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.
