We’ve Come a Long Way from the Death Penalty, but We’re Not There Yet

[marmar]

from YES! Magazine:



We’ve Come a Long Way from the Death Penalty, but We’re Not There Yet
What’s the good news about the troubling practice of execution in the U.S.? We’re already abolishing it, state by state.

by Laura Moye
posted Sep 21, 2012

Laura Moye is director of Amnesty International USA's Death Penalty Abolition Campaign.


When the book on how we ended the death penalty in the United States is written, I imagine there will be a chapter on Troy Davis.

On September 21, 2011, the state of Georgia executed Troy Davis under a cloud of doubt that he was the actual perpetrator of the 1989 murder of Police Officer Mark MacPhail.

His case awakened scores of people who hadn’t given capital punishment much thought. We delivered about a million petition signatures from people around the country and around the world to Georgia’s Board of Pardons and Paroles urging clemency. A high school student from an Atlanta suburb named Gautham was one of the many who helped us collect signatures. He turned from supporting the death penalty to opposing it, in large part because he learned about Troy Davis’ case.

With the help of social media and good, old-fashioned street canvassing, we surely broke records for advocacy against an execution. Abolition advocates I have spoken with could not think of another case that had received this level of response. Because of the immense media saturation of the story, millions heard about this troubling case. In addition to independent media like Democracy Now! and black talk radio, the case was being covered on multiple shows on CNN and MSNBC. The major TV networks carried the story nationally. My apolitical grandmother in rural Southern Illinois was stunned to stumble upon me talking about the case from Atlanta on her TV screen. .....................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.yesmagazine.org/peace-justice/weve-come-a-long-way-from-the-death-penalty-but-were-not-there-yet