Troy Davis unjustly sent to death

By Katherine ONeill
September 26th, 2011
Section: Opinions

Supporters of Troy Davis gather across the road from Georgia's death row prison in Jackson, Georgia, Wednesday, September 21, 2011. (Mike Haskey/Columbus Ledger-Enquirer/MCT)Supporters of Troy Davis gather across the road from Georgia's death row prison in Jackson, Georgia, Wednesday, September 21, 2011. (Mike Haskey/Columbus Ledger-Enquirer/MCT)

Troy Davis was executed Sept. 21 in Georgia through a lethal injection with no physical evidence of committing the crime for which he was accused.

Nine eyewitness testimonies were all that was used to convict him of killing an off-duty police officer in 1989. The law states that a person is innocent until proven guilty and this wasn’t the case for Davis. Instead, he had to fight to prove his innocence without success.

Depending on the severity and nature of the crime, the death penalty could be acceptable.  However, the unacceptable part is ending the life of someone whose guilt was in major doubt.
More than a million signatures were collected to present to the superior court proving the disagreement of the crucial unfairness which took place in Davis’ case.

When justice becomes the interpretation of a poisoned system, that’s when capital punishment should be restricted from use. According to the world’s largest human rights organization, Amnesty International, most witnesses who testified against Davis later recanted.

Executing someone should not be so easy and simple.  Instead, it should only be used in murder cases with solid evidence that convicts the suspect.

In the Davis case, neither Davis’s fingerprints nor a weapon was found. When there is the slightest doubt in a murder case, capital punishment should not be an option.

There is the argument that states capital punishment should never be performed on any human regardless of the brutality of the murderer, and instead the convict should be placed in jail for life.
Executions should continue to take place in courts across the world. No one has the right to kill anyone and not get an equivalent penalty.

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  • S2C

    the libertarian with a small l covered most of the relevant facts. I would add though:

    Davis had previously been charged with carrying a concealed weapon (handgun)

    With the “recantations”, not all of the witnesses were called to the stand to recant officially, so their affidavits were given little weight

    The judges called the trial with the recantations “smoke and mirrors”. It appears to me that they didn’t feel there was any new evidence of substance.

  • Skylar

    Well all have our political agendas.  Death penalty is one of those  issues that no two people will ever agree on. Just looking at this thread of comments you can tell that you have opposition from both sides .  

    For the first comment.. can you leave CNN and FOX out of it.. go listen to NPR and then we can talk.. do not turn this into a political issue.. this is about a life and not what your political persuasion is. You lost all credibility by bringing up FOX…

    PS.  who is editing these articles? get on with it !

    • BigMac

      You lost all credibility by referencing NPR. Doesn’t bias to the left count?

  • Anonymous

    I agree with Karoleen and the death penalty for murders.  Look at it from this perspective:  Just imagine how many more illegal immigrants’ tuition we could fund if we put murders to death instead of funding their daily care in jail for life!

  • David the small-L libertarian

    Ms. O’Neill:  Forgive me for being so blunt but you have no idea what you’re talking about.  The “facts” that you and the rest of the left-wing media present show that you’re pulling another fast one on the public.  Have you read the court transcripts in this case?  Ann Coulter has and posts the actual facts of the case here: Cop Killer is Media’s Latest Baby Seal

    Because I don’t trust that you and other anti-death penalty activists will read it, here are a few excerpts:

    - Davis pulled out a gun and shot two strangers in public. What “physical evidence” were they expecting?

    - I suppose it would be nice if the shell casings from both shootings that night matched. Oh wait — they did. That’s “physical evidence.”

    - Eyewitness testimony, like all evidence tending to show guilt, has gotten a bad name recently, but the “eyewitness” testimony in this case did not consist simply of strangers trying to distinguish one tall black man from another. For one thing, several of the eyewitnesses knew Davis personally.

    - Several eyewitnesses, both acquaintances and strangers, specifically identified Davis as the one who shot Officer MacPhail.

    - First of all, the state presented 34 witnesses against Davis — not nine

    - One alleged recantation, from the vagrant’s girlfriend (since deceased), wasn’t a recantation at all, but rather reiterated all relevant parts of her trial testimony, which included a direct identification of Davis as the shooter.

    • Old Glory

      Yeah, Ms. O’Neill should tell us which class she is taking so we can contact her instructor and have her get an “F” in research for this piece. Watching CNN and MSNBC does not count for getting your facts. I can include Fox news.

      Do a little more research please. If you don’t believe in the death penalty that’s fine, but don’t try to convince me with bogus information.

  • Alex Herazo

    “Depending on the severity and nature of the crime, the death penalty could be acceptable.” No, the death penalty can’t be acceptable in any situation. We can’t do the same than criminals do.   

    • Karoleen C

      There needs to be a law which makes criminals think of the actions they take. You cannot continue placing murders in jail allowing more of our tax money to go on their care. These people who take lives away should be put to death, emotions cannot take place in justice.