“Government…can’t be trusted to control its own bureaucrats or collect taxes equitably or fill a pothole, much less decide which of its citizens to kill.”

~Sister Helen Prejean

Since 1973, exactly 130 people have been released from death row upon evidence of their innocence. To me, this is a troubling number, since I find it highly disturbing that an innocent person could be on death row at all. But being a human enterprise, the justice system is bound to make mistakes, and the sentencing of criminals to death is not an exception. That is precisely the problem.

Troy Anthony Davis has been in prison for 18 years following his conviction of the 1989 murder of a police officer. His execution has been scheduled and rescheduled three separate times, and once the order of a stay of execution came mere hours before the lethal injection was to be carried out. His case has attracted the attention of human rights organizations worldwide, and it was through Amnesty International that it was brought to my attention.

Since Mr. Davis’ trial, 7 of the 9 witnesses have recanted their testimonies. One of the remaining witnesses has been implicated as the real killer. There is no physical evidence linking Davis to the murder, and the murder weapon has never been found. I am not a lawyer, but I find it hard to believe that the likelihood of his guilt is beyond a reasonable doubt. While he has once again been granted a stay of execution, no court has yet heard an evidentiary hearing to examine the witnesses.

I cannot imagine the suffering Mr. Davis has endured throughout this agonizing process. It could be argued that the process of repeatedly scheduling executions and granting last-minute stays is itself cruel and unusual punishment. Of course, the unconstitutionality of cruel and unusual punishment is often cited as an argument against capital punishment at all. Others contend that executions are no better than the murders for which the prisoner is being executed.

The death penalty is certainly a very intriguing issue, philosophically. Whether the state ever has the right to kill one of its citizens is a fascinating if morose ethical question. Whether “an eye for an eye” is morally viable is a similarly intriguing topic for philosophers armchair and professional. But in my opinion these and any other theoretical musings hold little value in the actual debate over capital punishment in the United States and elsewhere.

Capital punishment should be abolished because it is not fair. The snarky observer may point out that nothing in life is, but that too is beside the point. Life itself will never be fair, but that doesn’t give us license to continue practices which we know could put an innocent person to death.

The handing out of death penalties in the United States is discriminatory in two of America’s favorite ways: race and class. Many people know of the rampant racism at work in the justice system. African-Americans in particular are imprisoned in hugely disproportionate numbers, with Hispanics in not much better shape. What may come as a surprise then is that more white people have been executed than black. Sadly, this is not a case of improved attitudes towards race in this country. For while the race of the perpetrator doesn’t seem to be a huge factor in capital cases, the race of the victim makes all the difference in the world. 78% of victims in capital cases are white, while only about 50% of total murder victims are white. So you see, it’s not that we see black criminals as being worth less, we just see white victims as being worth more.

Furthermore, the poorer defendant is at a huge disadvantage. This is true of all criminal proceedings, but when the stakes are as high as a capital case it becomes especially disturbing. Those who are in the lowest 1/3 in terms of spending on attorneys are more than twice as likely to be sentenced to death as those who spend more.

With odds like these, it is sadly unlikely that Troy Davis is a remarkable exception to an otherwise spotless system. Given that 130 people have been exonerated, one has to wonder how many innocent people have been put to death. Just one is enough to require that the practice be abolished, and I have little doubt that there has been more than one. Even with improvements in forensic science and the ubiquity of DNA testing, there will be more. It is a human enterprise, after all, and can never be infallible.

Of course, while Troy Davis may be innocent, there is also a chance he is not. But whether you believe he is guilty or innocent, whether you are opposed to the death penalty or not, I hope you can agree that not granting him a hearing with such an upheaval in the witness testimony would be a crime in itself. He has a right to a fair trial, one free from police belligerence and harsh interrogation. One would hope that he would have had this the first time around, but since he did not, it is unthinkable that he may have to pay the price without the chance at all. Especially when the price is his one life.

It is easy to feel powerless in these situations, but I hope you remember that you have one very powerful tool at your disposal: your voice. It may just be one voice, but as Thomas Jefferson said, one person with courage is a majority. I added my voice in the pursuit of justice on Amnesty International’s website about Troy Davis. If you are enraged by this situation as I am, I hope you will visit too, and add yours.