By Judith Gayle | Political Waves
China leads the world in executions, and I’d bet that the number reported is just a spit in the bucket, given its totalitarian disposition and enormous population. Right behind China comes Iran, then Iraq and Saudi Arabia. We’re next, according to Amnesty International, although Robert Scheer’s recent essay on state-approved murder cites Yemen and North Korea as major players. That’s the human tribe that traffics in overt government-sanctioned vengeance: China, Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, the U.S., Yemen and North Korea. And woe to us that such an ominous list of murderous nations includes the United States of America, hiding behind its moral imperative and democratic trappings while seeking revenge unto death on those judged guilty.
A passage from Howard Zinn’s book, Killing People to ‘Send a Message,’ tells us: “There are nations like the United States (whose) punishments are legitimized by a complex set of judicial procedures. This is called ‘due process,’ despite the fact that each step in this process is tainted by racial prejudice, class bias or political discrimination.” Up until his final moments, all three of these social stressors were poignantly evident in the sad case of Troy Davis, but that should not surprise us. As the man himself told us on the day his life was extinguished, advocates for the end of the death penalty must keep up the good fight because there are a LOT of Troy Davises out there, all facing a merciless system unconcerned with their civil liberties.
You know this story by heart, I suppose. The news, the websites, the television blared with the high drama of putting Davis to death, Georgia on the record and the judicial system itself in the spotlight. Scheer tells us:
This case was so freighted with contradictions that a stay of execution was clearly in order. As Amnesty International spokesperson Laura Moye stated: “Today Georgia didn’t just kill Troy Davis, they killed the faith and confidence that many Georgians, Americans, and Troy Davis supporters worldwide used to have in our criminal justice system.”
Ultimately, that was the boon that Pollyanna might have culled from this frightful travesty of justice. This week, millions of people around the world peeked in on the life of a doomed prisoner on Death Row and found not only the compassion to sign petitions or join marches on his behalf, but also the empathy to understand that “there, but for the grace of God, go I.”