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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To Think A Man Should Not Be Executed...

82 replies

DontCallMeFrothyDragon · 21/09/2011 12:10

When there's this much doubt surrounding the case?

(Well, I'm anti-death penalty, regardless... BUT this is ridiculous)

OP posts:
smartyparts · 21/09/2011 14:18

I knew this would be about Troy Davis.

What Tethers said.

Tyr · 21/09/2011 16:22

Any nation that executes its own citizens for any crime has no moral authority.
The US already has the option of life without parole. There have been numerous examples of demonstrably innocent victims of the death penalty; more disturbingly, of fresh evidence being excluded in the latter stages of appeal which itself appears to be little more than a paper exercise in states like Texas.

VivaLeBeaver · 21/09/2011 16:28

Terrible, can't believe there going to go ahead.

GingerWrath · 21/09/2011 21:54

Just wanted to bump this as hasn't got many hours to live!

stripeybump · 21/09/2011 21:56

YANBU.

beachholiday · 21/09/2011 22:12

YANBU. It is horrific. The parole board in Georgia got so many emails they blocked emails from Amnesty's UK site. Then they blocked all incoming emails from private accounts when people used those. Although its still possible to send them through the Amnesty USA site.

(From Amnesty International's Irish site) Last night, Troy sent his supporters the following message through Amnesty international USA: "The struggle for justice doesn't end with me. This struggle is for all the Troy Davises who came before me and all the ones who will come after me. I'm in good spirits and I'm prayerful and at peace. But I will not stop fighting until I've taken my last breath."

Kladdkaka · 21/09/2011 22:28

Didn't the Supreme Court once rule that actual innocence is no bar to execution?

Mumcentreplus · 21/09/2011 22:30

14 days in May....I watched this documentary when I was 15 years old it shaped my opinion for a lifetime...

Angel786 · 21/09/2011 22:58

mum a film which causes SUCH an impact. I was traumatized and speechless for a long time after viewing. You can order it from Reprieve for anyone wanting to see it.

Original poster
DontCallMeFrothyDragon · 21/09/2011 23:02

I'm praying he gets a lifeline, in the same way that Duane Edward Buck did. But then, even Duane's was only a 30 day extension. 3 Hours. :( This just isn't right. The thing is, even those who agree with the death penalty are agreeing this isn't justice for McPhail, when there's so much doubt. He's served 20 years in jail. Longer than most people get for murder in the UK :(

I watched The Case For Troy (youtube, but can be watched through AI's site) earlier. When key witnesses are saying he didn't do it, then why the fuck aren't the courts listening? If this goes ahead, it's murder. It's murder, and if those sentencing him to death believe in the death penalty then well, they can go ahead and sign their own death warrants.

OP posts:
iceandsliceplease · 21/09/2011 23:11

I am vehemently opposed to the death penalty in any case, but this just crystallises it all the more.

This is state murder, pure and simple, conducted by an authority so morally bankrupt it will no longer listen to those who dissent. I am sickened.

moonferret · 21/09/2011 23:19

WannaBe doesn't seem very bright, even by the standards of this site.
For the record, it is not the responsibility of any person in a civilised society to "prove their innocence", it is the responsibility of the state to prove their guilt.
This is one of the most worrying cases I've come across, alongside that of Theresa Lewis. She was executed for inciting a murder, when the perpetrators weren't executed!

Angel786 · 21/09/2011 23:22

Ex prison wardens are urging tat the execution be stayed. Again, that speaks volumes.

Cutelittlecatlover · 21/09/2011 23:44

Yanbu, I can't believe that this is allowed to happen in a supposedly civilized country.

iceandsliceplease · 22/09/2011 00:12

a stay of execution reported on BBC 5 Live?

iceandsliceplease · 22/09/2011 00:13

Tony Livesey was talking to a woman outside the gaol when a big cheer went up - at first they thought they execution had gone ahead, but it seems the cheer was from his supporters.

Original poster
DontCallMeFrothyDragon · 22/09/2011 00:18

It's a delay, not a stay...

This is horrible... :(

OP posts:
ZhenXiang · 22/09/2011 00:26

YANBU it is truly horrifying that a supposedly 'civilised' country still has the death penalty given that there are so many cases where people are convicted of a crime only to be found innocent years later.

Delay not stay - they could decide tonight or at any time in the next 7 days to still go through will it. :(

iceandsliceplease · 22/09/2011 00:37

'Five minutes after his scheduled death' - horrific. Even if he were guilty (which is in serious doubt), to taunt someone again and again with their death surely amounts to cruel and unusual punishment.

iceandsliceplease · 22/09/2011 00:39

How can the USA consider themselves to be civilised when they inflict this torture on their own citizen, on their own soil?

Original poster
DontCallMeFrothyDragon · 22/09/2011 00:42

40 minutes, andf I suppose Troy is as much in the dark as we are. :(

OP posts:
smartyparts · 22/09/2011 00:42

Whilst it's all I have been hoping for today, I sincerely hope this just isn't a barbaric delay to the execution.

I have been pondering over the reality of this last minute delay.

What is this man going through? Had he been taken through to the place where he would be executed? He was maybe minutes away from death, to be told it would be delayed but perhaps by only a few hours?

I can't bear to think about it - that this inhumanity is legal.

chocolaterainbow · 22/09/2011 00:53

I am speechless, 5 minutes AFTER to delay!!
I'd been waiting for news of this tonight, I agree with you ice, torture.
I don't agree with the death penalty anyway, but this is paramount to murder imo.

Tortington · 22/09/2011 00:58

www.amnestyusa.org/solidarity

CheerfulYank · 22/09/2011 01:01

I'd like to drive down there and protest but it's too far. :(

There's always hope...the West Memphis 3 were released, after all.

It's hard. I don't agree with the death penalty and my state hasn't had it for a century, but learning that Lawrence Brewer has been executed makes me feel....nothing. I still can't wrap my head around what he did; I still dream about it and wake up screaming. Can't imagine what his victim's family is thinking.