By Alan Bean
The State of Georgia has murdered Troy Davis. I don’t use the m-word casually or for rhetorical effect. But when it is no longer possible to distinguish guilt from innocence, when the state’s case lies in tatters and everybody knows it, there is no civil justification for taking a life. State-sanctioned killing is never morally justified, but even those who support capital punishment in the abstract should have grave concerns about what happened tonight in Jackson, Georgia.
What happens when all legal remedies have been exhausted and the guilt-innocence question has not been resolved? Do you carry out the sentence imposed in the good old days when the state appeared to have credible evidence, or do you commute the sentence to life without parole?
Georgia just answered that question.
I was sitting in the Airport Grocery in Cleveland MS listening to Jake and the Pearl Street Jumpers when the dreadful news from Laura Moye appeared on my cell phone. I had been having a good time. Suddenly I was sickened. I generally eschew emotive language, but this is an honest to goodness outrage.
Please read Laura’s heart-felt message and follow the instructions at the bottom of her message.
Georgia Kills Troy Davis
My heart is heavy. I am sad and angry. Georgia’s criminal justice system behaved with the viciousness of a defective machine, relentlessly pursuing his death while ignoring the doubts about his guilt that were obvious to the rest of the world.
Tonight we witnessed an abuse of power that exposed a justice system devoid of humanity, a dysfunctional destructive force in denial about its own deeply embedded flaws.
We could not ultimately stop Georgia’s machinery of death in this case, but the groundswell of activism Troy Davis has generated proves that people are hungry for a better system of justice. This will be his legacy. We will fight for a system of justice with more humanity, that accepts the possibility of mistakes, errors, and doubts. A system of justice that believes that innocence matters. A system of justice with more justice.
Let’s take a moment to honor the life of Troy Davis and Mark MacPhail. Then, let’s take all of our difficult feelings and re-double our commitment to the abolition of the death penalty.
Please take this Pledge, and commit to working for abolition in your community, in your state, in your country, and in the world.
Tonight we mourn … tomorrow we organize!
Friends of Justice 
You know, I just lounged around today watching CNN and you know what: I dozed off and had a terrible nightmare that my country, the USA, was acting like a 3rd world country and executed an innocent man. A man who was accused of a crime lacking sufficient evidence and there was so much doubt to his guilt. In my dream, seven people signed affidavids that another man admitted to them he did the crime. I woke up and realized Troy, 42, would be with his 65 yr old mother in heaven. Now to honor Troy, we have to organize and rebuild a sick system. Do you think we can?
For 20 years the US has held Troy prisoner, now he’s free. My heart goes out to his family. As Francis says though, he’ll be in the company of other friends and family. (Those who think that statement to be superstitious nonsense should read The Scientific Proof of Survival After Death at http://www.cfpf.org.uk) We that are left behind continue to fight the fight.
I went to sleep last night believing that Troy Davis’ life still would be spared. This morning I am devastated by the news of his murder (aka legal lynching) by the State of Georgia. I am ashamed that I live in a country that justifies state sponsored murder that manifests itself in many forms. Those include but are not limited to the death penalty, the killing of innocents in Iraq and Afghanistan along with ongoing US support of the brutal occupation by Apartheid Israel. I am struggling with all of it.
When I give my students hope that change is always possible, I know that I am right. But, this morning I am feeling a bit hopeless. Troy Davis’ life had meaning and was worth saving. The lack of evidence, police misconduct, the criminal (justice) system that allows wrongful convictions then stands by them no matter what, the ineffective way in which these cases are reviewed or not reviewed at all by the courts, the way in which those that were any part of shooting that poison into Troy Davis’ veins last night while justifying their actions by saying “I was only doing my job” and on and on all make my heart ache with sadness, disgust and frustration.
Before he died, Troy Davis asked us all to stand up and fight to make sure this never happened again to anyone. Now that is what we must do. After we mourn this unnecessary and unjust loss of life, we cannot allow ourselves to forget how this feels. We shall use this case to bolster and strengthen our campaign to turn our direction toward one of reconciliation, restoration, healing, humanistic intentions, and an end to murder, legal lynching, and the dehumanization of those the powerful want us to eliminate.
For now, please forgive me as I need a few days before I begin to be hopeful for a better future…to feel the pain, the loss, and give proper respect to a man that should not have lost his quest for life while maintaining his innocence to his last moment on this earth. R.I.P Troy Davis – we will not forget you.
Well Rick Perry has racked up execution #243 with the execution of Lawrence Brewer, who was almost certainly guilty of the brutally heinous dragging death of James Byrd near Jasper, TX back in 1998. Cheers anybody? (Alan says 236 and counting, I remember–or misremember as the case may be–cheers from the Republican debate audience when the good gov was asked about the 242 executions.) But 236 or 243–what’s the difference. I think it was the noted human rights activist Joe Stalin who said something to the effect that the death of one man is a tragedy, but the death of hundreds–thousands? millions?–is only a statistic.
I’m sure it’s coincidental that Lawrence Brewer and Troy Davis were executed on the same night. Coincidental but meaningful nevertheless. Lawrence Brewer was almost certainly guilty, whereas a mountain of reasonable doubt surrounds the Troy Davis case.
There were not two deaths but four involved in the executions last night: James Byrd, Lawrence Brewer, the Georgia policeman, Troy Davis. Did the deaths of Lawrence Brewer and Troy Davis somehow bring justice for James Byrd and the Georgia policeman?
Biblical justice is about bring things into their proper alignment, making things right. Retributive justice cannot do that. Retribution only increases the violence.
“You have heard that it has been said, ‘An eye for an eye . . .’, but I say unto you . . .”
“Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.”
Followers of Jesus must heed the words of Jesus. We cannot force the systems of this age to follow, but we can call them out when they don’t.
It’s call out time.
The Criminal Justice system is supposed to be about justice. Justice in the Bible is making things right,
I wish there was an edit capability on the reply function. The last sentence and a half should be deleted.
You know, I just lounged around yesterday watching CNN and you know what: I dozed off and had a terrible nightmare that my country, the USA, was acting like a 3rd world country and executed an innocent man. A man who was accused of a crime lacking sufficient evidence and there was so much doubt to his guilt. In my dream, seven people signed affidavids that another man admitted to them he did the crime. I woke up and realized Troy, 42, would be with his 65 yr old mother in heaven. Now to honor Troy, we have to organize and rebuild a sick system. Do you think we can?
Have a peaceful day
This is so painful.
Charles,
I struggle to understand how (as opposed to why) we have raised a generation of Christians who do not love mercy and do not seek justice.
Mark, I struggle to understand both how and why. I think a big part of the answer to both how and why is that somewhere we turned to Good News of the coming kingdom of God into the theology of going to heaven when we die with our salvation purchased by the execution of the One who came proclaiming the coming kingdom.