More than 20 years ago, an off-duty law enforcement officer, Mark Allen MacPhail, was shot and killed in Savannah. Now, more than two decades later, Troy Davis has finally been executed under penalty of the death sentence.
While 22 years of prison time may seem exorbitant for a convicted murder biding time until his death penalty sentence, it hardly seems enough upon learning that the entire case could be one of mistaken identity. The death penalty has been a topic of high scrutiny since its inception, and cases such as the Davis trial shine light on the particular issues of such a drastic sentence.
Since the murder of officer MacPhail in 1989 and the conviction of Davis two years later, three stays of execution have lapsed and more than half of the case witnesses from the first trial have retracted their original testimonies. Evidence of the murder weapon, a gun, was never found. The only pieces of evidence the jury had to go by were shell casings from an earlier shooting. From the beginning, Davis vehemently held to his plea of innocence, claiming that accusations against him were nothing short of mistaken identity. However, against all odds the murder trial proceeded and the Davis case was finally put to rest on September 21, 2011 upon his execution late Thursday evening.
At the age of 42, the life of Troy Davis was officially ended; however it was cut short decades before. Once Davis became the primary suspect for a murder that he steadfastly denied committing, his life was never the same. In fact, most of his remaining years were spent behind bars prohibited from the open communication and freedoms he once enjoyed. Davis denied committing the crime for which he was accused of all the way until the end. As a result, people around the world mourned the death of a man believed to be innocent.
The number of protestors who supported Davis clearly called upon the case's questionable nature. Around the world, but particularly in Georgia, people rallied on behalf of a man who claimed to be wrongly accused. Supporters even included Pope Benedict XVI, former President Jimmy Carter and a former FBI director, among others. Thousands of signatures lined petition papers. Across the country and even in Europe vigils were staged in recognition of the monumental case. Some protestors were even arrested outside of the White House for their dramatic gestures in support of Davis.
The entire case has further increased the questioning and doubt of a topic that many believed could not be more hotly debated. In theory, the death penalty rightly upholds justice as it punishes those convicted of capital crimes with the ultimate consequence: death. However, this only stands to be true if the persons involved in the judicial process can be 100% sure that their decision is correct. In a case where no solid evidence is found and witness testimonies change, the surety needed to sentence someone to death is virtually invisible. The inconclusiveness of such cases, along with the moral controversy regarding the death penalty, have resulted in more than 90 countries abolishing the practice altogether. Furthermore, several countries that have not abolished the policy have ceased to use it for at least ten years, usually more.
The case of Troy Davis ultimately came down to a need for clear establishment of the defendant's innocence. This is a far tougher standard of exoneration than that of normal cases which require clear and substantial guilt in order to be accused. It is also a much more difficult case to argue than the claims made by opposing prosecutors who needed only to prove some form of guilt. Any undefined instances in a case can lead to suspected guilt very easily. In the end, Davis' steadfast plea of innocence and claim of mistaken identity was not enough to spare him his life. Supporters around the world now mourn the death of a man who may have been mistakenly identified and falsely accused.
