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Revenge Beyond Color, but not Apart From It

The State of Texas executes a lot or people.  I don't know why.  I would like to think that there must be something I do not know about, but from the other end of I-35, it looks pretty bloodthirsty.  


Tonight, according to reports, authorities in Georgia  are going to kill another prisoner.  I cannot make a certain judgment about his guilt or innocence, but at the very least, his guilt is in doubt.  Serious doubt.  You can read about the details.  If he is put to death tonight, there will be reason for both tears and profound anger at the legal system in Georgia.


But what is almost worse, because it is what fuels the kind of cheering one hears from Tea Party  members in support of Rick Perry--cheering for executions--is the kind of sentiment the relatives of the slain policeman express.  Of course they are angry, still, that no one has been punished for the policeman's death!  But the whole, shaky case presented by the Georgia department of . . . is it fair to say, "justice"? . . .  has no effect on them.  They simply want somebody to die, because their son did:  if the case is flimsy, they are undeterred:  they want somebody to die.  Then they will feel good.


Revenge.  Do any other animals take revenge?  Do they harbor a lust for the blood of some other pack, or clan, while keeping score?  I think it was Alfred, Lord Tennyson who said nature was red in tooth and claw, but none so red as we human beings.  


I do believe there are people who are so savage, so dangerous, that they should never be allowed to live among us.  And perhaps some of them simply ought to be put to death, for good reason.  But the case in Georgia is not so simple.  There is great doubt that Troy Davis is guilty.  At the very least, a civilized people will not execute someone whose guilt is in doubt.  Even if, perhaps especially if, the family or the citizenry has a lust for blood.  Especially in a State where slavery and Jim Crow once ruled.  


A few years ago, a few savage, racist Texans dragged a black man to death behind a pickup.  Ross Byrd has asked that the State show mercy to one of his father's killers:  "You can't fight murder with murder," he said.  "Life in prison would have been fine.  I know he can't hurt my daddy anymore.  I wish the State would take [that] in mind."

Comments

  1. Conrad RøyksundSeptember 22, 2011 at 10:03 AM

    Helen responded: "Before leaving on a journey of revenge, you must first dig two graves."

    ReplyDelete

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