It Is Done. Troy Davis Has Been Executed.

THE FINAL WORDS OF TROY DAVIS

"I'd like to address the MacPhail family. Let you know, despite the situation you are in, I'm not the one who personally killed your son, your father, your brother. I am innocent.

The incident that happened that night is not my fault. I did not have a gun. All I can ask ... is that you look deeper into this case so that you really can finally see the truth.

I ask my family and friends to continue to fight this fight.

For those about to take my life, God have mercy on your souls. And may God bless your souls."
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"Capital punishment is the most premeditated of murders."
-Albert Camus, French philosopher

Troy Davis is gone. We had hoped that he would have been allowed to live, as he obviously wanted to, or allowed to fight for justice as was his right, but Troy Davis was not a mass murdering master of war, he was not a voracious captain of industry and his supporters in high places could not quench the state's blood lust disguised as justice.

"[I am] haunted by the demon of error -
error in determining guilt
and error in determining who among the guilty deserves to die."
-George Ryan, former Illinois Governor

The article below mentions that the relatives of the man he was alleged to have murdered, were most present even after all the intervening years, to witness his execution. I hope that they were able to finally have their satisfaction. Will they sleep well tonight? Will their relative be returned to them?

"To take a life when a life has been lost is revenge, not justice."
-Desmond Tutu

Troy Davis IS this world in the hands of brutes and whether we care to admit it or not, we have all been sentenced to death.

"I think this country would be much better off if we did not have capital punishment....We cannot ignore the fact that in recent years a disturbing number of inmates on death row have been exonerated."
-John Paul Stevens, U.S. Supreme Court Justice

Troy Davis: timeline of main events in the legal saga.
The Telegraph | Thursday 22 September 2011 5:16AM

Troy Davis in a recent picture (Lt) and during his trial in 1991(Rt) Photo: AP

Troy Davis has been executed in Jackson, Georgia despite a swirl of international pleas for clemency in one of the highest-profile US execution cases in years. Georgia parole board rejects appeal for Troy Davis

Here is a timeline of the main events in a legal saga that has dragged on for more than two decades and made Davis a poster child for death penalty abolitionists:

August 19, 1989: Off-duty white police officer Mark MacPhail is working as a security guard at a Burger King in Savannah, Georgia when he intervenes in an argument between several men in the parking lot. He is shot in the heart and face without having drawn his gun and dies instantly.

August 23, 1989: Troy Davis, a 20-year-old unemployed black man, is arrested after being implicated by a witness.

April 1990: Davis pleads not guilty at a preliminary hearing.

August 1991: The trial begins with prosecutors seeking the death penalty.

August 28, 1991: The jury, composed of seven blacks and five whites, finds Davis guilty after less than two hours of deliberation.

August 30, 1991: Davis has testified during the sentencing phase of the trial, maintaining his innocence, but the jury recommends the death penalty and he is sentenced to death.

March 1992: A first request for a new trial is denied.

March 1993: Georgia's Supreme Court upholds the conviction and the sentence.

December 2001: Davis files an appeal with the US federal district court saying seven of nine original witnesses have recanted their testimony.

May 2004: A judge declines to consider the claim and rejects other claims about unfair jury selection, ineffective defense counsel and prosecutorial misconduct.

September 2006: The 11th Circuit Court upholds this decision on appeal saying Davis has failed to substantively prove his innocence or show his original trial was constitutionally unfair.

June 2007: Davis's execution is set for July 17, 2007.

July 16, 2007: After appeals rain in from notaries including Nobel Peace Prize winner Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Pope Benedict XVI, the Georgia State Board of Pardons and Paroles grants a 90-day stay of execution at the 11th hour.

August 2007: The Georgia Supreme Court grants Davis a discretionary appeal for a new trial on the basis of mistaken identity.

March 17, 2008: The Georgia Supreme Court denies the appeal by a 4-3 majority.

July 2008: Davis's second execution date is scheduled for September 23, 2008.

September 23, 2008: The US Supreme Court issues a last minute emergency stay less than two hours before he is due to be put to death.

October 14, 2008: The US Supreme Court declines to hear Davis's petition and sets a third execution date of October 27, 2008.

