MEDIA ROOTS- In 2007, the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles stated that Troy Davis, a man charged with killing a police officer in 1991, would never be put to death unless there was “no doubt” of his guilt. Despite a cloud of uncertainty surrounding the case and a lack of hard evidence linking him to the actual killing, Troy Davis was executed last night by lethal injection at 11:08 EST while the world watched in horror. 

No matter what opinion one holds on the death penalty, it is worth noting that over 130 people on death row have been exonerated through DNA evidence that proved their wrongful convictions. Taking that statistic into consideration, it’s likely that people have already been put to death by the state who were not guilty of their crime.

Besides the disturbing fact that innocent people have been placed on death row before, the death penalty judicial process is extremely costly to taxpayers. In CA, taxpayers pay $90,000 more annually per death row prisoner than those regularly incarcerated. Furthermore, the appeals process usually takes decades to complete while death row inmates are held in conditions tantamount to solitary confinement.

Personally, I don’t support the death penalty. There is no ‘humane’ way to kill someone, and I think the process of executing a prisoner by any means is barbaric– especially in front of an audience. More importantly, I would rather have a murderer live out the rest of their life than to risk (literally) sponsoring the murder of one innocent person.

The murder of an alleged killer might be a gratifying moment of closure for the victim’s family members, but it will never fill the void left from losing a loved one. Instead, it will only fuel a vicious cycle of vengeance and hate.

Abby Martin

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For those who think the execution was justified, read the following reasons why the case wasn’t cut and dry via THE GUARDIAN:

1. Of the nine witnesses who appeared at Davis’s 1991 trial who said they had seen Davis beating up a homeless man in a dispute over a bottle of beer and then shooting to death a police officer, Mark MacPhail, who was acting as a good samaritan, seven have since recanted their evidence.

2. One of those who recanted, Antoine Williams, subsequently revealed they had no idea who shot the officer and that they were illiterate – meaning they could not read the police statements that they had signed at the time of the murder in 1989. Others said they had falsely testified that they had overheard Davis confess to the murder.

3. Many of those who retracted their evidence said that they had been cajoled by police into testifying against Davis. Some said they had been threatened with being put on trial themselves if they did not co-operate.

4. Of the two of the nine key witnesses who have not changed their story publicly, one has kept silent for the past 20 years and refuses to talk, and the other is Sylvester Coles. Coles was the man who first came forward to police and implicated Davis as the killer. But over the past 20 years evidence has grown that Coles himself may be the gunman and that he was fingering Davis to save his own skin.

5. In total, nine people have come forward with evidence that implicates Coles. Most recently, on Monday the George Board of Pardons and Paroles heard from Quiana Glover who told the panel that in June 2009 she had heard Coles, who had been drinking heavily, confess to the murder of MacPhail.

6. Apart from the witness evidence, most of which has since been cast into doubt, there was no forensic evidence gathered that links Davis to the killing.

7. In particular, there is no DNA evidence of any sort. The human rights group the Constitution Project points out that three-quarters of those prisoners who have been exonerated and declared innocent in the US were convicted at least in part on the basis of faulty eyewitness testimony.

8. No gun was ever found connected to the murder. Coles later admitted that he owned the same type of .38-calibre gun that had delivered the fatal bullets, but that he had given it away to another man earlier on the night of the shooting.

9. Higher courts in the US have repeatedly refused to grant Davis a retrial on the grounds that he had failed to “prove his innocence”. His supporters counter that where the ultimate penalty is at stake, it should be for the courts to be beyond any reasonable doubt of his guilt.

10. Even if you set aside the issue of Davis’s innocence or guilt, the manner of his execution tonight is cruel and unnatural. If the execution goes ahead as expected, it would be the fourth scheduled execution date for this prisoner. In 2008 he was given a stay just 90 minutes before he was set to die. Experts in death row say such multiple experiences with imminent death is tantamount to torture.

© 2011 Guardian

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DEMOCRACY NOW– Troy Anthony Davis was killed by lethal injection by the state of Georgia at At 11:08 p.m. EDT despite widespread doubts about his guilt. The execution occurred shortly after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to stop the execution. Democracy Now! was the only news outlet to continuously broadcast live from the prison grounds last night where hundreds of supporters Troy Davis held an all-day vigil in Jackson, Ga.

Today we hear the voices of Troy Davis’ sister Martina Correia, hip-hop artist Big Boi, NAACP President Benjamin Jealous, Ed DuBose of the Georgia chapter of the NAACP, two members of the Troy Davis legal team, and more. We also hear from journalist Jon Lewis, a witness to the execution: “[Davis] said to the family [of slain police officer Mark MacPhail] that he was sorry for their loss, but also said that he did not take their son, father, brother. He said to them to dig deeper into this case, to find out the truth. And then he said to the prison staff — the ones he said, ‘who are going to take my life,’ — he said to them, ‘may God have mercy on your souls,’ and his last words were to them, ‘may God bless your souls.'”

Democracy Now Special Report on Troy Davis Execution: Did Georgia Kill an Innocent Man? 1/2

Democracy Now Special Report on Troy Davis Execution: Did Georgia Kill an Innocent Man? 2/2

Russia Today covers the outrage surrounding Troy Davis’s death on the day of his execution.

More information about abolishing the death penalty: http://www.amnesty.org/en/death-penalty

Photo by Flickr user 4WardEverUK