The killing of Troy Anthony Davis has demonstrated one thing beyond a shadow of a doubt: that we as a people cannot be trusted with the death penalty. To that I will add my modest opinion that no people can be trusted with this brutal and most final punishment.

I am not suggesting that that is the most compelling reason to abolish the death penalty. I think the reasons are legion. The first should be no surprise to anyone who calls themselves religious in any major monotheistic tradition – killing is morally repugnant, particularly in a situation in which the intended victim is powerless, such as someone who is incarcerated and therefore a danger to no one. Beyond simple humanity, it is legally and ethically indefensible – the ultimate denial of due process under the law. So long as you may be proven either innocent or not as guilty as first thought, there is no justification for execution.

Also, in a nation so fraught by its racist history; a nation whose justice system is shot through with the remnants of that history – particularly, it seems, at the state and local levels – there is no chance that the death penalty will be applied fairly. In fact, there is overwhelming evidence that it has been applied in an unjust and biased fashion over the last three decades. In light of our very recent past – still very much with us, as evidenced by Wednesday night’s execution – we are simply incapable of conducting such a policy in any way that could be considered remotely equitable.

Not that being equitable would result in anything other than an atrocity. Uniformly applied, capital punishment might add up to thousands upon thousands of executions each year, depending upon where we draw the line on heinousness. Speaking of heinous, Governor Perry (a distant cousin, I hear) feels comfortable with a standard he claims Texas has set regarding execution of only those perpetrators who have committed the most horrible crimes. With 240+ judicial killings under his belt, one might think that the standard could apply to the governor himself. (His predecessor, of course, had opportunity to make that record seem positively progressive.)

It’s too late to save Troy Davis, I’m sorry to say – deepest regrets to his family. I only hope that Troy will, even in his absence, open the national conversation we simply must have if we are ever going to put a stop to this visceral, vindictive madness.

We have prisons that could hold the incredible Hulk. We don’t need to kill another prisoner, ever. We need to stop… now.

luv u,

jp