Everybody knows the state of Georgia executed Troy Davis Wednesday, 21 September 2011. Fewer people know the state of Texas executed Lawrence Russell Brewer that same night. The cases are the same in one very basic way, and different in others.

One blog overstates the case. David Henson wrote for religion margins, the state killed two men; we only cared for one

Two men were executed last night by the state.

And no one said a word about one of them.

Because it wasn’t about Troy Davis. Because witnesses didn’t recant. Because the evidence was clear. Because hundreds of thousands worldwide didn’t sign a petition for him.

Because it was about a white supremacist.

Another blog is more accurate. Sam Worley wrote for Bleader 22 Sep 2011, The second execution,

I’m flattered for the attribution, but Gretchen Quarterman took this picture.

A coincidence: Troy Davis, the black man whose execution by the state of Georgia drew widespread condemnation on the basis of the tenuous evidence behind it, was executed on the same night as Lawrence Brewer, whose own capital case provoked little sympathy. He was one of the men convicted of dragging James Byrd to death behind a pickup truck in 1998. Many of Davis’s sympathizers were death-penalty abolitionists—indeed, his execution was pointed to as evidence, as if any more were needed, of the vile and capricious nature of the capital system. Situations like Davis’s are easier to make a case against the death penalty with; Brewer’s, less so.

Then Worley points out that the National Coalition Against the Death Penalty, even while entering a last-minute plea on behalf of Troy Davis, also wrote in the same statement about Lawrence Brewer:

Please join NCADP in opposing the executions of both men. We stand against all executions without reservation.

So, it wasn’t nobody who objected to the execution of Lawrence Brewer. Purely on economic grounds, executing anybody makes no sense, since it costs more to execute somebody than to keep them in life without parole. And execution stifles any further information that could come from them. In the cases of Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden, that may have been good for certain western warmongers in the U.S., but possibly not so good for the people in general. Even a common criminal may have in a long life in prison important information to reveal at a later date. That plus if it’s wrong to kill except in self-defense, it’s no more right when the state does it.

Everything I’ve seen about Lawrence Brewer says nobody doubts that he did what he was convicted of doing. Let’s assume that for the moment, although even that doesn’t justify the state killing in cold blood.

However, there is very much doubt about the guilt of Troy Davis. Which is why I find this, written by a friend, troubling:

Troy Davis was a victim of a flawed legal system. I do not know whether he was innocent. To sympathize for him and his case is natural, but to proclaim that you “are” Troy Davis or that you can be a victim in the same manner is absurd. The chances of you being wrongly placed on death row greatly diminished if you are a law-abiding citizen and constantly doing the right thing.

First of all, when did not knowing somebody was innocent become enough to punish them in any way? Whatever happened to innocent until proven guilty? The state of Georgia maintaned that it had so proven Troy Davis, but most of the witnesses recanted and numerous legal experts who examined the case said there was a great deal of doubt.

Secondly, most people in the U.S. (and many other countries) thought that being a law-abiding citizen and doing what society considered the right thing was a path to security and affluence. Many of them have since lost their jobs, their houses, and in many cases their liberty. It is far easier to fall into debt and end up in debtor’s prison in the U.S. than most people think. Some of the people who end up there will also be charged with murder, and some of them will be so charged and perhaps convicted because they happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time.

We are indeed all Troy Davis. And in the sense that no one deserves to be put to death in cold blood, we are all Lawrence Russell Brewer.

-jsq

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