Ego sum in carcerem

From the Muscogee County Jail notices:



[Name reference, Title reference]

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?

Justice

Mark MacPhail,
murder victim

There's an execution scheduled in Georgia tonight. Georgia's certainly no Texas when it comes to meting out final justice, in speed or in volume. Georgia will keep the undertaker from going out of business, though.

Tonight (as of this writing) one more deserving character walks the last mile at the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Center. His name is Troy Davis, and he's to die for the murder of a Savannah policeman.

I remember the case, because, in 1989, I was living near Savannah. I grew up in southeast Georgia, and Savannah is where we got most of the news. The Savannah Morning News was the daily paper. When we watched local TV, the closest was Savannah television. And, when we listened to the radio, outside of the local stations (in the same county), almost every other station was a Savannah station.

So, when Troy Davis shot and killed Mark MacPhail, I heard about it. And, when he was tried and convicted in the summer of 1991, I heard about it.

Seems simple, doesn't it. Young man, high school dropout (did get his GED, though), poor job attendance record, with a criminal record shoots and kills an off-duty policeman who was working security at a fast-food restaurant.

Here's where it gets ... interesting. Davis is black. MacPhail was white.

So, now you have the NAACP, Al Sharpton, and others protesting the upcoming execution. You have PBS talking about the case in a discussion on how race plays a role in death penalty cases. You have the Christian Science Monitor talking about "the impact of race on a jury in the Deep South."

None of these geniuses bother to consider that, of the 12 members of the jury that convicted Davis, 7 were black. That's right, a jury that's 58% black from a city that's 57% black convicted a black man. And the usual suspects are screaming race discrimination.

Why? Because MacPhail was white. Had be been black, like the other man Davis shot that night (but who survived) you wouldn't hear about any of this.

So, yes, it's racial. Only not like they're making it out to be.

Assuming all goes well, and the state carries out the execution tonight, should we be happy?

Yes.

But not to celebrate a man's death, though Davis certainly deserves to die. No, we should celebrate that, despite people using race as a battering ram, justice was done. It will have taken entirely too long, but that's because certain people like to promote their cause, even when it's without cause.

Why I'm glad I got a car with On*Star

This week, in Columbus, a couple was car-jacked. Okay, I realize this goes on it big cities all the time. Or, at least, that's the impression I get. But when it happens in Columbus, Georgia, it's news. The bad news is: an elderly couple, 82-year-old Henry White and 79-year-old Betty White, was forced out of their car at gunpoint, and their car taken. The good news: It had On*Star. Yep, a bunch of thugs ... teenage punks ... stole a car from an old couple. But technology got them.

When the two teens sped out of sight, Henry White ran to his friend's front door and started pounding. He first called 911 first then OnStar, an auto safety and security system available in GM vehicles. Within minutes, OnStar had determined the location and direction of travel of the stolen car

Heh. Bunch of ill-raised, bone-headed thugs stole a car with On*Star. And On*Star found them. And, according to the report, the police found all three of the criminals. Now, this shows that On*Star won't stop your car from being stolen. But they can help you find it. I wouldn't want my car stolen. It's not a Cadillac, like Mr. White's car, but it's still my car. But, if someone does take my car, it's nice to know that On*Star can help me find it. If only On*Star service included sending somebody down to beat the little punks with a 2x4. Then, the service would really rock.