The story: A Black factory worker is charged with the 1989 murder of a white police officer in Georgia. Although no conclusive physical evidence ties him to the crime, he is convicted and sentenced to death. He continually proclaims his innocence. Seven of nine witnesses recant their testimony, with several admitting they had been originally coerced by police. One of the other witnesses is considered a prime suspect.
The response: Progressive activists, well aware of the deeply entrenched racism in the U.S. “justice” system, are joined by people who are outraged to learn of the injustice. Demonstrations are held around the world, creating enough pressure to repeatedly delay his execution. The case finally reaches the U.S. Supreme Court. Supporters hold vigils as the Black man, lying strapped to a gurney for hours, waits to learn his fate. All nine justices—appointed to the Court by Democrats and Republicans alike—choose not to intervene. The White House issues a verdict of “no comment” and refuses to open a federal civil rights investigation that would have stayed his execution.
The result: The state of Georgia executed Troy Davis at 11:08 p.m., Sept. 21, 2011.
Symptom of the racist death penalty
Troy Davis and his extraordinary courage will never be forgotten. In his last words, he again proclaimed his innocence, declared his sympathy for those murdered and called on all of his supporters to “continue to fight this fight.”
The fight to save Troy Davis’ life brought thousands into the streets, and many became radicalized as they witnessed the racism of the U.S. system of capital punishment.
While Davis’ case received an unprecedented amount of public attention, his case, and hundreds of others like it, are tragically all too common. All over the country there are inmates on death row who have been convicted on limited evidence and have never received a fair trial. They are disproportionately Black and Latino.
A 2011 study by the NAACP Legal Defense Fund showed there were 1,338 Black prisoners (41.83 percent) on death row and 1,387 whites (43.36 percent). Black people, however, make up less than 13 percent of the population, while whites are more than 72 percent of the population.
The death penalty confirms what the 2012 Party for Socialism and Liberation presidential candidate, Peta Lindsay, has said about the case of Trayvon Martin. The U.S. criminal justice system assigns no value to Black lives. A 1990 U.S. General Accounting Office report on death penalty sentencing found that in 82 percent of studies reviewed, “race of the victim was found to influence the likelihood of being charged with capital murder or receiving the death penalty, i.e., those who murdered whites were found more likely to be sentenced to death than those who murdered blacks.”
The NAACP study also examined a very narrow set of interracial murder cases since 1976 in which one defendant was executed for killing one or more people of another race. It found 18 cases in which a white defendant was executed for killing a Black victim. By contrast, the government executed 253 Black defendants who were charged with killing white victims.
When such institutionalized racism is combined with poverty, the results are even more deadly for defendants. Many must rely on public defenders lacking the resources necessary to counter aggressive, well-funded prosecuting attorneys. The Chicago Tribune reported in June 2009 that the portion of the public defender funding allocated for death penalty cases had shockingly dwindled to a mere $100. With no money for expert witnesses and forensic testing, death-row defendants have little chance for justice against the full power of the state. Another tactic that has been widely used by prosecutors is the systematic exclusion of Black jurors.
Troy Davis will never be forgotten. As the anti-racist struggle returns to the streets, let us remember his call to “continue to fight this fight.” Thousands of innocent lives have been lost to the racist death penalty. It is high time for it to be abolished.
