Any time there is a disaster or a grand injustice it makes the news and celebrities and then their fans jump on the bandwagon to support the cause. Often times though after a new cause becomes "trendy" the support falls by the wayside. I sincerely hope that this is not true in this case.
By now I am sure you heard about Troy Davis. If you haven't I don't know whether to be amazed that you can survive without the influences of the media or disappointed that you do not keep up with what is going on in the world around you.
Before continuing in this post I want to make it very clear that my heart goes out to the family of Police Officer Mark MacPhail the victim in this case. I can only imagine the utter hell that they went through having him taken away from him, the court case, etc. Justice is something that anyone victimized wants, but unfortunately even justice won't undo the harm.
Something else that can never be undone: putting an innocent man to death. The United States is one of the leaders of the world and a place that is supposed to understand human rights, yet we still put people to death, something a lot of industrialized countries have outlawed. In the United States we have a birthright that we are presumed innocent until proven guilt. This means until there is enough evidence that a person is guilty they are innocent. In the case of Troy Davis he (had to have been) presumed innocent. The murder weapon used in this crime was never found. The only part of the weapon linking Davis to this crime was shell casings that were linked to a shooting that Davis was previously convicted of. While that does cause doubt, that is never enough to prove guilt, especially on a hot gun that was most likely bought on the street. More importantly several of the witnesses who claimed Davis was the shooter recanted. A few of the jurors also stepped forward stating that they believe they were wrong and changed their mind of the verdict. Even more a few other people have claimed another man confessed to them that they were in fact the shooter.
If you are at all questioning whether Troy Davis was innocent or guilty you should question whether or not the United States should still have the death penalty. Those of you who support the death penalty are probably thinking, "how can she be ok with murderers, rapists, cop killers, etc who are caught red handed or admitted they committed the crime not getting the death penalty?" My answer is that for one thing a judge, a jury, or the person completing the death penalty proceedings are not God. I also don't believe them living means that they shouldn't be punished. More importantly I understand that while we have to "sacrifice" and allow those criminals to live we would be making sure innocent ones were not put to death.
The other big argument always seems to be "Why should tax payers have to pay to let a criminal rot in jail the rest of their life?" Well if you do any research at all, even just a quick Google search you will realize that it costs MORE to put a prisoner to death.
Think of how many prisoners were put to death or locked up only to have their innocence proven due to DNA testing? Imagine if there are scientific break throughs that would find even more people innocent?
There is always the human factor. I know race was brought up a lot in Troy Davis's case and stats do prove that there is an inequitableness to the death penalty. More than just stats though it has been proven that races have trouble properly identifying people of other races. It is hard enough for victims or witnesses to pick out victims of their race so with that knowledge why should we ever believe that they would be able to pick out of a line up of a different race?
My hope is that today's post is making you think. While I do have stats backing up my opinion in the end it is MY opinion posted here. I urge all of you to make your own informed and educated opinions on this and all topics. There are times I cannot imagine living without Google and am so thankful that I live in an age where I can be dependent upon myself to research and form the views that I hold deep in my heart.
If you want to become more informed, like I said search engines are your best friend, but here are a few places to help you out, friend:
