Re: Troy Davis to be executed tonight, despite doubts of guilt (nbc)
- From: "Sal Video" <svideo@xxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 23 Sep 2008 15:30:09 -0700
Hi execution has been stayed.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26842816/
"susan" <frogandtoad61@xxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:1a6be383-7acc-434e-9c50-cca3468ac616@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
it seems like civilized people shouldn't end lives and then say
"ooops, that was a mistake, there was a better way to handle that
situation", but maybe I'm out in left (or right) field.
http://www.ajc.com/gwinnett/content/opinion/stories/2008/09/16/goodeed_0916.html?cxntlid=inform_artr
Executions kill any chance to correct possible injustice
By MARY JEAN GOODE
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
On Sept. 23, our great state of Georgia is poised to deliver a
miscarriage of justice in the name of its citizenry. A man, on death
row for the 1989 murder of an off-duty policeman in Savannah, is
scheduled to die on that date.
A heinous crime was committed ? one that defies understanding. The
familial pain inflicted can only be imagined. The loss will never
subside and their burden will never be diminished by any judicial
ruling.
As a society, we kill to teach that killing is wrong. Can anyone say
that Troy Anthony Davis, the accused, is the murderer in this tragedy
beyond doubt? The burden of proof was circumstantial by all admission:
no physical evidence of any description, no weapon, no fingerprints,
no DNA. The conviction was made from the least reliable source:
eyewitness accounts. Nine claimed to have seen Davis commit the crime.
Seven recanted their testimony; two have not. One of those two is a
suspect, and the other is a person who claimed to have seen no one do
the shooting, but changed his testimony through interrogation. Troy
Davis may not have proven his innocence at trial, but no one, with
absolute certainty, has proven his guilt.
At a conference sponsored by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life
in 2002, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia responded to a question
on whether he thought the death penalty would inevitably lead to the
condemnation of someone who is innocent. In the transcript, he
replied: ?Well, of course it will. I mean you cannot have any system
of human justice that is going to be perfect. And if the death penalty
is immoral for that reason, so is life in prison. You think you?re not
going to have innocent people put in prison for life? It?s one of the
risks of living in an organized human society.? Later he ventured to
say that he felt the innocent rarely received the death penalty.
Unfortunately, time has proved him to be dead wrong. Larry Griffin in
Missouri, Carlos DeLuna, Reuben Cantu and Cameron Todd Willingham ?
all from Texas ? have one thing in common besides being executed. Each
died with lingering questions as to his guilt, and evidence that gave
a strong preponderance toward innocence. Who wins in the end, when the
end does not justify the means?
Unlike Scalia?s assessment that imperfections in our justice system
are to be taken for granted, I would hope that as Americans we can
finally muster the courage to say enough is enough to a barbaric
system with such obvious flaws. As a nation we have the means to
assure the safety of the public trust without the need for retaliation
and vengeance under the guise of retributive justice. Our judicial and
legislative systems can favor morality in judgment when fair-minded
people recognize there is no margin for error regarding the permanence
of the death penalty as opposed to a sentence of life in prison
without parole.
I have never met Troy Davis and have nothing to gain from requesting
clemency in his name. Yet I have everything to gain because I am pro-
life, and I fail my conscience and my faith when I continue to
maintain silence. I fail my children and grandchildren in their
promise for a better world. I fail to respect life in all its
sacredness by succumbing to a ?culture of death,? as Pope John Paul II
succinctly put it. Pope Benedict XVI, his successor, requested that
Troy Davis be re-sentenced to life in prison without parole. I hope
others will join him. There should be ? and I hope there will be ? an
outcry on the death penalty from all those who profess to be pro-life.
This is not a made-for-TV prime-time spectacle. It is real life. Some
might say that as a Catholic I am imposing my belief system on others.
On the contrary. As an ordinary citizen, I am simply telling my state
of Georgia: Do not kill in my name.
Mary Jean Goode, a retired nurse, lives in Dunwoody.
.
- Follow-Ups:
- Re: Troy Davis to be executed tonight, despite doubts of guilt (nbc)
- From: William Longyard
- Re: Troy Davis to be executed tonight, despite doubts of guilt (nbc)
- References:
- Prev by Date: Re: nbc Biden condems ad attacking McCain nbc
- Next by Date: Re: Unbelievable! (NBC)
- Previous by thread: Re: Troy Davis to be executed tonight, despite doubts of guilt (nbc)
- Next by thread: Re: Troy Davis to be executed tonight, despite doubts of guilt (nbc)
- Index(es):
Relevant Pages
|
Loading
