Turning his face towards the victim’s relatives, he repeated with calm determination: “May God forgive you because I did not kill him.” Troy Davis had been waiting on death row for more than twenty years, all the while proclaiming his innocence. These were his last words to those in charge of the American judiciary system and to society as a whole: “May God forgive you, you are legally killing an innocent man.” Numerous appeals for a stay of execution in order to reassess the guilty verdict were not enough. Troy Davis, an African-American, was executed, murdered by lethal injection. A shameful day.
He was the “perfect” murderer of a white police officer in Savannah, Georgia, in 1989. The dead officer’s family—as well as the judiciary system itself—remained blind to compelling evidence of Davis’s innocence. Over the years, many witnesses recanted their testimony (explaining how they had been pressured by the police); no real proof against the accused was ever presented. International campaigns were launched, but nothing could change the court’s decision. Innocent or not, it was too late: Davies had to die. Not even the timing was an accident: prior to elections politicians, and the system, like to prove they are tough on crime. Electoral concerns drive the death penalty business. Another convict was killed the same night, with three others to be executed very soon. What a cynical, undignified and shameful farce. And they call it a democratic system?
Troy Davis was black and poor. In the current American legal system, if you happen to be arrested, these two features point directly to your guilt. “Reasonable doubt” works mainly for white men and women, such as Casey Anthony, and the rich citizens and famous, people like O.J. Simpson or Dominique Strauss Kahn. In Barack Obama’s America, injustice for poor African-American citizens seems to be rooted in the system itself.
Yet, beyond these well-known facts, and the unbearable lack of justice and fairness, the ongoing implementation of the death penalty is in itself shocking. Our current judicial systems, in both East and West, are so imperfect, so lacking in equity and transparency, that one wonders how citizens and civilized people can accept that human beings be executed in their name, be they innocent and even guilty. We have so much to reform, so much to improve, that our shortcomings should always benefit the accused. Far better to err in her or his favor than to kill by mistake.
Last summer we witnessed one such a case. Ten days after September 11, 2001, Mark Stroman attacked three people he thought were Muslims (one of them was not), killing two of them. The third, an American Muslim of Bangladeshi background, Rais Bhuiyan, pretended to be dead and survived the attack. Stroman was arrested and eventually sentenced to death. He remained nearly ten years on death row; during these ten years his would-be victim, Rais, tried to save him, offering his forgiveness and requesting that the judiciary halt its infernal machinery and save him. Despite Rais’ personal commitment, Stroman was executed on July 21, 2011 in Texas. In those years, Mark Stroman had profoundly apologized and had become another man when he left this world. Rais Bhuiyan has become the true face of dignity and compassion and, indeed, the personification of how Islamic values and spirituality can transform an open heart. This is a far more profound and true example of what Islam stands for than the recent executions in Saudi Arabia by beheading of a so-called exorcist or in Iran by hanging a man from a crane (as happened few weeks ago). Both sentences were issued by opaque judicial systems where neither the accused nor her/his lawyer (assuming an accused even has the right to an independent lawyer) could defend themselves properly, only compounding the shame.
In the United Stated, in Saudi Arabia, in Iran or anywhere else, capital punishment should be abandoned. Our judicial systems are too imperfect, too influenced by politics and money, and far too exposed to procedural mistakes. The accused should enjoy the benefit of the doubt; our societies should remain dignified. In 2005, I launched a call for a moratorium on the death penalty, corporal punishments and stoning. I emphasized that in the very name of Islam, Muslim majority societies should stop treating people in such a way, that so often targets women and the poor. It is in the very name of our common values that we need to take a stand today against capital punishment. Troy Davis is dead; so is Mark Stroman: the former was surely innocent and was hoping for us to be forgiven, the latter was guilty, and begged for our forgiveness. As we look at ourselves in a mirror let us hope that, with or without compassion, we may at least show some dignity. If we remain silent, the shame is ours.
Salam alaykoum wa rahmatoullah,
Baraka Allah Beka for your article doctor and brother Ramadan.
Troy Davis is just an example.
The reason – for me – is that Troy Davis has been murdered to show to the World how the government -which is clearly a police state- control any movements, facts that happen in USA.
«Anyone who will struggle, fight against the so call « law » and their delegates – as the police man who was killed – will have to face on the same case of Troy Davis.»
Question. Why am I feeling bad when I cross some policemen, such an unconscious fear…
wa allahou ahlam
May Allah guide us and protect us.
Salam alaykoum
Aux Etats-Unis, l’argent rend le tueur innocent. Triste est cette réalité. L’Etat américain et plus précisement la justice américaine n’est pas vraiment juste, parfois elle condamne sans preuves tangibles,parfois le juge fait ce qu’il veut, on a l’impression que le démocratie n’est pas réellement instalée. La justice aux USA est toujours un peu raciste,et je vais expliquer cette connotation raciste. Lorsque un blanc est tué, on suppose trés régulièrement que c’est un noir qui l’a probablement tué, ou un musulman ou un latino, en tout cas un homme d’origine étrangère et aucunement blanc. On ne pense jamais d’emblée qu’un blanc peut tuer un blanc ou un noir peut tuer un noir. Pourtant des exemples dans ce pays il y’en a eu mais la justice est toujours un peu têtu, elle ne veut pas réformer son institution, loin d’être parfaite pourtant, elle traîne les pieds et en même temps elle fait traîner des vies. « la justice injuste » pourrait-être l’emblème des USA. Pour Troy Davis, seul Dieu détient la vérité et il est plus savant, mais il n’appartient à aucun humain de tuer son semblable sans preuves indiscutables.
