Troy Davis is Dead, What About You?

I came late to the story of Troy Davis. Unlike others that have known the story for years or having been fighting the case through four execution dates as well as the Supreme Court. I learned about his story the day before his scheduled execution. On September 21 2011 Troy Davis was executed by lethal injection at 11:08 pm. I do not care whether he was innocent or guilty. I am not getting into that fight. Those aren’t solid facts I can get a grasp on. What I can get into is the legality of what was done as well as the way that many actions were taken. My facts might not all be right. That is why this is an editorial and not a news article. That being said, let’s move on.

I found out about Troy from my friend. We’re not really into executing people when there is reasonable doubt. This seems not to be the case in all places. Personally, I hope he was innocent, but like I said, I have no way of knowing and that is simply a fact that does not matter any longer. Many people said that he had had long enough to prove his innocence. Personally I don’t like the sound of that. One because his conviction seems to be splitting to pieces, and two because of the law stating that death row inmates cannot add new evidence to their cases. Essentially they are saying that if someone wants to prove themselves innocent they must do it with the story and evidence that damned them in the first place. If this is flawed point me to sources to prove your point. I’ll get back with you if you have a case with me on that.

I’ve seen and read many articles over the course of the last couple days and a few points stick out. One point is that the Supreme Court simply refused the plea to stay his execution with only two words as their reason, “No comment.” They couldn’t seem to find the time to even give a man they had just sentenced to die a reason for their decision. For some reason that just doesn’t sit well with me.

Another came from an article on http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Justice/2011/0921/Troy-Davis-execution-nears-What-options-remain-for-a-reprieve/%28page%29/2. In it the prosecutor, Mr. Lawton, is quoted as saying, “’The good news,’ he said in a television interview, ‘is we live in a civilized society where questions like this are decided based on fact in open and transparent courts of law, and not on street corners.’” After all, courts have never been corrupt; especially in the southern portions of the United States. Just think back to the 1960’s, no wait. It seems that Mr. Lawton was vacationing somewhere far from reality when he made that statement.

On a different note. I hate to be someone to call race into this, but isn’t the story of “Black Man Kills White Officer” a bit one sided? Again, I do not have the ability to know conclusively whether or not Mr. Davis was innocent, but that’s what the courts seem to have found. Now what about OJ? But that’s not important in this case is it? A man that had all of the evidence pointing against him walks while another with flimsy evidence is sent to rot for twenty-two years to end up executed. Something about that just doesn’t seem very “American” to me. Or perhaps that’s exactly what it is.

So my question to you is, how do you plan to prove yourself innocent without being able to pull in new evidence if you ever get wrongly convicted?