Thursday, September 22, 2011

One more last word...

Don't you hate it when all is said and done, someone says something or does something anyway?

The Troy Davis case is like that. And it's my turn. Again.

There were three main claims raised in the case of the man who killed Savannah police officer Mark MacPhail: 1) the evidence was flawed, 2) the death penalty is morally wrong, and 3) the sentence was racially motivated.

Let's dispense with the last item: race played a factor.

Actually, I covered this one yesterday. The jury that both convicted Davis and sentenced him to death included 7 blacks. From Savannah. That's a 58% black jury from a 57% black city. Georgia requires a unanimous jury recommendation for a death sentence. Which means all 12 jurors, including all 7 blacks on the jury, said both Davis did it, and deserved to die for it.

Now, lets look at the first item: the evidence was flawed.

Again, the jury saw different. And so did the appeals judges. All the various appeals judges over 20 years of appeals. And the state Board of Pardons and Paroles. Several different makeups of that board over 20 years. And the Supreme Court of the United States. Including liberals Kagan, Sotomayor, Breyer, and Ginsburg. This case didn't drag on because there were problems with the evidence, this case dragged on because lawyers kept claiming there were problems and judges gave time to schedule hearings and review those claims. The claims were wrong.

And, finally, the second point: the death penalty is immoral.

That's a value judgement. The other two items can be settled with facts and an honest assessment of those facts. This can't. But let's put some logic to it, shall we?

If you were opposed to the execution of Troy Davis because you're opposed to the death penalty, then you must have been opposed to the execution of Lawrence Brewer, which occurred last night, too.

Remember Lawrence Brewer? The guy that chained James Byrd behind a truck and dragged the man to death? Yes, Texas executed him last night.

If you opposed the death penalty, you opposed Brewer's execution, right? Then why were you silent? Why no outcry over that?

I'll tell you why: the outcry over Davis was simply because there were cameras and it was the cause of the day. Nothing more.

Don't worry. The celebrities and left-wing news lapdogs will continue to ignore the facts in the Davis case and spout the talking points. For a while. Then another fake cause will come along.

Where you won't see them? Atmore, Alabama. That's where Alabama is scheduled to execute Derrick Mason tonight for the 1994 death of Angela Cagle. Cagle was working as a convenience store clerk in Huntsville when she was murdered early one morning.

Why won't they be there? Because the Davis execution got all the attention. And there are more cameras in Jackson, Georgia than in Atmore, Alabama.

With the execution of Davis, the MacPhail family may finally get some peace. But probably not. It didn't bring Mark back to his wife and children.

Once thing's for certain: Troy Davis won't be pistol-whipping homeless people or shooting people in the face anymore.


Update: How does Troy Davis' hometown newspaper feel about the execution? Does the editorial's title, "Justice Prevails," give you a hint?

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