letter Questions ID Evidence

Following up on Ben's post, it appears that the Pope's letter didn't just ask for Mr. Davis' life to be spared but also observed, as the Atlanta Journal Constitution pointed out only a few moments ago in its most recent update to the story, that "Davis' pending execution is "disturbing" given that many witnesses have come forward to say that their testimony implicating Davis was false, and that other witnesses have come forward to identify another man as the killer."

In other words, the Pope apparently expressed concerns about the reliability of the underlying evidence in the case -- that is, the eyewitness testimony. This is unusual. As Richard Dieter of the Death Penalty Information Center in Washington pointed out, "the Catholic Church doesn't usually go into details of the case, as it did in Davis.'"

The bottom line: The Pope = Infallible. Eyewitness ID Evidence = Not infallible.