Last night the American citizen Troy Davis was killed by his own government. No matter what your position is on his guilt or innocence, you must see the madness in that. A man was killed by his own government.
That is what the death penalty boils down to. State sanctioned murder of its own citizens. I could easily sit here and talk about the different discrepancies in the case against Troy Davis (and it does seem strange to sanction the death penalty in such a dubious case) but I won’t. That shouldn’t be how the argument is won against this most barbaric act. Mick Fealty makes the point on Slugger that to successfully argue against the death penalty you must be able to defend real murderers. It is a fair point. But again it shouldn’t even be about making that distinction.
Murder in all its forms is wrong. We hold this truth to be self-evident. After all, we are each created equal in the eyes of God and Thomas Jefferson. What gives one man the right to take the life of another? It must be the very basic principle of any society that we do not ever condone the must ultimate of acts. It is enshrined in law and scripture all across the world and time itself. We condemn countries such as Saudi Arabia and Iran who execute women for everyday acts. We condemn countries such as Syria who take the lives of their own people for attempting to assemble freely and speak openly about their government. Yet we still revel, in the UK and Ireland, in this special and historic relationship that we have with the United States of America. A country that sees fit to murder its own citizens. Guilty or not guilty. Surely we have come further than this as a civilization.
If the most basic principle of any society is that we do not ever condone the act of murder, surely the most basic principle of government mandated by the people is that it does not ever kill its own people. It has at that point stepped across a line from which there is no return. Last night judges and the head of the US government had the opportunity to stop this, they had the opportunity to end the tortuous decade long wait of Troy Davis in a positive way. They did end it. They finished with his life and the US President said nothing because he knew the political consequences would cost him more than the loss of that one life.
Hundreds of thousands signed a petition to halt the execution. Figures ranging from the Pope to P-Diddy spoke out on Troy’s behalf. But the leader of the free world, the man with whom we were once so enamoured, said nothing. Scratch the surface a little though and you’ll find that the true leader of the free world, the United States of America itself, said nothing either. Americans weren’t up in arms overwhelmingly opposing this heinous act; in fact, they didn’t really seem to care at all. Has America become that numb to violence and injustice that it just let another pass it by?
The USA is a truly violent place. Gun crime is high, crime is high. The UK, and by and large most of Europe, is not inherently violent. The death penalty wouldn’t swing it here. So what is it about America that we so admire anymore? At one point it was Barack Obama – but that turned out to be a damp squib.
America to me is sometimes little more than a further developed, English speaking version of Saudi Arabia, Syria or Iran. The same injustice and horror exists there – they just dress it up better.
Last night the US government killed one of its own. We hold this truth to be self-evident.
Nolan’s pursuit of the property developer was weak. Roger Cooke would have at least achieve an upended cameraman and some utilisation of the bleep machine.
The 100% of people who voted by text message should have their opinion negated. They should keep their pay as you go credit for keeping Chico in for another week of Gary Barlow chosen ballads.
Nolan joins the ranks of Jeremy Kyle in the ‘ Who can raise the pulse of stupid people ‘ army.