For Death Penalty, Not for Killing an Innocent Man

Can You Kill an Innocent Man?

I have always been a proponent of the death penalty. Of course, mass murderers, child killers and other heinous criminals should feel the pinch of lethal injections.

I have always thought that drug kingpins should be put to death, also. Drug dealers kill whole families, destroy communities and collateral damage is incalculable. So yes, I have advocated for their death by hanging.

But this evening, the state of Georgia may be executing an innocent man: Troy Davis. Now I do not know if Mr. Davis killed anybody, however, if there is doubt, any doubt, shouldn’t we wait?

But what really concerns me (and this is pure selfishness) is that the state is putting him to death. Well, we are the state. You and me and your children all make up the state. We elected the officials who put together the Georgia Paroles and Pardons Board. We elected the judges who would not reopen the case. We elected the District Attorney who did not want to retry the case when witnesses recanted their testimony. So we are responsible. 

In a democratically elected society the citizenry makes up the State. So on Wednesday, WE will be putting, quite possibly, an innocent man to death.

Can you live with that? Ask your kids this question “Mary, Joey, we are going to execute a man today for murder. It is possible that he did not commit the murder. Are you guys comfortable with us doing this?” You will be surprised at the answer you get back.

There are many people to execute; the boy in Douglasville who stabbed his great grandmother to death and beat his mother with a hammer comes to mind. Hell, some Wall Street bankers.

But an innocent man? I will not sleep comfortably for a long time, if it becomes true this evening that I helped pushed the needle of a lethal drug cocktail into an innocent man.