Courtesy Photo: Troy Davis
Nathan Crites-Herren
The Paw Print
Although widely ignored by the corporate main stream media, the recent execution of Georgia death row inmate Troy Davis is yet another example of the inherently flawed, racist and broken US prison and justice system. Outcry against the execution was diverse and widespread, organizations like the NAACP and Amnesty International along with nearly one million people singed an Amnesty International petition demanding clemency. Those among questioning the execution of Davis were former FBI director William Sessions, the Pope, former President Jimmy Carter, and the Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa.
The facts of the Davis case clearly speak to the convoluted nature of the justice system. For example, Davis was convicted of a 1989 killing of an off duty police officer Mark MacPhail. Since then, seven of the nine witnesses have recanted their testimony saying that they were coerced by federal prosecutors to vote for execution, and there is no physical evidence tying Davis to the crime scene. Jury members also stated that they would have voted differently now knowing that the witness testimony they heard was false. There were even a dozen or more witness who said that they heard the possible real killer of Mark MacPhail, Sylvester Choles confess out of feelings of guilt as the case became more public.
Despite the more than sufficient amount of evidence provided by Davis’s legal team to re-open the case the Georgia Supreme court refused to re-open the case, stating that the evidence provided by the defense was circumstantial and therefore did not constitute a re-opening of the case. It is hard to see what is circumstantial about the facts of Davis’s case; rather it seems that the justice system simply chose to ignore the evidence that didn’t fit with their verdict of guilty.
The racial tension in this case must also be understood as a key reason for the decision to execute Davis. The accused, Davis an African American male and the victim McPhail, a white cop, this is an age old scenario in the US; the black man gets accused for the shooting of a white cop. And given the history of institutional racism within this country the black man almost always is found guilty, even if there is a lack of evidence tying him to that crime or other examples of an unfair trial.
Only four other countries besides the US continue the draconian practice of the death-penalty, China, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. The US is truly isolated in its death-penalty policy and continues to maintain its’ supposed effectiveness against crime, while every country who has seriously investigated the effectiveness of the death penalty to deter crime has found that it is not effective.
In all respects the judicial and prison systems are broken, either through the avenues of racism, coercion or bureaucratic blindness, the supposed justice that they promote is something that has become a claim that caries no weight. The examples of the Davis case are only the tip ord in the call for prison and justice system reform.
Perhaps the most positive outcome of the unjust killing of Troy Davis by the US government was that it sparked a national and international movement by people who are beginning to resist the US justice and prison system in new ways that may prove to leave a large impact. Prison and death penalty abolition movements are gaining ground with not only liberal but conservative communities through prison guard walk-outs and boycotts that have happened in three Georgia prison facilities since the execution of Davis. Even those in favor of the death penalty are speaking out against the ineffectiveness of the justice system to prosecute effectively.
The time for serious action against the wrongs of the justice and prison system are long overdue and the death of Troy Davis may be the catalyst for concrete change, that is if those in power will begin to listen to the demands of its citizens, which is not likely.
What’s Been Said…