October 21, 2008: Lawyers for Davis request an emergency stay as rallies are held worldwide pleading for clemency.

October 24, 2008: The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals issues a stay of execution to consider a newly-filed habeas corpus petition.

December 9, 2008: A three-judge panel hears oral arguments at a hearing in Atlanta.

April 16, 2009: The panel denies Davis's application by a 2-1 majority.

May 19, 2009: Davis files a petition for habeas corpus with the US Supreme Court.

August 17, 2009: In a rare move the US Supreme Court orders a Savannah federal district court to open a new hearing.

June 2010: A panel dismisses the appeal with Judge William Moore finding only one of the witness recantations wholly credible.

January 2011: Davis files a new appeal with the US Supreme Court.

March 2011: The appeal is rejected.

September 7, 2011: Georgia sets Davis's fourth execution date for September 21, 2011.

September 20, 2011: The Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles denies Davis's last-ditch bid for clemency.

September 21, 2011: The five-member board refuses to reverse its decision and also denies a request to allow Davis to take a lie detector test to prove his innocence.

- 7:00 pm (2300 GMT): Davis scheduled time to be put to death is delayed by the Supreme Court, as the nine justices weigh a final stay of execution, which they deny three hours later.

- 11:08 pm (0308 GMT) Davis is pronounced dead after receiving a lethal injection, with MacPhail's relatives looking on.

"...I think everybody in there understood the enormity of what was going on, and acted accordingly. It was very, very quiet, very respectful and very sombre."
But did they really understand the enormity of what was going on?
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A Note From The Gull

Great Spirit, protect my country from barbarity. Give us the wisdom to recognise that the law does not guarantee justice. The most corrupt state has the most laws.

"Patria est communis omnium parens" - Our native land is the common parent of us all. Keep it beautiful, make it even more so.

Blessed is all of creation
Blessed be my beautiful people
Blessed be the day of our awakening
Blessed is my country
Blessed are her patient hills.

Mweh ka allay!
Guanaguanare

WWJD? Letter To Verna St. Rose

Dear Verna,

If you were a person whose sense of worth rested heavily upon the approval of the crowd, you would have been in the depths of despair at the hostility which was directed at you because of your stance on capital punishment. Although I am convinced that you are not such a person, I feel that I am required to extend my support to you by letting you know that there are other Trinbagonians who share your convictions.

As Christians, we need not look to the beliefs of other religions to influence whether or not we should support state-sanctioned murder. As a matter of fact, it might be a mistake to look even to other persons who profess to be Christians to decide what is right or wrong. According to the SPIRIT of Christ as professed in the New Testament, we are called to believe that all men are equally loved in the eyes of God. So Verna, when I join you in your protest, I join you on behalf of ALL "criminals" whether they be Hindu, Muslim, Jew or Christian. God alone gives life and to God alone must we leave the power to take life.

Most so-called Christians, even those who are perpetually drunk on God, are in bed with the forces that Christ would have commanded to get behind Him. They support, some by active participation and others by their silence, the barbarity of capitalism and rampant consumerism, environmental destruction, unjust wars, corruption in high and low places and the state-sanctioned murder which is the death penalty. So it should come as no surprise that there are many Christians among those who are now demanding an eye for an eye. They have become so skilled at ignoring the uncomfortable truths proclaimed by The Christ that they have no difficulty in using the Bible to find justification for their bloodlust and need for vengeance. The Christ who came to proclaim the GOOD NEWS of God's love for us and the love that we should have for each other, would never have called for capital punishment. Even the Catholic Church has washed its hands and attempts to distance itself by leaving the dirty business to the State.

Verna, do not feel alone. The Christ himself was a convicted "criminal" who was sentenced to death by crucifixion and yet, if He were here today in the flesh, I feel that He would have come forward to stand at your side, to face again the unchanging bloodthirsty mob. He would have begged for the lives of the worst criminals. He would have asked for restorative justice for both the victims AND the aggressors.

