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Do you know who Troy Davis was?

http://studioeight.tv/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=22717

Read the poem.
Listen to Billie Holiday's recording
Read The Guardian.article.

And remember that even one man executed wrongly does not balance the
scales.

~Anna

Comments

Life is harsh. I happen to know that in many
cases, the police get a suspect, and they hound
them, and even when proven innocent, the police
and the prosecution will almost never admit to being
wrong, but I also think that while every man deserves
the chance of living, not every man deserves to live
after being given the chance. I don't think that any
innocent man should be executed, but I also don't think
that people should be murdered and the murderer be
given a "life" sentence, they should be put to death after
all appeals have been extinguished. In fact, if it were I in
charge, I'd include the death penalty for any rape where
the woman has been brutally beaten, and any and all child
rapist .... in my view the perpetrators of such atrocities have
been given their chance to live in this world, and blew it.
Now that may seem barbaric to you and others, but life is a
harsh road, and nothing is promised.

I also think that in every case where someone has been proven
innocent, and it's happening more and more these days with dna
technology, that the prosecutors should be brought to trial, to prove
that they actually followed protocol, and there would be less of what
I call the "push to close the case" sort of thing that seems to happen
throughout the current system.

I have a friend on LinkedIn that was there and she had been fighting along with so many others to save this mans life. You are so correct Anna - One man executed wrongly never balances the scales of justice. You wonder how many other innocent people were put to death for a crime they did not commit and the subject is still running the streets. One I could think of and her name is Casey Anthony. Freed by a jury of her peers. The scales did not work good on this case either.

I will stop there.

Thank you for the link.

Blessings
Mona

I totally understand and accept your viewpoint, Richard.

The first time I watched Deliverance in 1972, I walk out of the theater. Barry picked it up from the library and I told him I did that some almost-40 years ago. He knew exactly where. This time I watched the whole thing through (hardened?) and said he deserved to be killed, exactly as it happened in the movie. I don't know if I could agree that *society* carry out the sentence all those years later. As in the article I posted from The Guardian, its author, who narrowly escaped the death penalty was forgiven by the family of the man he killed and was more than able to turn life around when he was released. The man who committed the crime *died* I think.; the man who survived it was worth another chance.

Thank you for reading and commenting, Richard. This is how we begin to bridge differences of opinions. How we start a dialogue towards peace.

~A

~A

author comment

I just wanted to let you know too that I did read
the guardian article and all the comments on it. In
one of the comments someone said, to date, there
have been at least 139 people executed that were
proven innocent later, I believe the number is much
greater if the truth were ever revealed, and I highly
doubt if any of the police or prosecutors involved were
ever made accountable for any wrong doings. I think that
is where the problem lies, not the system itself.

and I happen to love Billie Holiday

thanks Anna

Thank God that science via DNA testing has helped prove guilt or innocence, depending on, of course, the evidence-gathering/gatherers..

The Innocence Project (check out the tabs, including *Fix the System*) (Barry Scheck, remember him, one of its founders) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Innocence_Project

http://www.innocenceproject.org/

The problem is as you noted, fallibility of humans and their unwillingness to admit error.

Thanks Richard, I figured you'd be a good juror and you'd listen to all the evidence.

~A

author comment

In my opinion it would be better if a trial were held to determine guilt. Then a few years later a different "trial" held with different jury to determine punishment. This forced delay and different jury would help keep a "rush to justice" from happening. However, I also think in instances where guilt is apparent, after the second guilt trial is completed, the sentence should be carried out swiftly....................stan

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