Now that we have the Heavenly Father’s take on the death penalty, the state-sponsored murder of Troy Davis is indisputable evidence of the devalued life of a black man and woman in America. The Georgia Board of Pardons and Parole voted to deny Davis clemency or a stay of execution despite a cesspool of weak circumstantial evidence and false testimonies brought before the court.
“Even today, we can have the best [legal] case and the best representation, but if it is not in accord with what they wish for us, we can’t get justice.” Minister Louis Farrakhan, circa 1989
Davis’ death was a colossal tragedy because of the flimsy circumstantial evidence wrapped around multiple recanted testimonies and topped off with a dose of inexplicably incompetent counsel who betrayed their oath by not properly representing Davis in any respectable way. Yes, it is horrific that a police officer responding to a man in need was taken off the earth, but the murder of another man does not reconcile the first spillage of blood. If we are going down that road then we perhaps we should heed Malcolm’s earlier admonishments:
“We teach you to respect your fellow man. But we also teach you that if any man puts his hands on you, take them off the planet.”
Well, the state of Georgia laid its high-tech hands on Davis and put him to sleep – forever.
So how do we go about preventing future Troy Davises from arising again? Because it’s going to happen again. Trust and believe this. The criminalized, privatized, commercialized, homogenized penal system in America suffers from internal rot and decadence and therefore can only produce more of its kind. This beast needs human flesh, preferably of the minority variety that is pleasing to its palate, to consume at regular intervals to sustain itself. And there is black flesh aplenty, some seasoned now and others in diapers who are being marinated through a nefarious system, from which to harvest future feasts.
Action needs to be taken on a variety of fronts:
1. Former President Clinton offered that the courts slow the appeals process in order to consider DNA evidence that would exonerate, or corroborate guilt, of a particular defendant. Remember, multiple convicted felons, almost all of them African American males, have been released since the introduction of DNA evidence into the legal arena.
“In any case where there’s any chance that any DNA evidence could change the outcome of the trial — I think that — this is just me now — I think that the appeals process has to be slowed down and organized so that any evidence of innocence can always be presented and then acted upon,” Clinton says.
How nice of Clinton. While he was in office, the man who many African Americans erroneously and ignorantly called “the first black president”, signed into law the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996, which, according to Time, “reduced new trials for convicted criminals and sped up their sentences by restricting a federal court’s ability to judge whether a state court had correctly interpreted the U.S. Constitution.” This law has been mentioned as one of the major obstacles that prevented Davis from being granted a new trial.
2. During the “Reporters Roundtable” radio show on WVON-1690 AM in Chicago, host Perri Small discussed other viable options, including the mass mobilization of our political and civic leadership. And Small is right. Remember, under the direction of Congresswomen Maxine Waters, the monstrous disparity between crack and powder cocaine sentencing was reduced from 100:1 to 18:1. Despite taking nearly two decades, Waters realized the victory with the aid of The Sentencing Project, FAMM [Families against Mandatory Minimums], President Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder and other justice reform advocates. It’s going to take this type of mass action and cross-cultural collaboration to enact changes in the penal and prison system. We need loud, ceaseless advocacy and activism in order to repeal unjust laws, race-tinged Death Penalty decisions and to finally criminalize police shootings of unarmed black men.
3. “We need to mobilize the masses to abolish capital punishment in America,” said Dr. James Braxton Peterson, an associate English professor at Lehigh University. Yes, there are some monsters in human form who should perhaps never be allowed to walk the streets again. But until such time that this nation exemplifies the ability to render justice blindly and without prejudice of one’s socioeconomic status or race, then the U.S. Supreme Court needs to render another indefinite moratorium on the death penalty, if not permanently, suggested Peterson, who is also the founder of Hip Hop Scholars, LLC. It is an association of hip hop generational scholars dedicated to researching and developing the cultural and educational potential of hip hop, urban and youth cultures.
4. We need to join the Innocence Project or similar organizations and volunteer as if our own lives depended on it, because it actually does, Professor Peterson suggested strongly. Think about how the family of Davis is suffering right now. And think about your close relative being in the same situation as Troy Davis. Everyone from college students to professionals to athletes to entertainers needs to get involved. We no longer have a choice to sit idly in the stands as this wicked games plays out in the enemies’ favor. Real change takes place via mass movement – not hollow rhetoric and not empty and futile criticisms. We need to get in the game.
— terry shropshire
