The Death Penalty - Politically Incorrect

For days, I kept on seeing anguished posts about the upcoming execution of convicted cop killer Troy Davis.  A great many people I know said he was innocent.  As such, killing him with the death penalty was a travesty.  This is but one of dozens of articles I've seen on the topic.

Let me say first, that I did not follow this case at all, other than to see my friends' posts.  Let me also express my personal view about the death penalty.  I believe that there is nothing at all immoral in principle in executing someone who has been found guilty of a most heinous crime.  And, for many years, I was a supporter of the death penalty.  For some time now, however, I no longer am.  It is not because I have altered my belief about the morality of the act.  It is for two reasons.  First, I do believe that too many people of modest means do not receive adequate representation in the judicial system.  Second, due to the years of appeals and expense involved in actually putting someone to death, I think that overall, society would benefit more from keeping that person in prison for life rather than executing them.

OK; that being clarified, here is my politically incorrect question.

If all these people who were so upset at the execution of Troy Davis in part because they believe the death penalty to be wrong and immoral, then why were they not protesting the execution of Lawrence Brewer, one of the men involved in the horrific torture and murder of James Byrd Jr., a black man dragged to his death in Texas?  I mean, if the death penalty is wrong - shouldn't it be wrong for everyone, irrespective of the crime?

I think I can answer my own questions, at least in part.  First, the Davis supporters believe that he was innocent, and that Brewer was not.  (Actually - Brewer claimed that although he did participate in the torture, he was not responsible for Byrd's death.)  Second, one would be hard pressed to find almost anyone who didn't agree that the Brewer crime was grisly and horrific; the purported Davis murder was "just" a killing.  Third, Davis was a black man and Brewer a detested white supremist.  Much easier for all of the above to protest the Davis execution and not Brewer's.

Still, I return to my original philosophical question.  If the point is that capital punishment is wrong, then shouldn't there have been protestors against Brewer's execution, too?  Are we to say that our principles don't matter, when the object of them is some hated and despicable person?  If race is a factor - why should black and other minorities be protected from the death penalty, but not white people? 

At least I warned you it was all politically incorrect.

Comments

[Chris]

I don't have any problem at all with executing a genuinely guilty person.

I have come to oppose the death penalty because it is far too often applied in error, as it likely was in the Troy Davis case. I doubt that I am alone in this line of thinking.

[John Pepple]

I have a similar complaint about the lack of protests against Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait. The "anti-war" protesters protested not against that, but against the coming U.S. action. They protested before it actually occurred, while ignoring the war that had actually taken place.

[Peg]

Other issues that fry me, John, are these: gay rights and women's rights. Lefties get hysterical if someone looks sideways at gay folks in the U.S. - but other nations butchering gay people because they express an interest in someone of the same sex? Yawn. No protesting whatsoever.

Same thing about women. Hysteria over a boss telling his employee: "Gee; you have a beautiful outfit today." But if women in the Middle East must have 97% of their skin swathed, cannot get an education and are burned to death for adultery - again, silence.

Utterly disgusting.

[jammen]

"If the point is that capital punishment is wrong, then shouldn't there have been protestors (sic) against Brewer's execution, too?"

I think the majority of the Troy Davis protests were based upon the belief that the state was about to execute an innocent man and were not a philosophical opposition to the death penalty.

There are, however, individuals and groups that have been working against the death penalty for decades, and this case certainly
is a boon for them.

[Peg]

As I understand it, Jammen, most anti-death penalty people are against the death penalty period - irrespective of someone's guilt or innocence. Furthermore:

1) No one can say that Davis didn't have extensive appeals. At what point can we say, the evidence has been reviewed, re-reviewed - and reviewed again. And yet the case has not been overturned?

2) Brewer claims that he did not murder Byrd; he "only" (geesh) tortured the man. His death penalty sentence was for murder - so - one can claim (at least on some level) that he, too, was "innocent."

3) Before you get hysterical about what I've written, note that I am no longer a proponent of the death penalty for the reasons I mentioned above, and that, no matter whether or not Brewer did or did not directly cause Byrd's death, I think that he committed unspeakable crimes. Zero defense from me. Just making the point that if you truly are someone who protests the death penalty, then for consistency's sake, you should protest them all.

[John Pepple]

I agree, Peg. And it's not just the Middle East, but Muslim enclaves in Europe where gays and women are mistreated, but once again, it doesn't matter. Incredible.

[Red Wing Black]

So cute! I already like you on FB and also get your posts on Google Reader. :)