100% Confidence For One Government Policy: Execution

"So, sadly, I don't think the execution of Troy Davis will have much effect on the national "conversation" about the morality of capital punishment or the glaring flaws in America's system of justice. Because while it's very reasonable to argue that "we" should only kill someone if we're really, really, really sure they did it, the modern American conservative is really, really, really sure about everything." (via Salon)


Despite doubts raised prior to the execution last night of Troy Davis in Georgia, despite the enormous evidence of wrongful convictions, it just is not 'popular' to oppose the death penalty in the U.S.

People say to me - "Some crimes and criminals are so terrible, what else can we do but rid the world of such awful people?"

Last night in Texas, Lawrence Brewer was executed for a grisly crime, dragging a man to death by chaining him to his pickup until the body fell apart. It was a horrifying crime. The victim, James Byrd Jr.'s son, Ross Byrd, though, says execution is not justice:

"You can't fight murder with murder," Ross Byrd, 32, told Reuters late Tuesday, the night before Wednesday's scheduled execution of Lawrence Russell Brewer for one of the most notorious hate crimes in modern times.

"Life in prison would have been fine. I know he can't hurt my daddy anymore. I wish the state would take in mind that this isn't what we want."

"Byrd says the execution of Brewer is simply another expression of the hate shown toward his father on that dark night in 1998. Everybody, he said, including the government, should choose not to continue that cycle.

"Everybody's in that position," he said. "And I hope they will stand back and look at it before they go down that road of hate. Like Ghandi said, an eye for an eye, and the whole world will go blind."

SEE ALSO: Former prison wardens appeal for an end to the death penalty.