Georgia FINALLY executed cop-killer Troy Davis late Wednesday night. It only took them 22 years. Davis' supporters protested outside the prison and in Washington and in Paris France and god knows where else for the poor misunderstood killer. Hollywood movie stars, "music" rappers, and your regular Al Sharpton black "leadership" showed up to protest and call people who disagreed with them nasty names, in another example of fair and balanced pure reason that is the hallmark of the compassionate far left.Whenever the death penalty is carried out it always makes me ashamed. Ashamed that it happens so infrequently and takes so long to get justice done for the victims.
"Justice Matters" said some of the placards of the protestors. Well, justice matters for the family of the cop he killed, too. Thank you, Georgia. Thank you Supreme Court.
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In a rather bizarre coincidence, Georgia wasn't the only state who executed a barbaric loser Wednesday. In Texas, the wannabe white supremist creep Lawrence Russell Brewer finally bought the farm for dragging a black man to death behind his pickup truck. That one happened back in 1998, so Texas is getting more efficient than Georgia, at least. More practice, I suppose.
Neither Al Shrpton, the movie stars, nor the rappers turned up to protest Brewer's execution. The victim's family showed up to say they were glad it finally happened, but too late for their mother to see, since she passed away while the killer was still enjoying three squares a day and a free lawyer.
I suppose I should show pictures of the stars of the two executions, but the pictures below are of the innocent victims.
Officer Mark MacPhail was shot and killed while working an off duty security job at a bus station. He was shot when he responded to the cries of a homeless man who was being robbed and pistol-whipped.The robber shot Officer MacPhail underneath his vest and then again in the head as he fell.
The subject was sentenced to death and executed on September 21, 2011, twenty-two years after his conviction.
Officer MacPhail was a U.S. Army veteran and had served with the Savannah Police Department for three years. He was survived by his wife, 1-year-old daughter, infant son, mother, and siblings.
Sorry, but I can't agree. "An eye for an eye..." isn't that kind of the ancient Jewish way of doing things?
ReplyDeleteWere I the victim, I would not want to feel that my family would be comforted by the death of my murderer. Vengeance and retribution would not heal my grief.
wait, there is a big different between the two executions- there were serious doubts about guilt of one of those men.
ReplyDeleteHave you read "Actual Innocence"? Have you checked out "The innocence Project"?
In particular, when DNA evidence is available TIP has over turned more than 50% of convictions. Most convictions are based on eye-witness accounts. Eye-witness account are usually wrong. I don't have time to comment now, but I will try to later.
I love your blog and I learn a lot here.
ReplyDeleteRocketscientist, I hope you are not going to google, it is forbidden here. ;-)
That was my comment that was removed by the author, I misspelled.
Most people who read my blogs are aware of where I stand on capital punishment and my stipulations for getting the death penalty. And you know I would never try to change your own beliefs - that was not the purpose of this post.
ReplyDeleteMy own reasons for supporting the death penalty have nothing to do with deterrence or retribution; only a respect for life and society's responsibilities. I'll make a post in a few days to reiterate my views. I admire the Innocence project, though for the most part they are concerned with freeing lifers and (to my knowledge) have not demonstrated any innocent person has been executed.
Again, none of my posts will ever try to convince you that you should change your minds. My posts only reiterate my personal beliefs and why. Some of my posts will also celebrate what I consider to be society's eventual triumph over injustice.
@Sue - Incidentally, you can never say that phrase often enough and you should never be embarrassed to say it. Daily, even. Music to my ears.
ReplyDelete"I love your blog and I learn a lot here."
Just don't lapse into sarcasm after you say it. That is unworthy of you. :)
ReplyDeleteI also support the death penalty where guilt is clear. Not because I'm into revenge but because it is the only true cure for recitivism.
ReplyDeleteI've said it before. I doubt you'll believe me any more this time, but it's true nonetheless.
@Stephanie Barr- No, I believe you. I'm pretty sure you support the death penalty for certain circumstances. This really wasn't another of those posts to debate the death penalty. At least it didn't start out that way. I just think it takes too long do do justice. I think if you wait another 50 years, ALL witnesses and jurors will have changed their mind or don't remember or are dead. I also think every execution is a bandwagon for publicity-seeking axe-grinders. Sharpton doesn't give a crap about the guy they executed. Where was Sharpton 20 years ago? lying about Tawana Brawley or whatever her name was and smearing District Attorneys. But that has nothing to do with the question of capital punishment, I guess.
