Go Down, You Murderers

Go down, you murderers, go down

             --Ewan McColl, “The Ballad of Tim Evans”

The execution of Troy Davis is just one more sick example of the complete moral bankruptcy of the United States, a lesson not lost on the rest of the world.  The culture of death that would allow a man whose guilt is genuinely in doubt, who has been a victim of a dysfunctional “system” from the start, to be executed, is a scandal impossible to hide.  Hopefully, the fact that the death penalty is treated in this country like it’s all just a big game will bring about its final demise.  Perhaps the murder of Troy Davis, tragic beyond words, will at least help to end this monstrous affront to the sanctity of life.  Just as the execution of Timothy Evans, another innocent man, helped turn the tide of public opinion against the death penalty in the UK, perhaps the execution of Troy Davis will awaken people here to the unjust and incompetent way this legalized murder is meted out.  If that is the case, at least we can say he did not die totally in vain.