The powers that be in Georgia seem hell-bent on executing Troy Davis, even though his guilt remains very much in doubt:
Two defense lawyers say Georgia’s pardons board has rejected clemency for Troy Davis, who has attracted high-profile support for his claim that he was wrongly convicted of killing a police officer in 1989.
The Board of Pardons and Paroles on Tuesday rejected Davis’ request for clemency after hearing hours of testimony from his supporters and prosecutors. That’s according to two of Davis’ lawyers, Stephen Marsh and Brian Kammer. There was no immediate word from the board.
More information on Davis’ case, as well as action you can take today, can be found here, here, here, and here.
Reading this. I honestly can think of very few more despairing news.
I was barely a teen (I must have been twelve? Maybe thirteen?) when my father, bless him, said that I should consider reading “adult fiction” and proceeded to introduce me to the works of Franz Kafka. Naturally, he thought The Trial would be appropriate reading for my tender self. And then, I was also allowed to watch Orson Wells’ movie based on Kafka’s work. These were the times of Argentina’s dictatorship. I had seen my father burn his entire Marxist library because just being caught with a copy of The Capital at home (regardless of your ideology or the reasons why you might have had such a book) was sufficient ground to have you kidnapped, tortured and eventually murdered, without trial.
And it was because of Kafka’s book that I couldn’t sleep for days. The thought of a person accused of a crime that he hadn’t committed (that he didn’t even know about!) triggered a kind of anxiety I had never known up until that point in my life. Every time I read news like the ones above regarding Troy Davis (or any other person sentenced to death), I invariably remember that anxiety. And quite honestly, I have troubles reconciling the fact that the State, any State, would be capable of such cruelty.
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