Troy Davis was executed in the state of Georgia on September 21st, 2011 for a crime that he denied committing. Davis was convicted in 1991 for killing a police officer, Mark MacPhail, who was on duty as a security guard. Of the nine witnesses that contributed to Davis’ conviction, seven of them recanted their stories. Even though there was a lot of doubt that Davis committed the crime, he was still sent to death row and executed on September 21st.
This case is sadly a representation of the failures of our judicial system. It was amazing to see the amount of people that pulled together to campaign and petition to save Troy Davis during his last days. However, it was a little too late. Davis had been on death row for 20 years yet there was no interest in his case until two days before he was killed. As many shed tears over the loss of what was possibly an innocent life, all I felt was disappointment. Disappointment in the judicial system and disappointment in us as a people. America prides itself on its democracy, claiming that it was created for the people by the people. We as a people have the power to make change happen yet we don’t take advantage of that power. We don’t go out to vote, we don’t campaign, we don’t even hold our government officials accountable for the promises they make to us while they beg for our votes. We don’t do ANYTHING, until it’s too late. So do we have the right to blame the judicial system? Do we have the right to get angry at the white house because they would not comment on what was going on? We really don’t. We should be mad at ourselves. We should be sick to our stomachs that WE made this happen. The judges just do their jobs. And yes, they make mistakes too but they can’t do anything that we did not give them permission to do. Until we stand up and fight against capital punishment, it won’t go away. But how many of us are really going to fight? As soon as the tears dry in our eyes, we are going to get back to our lives and forget all about Troy Davis. We are going to forget all about the flaws in the judicial system until the next person is on death row eating their last meal. We have seen so much social chance in our world because of our fight but we, this new generation, don’t know how to fight. We leave it up to our politicians and hope that they make the best decision for us. We don’t want to think for ourselves and we don’t want to fight for ourselves. We don’t even see the worth of voting on issues that don’t directly affect our lives. We are selfish and we don’t care until we see the lethal injection that is about to be received by a man that could be innocent. We don’t want to do anything but tweet and post Facebook statuses and we get angry that that’s not enough to make a difference. Seriously, shame on us. Shame on me and shame on you. We need to stop pointing our fingers at others and start pointing it at our selves. This is OUR country. This is OUR lives. We can make the difference and maybe this needs to be a wake up call to all of us.