Imposing the Death Penalty - Justice, Injustice, or Revenge

     The lines between justice, injustice, and revenge continue to blur as evidenced in the recent execution of Troy Davis. Despite reasonable doubt in Davis' case, and public outcry from hundreds of thousands of people in the U.S. and Europe asking that his life be spared, The Georgia Pardons and Parole Board, Georgia courts, and the U.S. Supreme Court allowed him to be put to death.

Troy Davis (Top two photos)

 The National Action Network under the direction of Reverend Al Sharpton, the NAACP, Amnesty International, and the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty,  were among supporters advocating on his behalf.

     Davis was accused of killing off duty police officer, Marc MacPhail in Savannah, Georgia in 1989, and faced death four times from 2007 until he was finally executed last month. He was granted a stay of execution in 2007, less than 24 hours before he was to be put to death. In 2008, the U.S. Supreme Court intervened two hours before his impending death, and a few months later, a federal appeals court stopped the execution.

     No physical evidence linked Davis to the crime. There was no DNA, no fingerprints, and the weapon was never found. Key witnesses who placed Davis at the scene of the crime did not prove reliable. Seven of the nine witnesses recanted their testimonies, and after the trial, others indicated someone else committed the murder. Some witnesses said they were coerced and threatened by the police to identify Davis as the shooter.

Prayer Vigil for Troy Davis prior to his execution.

     New York Times bestselling author, Thomas Cahill chronicles the life of another African-American man who met the same fate in 2004 after spending 11 years on death row in Texas. The biography, A Saint on Death Row, The Story of Dominique Green, reveals the life of a young man from an impoverished and troubled childhood and adolescence, who, at age 16, fell in with the wrong crowd and was involved in a robbery in which the victim was shot and killed. Three other young men were involved in the crime, and their testimony alone, pointed to Green as the shooter. His fingerprints were not on the murder weapon, and in fact, there was no DNA evidence linking him to the crime. He was not identified in the lineup, or by other witnesses as having been the shooter. Green repeatedly ask that a tape from the store's security camera be retrieved, insisting that it would prove his innocence. It was never introduced as evidence.

     As with the Troy Davis case, Dominique's case drew worldwide attention and support, including that of Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who visited Dominique on death row.  Life in prison was punishment enough, he said in a press conference after his visit with Green. "Don't dehumanize yourself as a society by carrying out the death penalty," he implored of Americans.

     "I just wonder what affect working in that environment can have on people," Bishop Desmond Tutu said further after his visit to the Texas death row. "It's so destroying--for everyone there."

Thomas Cahill's biography of death row inmate, Dominique Green,

executed in 2004 after eleven years on death row in Texas.

     "Many colleagues turned to drugs and alcohol and some committed suicide," said former warden Ron McAndrew, who oversaw executions on Florida's death row. He testified at a New Hampshire hearing regarding the trauma experienced by prison staff, and admits he is haunted by the men he executed. 

     Capital punishment continues to be a controversial issue, and statistics suggest that it is disproportionately applied in instances where African-Americans and the poor are the accused. According to the organization, Campaign to End the Death Penalty, African-Americans are only 12 percent of the U.S. population, but constitute a significantly large percentage of inmates on death row in the 35 states that impose the capital punishment. In Pennsylvania, Louisiana, and Maryland, African-Americans comprise 42 percent of those on death row. In Virginia, Arkansas, North Carolina, South Carolina, Mississippi, and Ohio, more than 50 percent of death row inmates are African-Americans. The death penalty has been applied in 80 percent of cases in which the accused is black and the the victim is Caucasian. Conversely, of the 18,000 executions that have occurred in U.S history, 42 involved a white perpetrator and a black victim.

     Over 90 percent of cases of those charged with capital crimes are indigent, and could not pay attorneys who were able and willing to expend efforts to prepare and launch extensive defense of their cases. In many instances, the trial was over in a week, which did not allow adequate time for preparation.

        Violent crime plague's America, and many feel that the death penalty is a deterrent. In 2010, 46 people in America were put to death. The number of executions and public sentiment for the death penalty has steadily declined, but it is still a contentions issue which garners support from 61 percent of Americans, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. Three thousand people currently await their fate on death row. 

For additional information and resources about the death penalty: http://www.innocenceproject.org/ (The Innocence Project); http://www.deathpenalty.org/ (Death Penalty Focus); http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/ (Death Penalty Information Center); http://www.ncadp.org/ (National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty); http://www.schr.org/; (Southern Center for Human Rights).

Information for this article gathered from the above sources and http://www.msnbc.com/; http://www.naacp.org/;  http://www.ibtimes.com/; http://www.aclu.org/.