All Things in Moderation

Note: Please be kind – this is my first attempt at posting and I rushed it because of its timely nature. I will be gone most of the afternoon but will try and check back here and there when I can, so please don’t think I posted and ran away — SCat

The Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles denied clemency this morning to Troy Davis who is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection tomorrow evening at 7 p.m.

If you have not recently seen or heard about his case, a decent overview is given here. In brief, Mr. Davis was convicted of shooting Savannah Police Officer Mark Allen MacPhail in 1991. The murder weapon was never found, no physical evidence linked Mr. Davis to the crime, and since that time 7 of the nine witnesses who testified against Davis have recanted – several claiming that they were coerced by police. The eighth witness originally claimed he could not identify anyone involved in the crime and the ninth witness actually has himself confessed to the crime to friends and family members in the last few years. Mr. Davis has had his execution stayed on three separate occasions – in 2007 by the state parole board, in 2008 by the US Supreme Court, and in 2008 by a federal appeals court. With the decision handed out this morning, it is highly unlikely his execution will by stayed again.

As a progressive and a Roman Catholic, I admit that the death penalty is one issue that I have struggled mightily with in my life. I wince at the thought of the state wielding that sort of power, I am sickened at the idea of executing the innocent, and I am appalled at the role that race or poverty often play in these cases. On the other hand, I see obviously guilty monsters like Timothy McVeigh or David Westerfield and I have a very difficult time mustering up any degree of sympathy for their plights; and as I watch the family of Officer McPhail on tv fighting for their loved one, I wonder: how would I respond in their shoes? How would I feel if it was my husband or my child that had been violently taken away from me? Would I be secure enough in my faith to not seek revenge through the justice system? Could I take a step back and question the evidence and wonder whether the right person was convicted?

I don’t know and hope I never know the answers to those questions, but when a case like Mr. Davis’ arise, it clarifies the main issue for me: how can we execute someone when such profound questions of innocence and guilt remain?

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