~Old Posts~ An Eye for an Eye - The Murder of Troy Davis

Troy Davis is an innocent man. This would the stance of any jury, of any legal team and of any judge were his case to be presented today. He has spent the best part of two decades behind bars for a crime he didn’t commit and, if the State of Georgia has anything to do with it, today, he will be murdered. 
Yes, murdered. This is not an execution. This is murder. Pure. And. Simple. 

There has been a large movement, for a long time, against the death penalty for the simple fact that it is better to let a hundred guilty men go free than to kill one innocent man. Legal systems have, time and again, been prone to injustices either through accident, or authority coercion, and those injustices have seen innocent people get murdered by their state. It is an archaic, and barbaric practice that is merely one of vengeance and fails to solve any of the root causes of crimes. Nor, apparently, does it act a deterrent since, despite the death penalty existing, they are still committed. The case of Troy Davis is one such example, whereby a man was identified merely through flawed eyewitness evidence, despite no physical evidence, or forensic evidence linking him to the crime. Since his incarceration, 7 of the 9 witnesses have recanted their statements claiming mistaken identity or pressure from the police. The process of identification in the first place has been shown to be flawed and some have even claimed the real killer has confessed to them. 

Even if you support the death penalty, this case should rest heavily on your heart. It is a punishment that should only be incurred in the most extreme circumstances and where evidence proves beyond a reasonable doubt that the individual in question has committed the crime. Troy Davis has not had the crime he is alleged to have committed proved beyond a reasonable doubt, not to begin with, and now, due to the recanting of statements, even less so.   

It is a damning testament to our inability to progress as a society that the death penalty still exists in the world. Ghandi once said “An eye for an eye will make us all blind.” This seems, at a cursory glance, to be a statement of forgiveness in the face of crimes. However, if you study it deeper you will see it says something much more profound. We are all guilty. An eye for an eye will make us all blind because we have all sinned against our fellow man, we are all guilty of the system and how it operates. We are responsible for changing things and, we seem too reticent to do so. If you do nothing about this case. If you do nothing to at least try to help Troy Davis then you, too, have his blood on your hands. You are guilty of murdering an innocent man. 

Please, do all you can to stop this injustice from happening in your name. Please.