Being on death row for a crime you simply did not commit must be one of the most terrifying experiences a human being can possibly endure. It must be especially harrowing if, despite an astounding lack of evidence, such as 7 out of 9 witnesses recanting their testimony that implicated you in a murder, judge and jury refuse to reconsider their verdict. It must be infuriating and hopeless to be trapped in four bleak walls for twenty years, awaiting your turn on the big chair, while the family of the deceased ostentatiously and ravenously clamor for your demise. It can only be a sign of a pervasive evil that has corroded the governance of mankind when, despite the fact you didn't even own a gun at the time of the crime, you will be put to death, because you are an insignificant black man accused of killing an important white police officer.
We can talk about how fucked up capital punishment is. That should ring true (should) to anyone who claims to have a civilized mind, and this travesty is the prime example. As Troy Davis' attorney said following the execution, it was essentially a 'legalized lynching'. That kind of racist symptom can be found throughout the justice system. Blacks are always more likely to pay the ultimate penalty, even if a white person did an equally heinous offense. Casey Anthony anyone? And while I am not sure whether or not she murdered her baby, there was certainly a lot more evidence condemning her than there was Troy Davis. Its elementary to ask at this point, but: how many innocent people have been executed?
As an aside, I also find the clash of barbarism and bureaucracy seen in capital punishment amusing and typically American. There are two states (Washington and New Hampshire) that still retain the option of hanging. Hanging! Even more incredulous, it was used as recently as 1991. Not only is execution literally a stage show for those invested in it, but in two states there's still the chance to deliver justice with all the quaint and dramatic flare of an old western shit hole. So barbaric! And yet, as George Carlin pointed out, prior to lethal injection they actually swab your arm with alcohol. A necessary procedure, to be sure. To quote Carlin: they "don't want you go to hell AND be sick."
But I want to focus on something a bit deeper here than the void of evidence that was nevertheless used to kill this man. Nor do I want to pay much attention to the manifest statistics that show all that's wrong with capital punishment. That's all important, yes. But in some ways those are merely surface issues, symptoms typical of the American psyche. You see, there is a tradition at work here. A death ritual.
The United States, the only first-world nation in the western hemisphere still using the death penalty, has some sort of collective fetish with execution. The cause is very deep. Yes, there is a religious component; execution satisfies that need in our psyche for Judea-Christian revenge, but it's more than that. It's also a sort of ritual, a sacrifice to promote the American mythology of our freedom triumphing over evil-doers. We are Americans, and while folks like our Christians from sea to shining sea claim to promote the word of Christ, we never want to apply it to the dark-skinned people we continually decree as threats, to keep our death ritual alive.
When we decide someone or some race is outside our sandbox of liberty, we gladly regress to medieval instincts and take up the sword. We go on crusades. We bomb the shit out of countries, leaders and civilians alike, our judgment for doing so disputable. We drag the carcasses of a dictator's sons out onto live television, like hanging heads on our castle gates. We dance in the streets of New York and Washington, yelling "USA! USA!" when a man who is effectively a crude effigy for an unknowable enemy is supposedly killed. We long for that grammatically-dubious phrase: justice has been done.
No, America can't get enough of vengeance. Even if it's the wrong guy. Or the wrong country. We love to project our need for fairy-tale violence onto other people. Dark-skinned people. The McPhail family has no fucking clue whether or not Troy Davis killed that cop. It doesn't really matter. They just wanted the satisfaction of vengeance. Troy Davis was merely the black sacrificial calf chosen for slaughter. Chosen to fulfill the death ritual.
I think most people in the situation Troy Davis was in would give up. They would want to die. To be strung along for twenty years- not to mention an extra four hours on judgment day- is simply gratuitous. It's torture.
But there's inspiration to be found in this travesty, and that is how Troy Davis kept his chin up until the end. Minutes before some psychopathic southern cop pulled the lever, he calmly told the McPhail family that he was innocent, and he implored them to look deeper into the case. He thanked his family as well as his supporters- for there are a shocking amount of them worldwide, last night camped outside both his prison and in front of US embassies across the globe, all to protest this savage custom that the land of the free and the home of the brave for whatever reason upholds. He thanked his supporters for sticking with him and asked them to not give up the fight. Then he told the officers running his killing: "May God have mercy on your souls. May God bless your souls."
Then he died. My God my God, here was a man who met death with pride.
Anyone who even remotely attempts to be intimate with their own minds knows life is about suffering. It's about looking out the window and in the mirror, to see all the ugly things we as humans are capable of. In a lot of ways life is primarily about how we deal with suffering, and how we can transcend it. Now and hereafter. As a good friend of mine put it, life is largely about how we meet death, whether we can get to that final hour and proudly embrace the end.
That's what Troy Davis did.
Now there's a death ritual I can get behind.
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