ReplyDelete@Rocket Scientist - I value and respect your beliefs and am always happy when you choose to comment here. I know you believe in your mind there were "serious doubts" about the murderer's guilt. As you know, however, none of the appeals courts on any level agreed/agrees that he should not be put to death, and thus he was executed. I don't think an error was made except in the length of time the murderer was allowed to live. You DO believe there was an error, and you are entitled to be swayed by this or that theory or group or aged recantations and memory lapses. I would be interested in your solution as to what we are supposed to do rather than let our courts decide. Was 22 years not enough time to convince a hundred judges over the years? None of them agreed enough to even commute the sentence to life. What then? How long?
ReplyDeleteNone of the executions in at least the last fifty years were mistakes with innocents, they were all proven beyond a reasonable doubt. The same is true with both cases cited here. Both cases had multiple witnesses whose stories were all the same. Now there were a couple 'recantings' in the Davis case. Two of the thirty-four witnesses decided to change their stories which damaged Davis' chance for a retrial. All of the witnesses said the same thing: You don't forget when someone stands smiling over someone as they shoot them. There were also three airmen of the US Air Force present to attest to his identity.
ReplyDeleteCapital punishment is about justice, not vengeance. It is the effect of the criminal cause. To every action there is a reaction. There are consequences to your actions. Whether you choose to obey laws or not is up to you. Great post, and good debate as well. I admire everyone's opinions.
Stephanie, are you commenting by email or something? I am not getting notifications when you comment sometimes. Sometimes I just stumble across comments you've made, much later, and I think it is only you. Weird Blogger stuff, I guess.
ReplyDelete@Julius Cicero - Nice comment. I honestly didn't know there were that many witnesses. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteIt happened in a Burger King parking lot in broad daylight.
ReplyDeleteI thought it was seven of the nine eye-witnesses who recanted?, not two.
ReplyDeleteNone of us can guess what really happened. But from what I've read, the defense failed to convince the court of reasonable doubt.
I am fully aware that a court of law is a place where clever lawyers on both sides do their best to pervert the course of justice. Their adversarial job is simply to win, and they'll do that any way they can, by hiring experst wih a bias toward their cause, by striking out potential jurors they deem not favourable. It's not about truth and justice.
The recanting witnesses? They gave testament that they swore to be true. Now, no longer under oath, they deny it. All we can know for sure about them is that they are liars, one way or another. If anybody needs to be blamed for executing an innocent man, it would not be the state, but those who lied.
Troy Davis does not seem to be a career criminal, but neither does he seem a fine upstanding innocent man.
There have been ten years in which to prove a different story. Nobody did.
There were thirty-four witnesses total. Nine witnesses were alleged to have recanted, and seven indirectly hinted, whilst two recanted.
ReplyDeleteI think the time frame between conviction and execution is ridiculous. Time for records to be lost, physical evidence to be misplaced or, literally, degrade to where it's useless. And the stress on families of victims and perpetrator alike is ridiculous. I'm not much concerned about the convicted criminal, truthfully.
ReplyDeleteThat's aside from the untold months tying up courts and juries and costing (the taxpayer) millions with no one coming out a winner but the lawyers, a group I'm not anxious to keep happy.
I don't want to execute or incarcerate innocent people, but I want the public protected from people willing to commit horrific crimes. What can we do?
Here's an idea: you get a choice when you're convicted of a capital crime. You can automatically have your death sentence commuted to life in prison with no possibility of parole, (preferably with hard labor) and voluntarily give up your right to any further appeals. That saves millions in court costs. Most won't take this or they would have plead guilty and probably already gotten life instead of death, but they'll have the option.
The alternate is that you have the prosecution's entire case and all evidence associated with it handed to a different prosecuting office, one not associated with the one doing the prosecuting, which has one year to focus on finding something that exonerates the convict. If they find anything within that year, he can have a retrial. If the anti-capital punishment lobby wants to fund appeals, they can, but the taxpayer no longer does.
If the conviction isn't overturned in a year, he's put to death on his anniversary, no muss, no fuss. Period. Closure for everybody.