Despite the many who supported Troy and the effort we all put in to make sure an innocent man was not executed, this is what happened last night at 11 p.m. in the state of Georgia. Originally scheduled to be executed at 7 p.m., Mr. Davis got-what proved to be a very temporary reprieve-when the execution was delayed as the Supreme Court was apparently weighing the case.
Upon hearing this his supporters broke into cheers outside the prison. However this proved to be if anything a cruel jest as at 11 p.m. the Supreme Court demurred and said they couldn't get involved.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/09/22/national/main20109976.shtml
Troy Davis' last words were an insistence on his innocence: "I am innocent," Davis said moments before he was executed Wednesday night. "All I can ask ... is that you look deeper into this case so that you really can finally see the truth. I ask my family and friends to continue to fight this fight."
That we can certainly give him. Even now in his untimely demise that is still worth fighting for: the truth as to what really happened. And Troy has many supporters. All over the world.
"Troy Davis has impacted the world," his sister Martina Correia said before the execution. "They say, `I am Troy Davis,' in languages he can't speak."
Of course as so often happens something like this doesn't touch everyone the same way. Understandably so, slain officer Mark McPhail's family sees it differently.
"I'm kind of numb. I can't believe that it's really happened," MacPhail's mother, Anneliese MacPhail, said in a telephone interview from her home in Columbus, Ga. "All the feelings of relief and peace I've been waiting for all these years, they will come later. I certainly do want some peace."
She dismissed Davis' claims of innocence.
"He's been telling himself that for 22 years. You know how it is, he can talk himself into anything."
It's understandable that in losing a family member you would want closure. But if as is quite likely he was innocent how's that closure? The tragedy is just multiplied.
Officer Macphail's widow, Joan Macphail-Harris did express some concern for the Davis family, saying that it was "a time for healing for all families."
"I will grieve for the Davis family because now they're going to understand our pain and our hurt," she said in a telephone interview from Jackson. "My prayers go out to them. I have been praying for them all these years. And I pray there will be some peace along the way for them."
Again if it was in innocent man executed as many of us believe it is needless to make the Davis family hurt as her family hurts.
Davis' supporters staged vigils in the U.S. and Europe, declaring "I am Troy Davis" on signs, T-shirts and the Internet. Some tried increasingly frenzied measures, urging prison workers to stay home and even posting a judge's phone number online, hoping people would press him to put a stop to the lethal injection. President Barack Obama deflected calls for him to get involved.
"They say death row; we say hell no!" protesters shouted outside the Jackson prison before Davis was executed. In Washington, a crowd outside the Supreme Court yelled the same chant.
The thing to do is to make sure he didn't die in vain. Following his dying wish is a good place to start.
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