Troy Davis

Having written a book about the end of the death penalty in France, and having translated the book Robert Badinter (aka Greatest Living Frenchman) wrote about his battle against the death penalty, I find myself receiving a fair number of emails on the subject. Recently, a pro death penalty fellow by the name of Dudley Sharp wrote me after having conducted a lengthy review of the cases of innocent men freed from death row in America. He wrote:

"In an interview, I saw that you stated there had been 130 exonerated from US death row. Please, fact check ... The number may be 25."

This isn't the first time I've heard pro death penalty people attack the numbers of innocent people freed from death row. And, it's true, some of the 130 men were released due to procedural issues and were never technically proclaimed innocent. But, I never really fall into this argument. In the end, even for the most fanatic supporter of the death penalty, there were 25 innocent men about to be killed by the U.S. government!!!!! Isn't that 25 too many? Wouldn't one innocent person getting executed be enough to turn you off the death penalty???

Anyway, I think Troy Davis is innocent, but I'm not entirely sure. I think the most ardent supporter of the death penalty would agree with me that we should postpone the execution until we can affirm the actual guilt of the fellow ...

Latest Amnesty International video on Troy Davis (foot-tappin' good!) :

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