Troy Davis will, in all likelihood, be put to death by the state of Georgia tomorrow. His request for clemency was denied by the Georgia State Board of Pardons a few hours ago, which was pretty much his last chance at avoiding being executed. Putting the ethical position of deeming it acceptable to kill criminals (a position which I personally strongly oppose) aside, Troy Davis's case is critical to our national dialogue on issues of race and criminal justice, and aside from the Reverend Al Sharpton's continuing coverage of this case, largely absent from the national media.
Davis is a 42-year old African-American man convicted when he was 21 in 1989 of murdering an off-duty police officer in Savannah. There was no material evidence -- no DNA, no murder weapon, nothing to link Davis exclusively to the crime scene. Now, I'm not excusing the murder of an innocent person in any way -- it is a horrific crime, and the perpetrator should face justice, because it's the right thing to do and because the officer's family deserves closure and justice.
The problem is that there's considerable doubt whether or not Davis was the actual perpetrator. He was convicted on the basis of nine supposed eye-witnesses. Of those nine, seven have since recanted, changed their testimony, or suggested their initial testimony could have been coerced in some way. Seven of nine. Witnesses to a crime that happened around midnight involving an African-American, whose face, by brute fact, is harder to identify in the middle of the night than your average pale folk like myself. That's how melanin works.
I obviously don't know if Davis is innocent or not, but when there's no material evidence, 78% of the supposed witnesses who testified that you killed a man have since changed or modified their minds, and the scene wasn't exactly ideal for the identification of the person who pulled the gun, killing a man is completely insane. At the minimum, Davis deserves a new trial. Putting a man to death when there are legitimate and credible doubts about his conviction is not just wrong, it's unconscionable. In a country that prides itself on being the land of the free and granting justice to all, we have a state that is going to kill a man despite the possibility of his innocence.
The Tea Party voters the other night at the Republican debate cheered at Ron Paul (R-TX) suggesting that we let people die if they don't have $300/mo. health insurance. The politicians, court, and authorities in Georgia are going to willfully kill a man. Why the Right celebrates death despite being "pro-life" is something I will never understand. My parents support the death penalty and are anti-abortion; I just don't get it. If you're pro-life, then support... not killing people? Or war(s)?
Back to Davis though. He's going to die tomorrow. Let me say that again. His existence on this earth ends tomorrow barring a last-minute pardon which is unlikely despite the fact that there's a chance he shouldn't have even spent the last 22 years in prison. This is what we let happen in America. We let this happen. Whether or not Davis is innocent I can't say, but justice -- to say the least and in a sane world or sane country -- requires that the guilt of the accused be established beyond a reasonable doubt. Hell, that's our own standard in theory. In a sane world you do not kill people as a state, period. In a sane America at least you don't do it if there are legitimate questions about the solidity of the case.
Not even to address the race issue. It would be my contention that why Davis's case has been getting so little coverage in the mainstream media (outside of Rev. Sharpton) boils down to two reasons: 1) he's an African-American male and 2) the victim was a white cop. Add those two up and you have a cop-killah nigga about whom no retiree is going to give a shit. Is that the case? Well obviously not. Is Davis guilty? Maybe. The fact that sufficient evidence exists to cast doubt on that would, in a sane country, be enough to prevent his possible murder and certain death at the hands of the state of Georgia. It must be enough to at least give him the right to a new trial. Whether his ethnicity played any role in his conviction is a question worth asking -- it's not the reason he deserves not to die, but a reasonable question.
This is an issue for an entire piece/book, but the criminalization of the African-American community is a big issue facing America currently, particularly in light of our carceratory trends. One in fifteen black men are behind bars, compared to one in 106 white men. I don't know how you can look at those numbers and not see a major problem.
I'll let someone who's more familiar with the above to educate me, this is about Troy Davis. His time is short, do what you can.
For more on Troy's case and to sign a petition or get some numbers to call, check out Amnesty.
2:50 PM PT: Neglected to mention that Davis's retrial would help bring justice to the family of the slain officer. If he's not guilty, then there's a murderer at large. If he is, then we should know it.