{"id":1480,"date":"2011-09-23T14:59:12","date_gmt":"2011-09-23T18:59:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2011\/09\/the-other-execution-wednesday-night.html"},"modified":"2011-09-23T14:59:12","modified_gmt":"2011-09-23T18:59:12","slug":"the-other-execution-wednesday-night","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2011\/09\/the-other-execution-wednesday-night.html","title":{"rendered":"The other execution Wednesday night"},"content":{"rendered":"Everybody knows\n\nthe state of Georgia executed Troy Davis Wednesday, 21 September 2011.<\/a>\nFewer people know the state of Texas executed Lawrence Russell Brewer\nthat same night.\nThe cases are the same in one very basic way, and different in others.\n

\nOne blog overstates the case.\nDavid Henson wrote for religion margins,\n\nthe state killed two men; we only cared for one<\/a>\n

\nTwo men were executed last night by the state.\n

\nAnd no one said a word about one of them.\n

\nBecause it wasn\u2019t about Troy Davis. Because witnesses didn\u2019t\nrecant. Because the evidence was clear. Because hundreds of thousands\nworldwide didn\u2019t sign a petition for him.\n

\nBecause it was about a white supremacist.\n<\/blockquote>\n

\nAnother blog is more accurate.\nSam Worley wrote for Bleader 22 Sep 2011,\nThe second execution<\/a>,\n\n\n

\n
\n\n<\/a>\n
\nI’m flattered for the attribution,\n
\nbut Gretchen Quarterman took this picture.\n<\/small>\n<\/td><\/tr><\/table>\nA coincidence: Troy Davis, the black man whose execution by the state of\nGeorgia drew widespread condemnation on the basis of the tenuous evidence\nbehind it, was executed on the same night as Lawrence Brewer, whose own\ncapital case provoked little sympathy. He was one of the men convicted\nof dragging James Byrd to death behind a pickup truck in 1998. Many\nof Davis’s sympathizers were death-penalty abolitionists\u2014indeed,\nhis execution was pointed to as evidence, as if any more were needed,\nof the vile and capricious nature of the capital system. Situations\nlike Davis’s are easier to make a case against the death penalty with;\nBrewer’s, less so.\n<\/blockquote>\nThen Worley points out that the\n\nNational Coalition Against the Death Penalty<\/a>,\neven while entering a last-minute plea on behalf of Troy Davis,\nalso wrote in the same statement about Lawrence Brewer:\n
\nPlease join NCADP in opposing the executions of both men.\nWe stand against all executions without reservation.\n<\/blockquote>\n

\nSo, it wasn’t nobody who objected to the execution of Lawrence Brewer.\nPurely on economic grounds, executing anybody makes no sense,\nsince it costs more to execute somebody than to keep them in life without parole.\nAnd execution stifles any further information that could come from them.\nIn the cases of Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden, that may have been\ngood for certain western warmongers in the U.S., but possibly not so good\nfor the people in general.\nEven a common criminal may have in a long life in prison important information\nto reveal at a later date.\nThat plus if it’s wrong to kill except in self-defense, it’s no more right\nwhen the state does it.\n

\nEverything I’ve seen about Lawrence Brewer says nobody doubts that he did\nwhat he was convicted of doing.\nLet’s assume that for the moment, although even that doesn’t justify\nthe state killing in cold blood.\n

\nHowever, there is very much doubt about the guilt of Troy Davis.\nWhich is why I find this, written by a friend, troubling:\n

\n\n<\/a>\nTroy Davis was a victim of a flawed legal system.\nI do not know whether he was innocent.\nTo sympathize for him and his case is natural, but to proclaim that\nyou “are” Troy Davis or that you can be a victim in the same manner is\nabsurd. The chances of you being wrongly placed on death row greatly\ndiminished if you are a law-abiding citizen and constantly doing the\nright thing.\n<\/blockquote>\nFirst of all, when did not knowing somebody was innocent become enough\nto punish them in any way?\nWhatever happened to innocent until proven guilty?\nThe state of Georgia maintaned that it had so proven Troy Davis,\nbut most of the witnesses recanted and numerous legal experts\nwho examined the case said there was a great deal of doubt.\n

\nSecondly, most people in the U.S. (and many other countries)\nthought that being a law-abiding citizen and doing what society\nconsidered the right thing was a path to security and affluence.\nMany of them have since lost their jobs, their houses, and in many\ncases their liberty.\n\n<\/a>\nIt is far easier to fall into debt\n\nand end up in debtor’s prison<\/a> in the U.S. than most people think.\nSome of the people who end up there will also be charged with murder,\nand some of them will be so charged and perhaps convicted because\nthey happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time.\n

\nWe are indeed all Troy Davis.\nAnd in the sense that no one deserves to be put to death in cold blood,\nwe are all Lawrence Russell Brewer.\n

\n-jsq\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Everybody knows the state of Georgia executed Troy Davis Wednesday, 21 September 2011. Fewer people know the state of Texas executed Lawrence Russell Brewer that same night. The cases are the same in one very basic way, and different in others. One blog overstates the case. David Henson wrote for religion margins, the state killed […]","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[97,48,40,14,8,20],"tags":[3761,3758,8701,3759,3760,3757,237,1915],"class_list":["post-1480","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-activism","category-code-enforcement","category-community","category-economy","category-georgia","category-law","tag-capital-punishment","tag-execution","tag-georgia","tag-guilt","tag-innocence","tag-lawrence-brewer","tag-texas","tag-troy-davis"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p585fK-nS","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1480","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1480"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1480\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1480"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1480"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1480"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}