I Am Troy Davis

With all probability, Troy Davis did not commit the homicide for which he has been barbarically murdered.

The death penalty — a measure of violence authorized by human law, which normally rises in defense of the principle of the protection of human life, but which also tramples the same life without regard — is creepy, is immoral, is wrong, is shameful and it is uncivilized and indecent. People, human beings, should deny, stave off and control every kind of revenge and the animal instinct of fighting fire with fire.

Moreover, even if Troy Davis killed, I would be opposed to the death penalty. If Troy Davis had forgotten, mislaid, betrayed his humanity and had fired the gun, I would still be opposed to the death penalty because I do not intend to abdicate my humanity.

He who gets punished for his crimes with jail time, perhaps for life, rightly pays the price for mislaying his humanity. However long the sentence is, it is a very serious penalty. Whoever punishes a crime with the death penalty commits a violent act that is extremely serious, outrageous and without any justification. It is not even justified by instincts because the death penalty is “planned”, scheduled and organized, and therefore, it is entirely possible to reflect at some point and stop the process.

I am Troy Davis. I feel as if I am every man and every woman who has been murdered in the name of the law. The law that should be the supreme expression of the justice of man, characterized by rationality and humanity. The law that should not be about revenge.

May someone forgive whoever has decided not to say “stop.” May someone forgive whoever has decided not to have pity. May someone forgive whoever has decided that what Troy Davis presumably did was not inhumane enough, and so it must be repeated, this time against him. And if Troy Davis did, though he probably did not, kill an innocent person, the “law” today kills, with premeditation, a man who is most likely equally innocent.