Troy Davis

Last night the State of Georgia executed Troy Davis, who had been convicted of killing Mark MacPhail, a Savannah police officer, despite a multitude of questions surrounding both evidence presented and evidence not presented in the case. Davis' execution is but the latest instance in which the death penalty has been applied even though there were reasonable doubts regarding the person to be executed was actually guilty. Statistical and anecdotal evidence suggesting innocent people are being put to death by the state has given rise to debate as to whether, under these circumstances, the death penalty should be used or set aside. This is all well and good and needs to be explored. But I believe that Christians have an obligation to take this discussion one step further: should the state be in the business of killing criminals at all?

Strip away talk of "ultimate sanctions" (a bloodless euphemism for execution) and "deterrence" (there's no evidence that the death penalty serves as one) and we're left with vengeance. Jesus, of course, taught us that in our lives we're often faced with a stark choice between vengeance and forgiveness. We will only find healing and peace through the latter. Given our "tough on crime" culture, this kind of talk can seem very much out of step with the prevailing zeitgeist. Cop killers and other odious figures should be punished, not coddled, right? Yes, they should. But do we really need to punish others in ways that diminishes our common humanity? Jesus would tell us no. Jesus came to be with us, indeed, died on a cross for us, because he sought to help us be the people God wants us to be.

Killing Troy Davis, even if he was guilty, did nothing to bring back Mark MacPhail, did nothing to make us safer, did nothing to heal our society. All Davis' execution did was make us a little bit less human and did nothing to make us be the people God wants us to be.

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