The Troy Davis Dilemma
Troy Davis Dilemma
The Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles has just denied relief to Troy Davis. Troy is accused of killing a police officer. Seven of the witnesses against Troy have changed their stories. One has even said that initially he told the police Troy was not the killer but the police coerced him to say that Troy was the killer. Even with this evidence Georgia is willing to put Troy to death at 7PM on September 20, 2011. Georgia position raises all kinds of questions for me. Some of the questions are as follows:
- · Why would Georgia be so adamant about killing a person that might be innocent?
- · Does the fact that the person killed was white and the person accused of the killing being black
does these facts play into Georgia’s decision to go forward with killing Troy who may be
innocent? Statistics show that if a victim is white and accused is black then the death penalty is
much more apt to be given. Don’t get mad at me. These are the facts. I am just asking the
obvious questions. - · This next question is a question that people are afraid to ask, and don’t want asked but I am
going to ask it anyhow. Will it take the killing of innocent people to stop the killing of possible
innocent people? Several hundreds of thousands of people signed petitions asking Georgia to not
put Troy to death. September 19, 2011 Georgia showed it did not care about public opinion
because Georgia has decided to kill Troy anyway. That sends the message that at least in
Georgia, public opinion will not stop a possible innocent person from being murdered by the
state.
Would Georgia not kill Troy if the cost of taking a possible innocent life was the loss of other innocent lives? Would the loss of innocent lives stop the state murder of possible innocent people? These are questions y’all. I just have the nerve to ask the questions. - · Would this kind of public support for Troy stop Georgia from killing him if he were white and the victim was black? Again, statistics are clear that white people are not likely to get the death penalty when the victim is a black person. Don’t take my word. Do the research. Amnesty International says it is “unconscionable “ for Georgia to kill Troy considering the facts that surround the case.
- · What would make Georgia have a conscious?
I know it is going to come up so let me be the first to raise it. My son was involved in a case where three people were killed. The victims were white, the two people that admitted to doing the killing was one black and the other had a black father and a white mother. My son is the product of two black people. The court found my son killed no one but still treated him as a murderer because he was in essence given the same sentence as the two who admitted to doing the killings. That right, the appellate court found my son to have killed no one but that did not stop the trial court from still wanting to kill my son. Yes my son faced the death penalty. At the last moment the prosecutor decided to make a deal and not go forward with the death penalty phase of the sentencing. My son’s sentence was changed from instant death by electric chair or lethal injection, to slow death because he was given 240 years which is in essence natural life without parole. Because he is still living he has a chance to get out of jail. If Indiana had killed him he would not have had a chance to get out of the grave. I am back to questions:
- · Is it possible that Georgia could learn from Indiana? Georgia and no other beside the almighty God can reverse death.
- · Shouldn’t Georgia learn from Indiana and error on the side of life?
I am just asking the obvious questions. It will be interesting to see how Georgia answers. I actually addressed this issue more in-depth on my internet radio program. Here is the link to the program: https://www.yousendit.com/download/bHlDcXltcWZTSUFLSkE9PQ Judge Joe Brown answers like this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogBdP6INHlE&feature=share Thank you for listening to AjabuSpeaks.
Rev. Ajabu
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Jackson, Ga (Reuters) - Georgia is set to execute later on Wednesday a man convicted of murdering a police officer in one of the highest profile U.S. capital punishment cases in years.
The case of Troy Davis has attracted international attention and an online protest that has accumulated nearly one million signatures because of doubts expressed in some quarters over whether he killed police officer Mark MacPhail in 1989.
Davis was convicted of murdering MacPhail outside a Burger King restaurant in Savannah, Georgia. MacPhail's family say Davis is guilty and should be executed.
"Our hearts go out to them (MacPhail's family). We have nothing but sympathy and prayers for them but they are not getting justice if the wrong person is paying for what happened to their son, their brother," civil rights leader Al Sharpton told reporters.
Since Davis' conviction, seven of nine witnesses have changed or recanted their testimony, some have said they were coerced by police to testify against him and some say another man committed the crime.
No physical evidence linked Davis to the killing.
Lawyers for Davis, scheduled to die by lethal injection at 7 p.m. local time, requested a polygraph for their client earlier on Wednesday in a last-ditch attempt to halt the execution, but prison officials turned them down.
Davis' best hope of avoiding execution lay with the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles but on Tuesday it denied him clemency following a one-day hearing.
More than 100 supporters of Davis rallied in somber mood on the grounds of Georgia's Diagnostic and Classification Prison where the execution was set to take place, listening to speeches.
