The Execution Of Troy Anthony Davis:

I have held the belief that crim­i­nals should be put to death, once and for all after they have expe­di­tious­ly exhaust­ed all of their legal appeals, until today September 21^st 2011.

HERE’S THE REASON

I have no evi­dence whether Troy Davis is inno­cent or guilty, this case has how­ev­er awak­ened a sen­si­tiv­i­ty in me I did not know existed.

I have been a pro­po­nent of the death penal­ty, or at best I sat on the fence lean­ing toward the side of execution.

As more infor­ma­tion about this case emerged , my fam­i­ly and I sat at our din­ner table and watched Democracy now do blan­ket cov­er­age of the vig­il out­side the Georgia cor­rec­tion­al facil­i­ty, we actu­al­ly watched on a lap­top computer.

As tears flowed from my eyes uncon­trol­lably , my 17-year-old son who just entered col­lege, and who is very privy to my views on the death penal­ty , turned to me and asked ” Dad can you tell me how killing a per­son is jus­tice for a killing anoth­er person”?

I tried as best I could to explain to my son that my posi­tion was shaped by my law enforce­ment expe­ri­ence, I tried to tell him that I had been to too many mur­der scenes, seen too many bodies.

My son looked at me, shook his head, and mut­tered “uuumph”

As I sat and watched at 10 :21 the reporter looked at her black­ber­ry and report­ed that the Supreme Court of the United States has refused to block the exe­cu­tion of Troy Davis.

As this news came down death­ly silent gripped the crowd , per­sons in the crowd just clutched each oth­er and stood there frozen in death­ly shock.

Democracy now report­ed there were vig­ils all over the world for the spar­ing of Troy Davis’ life, pleas had come in from Bishop Desmond Tutu Nobel peace prize win­ner, Former President Jimmy Carter , Nobel peace prize win­ner, Pope Benedict , and a host of promi­nent Americans some of whom are sup­port­ers of the death penalty.

If Troy Davis is Guilty , what is the rea­son why the Courts are so intent on killing him , whats the rush? A defen­dant has no bur­den of proof , it is up to the pros­e­cu­tion to prove its case , what is the state afraid will hap­pen if they stayed the exe­cu­tion of Troy Davis?

The argu­ment that one is inno­cent untill proven guilty in America is a down­right lie and a farce.

The notion that a defen­dant has no bur­den to prove his inno­cence is a lie and a fraud.

The rigid unre­lent­ing pos­ture of the state of Georgia, and final­ly the United States Supreme Court to grant Troy Davis a stay, and the pos­si­bil­i­ty of a new trail is an affront to all free peo­ple the world over.

If cit­i­zens can­not lok to the United States Supreme Court as a final arbiter of facts to pro­tect them who can they look to ?

As we watched Renee Phelps a human rights advo­cate read a mov­ing 2008 let­ter Davis wrote detail­ing his feel­ings regard­ing his plight and the death penalty.

It was an odd feel­ing sit­ting, watch­ing the tele­cast as this news came down, imag­in­ing that inside the prison a per­son was being killed, imag­in­ing that Troy Anthony Davis was being inject­ed with a lethal cock­tail of life end­ing drugs for one pur­pose, and one pur­pose only, to kill him.

I FELT SICK TO MY STOMACH !!!

A human rights activist on the scene com­menced read­ing the names of those exe­cut­ed in the state of Georgia, a prac­tice she said her group engaged in when­ev­er the state snuff out the life of a cit­i­zen. My wife walked back into the kitchen after a brief respite and asked “any word” ? I looked up at her and mut­tered “they are killing him”

A gen­tle­man from Al Sharpton’s action net­work sang “when we all get togeth­er” he spoke as a vet­er­an of the US armed forces he ago­nized at the temer­i­ty of America in telling the rest of the world how to live, when America exe­cutes a man when there is doubt about his innocence.

Ben Jealous echoed the refrain of an eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind.

As My kids went to bed, my wife and I sat at our kitchen table and watched the inter­views, and the state­ments, hop­ing for word that some­how , there would be a mir­a­cle, some­how we would hear that Troy Davis would not be killed tonight.

As word came down that some­how Supreme court Justice Clarence Thomas was the jurist respon­si­ble for the deci­sion I told my wife “TROY DAVIS IS A DEAD MAN”

Supreme Court Assc. Justice Clarence Thomas

As we await­ed word ‚the reporter announced that CNN had just con­firmed that Troy Anthony Davis is being exe­cut­ed this was at 11:14 pm. I told my wife he was prob­a­bly already dead. As we sat there a macabre feel­ing came over me, it felt almost un-earth­ly, that while I lived, a human being was being mur­dered in the name of justice.

Conformation came that the time of death was 11:08 pm east­ern time. Troy Anthony Davis was dead.

A young black woman was sent out from the prison to give the offi­cial word , detail­ing the time of death,.….….….….yes they sent a black woman.

Is there a con­nec­tion of sorts between the deci­sion com­ing from Clarence Thomas,who has black skin, and the black prison offi­cial sent out to make the announce­ment? Or is it just plain coin­ci­dence? You decide.

A mem­ber of the press report­ed that Troy told mem­bers of the vic­tim’s fam­i­ly that he had not killed their son, he implored his fam­i­ly to dig deep­er to find out the truth, report­ed­ly told the guards that he pray that God help their souls, and have mer­cy on their souls.

As the sto­ry wound down the female reporter from Democracy now, Amy Goodman spoke in low tones, she had done yeo­man’s work non-stop on air broad­cast­ing, she sound­ed drained and tired, behind her the crowd began to dis­perse , my wife looked at me and said ‘busi­ness as usu­al” I looked at her with impo­tent res­ig­na­tion, no words came to my lips.

For those who weren’t fol­low­ing the case a female wit­ness report­ed­ly over­heard a man under the influ­ence of alco­hol at a par­ty con­fess to killing the police officer.

He alleged­ly told the woman he has kids so Troy Davis will have to take the rap for the killing That young woman had to flee her com­mu­ni­ty in fear for her life, as the alleged killer report­ed­ly threat­ened to kill her. The state of Georgia report­ed­ly knew this , why would this man threat­en to kill her if she told her sto­ry if he did not know some­thing about the killing of that off duty police offi­cer? Troy Davis is now dead so this man can walk up to the police slap his chest and brag about killing that offi­cer and there is noth­ing they can do about it . They already got their pint of blood.

mike beck­les