So walk away if you have to Verna. There will be NO shame in that denial. It is better to deny the corruption of the world than the voice of your conscience. "For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?" It is better to stand on principle rather than partisanship. Perhaps if more people in the previous administration had walked away instead of putting the health of the party before that of their souls and the man on the street, the PNM would not have fallen into its present state and the country along with it.

As for the lynch mob, if allowed, they would gladly run out into the streets to drag the sacrificial brutes out of their homes. They will not, however, pull the killers in high places from the comforts of their ill-gotten gains. They will go for the easy targets, the bottom feeders who lack the sophistication to murder by proxy, the brutalized commoners who act out the violence which has been shown to them by their families and the society, the uncouth, blue collar criminals who continue to exist mainly because the platinum collar thugs provide the corrupt and corrupting environment in which they feel free to operate. And when the day comes, as it surely will, that it is revealed that innocent men were also hanged, they will simply shrug it off as collateral damage.

The research has shown that capital punishment does NOT deter serious crimes like murder, for example. The reasons why some people commit murder - insanity, passion and cold-blooded strategy, are not removed by the fear of capital punishment. In addition, no research is needed to prove that vengefully taking the life of a murderer will NOT bring back the life of the murdered. Knowing all this, we can only conclude that it is a subhuman, barbaric and lazy society that turns to capital punishment as a first resort.

I do not think for one second that you are suggesting that convicted murderers should walk free. They should expect to pay in some way for their horrific crimes and maybe life imprisonment without possibility of parole might be the only alternative for persons who defy all attempts of rehabilitation and redemption. There should be no talk about the expense to the state of incarceration as the imprisoned can be made to work to support themselves AND also pay compulsory compensation to their victims' families.

Minister Jack Warner once claimed that he had not yet consulted with the Prime Minister on the matter. I wanted to suggest to him that a more important consultation should have been arranged with his conscience. I can only assume that he must have been given the green light there, because he has continued happily to exercise his God-given free will to support murder.

Verna, in all matters, continue to walk with a strong and clear conscience. You will find that the approbation that will come your way, while not as showy and profuse as that afforded the crowd -pleasers, will be truer and longer-lived...unto the heavens in fact.

Continue in peace.

Trinis Who Think Twice...Including About Capital Punishment.

Archie, Ivor [Chief Justice]
CJ: No evidence hangings will reduce crime. By Denyse Renne | Trinidad & Tobago Express | Sep 17, 2010 at 12:47

Baldeosingh, Kevin
The law is my shepherd. By Kevin Baldeosingh | Trinidad & Tobago Express | Sep 2, 2010 at 11:34 PM ECT

Boland, Rawle
To hang or not to hang?
By Rawle Boland | Trinidad & Tobago's Newsday | Tuesday, August 24 2010

Cadiz, Stephen
Cadiz: Hanging not the way. Trinidad & Tobago Express | Aug 29, 2010

Catholic Commission for Social Justice (CCSJ)
Hanging not the cure. | Trinidad & Tobago Express | Jul 17, 2010

David, Jean
Blood-thirsty Govt. By Jean David, Trinidad & Tobago Express | Sep 3, 2010

Instead we get a violent reaction. By Jean David | Trinidad and Tobago Guardian | 5 Sep 2010

Daly, Martin
The fallacy about hanging. By Martin Daly | Trinidad & Tobago Express | Jul 18, 2010

Dolsingh, Bindra
Dolsingh: Hanging alone cannot stop crime.
By Denyse Renne | Trinidad & Tobago Express | Jul 26, 2010

Kwabena, Roi
A Job For The Hangman [Poem]

Lucie-Smith, William
Death penalty red herring again. By William Lucie-Smith, Trinidad & Tobago Express | Aug 25, 2010

Ramsaroop, M.
What would Christ say? Trinidad & Tobago's Newsday | Saturday, August 28 2010

St Rose-Greaves, Verna
DON'T HANG THEM By Kim Boodram. Trinidad & Tobago Express | Jul 19, 20http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif10

Verna: I will walk if hangings resume
By Leah Sorias | Trinidad and Tobago Guardian | 20 Jul 2010

Cries for blood being heard. By Verna St Rose Greaves, Trinidad & Tobago Express | Aug 27, 2010

Shah, Raffique
Nightmare at Woodford Square. By Raffique Shah | Trinidad & Tobago Express | Sep 4, 2010.