Indeed we share the shame. It’s common to all of humans in this world. In the name of lots, we have been engaging in the dehumanization of peoples for quite a long time now. We are made, through various means, to desensitize from the sanctity of human life.
The sanctity of human life is baffled every day and there is a clearly established double standard for the value of life, as propagated by the media. When we look at images of natural disasters and wars on the news, we rarely see white people’s corpses lying on the ground or in other shocking positions. They are most often covered, at least their faces, and most often already in their coffins by the time they are filmed by the news crews. We seldom see Asian corpses. However, it has become absolutely normal to show Arab and black corpses in any state of decomposition, during prime time, with or without warning upcoming images may be shocking.
In the case of Troy Davis, virtually witnessing, helplessly, an innocent black man die in breach of his Constitutional rights in the Unites States of America creates no less than an international, transjursidictional precedent in the collective mind. Images here are not necessary. The point is made. America says to the world that a black man is not worthy of justice.
Moreover, this is not only about the death of an innocent person but also about the beginning of the death of the American constitutional rights that use to be oh, so revered internationally. More and more judicial stances are being taken by US judges in complete opposition with what the Founding Fathers of America stood for, yet are being motivated by a biased desire to protect freedom from freedom!
The fact that the American Constitution is being so bluntly undermined is scary. Althemore scary because it is the USA’s constitutional rights that are allowed to publicly lapse.
Is the American Constitution and the very concept of freedom also on Death Row?
Essalam 3alikoum
Death penalty is no more the answer to crimes committed in this time , not because it isn’t « efficient » , not because it is too violent , but rather because the root problems that make such crimes possible today can be tackled in a much better way . and the same issue goes for corporal punishment.
In past centuries , it was unthinkable to try resolving such problems by the means that are available to us today .
In past centuries , Death penalty was applied to specific crimes not because it was « efficient » , not because it wasn’t choking , but rather because it was the only way to deal with specific crimes occurring that time .
Islams goals and values cannot be reached by such practices in our time ,in fact we should say it the other way around : such practices cannot help reaching Islams vision of how our world should be today.
Salam…
En complément… On peut être d’accord, ou pas…
Salam.
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USA : Lawrence Brewer, le « mauvais » condamné à mort
Par la rédaction le 22/09/2011
(Source: http://www.arretsurimages.net/vite.php?id=12099)
Dans la mobilisation contre la peine de mort aux Etats-Unis cette semaine, Lawrence Brewer a été oublié, pendant que les médias du monde entier étaient suspendus à l’ultime recours de Troy Davis auprès de la Cour Suprême, jusqu’à son exécution. Il est vrai que Brewer, lui aussi exécuté hier, n’avait pas un profil donnant envie de le défendre : membre du Ku Klux Klan, il avait torturé et tué un handicapé noir. Un article publié sur Le Plus du Nouvel Observateur, remarque que le combat contre la peine capitale est sélectif dans le choix de ses martyrs.
Pour incarner la lutte contre la peine de mort, mieux vaut être Noir et clamer son innocence que membre du Ku Klux Klan et revendiquer la torture et le meurtre d’un Noir. La journaliste Gaëlle-Marie Zimmermann, sur le site participatif du Nouvel Obs, rappelle que Troy Davis n’a pas été le seul condamné à mort exécuté ces dernières heures aux Etats-Unis.
Mais, exécuté le même jour que Davis, « Brewer était un mec un peu moins vendeur, en terme de capital sympathie », remarque ironiquement Zimmermann.
Elle estime que ce combat -dont elle se réclame- ne doit pas faire de différence entre un homme dont on doute de la culpabilité et un criminel avoué, jugeant que cela affaiblit même les arguments des militants anti-peine de mort : « La question n’est pas «Cet homme mérite-t-il de mourir, eu égard aux circonstances de son crime et de sa condamnation ?», mais «Un homme, quel qu’ait été son crime et les circonstances de sa condamnation, doit-il être légalement exécuté ?» »
Bien sûr, il est compréhensible « que Troy Davis ait constitué une opportunité médiatique plus logique », puisque « Brewer était difficile à médiatiser : il aurait sapé la plus fervente mobilisation ». Mais l’auteure du billet espère « que la mobilisation des jours précédents n’était pas seulement une mobilisation contre l’exécution de Troy Davis, mais contre la peine de mort elle-même. »
(par Julien Lagache)
That is so right. Furthermore, we need to stress that this implementation of death penalty in a democratic state is not respectful towards all the atrocity of segregation in this country throughout its recent history. Only for political reasons, the one who accept and advocate such decision denie his concerns for dignity, his acknowlegement of history, and his respect for humanity. These following events are spreading fear and confusion in the reliability of a democratic system. Whatever the case or the guilt of a criminal, still a human being who apply for forgiveness, death penalty is not a method indeed.
Salam…
A small mistake in the text: should be September 11, 2010, not 2011 for Stroman’s crime…
Salam!
Thanks a lot for this article Dr Ramadan.
P.S: There’s just a small error, you wrote:
« Last summer we witnessed one such a case. Ten days after September 11, 2011,……. »
You mean september 11, 2001 right??