The facts are this:
On the night of Aug. 19, 1989 off-duty Police officer Mark MacPhail was shot dead while trying to help a homeless man that was being attacked. Nothing could be worse than that. A good man, rushing in to help someone who gets shot dead.
Except if an innocent man is put to death for it. A man that may or may not have had anything to do with Officer MacPhail's senseless killing.
Despite the fact that 7 out of 10 witnesses recanted their testimony, despite the fact that people including an ex-President AND a former FBI director are against it and despite the fact that Amnesty International is calling it "unconscionable", the fact is that Troy Davis has been denied clemency and WILL DIE TONIGHT by lethal injection at 7pm.
That's a lot of facts. And the ambiguity in the actual guilty verdict is too much to bear and overwhelming when put against the death penalty.
If we allow this to happen as a society then we are going down a terrible and dangerous road.
We really don't quote 'ole Rev. Al on Omni but we will today. Here is what he had to say:
"This is probably the most egregious injustice I have seen in a long time, to set a precedent that a man can be executed when the evidence against him has mostly been recanted," said Sharpton. "It's unthinkable."
We have to agree. This is a case where most of the witnesses have RECANTED their statements. It's even terrible to condemn a man to life in prison when innocent but to death?
We can't imagine the horror of knowing that we're innocent of the crime, convicted for it, shown hope through recanted testimony only for all of it to be ignored and then facing our death KNOWING that there is no mercy. This all might be well and good for the Puritans of the 1650's but this is the United States of America 2011.
This is sad and made all the worse knowing that although the "people in charge" know better they will forge ahead regardless of the reasonable doubt that has now arisen.
On the night of Aug. 19, 1989 off-duty Police officer Mark MacPhail was shot dead while trying to help a homeless man that was being attacked. Nothing could be worse than that. A good man, rushing in to help someone who gets shot dead.
Except if an innocent man is put to death for it. A man that may or may not have had anything to do with Officer MacPhail's senseless killing.
Despite the fact that 7 out of 10 witnesses recanted their testimony, despite the fact that people including an ex-President AND a former FBI director are against it and despite the fact that Amnesty International is calling it "unconscionable", the fact is that Troy Davis has been denied clemency and WILL DIE TONIGHT by lethal injection at 7pm.
That's a lot of facts. And the ambiguity in the actual guilty verdict is too much to bear and overwhelming when put against the death penalty.
If we allow this to happen as a society then we are going down a terrible and dangerous road.
We really don't quote 'ole Rev. Al on Omni but we will today. Here is what he had to say:
"This is probably the most egregious injustice I have seen in a long time, to set a precedent that a man can be executed when the evidence against him has mostly been recanted," said Sharpton. "It's unthinkable."
We have to agree. This is a case where most of the witnesses have RECANTED their statements. It's even terrible to condemn a man to life in prison when innocent but to death?
We can't imagine the horror of knowing that we're innocent of the crime, convicted for it, shown hope through recanted testimony only for all of it to be ignored and then facing our death KNOWING that there is no mercy. This all might be well and good for the Puritans of the 1650's but this is the United States of America 2011.
This is sad and made all the worse knowing that although the "people in charge" know better they will forge ahead regardless of the reasonable doubt that has now arisen.
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