If many of you have been watching the news, Troy Davis will get the death penalty. By the time I am done editing this post or publishing this post, he might be dead.
To give some background on this, this is what I found out from this situation. Troy Davis was convicted of murdering a Savannah Police officer, Mark McPhail, in 1989. He was sentenced to the death penalty. Some people say it is open and shut and he should face the death penalty. However, I found out some more information about this.
Before I go any further, I am going to give some anecdotal notes on this. I was in the International Student Retention Services office(the Global Village) at Kennesaw State University last week. A woman came and told everyone of a rally that would be going on in Atlanta for Troy Davis' life to be spared. She stated that there was no solid evidence to convict him, and that witnessed were coerced by the police into saying that Troy Davis murdered Officer Mark McPhail. I decided to do some digging.
So far, it looks as if everything that I was told was true. Nine witnesses testified against Davis. However, Seven out of nine witnesses rescinded their testimonies and some admitted to lying. The way I see it, there was no physical evidence that he committed the murder. Even some of the witnesses were not reliable. I don't know for a fact that he killed that cop. There isn't the evidence to prove it. Witnesses have taken back their statements. The physical evidence is not there. There isn't enough proof. For this reason, I don't think Troy Davis should be executed. I feel he shouldn't be executed because there isn't enough evidence to show that he murdered Officer Mark McPhail. He has also been denied many appeals for clemency. I don't know what is going on in this instance, but something tells me that if he actually did commit that murder, if there was absolute proof beyond a shadow of a doubt, he would have been executed sooner.
He has also been denied a polygraph test to prove whether or not he committed the murder. For those who don't know what a polygraph is, it is basically a lie detector test. He can't take a lie detector test. There is an intent to execute him. This shows that the justice system in the USA can have unfairness and bias.
Statistically, Black people who have murdered White people have the highest rate of execution. If it is Black people murdering Black people, that rate is lower.Here is a link: http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/death-penalty-black-and-white-who-lives-who-dies-who-decides#Black Defendants and the Race of the Victims
I feel that this statistic is rooted in history. Black people were often considered worthless by the larger society. A Black man who killed a White man during the days of Jim Crow could expect to die. Sometimes a Black man didn't even have to murder anyone. Often, mob killing, also known as lynching, could take place often for much smaller reasons. A 14 year old African-American boy, Emmett Till, was murdered for simply making a pass at a White woman. Troy Davis facing execution doesn't surprise me when one looks at the history of how things have been done in the USA.
Furthermore, to show the bias in the justice system, look at the West Memphis Three. These are three men who were convicted of murder. They made a deal that if they plead guilty, they would be let go. They are free today while Troy Davis is going to face the death penalty. All of these men are White. Troy Davis is Black. Kind of makes me not trust the justice system as much.
Sources:
http://www.ajc.com/news/atlanta/witnesses-back-off-testimony-555778.html
http://www.cnn.com/2011/09/20/opinion/wexler-witness-memory-davis/index.html
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/till/peopleevents/e_lynch.html
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