Today the U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way for the execution of Troy Davis by declining to hear his case, after almost two weeks of deliberation. The Court’s behavior teeters on cruel and unusual punishment, having stayed the execution just hours before Mr. Davis was to be put to death on 23 September.
The court was divided on its decision, even though seven witnesses have recanted their testimony against Mr. Davis. There is no physical evidence linking Mr. Davis to the crime, no murder weapon has been found, and three witnesses have stated that another man has confessed to the crime. Mr. Davis’ case reads like a modern variation of Harper Lee’s “To Kill A Mockingbird,” though Mr. Davis is charged with the murder of a white man, not the rape of a white woman. Mr. Davis stands as a weary, real life Tom Robinson, and Amnesty International plays the part of Atticus Finch. Other figures to question the fairness of the conviction are Jimmy Carter, Desmond Tutu, and Pope Benedict the XVI.
The court’s decision almost certainly means that Mr. Davis will be speedily executed, though the evidence against him is appalling flimsy–a travesty of justice beyond words in 21st century America. The primary issue argued before the court was the execution of an innocent man: “Mr. Davis’s lawyers had asked the court to determine whether the Eighth Amendment’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment bars the execution of the innocent. They wrote in a petition in July that the case ‘allows this court an opportunity to determine what it has only before assumed: that the execution of an innocent man is constitutionally abhorrent’” (New York Times).
Rather than tackle Mr. Davis’ innocence or guilt, the court took a conclusive leap in “the decades-long, law-and-order-fueled trend toward restricting appellate avenues in criminal cases may be reaching its gruesome but inevitable conclusion in the case of Troy Davis, a death row inmate who apparently will be executed soon despite a series of post-trial revelations about his lack of culpability that ought to shock the conscience of even the most ardent supports of capital punishment,” writes Andrew Cohen. Cohen concludes his essay by stating, “why the Justices turned away from a case they had sniffed at last month may forever remain a mystery. But what is perfectly clear is that Georgia has now created a virtually unassailable bar to criminal defendants whose shaky convictions are later subverted through the discovery of new evidence or the dissolution of the accuracy, reliability and credibility of important trial evidence. After decades of success, subtle and otherwise, the anti-appeal movement has just now reached its crescendo or, depending upon your point of view, its nadir.” ( A link to the entire article can be found below.)
So why is an innocent man condemned to death, while Wall Street’s greed goes unpunished? While we are collectively wrapped up in all things fiscal, the promise of equality and justice goes ignored.
One more human life taken, until the day we are all “free at last.”
Free of ignorance. Free of hate. Free of greed.
New York Times update on the Davis ruling.
Troy Davis website, with links to other information.
The Washington Post article on the Supreme Court’s decision offers a good summary of the case, on the second page.
Andrew Cohen offers a useful and informative analysis, both on the case and its legal ramifications. If you read no other article on the case, read this one. Cohen shows what was at stake in the Davis decision, and why we all should be shaking our heads.
The juxtaposition between Troy Davis’ almost certain execution, and the excitement among so many in Barack Obama’s nomination should give us pause. This election, which offers so many symbols of hope in a world of critical challenges, shouldn’t leave us satisfied, but wanting more.
Senator Obama’s [presumptive] election to the President’s position is racially symbolic, but brings with it the possibility of complacency.
The great danger may be a mass delusion that we have transcended racism, and thus so many of our -isms, because a black man has risen to the highest office of the land.
Meanwhile, our “justice system” is stuffed with disproportionate numbers of black men, and men like Troy have their lives stripped from them with an all too easy ease.
Let’s not be satisfied.
“I Have A Dream,” by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr, transcript, audio, and video, here at American Rhetoric, Top 100 Speeches
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