Execution On My Mind

The United States is the only major industrialized country that allows capital punishment.  And as if that weren't bad enough, Georgia, one of 34 states that has the death penalty at the state level, is planning to execute Troy Davis, a black man accused of killing a white Savannah police officer in 1989 despite the lack of solid evidence and the fact that seven out of nine witnesses have recanted their testimony in which they identified Davis as the killer.

In fact, the police are known to have coerced and influenced witnesses into identifying Davis as the killer, and the suspect lineup was run by one of the police officers who also was investigating the murder in an obvious conflict of interest.  Despite all of this - and despite the fact that the man who accused Davis has in fact confessed to the crime - Davis is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection today.

More than 600,000 petitioners asked the Georgia parole board to gratn clemency for Davis, but the board  concluded that the evidence was sufficient to convict Davis despite the obvious eagerness of police to get a man convicted in the killing of one of their own.  Not only have death penalty opponents like Al Sharpton have been opposed to this execution, former Georgia congressman Bob Barr - a death penalty proponent - is against it.  That two ideologically opposed men should agree on this case is enough reason to grant Davis a stay of execution.  But the Georgia parole board won't do so.  Governor Nathan Deal can't do so - he doesn't have that authority.

Somehow, Georgia's motto - "Wisdom, Justice, Moderation" - seems sadly irrelevant. 

An Argument Against the Death Penalty

Ten years ago today, the federal government executed domestic terrorist Timothy McVeigh for the Oklahoma City bombing of 1995. It was the first federal execution since 1993. Then-Attorney General John Ashcroft declared that this should send a loud an clear signal to would-be terrorists that there would be a severe price to be paid for committing a attack on American soil.

That was June 11, 2001.

Ashcroft and other capital punishment advocates, of course, couldn't fathom they idea of a terrorist willing to kill himself in perpetrating an attack. Yet, three months to the day later, eight foreigners, in four pairs, trained as pilots, commandeered four planes and flew or attempted to fly them into various targets. Which leaves the obvious question: How does the death penalty deter suicide terror commandos???

You got me.

Why should we respond to any violence with . . . violence?