The Death Penalty and Troy Davis

On August 19, 1989, off-duty Police Officer Mark McPhail was working a part-time security job.  He saw a homeless man, Larry Young, being pistol whipped by Troy Davis.  McPhail went to the man’s aid, and Davis shot McPhail to death, once in the chest, and a second time in the face.  The shells that killed McPhail were linked by ballistics to a gun Troy Davis used in a previous shooting.  Now, 23 years later people have come forward to say Davis didn’t fire the shot, or they aren’t sure he fired the shot, or maybe he did but shouldn’t die anyway.  It is worth a little examination.

First, Davis was convicted by a jury of seven blacks and five whites in less than two hours.  These are the people who heard the original and timely evidence.  They are the first responders to the state’s attempt at justice for both McPhail and Davis.  The trial was automatically appealed because of the death penalty.  No matter which court has heard these proceedings, they have all said the same thing: the trial was fair and the verdict incontrovertible.  Since that time, seven witnesses, including the homeless man who McPhail went to assist, have said they doubt the veracity of their first identification.  Some claim police coercion.  But none of these people had these doubts at the time. 

            Let’s pretend that the murderer of this police officer had never been found.  Let’s also pretend that the people who are currently saying Davis didn’t do the deed suddenly came forward a decade after the murder of McPhail and said, “We now know that our memory is correct and it was Troy Davis who did it.”  Would the world be rising in unison to convict this man?  No, his defenders would be saying that this is, “made” memory, constructed from years of misinformation.  No defense attorney would accept such, “latter day” testimony as valid for a conviction, so why use it for acquittal?

            Second, there is the issue of racism.  It exists.  But the fact is that since 1976, 66% of all people executed in this country have been white, not black.  How many of the white executions have been protested by Al Sharpton and the NAACP?  How many executions of black inmates who killed black men, women and children have been made causes in the press and world media?   The strongest scent of racism in this case comes from the left leaning social activists who have since decided that a white, Southern police officer is not quite so worthy of justice when the perpetrator is a black man. 

            Finally, there are some people who are simply opposed to the death penalty no matter how wicked the deed, how helpless the victim, or how vile the perpetrator.  These people have strong moral and/or religious prohibitions against the taking of a human life.  Hopefully, these are the same people who are opposed to war under any circumstances and abortion under any circumstances.  These usually aren’t, but, to those who have a personal ethos against this and all other executions, I respect your opinion and admire your conviction. 

            I would be unalterably against the death penalty if I knew that convicted murderers would spend their lives in single cells, fed, bathed and given reading material, but otherwise without hope of human contact or a breath of freedom.  No human contact, no television, no radio, just them and the memories of what they did.  But that won’t happen, sooner or latter someone who loves anarchy would try to get them released. 

            God bless Mark McPhail, the forgotten victim who kept the faith.