Wrongful execution proves serious flaws in capital punishment

By Ally Johnson

In one the most heavily publicized and controversial examples of capital punishment in recent memory, Troy Davis was executed via lethal injection last Wednesday night, after waiting four hours on a Supreme Court decision. Davis was forty-two years old and had been convicted of murdering a police officer in 1989. He had been in prison for 22 years and had been through three execution stays before the date was finalized. Throughout all of this he maintained that he was an innocent man, while previous witnesses supporting his guilt began to come forward, stating that he may in fact have been innocent.
There had been an outpour of support for Davis around the world, with people speaking out against the enforcement of capital punishment on a man that may have been innocent all along. The general public, celebrities, and human rights activists were vocal about their disgust and protested against the impending death. This led to a four hour delay when the U.S Supreme Court was required to look over the last minute appeal. Only four hours to decide upon a no against the appeal, and that Davis would receive the lethal injection as planned. Is it worth killing an innocent man in order to keep around a process that allows the death of guilty men and women?
The issue that most defenders of Troy Davis seemed to have was not that they whole heartedly believed that he was indeed innocent, but that there was too much reasonable doubt to send him to his death. That there was a possibility that Georgia was killing a man who was in fact innocent and very few questions were being asked by the Supreme Court. If Davis’s death has done anything, it has brought the idea of Capital Punishment back into the limelight. People have to once again reevaluate their opinions about the matter. Is capital punishment humane? How many innocent men and women are being sent to their deaths? Maybe it is time to lay this seemingly archaic routine to rest.
The U.S and Asia lead in the amount of deaths due to the death penalty by 90 percent. Ninety countries have eliminated the use of capital punishment, while the U.S still hangs on to it. The U.S has continuously ranked as fourth in the world in the amount of executions each year. Societies are moving away from this particular form of punishment, opting for the less controversial act of lifetime imprisonment. The two problems that people typically have with capital punishment is that it costs too much to kill a singular person versus having to pay for them to live out the rest of their life in prison, and that it is too inhumane of a practice. In the age we are in we should be able to uphold a greater respect for the value of a human life. Who are we to condemn a person who has murdered by killing them in return? Hypocrisy seems to play a great deal in the practice.
What are the reasons that justify the taking of another life? To appease the family of the deceased they may simply want revenge. To see the murderer of their loved one receive the same end. The mass public also believes that it costs less to execute rather than pay taxes for their stay in prison. However, it costs a significant amount more to kill just one human being and revenge should play no part in a matter of life and death.
The concept of demanding death as a punishment and payment for a crime is outdated and barbaric. Who are we to make decisions on who gets to live and who gets to die, no matter what the crime is. Society enforcing a policy that is counteracting the action they’re punishing is pointless and is leading to more innocent lives being taken by the legal system. Troy Davis isn’t the first to be killed with doubt shadowing his case, and if we continue at this rate he very well might not be the last. Maybe it’s time to set aside the ancient practice and look forward to a more civilized form of punishment, where the sole purpose isn’t to strip yet another life away. A form that still values the idea of life no matter whose it is.
Troy Davis very well may have been guilty. The problem is that he may have been innocent too. However, now he is dead and all we can do is continue to question. Question the guilt of an individual more, question whether or not we should do as ninety other countries have done and abolish capital punishment for good. Or maybe, question just how wrong it is to send a man to death when there was still reasonable doubt involved with the case.