They were corralled in a wooded area by guards out of sight of the prison itself.
MY PRAYERS GO OUT TO TROY DAVIS AND HIS FAMILY!! NO JUSTICE, NO PEACE!!
Our Calls to the U.S. Supreme Court is causing a reprieve! Keep Calling!!!!!! KEEP CALLING!!!! KEEP CALLING!!!!! KEEP CALL!!!! KEEP CALLING!!!!!!
It is past 7pm Eastern time on September 21, 2011. Georgia was to have executed Troy at 7pm. Atty Tobin on CNN says there is no legal reason for Georgia not to have gone forward with the execution. Is it possible that Georgia has seen the light? To kill a possibl innocent man is a deadly mistake that can't be reversed. Don't stop praying and calling. Maybe public opinion does matter in Georgia as it did in Indiana. Keep praying!!!
NO JUSTICE, NO PEACE!!!!!!!! CULTURAL REVOLUTION NOW, AND FOREVER!!! FIRST, OUR VALUES DEMAND RECIPROCITY, AND WHERE JUSTICE IS DENIED, WE MUST INSTITUTE AND INSTALL OUR JUSTICE. ASO, WE CANNOT CONTINUE TO SUPPORT THOSE WHO WILL KILL US, ...AND WRONGLY JAIL US, BECAUSE WE ARE AFRICAN PEOPLE. THEREFORE WE MUST REINFORCE THE KWANZAA PRINCIPLE OF UJAMAA, COOPERATIVE ECONOMICS, WHERE WE ONLY BUY BLACK AND RECYCLE OUR DOLLARS. WHO WANT TO WORK ON THESE COMMITTEES??????
I am concerned about this post. It appears to say that by reinforcing the Kwanzaa principe of Ujamaa, Cooperative economics, where we only buy black and recycle our dollars, and working on these committees to do so that we will get reciprocity where justice has been denied for Troy and others. Is that the message you mean to send?
May his soul rest in peace.
I have waited patiently for 2 score, 17 years, and 45 days, for a revolt. Each new generation of african americans that comes into existence, comes with more tolerance for the slave masters tricknologies, and diminishes my hope of a ever leveling the playing field between master and slave. and so, because i know i will not live forever, i posed the question if not now, when. respectfully!
Mobuto,
When you are ready! Really ready.
To my Brothers and Sisters: Tonight is a night to be still. Do not let these beasts feed from your energy to empower themselves. Do not act out of anger for momentary release. If you decide to move, move when YOU want to move, not when they expect you to move. Plan you actions with a group of people you trust... I will not tell you to stick to rallies, marches, boycotts and all that. Raw physical power respects nothing but more power, a bully will not listen to reason until he is punched back as hard or harder than he hits. I know, I've fought bullies all my life. Do what you feel
you need to do, but do it on YOUR terms, on YOUR timing. Tonight spend your energy sending Troy home properly, like the African man, the god being, he showed himself to be. Keep your heads up.
I prayed a lot for Mr Davis last night ...I was so sad to hear of this.. I disagree on one thing Not so much Indiana that helped your son as he did not kill a COP .. and they claimed Davis killed a cop . ( And this I am wondering a lot on....a lot of changing testimony happened..) Henry had a hard fight with Fred because in Indiana too, they hate and protect police stil , and even if not a cop killer they stil hold to the idea a COP KILLER is extra bad. ..even if a bad cop started it . Please keep faith in your letters, blogs etc... too. I know this is a hard one, and so many are..
NANCY (I have to HOPE GOD will use this some how )
I'm ready to quit America. If it weren't for my parents (both alive and living in the U.S.) I would be outta here. Such a disgrace and a blatant slap in all our faces.
No Bro. Mmoja Ajabu, and am grateful for you raising the question. What is meant is that the lynching of Troy Davis incites a lot of emotions from rage, anger and despair. What I am advocating is for positive ways of channeling that rage in...to more productive activities which empower our community to not let this happen again. What kind of Revolution are we waging where we can't even save one brother off of Death row, when he's innocent? How can we save the masses if we can't save one. Whenever any tragedy happens in the Jewish community, they raise money, put up another synagogue or take more Palistinian land. When was the last time yo saw a jew protesting? They don't protest, they empower themselves, and we deserve no less, if we mobilize and unify based on sound principles and codes of conduct.
We won't be equal until we make ourselves equal! We been so brainwashed we don't even realize it & reject everything that's not of European. We to lazy to help ourselves b/c we believe Jesus is coming back to save us. If it's not about Jesus we don't want to hear it, that's where we fail. We always complaining about change or this & that, it's time to put the bull sh!t in the toilet and flush it away and get our Minds right. Yeah I said it!
