The Long, Murderous Arm of the Law Has Killed Troy Davis

By Kai Wright and Jamilah King, ColorLines Posted on September 21, 2011, Printed on September 23, 2011 http://www.alternet.org/story/152502/the_long%2C_murderous_arm_of_the_law_has_killed_troy_davis

Let us not mince words: The state of Georgia just murdered Troy Davis. The state coroner will list homicide as his cause of death. But he wasnt the first and, sadly, he wont be the last person slaughtered in the name of U.S. law and order. There are today dozens more people scheduled to be killed by states, according to Amnesty International. Their likely deaths represent the ultimate act of perversity in a system that destroys untold thousands of primarily black and brown lives every day. The execution came following a harrowing and wrenching night for Daviss family and supporters all over the world. Hundreds had gathered for a vigil outside of the Jackson, Ga., prison where Davis was put to death. Literally minutes before Daviss scheduled 7 p.m. execution, the U.S. Supreme Court delayed the killing in order to review a final appeal. A little over three hours later, news broke that the court had refused to block the execution. He was slain at 11:08 p.m. eastern. As the world waited those agonizing hours, the crowd chanted, sang songs and prayed. Perhaps the most moving speaker of all was Daviss 17-year-old nephew DeJaun Davis-Correia. Jen Marlowe has reported for Colorlines.com on how DeJaun grew up visiting his uncle in prison, and was inspired by his plight to get involved in the fight against inequity in the criminal justice system. In an interview with Democracy Nows Amy Goodman outside of the prison, DeJaun said pointedly, I am Troy Davis, we are Troy Davis, and you could be Troy Davis, too, Ms. Amy Goodman. Amnesty International director Larry Cox offered that, importantly, the massive movement that developed around this case offers an opportunity to question this countrys values. And it offers a chance to engage the many people who are repulsed that the state would murder in our names and yet remain silent about it. We have to take people who were against the death people and never did anything about it, Cox told Goodman, and mobilize them. Now is the time. Daviss case offers a bracing and depressing illustration of capital punishments many problems. In their eagerness to prosecute a black man for murdering a white cop, local officials set in motion a killing machine that, once turned on, is near impossible to halt without executive intervention. Much has already been written about the details of Daviss case; no reasonable observer can deny there is significant doubt as to his guilt. But our criminal justice system is anything but reasonable. Those who dont come into contact with it can sit in self-satisfied assurance that our cops and courts measure out blind justice that keeps society well ordered. The evidence simply does not support that fantasy, as Daviss life and death so dreadfully illustrate. In fact, if we are to judge our criminal justice system by its outcomes, it is built to round up masses of black men, transfer public funds to private companies to warehouse them, and then kill them in cold blood.

Colorlines.com will write much more about this case and about criminal justice reform broadly in the coming days and weeks. For tonight, we mourn not only Daviss life, but all of those lives that have been destroyed and taken in the name of a criminally unjust system of law and order. Can this nation do no better? Georgia Rep. John Lewis perhaps put it best. Do not weep for Troy Anthony Davis, he will be with God, Lewis tweeted as his state committed murder. weep for Georgia and for our Nation. Capital punishment is barbaric.

Kai Wright is editorial director of Colorlines.com and an Alfred Knobler Fellow of The Nation Institute.
2011 ColorLines All rights reserved. View this story online at: http://www.alternet.org/story/152502/