Troy Davis was a citizen of Georgia, convicted of murder of a policeman in August, 1991. As a result, he was sentenced to death. Within the twenty years that Davis remained on Death Row, new evidence has surfaced. Seven of the nine witnesses in the original case recalled or changed their testimony.
Davis appealed to the Supreme Court many times. It only makes sense that, since a human life was in question, the Supreme Court and the state of Georgia would reconsider the information. That was not the case.
Despite most of the original evidence being false, Troy Davis was executed September 21st, 2011. Among the U.S. citizens who heard of this horrible event, there was outrage. However, not enough people did hear of this event, due to the little media coverage the case received.
If the case had obtained the attention it deserved, citizens of all states in the U.S. may not have only questioned Troy Davis’s guilt, but also the concept of capital punishment.
Capital punishment is an on-going political debate in our country, and the Troy Davis case seems to add more fuel to the fire. One major fault in this practice is its permanency. If a person is executed for being convicted of a certain crime, there is no going back. There are no apologies. There is nothing that can right that wrong. The government has taken a life for once and for all.
I asked Mr. Felix, a teacher in the FVHS history department, to comment on Davis’s case and the death penalty.
“No, I don’t think the trial was fair. The whole point of the system is to not convict innocent people. I don’t believe in lex talionis [the ancient rule of “an eye for an eye”]. Prison is pretty rough as it is. If we approve of the death penalty, then it’s like approving of killing people in everyday life.”
Capital punishment is the ultimate form of premeditated murder, and simply unethical. An innocent individual can be released from jail, but they can never be released from the absolute fate the government has inflicted upon them. Troy Davis was just one victim of this immoral ruling. California still sentences death as punishment.
As California citizens and soon to be voters, it is important to pay attention to events like these and decide how we want our government to operate.
Even if Troy Davis was guilty, the circumstantial evidence should have at least called for a reconsideration. I’m surprised their aren’t more comments on this, but I guess teenagers just care more about Homecoming than they do about their government.
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On the same day Lawrence Russell Brewer, a racist from Texas who murdered a man by dragging him to death was also executed/ He was definately guilty unlike Davis
The real problem with the death penalty is not that its morally wrong but that its an innocent mann can be accidnetally put to death
Funny how there seems to be no counter argument to this… and seeing none, I shall provide a different perspective on this issue. Capital punishment, though considered harsh, is not at all immoral. Yes, the standards of being sentenced a death penalty may seem low to some, but consider this. If a psychopath can plead his way into a jail sentence for about 20 years, does that mean he won’t start killing again? The death penalty is should not be debated by the common masses who understand nothing about how the system works. If you commit a crime, you pay the price, that’s all there is to it. No arguments, no protest, no discussion on morality. Troy Davis is only part of a small percentage of people that cannot receive proper justice in the world. Even so, the people will do nothing to change that fact, why? Because as immoral as it seems, the government only cares if the issue is something that affects a considerable amount of people, and I don’t blame them. Call me fascist or heartless, but the truth of the world remains. One person’s injustice means nothing to the rest of us that don’t care. After a few more months, you will forget or at least feel less likely to care about this case.
Wow, this is the most ridiculous thing I have ever read. This is not a counter argument at all. This is hand-waving a HUGE issue.
Yes, I agree, some people don’t deserve to live. And I don’t like the idea of tax dollars going to keep psychopaths fed, clothed, and warm. But I don’t think we can say Troy Davis didn’t get justice, oh well, too bad. A man’s LIFE was lost. This definitely necessitates a discussion on the morality of the death penalty. The American system is built so that a thousand guilty men should go free before one innocent one is killed.
Also, I don’t think there’s any need to say that this issue has no place among “the common masses”. Plenty of us understand how the system works; after all, we’re the ones living in it. We’re the ones who are being arrested and sentenced to death. I would say this is definitely something all citizens need to consider. And considering the amount of protest and interest in the hours leading up to Davis’s execution, many of us do.
You’re right about one thing, I am waving off this issue because it is efficient in the way it is. True, his life was lost, but you are being paranoid as to believe that many many other innocent lives will share the same fate as Troy Davis. This system has always taken the lives of very few innocent people, but it also took the lives of many of the real criminals, criminals who neither belong in society nor have the right to live. The government is doing the right thing executing the guilty, because it would take a massive amount of money to jail them. Why should that money be used to keep the prisoners locked in when we obviously want them all gone? And though many people who have done nothing wrong and have paid the price for it unjustly, what happens in their lives is irrelevant to the fact that the capital punishment will serve the country more than harming it. If the court system was really weak and the percentage of innocent people were jailed more than the guilty, then this would be an issue to consider, but as it is now, there’s nothing that needs to change.
Capital punishment is not a question of morality, as if that has ever played a part in our political “system” that you claim to have a special knowledge of. No where in this article does it talk about giving “psychopaths” (who I imagine would belong in a psychiatric institution, not a jail) reduced sentences.
The repulsive part of the story of Troy Davis is that it sets a precedent. A man was sentenced to death with next to no evidence; do you understand the kind of power this awards our government? Or do you think this “system” will protect us, the “common masses” from becoming the target of something like this? If you think that’s totally out of the question, think of recent terrorist scares. Think of the Rosenberg trial, or Army-Mcarthy hearings, which are an example of how hysteria can take hold of this nation.
The question should not only be “how can the death penalty be used to protect us?” because that gives “no counter argument.” We should also consider “how can capital punishment be misused to put more power in the hands of the powerful?”