"Again ...after reading your impressive speaks and knowing millions reacted via petition concerning T Davis. I still say those acts should have taken place years ago. I say bless Troys family and the officers family will surly pay from a much greater wrath for the acknowledgement and witness of his innocent death. I'm surprised Georgia didn't riot, but I guess that's just how hush hush the situation was kept in the eighties.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogBdP6INHlE&feature=share
I live in Georgia and believe me it wasn't as quiet as you'd like to think. It was a nonviolent protests and support that happened around the state, but of course the media is only going to show a small snippet to give the illusion of lack of caring.In saying that, I believe that Georgia SHOULD NOT have executed Mr. Davis, HOWEVER, be clear the man was no saint, so the probability of innocence based on his character before incarceration I'm sure was taken into serious consideration. We as a people need to stop looking at the current situation and weigh the bigger picture. Of course he was a good guy NOW, but WHO was he before he was caught? And was it a matter of time before he would have potentially killed someone? Those are the things I kept on my mind throughout this whole ordeal and after doing deeper research into Mr. Davis's less then saintly past.
AGAIN I am NOT saying he should have been executed, there were too many questions around his innocence and the events of that night up to and including the charge that he had alledgedly shot someone else in the face earlier that day.
Bottom line we as a people can do better and have done better, firstly by having more generational college graduates. Because without education, we cannot effectively participate in change. Change isn't necessarily civil disobedience but by being the change makers in the politics, or the lawyers or judges in the courtrooms. We are making are faces more visible, but we have to do it intelligently not lash out and have nothing to show for it when its all said and done. Change is happening, and believe it or not "folks" are scared because they see the changes that are snowballing. We just have to continue to strive to work smart, and the things we need to change will come.
Marquetta,
Your comments are very interesting. You say you don't support the execution of Troy but because of his checkered past he might have deserved it. I emphasize might. And te solution to stopping this possible unjust execution the solution is to get educated and become judges, lawyers, etc. I would submit that the highest profile position in this country, and possibly the world is right now occupied by a person of color. I am speaking of Barack Obama. Him being in that position did not stop the execution of a possible innocent man who happened to be black!! Does not this fact fly in the face of your proposed solution? I understand that there were vast demo's in Georgia and elsewhere. Over a million signatures were submitted that called for a halt to the execution. Still a possible innocent man with a sordid past is dead. I still ask the obvious question will it take the killing of innocent people to stop the killing of innocent people? I am adamantly anti the death penalty. If one innocent person is killed then it is one person too much. Troy Davis was a possible innocent man. What will it take to stop this madness? I mean really!!!
In response to your statement regarding President Obama, legally he cannot intercede on a state issue of that nature. In regards to your response regarding that because of his checkered past he might have deserved being murdered. Let me clarify, I did not say he deserved it, what I clearly said was that to be clear the man was no saint, so the probability of innocence based on his character before incarceration I'm sure was taken into serious consideration. Meaning that folks are overlooking his past trangressions before he got "caught", in court documents it stated that earlier that day had supposedly shot someone in the face, therefore it stands to reason that the probability of his disregard for human life already spoke to his character. All that to say I am NOT saying he should have been executed, there were too many questions around his innocence and the events of that night up to and including the charge that he had alledgedly shot someone else in the face earlier that day. Additionally, the picture that was shown of Mr. Davis was that of a contrite man, who knew that he had to hope that folks would see him as innocent regardless of his history.
I am only for the death penalty if it involves crimes against those who can't defend themselves i.e. children, elderly, handicapped...everything else on a case by case situation.
Marquetta:
Troy's past has nothing to do with his guilt!! If he did not commit the crime then he should not be punished. It is very unjust to say well he has a checkered past, and although there is serious doubt about whether he committed the crime for which he is charged, so we will kill him any way because his past points to him being guilty. Where is the justness in that position. Georgia should not have murdered Troy. There was too much doubt that pointed to his possible, and even probable innocense.
Pastor
I was amazed to see how the family of James Byrd who was dragged to his death in Texas and the family of the Black man who was beaten and run over with a truck by Whites in Mississippi, in both cases; the Black family members of the victims said do not put the white perpetrators to death. The White family in Troy Davis' case said kill him. Even with all of the doubt surrounding the Davis case, those blood thirsty White family members said, Kill Him, Kill Him!!!
You see the difference.
I missed writing on this blog. I won't stay away too long from this point.
marshall