Before I go to bed most nights, I usually check Huffington Post or msnbc.com for news. Given the weirdness in the world, it’s probably not a smart thing to do for a peaceful night’s sleep. It saddened me to find this headline about Troy Davis, executed this evening in Georgia for allegedly shooting a police officer in 1989.
There was ample evidence for reasonable doubt in this case. Quoting from Huffington Post: “Though Davis’ attorneys said seven of nine key witnesses against him disputed all or parts of their testimony, state and federal judges repeatedly ruled against granting him a new trial. As the court losses piled up Wednesday, his offer to take a polygraph test was rejected and the pardons board refused to give him one more hearing.”
Excuse me, this is Georgia, the deep south, where racism is alive and well. Troy Davis was a black man. That’s the smaller picture. The larger picture here is about capital punishment. Currently, according to Wikipedia, “over 60% of the world’s population live in countries where executions take place” – China, India, Indonesia, and the U.S.
In 1976, I worked as a librarian at a minimal security prison for young men between the ages of 16-19. We had older guys, but the majority fell within that age group and were doing time for drug offenses. One of these guys, a black guy, Aiken, was older than the general population and had been sentenced to twenty years for killing a police officer.
I liked Ake. He was smart, was enrolled in college classes, and read voraciously. He claimed he was innocent, as so many do, but oddly, I believed Ake. I think he was at the wrong time and place and was a fall guy. He and I used to sit in my office for hours, talking about world events, about life. I used to bring him books from my personal library and he always returned the books in pristine condition and we would talk about the ideas in the books. He was also in the Spanish class I taught at the prison twice a week, at night. He was motivated.
I was one of 15 women who worked on the compound. My library, a double wide trailer, was a sanctuary for inmates like Ake who sought to improve themselves. They knew they could come there for conversation, good coffee, pastries, anything I happened to bring to work with me. One day during an escape attempt, Ake and two of his buddies rushed into the library and stayed until the lockdown was lifted. I knew they were there to protect me in the event of an uprising on the compound.
I sat in on his parole hearing. I was in his court. I knew he was innocent.
Some years later, long after I’d left the prison system, I was in a grocery story and heard someone shout, “Ms. Trish!” I turned and saw Ake rushing toward me. He was out, he was free. We rushed toward each other and hugged. “You saved my ass,” he said.
We talked for a while in the parking lot, catching up on each other’s lives. I’ve never seen him since. But when I saw that Huffington Post headline tonight, I thought of Ake, a black man far more fortunate than Troy Davis.
In 1979, I was feeling like an inmate myself and knew I needed a change. The supervisor of the prison where I worked arranged an interview for me at Huntsville State prison in Texas. It wasn’t exactly the change I had in mind, but I was flown out to Dallas, then transported to the prison for an interview, and toured their Death Row.
Up until this point, I was ambivalent about the death penalty. That’s a horrible thing to admit. But honestly, I just hadn’t thought about it that much. I was in my twenties, I was naive. The prison where I worked was minimum security, which meant none of these inmates would be hitting death row. But my tour of Death Row at Huntsville changed all that in a instant. It was the most desperate, depressing, and despicable place I’ve ever been.
Imagine: men languishing in solitary for years, released for just an hour a day for exercise or a shower, no contact with anyone else. The cells were impossibly small, just a toilet and a sink and a cot. The entire cell block stank of terror, a very real and tangible smell.
“So when do you think you can start?” the prison supervisor asked me afterward. “Our library really needs someone like you.”
Never, I thought, and flew back to Florida and ended up leaving my job not long afterward.
Yes, heinous crimes are committed. Yes, lives are shattered. Yes, some part of us screams for retribution. But capital punishment is like war. The executioner, like the invading country, is a murderer. And there’s this religious thing, an eye for an eye, that has been twisted and perverted so that we actually accept lethal injections, that we actually accept invading sovereign countries. What the hell is wrong with this picture?
Every time a person is executed, a country is invaded, every time an eye for an eye is implemented, we are diminished as a people, a society, a country, a planet. You lose a child, a spouse, your life is violated. But an eye for eye just doesn’t set things right.
Ake, I hope you’re reading this. I hope you’re flourishing. And always, I wish you well and thank you for what you taught me.
Well, here I go yet again. The actual verses in the Bible regarding an eye for an eye have been taken completely out of context with the Whole of what Jesus said to His disciples. Anyone with access to a Bible can look at it. Jesus said, “It has been said of old, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. But verily I say unto you, NAY. Vengeance is MINE, sayeth the Lord my God who is in heaven”. The bible thumpers choose to leave out that Jesus taught AGAINST an eye for an eye, etc. They lift it toally out of its context and forget the true teaching. Shame, shame. And to kill a man who is very probably innocent is despicable. I think DNA will ultimately prove he was executed for naught. It makes me shudder.
