Troy Davis: Georgia says a black man must die

"Since I was a law student, I have been against the death penalty. It does not deter. It is severely discriminatory against minorities, especially since they’re given no competent legal counsel defense in many cases. It’s a system that has to be perfect. You cannot execute one innocent person. No system is perfect. And to top it off, for those of you who are interested in the economics it, it costs more to pursue a capital case toward execution than it does to have full life imprisonment without parole."
--Ralph Nader

"Human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable... Every step toward the goal of justice requires sacrifice, suffering, and struggle; the tireless exertions and passionate concern of dedicated individuals."
--Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Listen up. The Daddy wants to ask you two questions:
1. Should a person be executed for murder when so little evidence exists that he committed the crime? Let's see:

--No murder weapon;
--No physical evidence;
--7 of the 9 witnesses recanted their testimony; and
--1 of the witnesses who did not recant pointed to by some of the witnesses as the person who did the killing.

2. Should any person be executed? Research shows it does not serve as a deterrence against crime, including murder. Research also shows that is expensive and its value as an exercise which provides closure to grieving or angry family members is questionable. That's why most western nations no longer execute. They s see state executions as a barbaric practice with no place in modern society.

The question of whether anyone should be executed is especially potent in the United States. Here, whether one gets to be a dead man walking to get fried or go home and eat dinner and drink wine for dinner, depends more on one's ability to get a good lawyer or the color of their skin. This bias against the poor and people of color plus its expensiveness are just three of the reasons many states are giving up the immoral act of state executions. It's for the same reasons that Gov. Perdue should delay the execution of Troy Davis.

Some Georgians want the State to kill Troy Davis. A cop was killed, and somebody should die. A white cop was killed; and some black "boy" must die. And the idea that a white cop was killed and some black man didn't die for it is too much for them to bear. The fact that this man-- no, this human being, this person, this fellow citizen-- has already been in jail for more than 15 years for a crime he probably didn't commit doesn't seem to matter. No, a white man was killed, and, yes, a black must die. So despite the fact that Troy Davis is on deathrow with a compelling case to be set free, this black "boy" must die. Despite the fact that the court has not heard the men who recanted their testimony, this black "boy" must die. The 11th Circuit Court has denied Troy Davis' most recent petition and a new execution date may come as early as mid-May.

No murder weapon. No physical evidence. 7 of 9 witnesses who have recanted their testimony. One of the 9 witnesses identified by some of the real murder. One of the witnesses handed a paper and told to sign it, even though he couldn't read. Still, Troy Davis must die. The folks over at the PanAfrican News Wire put it this way:

" Davis’s case has come to exemplify the racist and arbitrary character of the death penalty in the United States. Police and prosecutorial misconduct in the pursuit of convictions of Black defendants accused of killing white victims, much less policemen, has been thoroughly documented. Georgia, like many other Southern states, has a long and bloody history of extra-legal lynching and racially biased verdicts, stretching from the period of slavery through Jim Crow segregation to today."

On May 19th, The Daddy w ill join others to blog about Troy Davis, urging Georgia Gov. Perdue to commute his sentence or give the guy a new trial. But while he will be blogging for justice for Troy, he will also be blogging for something more, something deeper: the rule of law over hatred, understanding over racism and fear, truth over hearsay, love and forgiveness over revenge.

Do you care that a man, an American, may be executed with so little evidence? Do you care that the state of Georgia could be using your judicial system to kill another poor man, another black man, any black man, for revenge in your name? If you do, contact Georgians for Alternative to the Death Penalty (GADP) at 404876566113 to see how you can help. You can even email Troy Davis at: troy@aiusa.org Do you care?

If not, why don't you?