WHEN WILL IT END?

About two hours before I started writing this, Mr. Troy Davis was executed by lethal injection in the State of Georgia in the United States because he had been found guilty of shooting an off duty policeman - Mr. Mark McPhail - in 1989.  Just a few hours earlier in the State of Texas in the United States, Mr.Lawrence Russell Brewer who was a white supremacist, was also put to death by lethal injection because he was found guilty of killing a man in 1998.  Those in favour of the death penalty had a field day today.  Two people executed within a matter of hours!

I don't know too much about the case of Mr. Brewer as of this moment, but there has certainly been a great deal of attention given to the case of Mr. Davis. 

In the heading on this page I asked the question "When will it end?"  I am referring not only to the continual use of the death penalty, not just in the United States but in other countries where it is still practised  - which most people know I am totally against - but also to what can well be described as "cruel and unusual punishment" in this case, as well as continued interest in the morbid.

Mr. Davis' case garnered world-wide attention. People such as Pope Benedict, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa all spoke up on his behalf and something like 3-million signatures were collected in support of a review for clemency in his case.  But to no avail.

What may not be so well known is the fact that three times prior to this evening's execution, Mr. Davis was set to be executed and on each of those three times the execution was stopped with less that an hour to spare.  Can you imagine anyone having to go through three traumas like that? To me that is nothing less than "cruel and unusual punishment" no matter who you are or what you may or may not have done.  How can a civilized nation allow these things to happen?  Why don't the authorities understand the meaning of "cruel and unusual punishment"?  I may not be expressing this in the best possible terms, but I want to get it out while the event is still fresh in people's minds.  The western countries so often criticize the methods and habits and human rights in other countries but there are times such as this present incident shows, when they should take a look in the mirror.

Not thirty minutes after the execution of Mr. Davis took place, the normally respectable CNN television network - in a piece hosted by Mr. Anderson Cooper -  started a second-by-second account of the execution given by some journalists who were present to watch Mr. Davis die.  It was unbelievable.  We were even told how many times Mr. Davis blinked after he was given the first of three injections.  The tiniest details were given huge importance and repeated over and over again not just by Mr. Anderson but they were even repeated later on the summary of the news headlines.  Mr. Anderson is normally a reporter/commentator of the highest quality, but why was he dealing to the world all these grim details?  Is that what CNN thinks is good for the world?

It is time some people in high up places started to learn to respect the dignity of every human being. Whether that person is or is not guilty of a crime, dealing out the tiniest grim details of an execution for long periods of time is good for no one.  If we say we are a civilized people - then let us act like we are.