Shand, Everard A.
Why hang...when we didn't help? Trinidad & Tobago Express | Aug 20, 2010

Singh, V.
Hanging is gruesome and so barbaric. Trinidad & Tobago's Newsday | Wednesday, October 6 2010.
Spence, John
Violence begets violence.
By John Spence | Trinidad & Tobago Express | Jul 15, 2010

Thompson-Ahye, Hazel
Do we have moral authority to hang?
By Hazel Thompson-Ahye | Trinidad & Tobago Express | Aug 24, 2010

T&T Humanist Society
Hanging deters crime? Evidence to contrary.
Trinidad and Tobago Guardian | 13 Jul 2010

Williams, Michael J.
Is capital punishment political deception?
By Michael J. Williams | Trinidad & Tobago's Newsday | Tuesday, August 24 2010

INTERNATIONAL BODIES

International Human Rights Organisations
Don't start hanging.
By Joel Julien | Trinidad & Tobago Express | Jul 24, 2010

Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR)
Foreign groups blocking hangings.
By Denyse Renne | Trinidad & Tobago Express | Jul 25, 2010
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A Note From The Gull

Thank you, Paul Robeson, for taking me, along with the Christian faction of the lynch mob, to church.

"Patria est communis omnium parens" - Our native land is the common parent of us all. Keep it beautiful, make it even more so.

Blessed is all of creation
Blessed be my beautiful people
Blessed be the day of our awakening
Blessed is my country
Blessed are her patient hills.

Mweh ka allay!
Guanaguanare

Mockery Of Democracy [Song}

Uploaded by cool4rocknroll
MOCKERY OF DEMOCRACY
By Gypsy
Arranged by Pelham Goddard & Gypsy
Album: "Man and Time." T&T 1995

Spoken: What is democracy? What is human rights?...and to whom is it directed?

Suspend the Constitution, lawlessness out of hand
And under this Constitution there could be no prosecution
It looks like this Constitution is not for the law-abiding man
Only criminals and crooks, to get them off of the hook
Good people must have have no fun, they have to be on the run
Ducking from bandits, bullets and guns.

While they making a mockery of democracy
Violating the law with impunity
And some legal entity defends them with alacrity
While they making a mockery of democracy.

Amnesty International should be disbanded immediately
Or charge them all as accomplice for every crime in every country
'Cause it look their only mission is to see the guilty go free
While the victim rights go to waste, nobody to plead their case
How long would we stand and see democracy going crazy
Oh how unjust justice is made to be.

They just making a mockery of democracy
Violating the law with impunity
And some legal entity defends them with alacrity
While they making a mockery of democracy.

"Don't execute the criminals if they've been on Death Row too long
It's cruel, unusual punishment, so society shouldn't commit this wrong
You violating their human rights", you sure to hear some lawyer say
But the victim rights are lost while they say justice take its course
Look like them criminal is boss, the guilty rights they ensure
Protected under due course of the law.

You ent see they making a mockery of democracy
Violating the law with impunity
And them legal entity defends them with alacrity
While they making a mockery of democracy.

If human rights is a real right, it should be extended to everyone
Not only used to protect those who are in flagrant violation
The hypocrisy of the system makes the whole thing a big charade
We should let justice take it's place and stop flying in justice face
Can't you see that it's a straight case, the whole thing is in bad taste
Without justice human rights is waste...Oh my

They making a mockery of democracy
Violating the law with impunity
And the legal fraternity we should let them know urgently
To stop making a mockery of democracy.

Source:
N.B. The lyrics posted on this blog are often transcribed directly from performances. Although it is my intention to faithfully transcribe I do not get all the words and I have a knack for hearing the wrong thing. Please feel free to correct me or to fill in the words that I miss by dropping me a message via e-mail. I'd be forever grateful. Thanks in advance!
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A Note From The Gull

Thank you, Gypsy. Not too sure about the comment about Amnesty International. I always thought that their mission to protect human rights was a worthy one. But then, like AI, I do not support capital punishment so that must influence my perspective.

