Praying for Troy--And Ourselves

Ironically, on this International Day of Freedom, Troy Anthony Davis is living his last day. Scheduled for execution tonight, Davis is spending his final hours visiting with family and friends while protestors stand vigil outside the walls of the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification State Prison in Jackson, Georgia.

I’ve been listening to reports about Davis’s scheduled execution over the past couple of days. Most pundits refer to this case as a travesty of justice, citing repeatedly that seven of the nine witnesses in his case have recanted their testimony. If there’s any doubt to his guilt, they say, he should not die.

I agree. So do Pope Benedict XVI, former President Jimmy Carter, FBI Director William Sessions, and the European Union.

At the same time, I must acknowledge that there’s much I don’t know about this case. All I know about Davis’s appeals process is what I’ve read in the newspaper. Those reports are sketchy at best. While they inform the public that Davis’s appeals have been denied over the past several years, they have not specifically explained the reasons behind those denials. I must rely on newspaper reports, such as this one in today’s Los Angeles Times: 

Yet appeals courts have opted not to reverse the jury's decision because even with all the troubling new details, defense attorneys haven't been able to prove by clear and convincing evidence that Davis is innocent. That's a different burden of proof than is required at trial, where prosecutors need to demonstrate guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

While I don’t dispute the Times’s claims, I also have not read court documents, which might explain the denials more specifically. I wonder how many people have.

What I can infer is this:  Davis’s relentless attorneys and supporters have taken his case all the way through the state justice system, unfortunately being denied a new trial. Then they’ve been through the federal courts, eventually to the U.S. Supreme Court, which refused to give Davis a hearing. As judges have considered Davis’s case through these phases of state and federal justice systems, they must decide according to the law as it’s written. If we need to change the law, then we should do so. But we should not point fingers at the officials we have elected and appointed to abide by it.

The Los Angeles Timesfurther claims that this failure in the justice system is “why the death penalty should be abolished.” Fair enough. But just before I watched TV reports about Davis’s pending execution, I saw another report about the trial of Joshua Komisarjevsky, one of the two accused murders of the wife and children of Dr. William Petit.  Komisarjevsky and his accomplice Steven Hayes were charged, among other things, with beating Dr. Petit and sexually assaulting his wife and daughters before murdering them and burning down their house. Komisarjevsky has admitted to the crimes. His accomplice, Hayes, has already been convicted and is on death row. Still, Komisarjevsky has pled not guilty to all seventeen charges. Overwhelming evidence points to his guilt. And if a jury finds him guilty and sentences him to death, I can’t say I’ll be sorry.

Meanwhile, the Davis case serves as a tragic example of how state laws should be modified to avoid devastating consequences for those wrongly accused. Some of my friends in other states, understandably outraged, are getting online and calling Georgia’s lawmakers “a bunch of barbarians.” Those friends are entitled to say what they want, but I think this is not the time for name calling. That does Troy Davis no good. Instead, if my friends (and I) want to make a difference, we should read the court documents to understand better why our state and federal lawmakers made their decisions. Then we should take action to change the law so that no other convicted citizens find themselves in Troy Davis’s situation.

We might be able to make a difference to other victims of our flawed justice system. For today, I think the best thing we can do is pray for Troy Davis and his family.