I had been following this story on Democracy Now program a couple nights ago before going to sleep…it’s just sad what they did to this guy. And wrong on so many levels. I really liked what you said here Trish about an eye for an eye diminishing us as a people. Will they never learn. And you’re right….it’s really because he’s black sadly. Just wrong.
Great post Trish….sad story though.
Nancy A brought up a good point about the other execution the same day.
I think it is so weird that two people were executed in one day – one for dragging a black man to his death, and a black man considered by many as being an innocent man. It certainly puts the spotlight on the death penalty.
I thought so, too, Nancy. Maybe that’s the weird synchro here.
A great post, Trish!
The death penalty is not something I feel is appropriate in civilized nations. The death penalty in a case with recanted testimony and serious doubt should never happen.
There have been people who have said to me: “Have you ever lived through a horrible crime? If you have, you’d change your mind.”
Well.. I have lived through physical torture… My MRI shows a badly beaten and scarred body. And there was time my daughter and I were held hostage, in our home, by an armed man (who was a co-worker of mine) for over 4 hours, while he described how he was going to kill us. (A unplanned visit by a friend saved us.)
Even surviving those incidents, I don’t believe the death penalty is appropriate. It lowers us as a culture.
Civilized nations: isn’t that the key?
Terrific post, Trish.
Thanks, Nancy!
I am disgusted with the Supreme Court being so political that to prop up conservative beliefs that prosecutors never make a mistake they make decisions that are so Draconian that the only possible reason can be to make sure people who don’t think will continue to vote for candidates to the right of Rush Limbaugh. All through the events leading up to last night’s execution that thought was running through my mind.
We don’t have a justice system. We have a judiciary that serves a political agenda. Like you said, this was Georgia. I hope that in tonight’s debate the question will come up again and this time asked first to Newt Gingrich.
When Perry was asked it was asked in a way that I took to mean what if the convicted felon might be innocent. The answer ignored the possibility of innocence. Texas doe not make mistakes. Even George Bush commuted some sentences.
When Sodium thiopental was banned in the US Georgia continued to buy it from a company in Denmark through a black marketer in the US who sold it from the back of a pickup truck according to one report I heard. The drug had been banned for lethal injections even before the total ban. The DEA had to confiscate Georgia prison system’s supply. How can it be justice to use illegal drugs to execute.
Besides the executions the United States puts more people in prison than any other country. At least in Virginia Beach it is being made difficult to keep people in jail because there isn’t a budget to increase the size of the jails in the city. I know someone who probably would be in jail now for not only being convicted of a felony, but not paying his fine and not doing his community service.
We have a system entrenched in injustice and not justice. I can’t believe another news story I just heard. A man convicted of PLANNING to commit a terrorist act wasn’t given a long enough sentence to suit the government so he is getting a new sentencing hearing.
I think in my old age I am becoming a real cynic. In the sixties I was because everyone else was in my age group, but now it bothers me every time I hear of the cruel hand of the Department of Injustice and the War Department renamed Defense Department to make people think all the illegal wars we have been involved in were to defend the country and not to defend corporations and the thirst for oil.
Ray
I agree with everything you’ve said here, Ray. And you say it well.
Here is a link to an article by journalist Robert Scheer I found in Truthdig. https://www.truthdig.com/report/item/murder_is_good_politics_bad_justice_20110922/ The author has the same opinion I do that politics plays a big part in the death penalty and that the US is in some pretty horrible company in keeping it around.
Ray
I didn’t want the link to be active on the site. I even removed it before posting.
Ray
Thanks for the link, Ray. I like truth dig!
A moving, and sad, story. What you say is so true – “an eye for an eye” only perpetuates an endless spiral of retribution, that lasts for generations, sometimes long after reason for the original violence has been forgotten.
“And there’s this religious thing, an eye for an eye, that has been twisted and perverted so that we actually accept lethal injections, that we actually accept invading sovereign countries. What the hell is wrong with this picture?”
One thing I find wrong with the picture is that, for most Christians, Jesus of Nazareth is the representative of God who was not only also executed, but taught: “Turn the other cheek” and “do unto others as you would have them do unto you”. The original teacher of the Christian religion clearly taught non-violence.
On a side note – so much enjoying your new book. Thank you!
Glad you’re enjoying the book, Lauren!
Troy Davis is also high in the news in the UK. I find it hard to believe that in parts of the US there is still this death sentence. Also what I don’t understand is why convicted people are on Death Row for so many years. That sounds inhumane.
When I did a bit of publishing magazines I had a couple of Penfriend titles and was always getting enquiries from those on US death row. Many were there for tens of years, or that’s what it seemed. I know we all have a death sentence hanging over us but at least we are free(ish) to do as we please in the meantime.
Your own experiences were interesting to read.
I checked with wikipedia. 14 states and Washington DC have abolished the death penalty