"Patria est communis omnium parens" - Our native land is the common parent of us all. Keep it beautiful, make it even more so.

Blessed is all of creation
Blessed be my beautiful people
Blessed be the day of our awakening
Blessed is my country
Blessed are her patient hills.

Mweh ka allay!
Guanaguanare

Hang Dem High!

As the judge read the sentence, a visibly trembling Saddam Hussein defiantly shouted over the unrelenting voice of "Justice". He repeated, among other things, “God is great!” There was something about the spirit behind his dry-eyed tirade that I silently applauded. Apart from that quiet satisfaction, it was no time for jubilation for me. Man has no right to murder and I found no difference between what that judge was handing down in that court and what Saddam Hussein had been accused of doing.

In response to Mr. Hussein’s holding up the Qur’an and acclaiming the greatness of his God, the commentator noted with ill-disguised sarcasm that Saddam Hussein had only found religion AFTER his capture. I wondered at that moment if that commentator had realized the implications of his statement. What a refreshing change, I thought. Saddam Hussein had not been simultaneously` murderous AND religious. We can think of some of these religious, monumental hypocrites who continue to sanction even worse crimes against humanity and are still running around free.

I read somewhere that 90% of the population here in Trinidad and Tobago supports the death penalty, so I assume that our learning of this sentence must not have triggered as much as a spike in our collective mental or cardiac activity. We are more suspicious of the consequences of compassion than we are about the probability that we are very wrong to justify executions. We are satisfied to hang the by-products of our failure rather than the system that perpetuates the cycle of violence. See Mr. Kwabena’s plea for real justice in his A Job For The Hangman

I visited recently the website of the Canadian Coalition Against The Death Penalty to read once again one of the letters written by death row prisoner Stephen Eversley before his death in June 1999. I tried to read between the lines to find the demon who was beyond redemption. All I felt was intense sadness and loneliness – his, because he was alone and a desperate, condemned man and mine because I had separated myself from his ordeal and from those of all the other persons awaiting the same fate or about to commit crimes which will bring them to that place.

...."The rain is falling right now and its cold. I closing off now, and I going to brush my teeth, say my prayers, and try to get some sleep. Haven't slept for the day. Thanks again. Please write soon will you. Sincerely,
STEPHEN"

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"Patria est communis omnium parens" - Our native land is the common parent of us all. Keep it beautiful, make it even more so.

Blessed is all of creation
Blessed be my beautiful people
Blessed be the day of our awakening
Blessed is my country
Blessed are her patient hills.

Mweh ka allay!
Guanaguanare

A Job For The Hangman

By Roi Guanapo Ankhkara Kwabena

...now take your responsibility seriously....
hang with expediency
hang this legislation for its impropriety
hang the legacy of slavery and indentureship
hang high the ruling parasitic oligarchy
hang the injustice of being in prison
awaiting execution two decades...
hang the plan to empower the sterile
legal vultures of these plantation economies....
hang the banana,
hang the cocoa,
hang the bauxite,
hang sugar cane,
hang tourism,
hang money laundering,
hang offshore banking,
now take your responsibility seriously...
hang with expediency
hang the archaic state of prisons,
be it trinidad, barbados, jamaica or grenada
hang quickly the temptation to ignore
amnesty international...
now take your responsibility seriously
hang the truth up high that the issue
is not only the death penalty but human rights...
hang police brutality
accept the reality that the causes of crime
must be addressed
for the homeless, poverty-stricken, naked and hungry
must not be overlooked...
hang unemployment
now take your responsibilty seriously...
hang with expediency
hang the inability to protect the fishing industry
from pirates or even banditry
execute immediately the notion of nationals
(whether trini or guyanese)
have the right to pollute the orinoco delta
with their drug an’ gun runnin’ activity...
now take your responsibility seriously
hang with expediency
hang this legislation for its impropriety
hang the legacy of slavery and indentureship
hang until dead this system of neo-colonialism .
....now take your responsibility seriously....
then we can begin to discuss
NATIONAL UNITY....

© Copyright 1997 – Roi Kwabena
Reprinted with kind permission of the author.