Last night a likely innocent man, Troy Davis, was executed by the State of Georgia.
His words give me hope, even as his death leaves me heartbroken:
“The struggle for justice doesn’t end with me. This struggle is for all the Troy Davises who came before me and all the ones who will come after me. I’m in good spirits and I’m prayerful and at peace. But I will not stop fighting until I’ve taken my last breath. Georgia is prepared to snuff out the life of an innocent man.”
At the ACLU, we view this execution as unconscionable and unconstitutional. You can read facts about the death penalty here.
"The execution of an innocent man crystallizes in the most sickening way the vast systemic injustices that plague our death penalty system. No innocent person should ever be put to death, and it is unconscionable and unconstitutional to carry out an execution where, as in the case of Troy Davis, significant doubts exist," said Denny LeBoeuf, the American Civil Liberties Union's Capital Punishment Project director.
"The jury in Troy's case was deceived, witnesses were pressured, and virtually no one who looks at the case today would claim that he could be convicted, let alone sentenced to death, for the murder. Troy's case makes clear that the death penalty system in the United States is broken beyond repair. It is arbitrary, discriminatory and comes at an enormous cost to taxpayers, and it must be ended."
It's time to abolish the death penalty. Get involved at www.aclu.org or www.amnesty.org. On Monday night, I gave a talk about the death penalty to students at Colby College. All of them joined over 650,000 other people in pleading with the State of Georgia to grant clemency, which the State refused to do. The students' interest and energy gives me hope too, even as my heart is broken today.
