SHAME

It would not have opened the flood gates to appeals based upon witness recantation. It did not deal a death blow to anti-execution activists. It portrayed the Court of Last Resort, not just as being devoid of compassion, but as lacking common sense and the strength to adhere to it. Strict constructionists they most surely are, for who can doubt that our Founding Fathers were soulless robots?

No positive thing was accomplished by putting Troy Davis to death. It was an act of meanness.  Life in prison is not a lenient sentence when post-conviction evidence raises such legitimate doubts of guilt. It cannot be disputed that the minds of the Justices were already made up against mercy, when they indulged in the charade of granting a thirty-minute stay. It smacked of sadism. They were not being asked to change the landscape of the general anti-death penalty movement. They refused to acknowledge the singular circumstances which distinguish this particular case.

Why am I pulling punches? The plain truth is that our highest court distanced itself from courage, as if it were a plague.They may, in their naivete, have intended to bolster the integrity of our criminal justice system, whereas, in fact, they besmirched its dignity. Their moral compasses are seriously misaligned.

The Supreme Court condoned the killing of a possibly/probably innocent man who had the audacity to request that he be locked up in prison for the rest of his life.

They paid no heed to the pleas of world sentiment.

Ice water was in their veins.

Shame on them.