Killer Agendas

On August 19, 1989, I was 21 years old. I remember vividly hearing about a police officer that had been shot execution style at the Grey Hound bus station in the town where I live. I can't say I noticed much in the news back then but for some reason this caught my attention. Maybe because I knew the area, it involved a police officer or the way the officer was executed. It scared me because I remember thinking, "if a police officer can be killed like that what can I do to protect myself?"

After fleeing a man turned himself in claiming to be innocent. Nine witnesses claimed they saw Troy Anthony Davis shoot 27 year-old officer Mark McPhail, husband and father, at close range in the head. Some witnesses claimed he was even smiling when he did it. Davis was convicted and given the death penalty.

19 years and many, many denied appeals later, Troy Davis is scheduled to be executed on October 27, 2008. Now I'm not here to argue whether the death penalty is moral or not. That's something people have to decide for themselves. In Georgia the death penalty is legal and used as a tool for justice. Justice the family of Mark McPhail has been denied to this point.

Unfortunately, the closer the execution date gets the more we have to hear about Troy Davis. His family, Amnesty International and even the Reverend Al Sharpeton have blown into town to declare his innocence. They are all claiming that new evidence requires the state to grant Davis a new trial. What's the new evidence? Seven of the original nine eyewitnesses have recanted their testimony. And, they claim no physical evidence was ever found to connect Davis to the scene, although Davis does admit to being there. Even if seven of nine witnesses recanted their testimony that would still leave two who saw Davis shoot Mark McPhail. How many do you need?

If Amnesty International wants to protest the death penalty I have no problem with that. But to hide their agenda by claiming guilty people are innocent is ridiculous. THEY WILL DO AND SAY ALMOST ANYTHING TO GET SOMEONE OFF OF DEATH ROW. That's their agenda. They make victims out of killers to further their ideology. Why can't they just be honest and say, "Yes, he's guilty but we're against killing him." At least then Mark McPhail's family won't have sit back and watch a murderer be turned into a celebrity.

Our local paper has jumped on board as well. They print anything Amnesty International says and have written many stories designed to gain sympathy for how hard Troy Davis's life has been. Very little has been written about the crime or the hardship the victim's family has faced. They also played down the strengths of the prosecutions case. They barely mentioned, if at all, that Davis had been on a shooting spree that very night. He had shot another man in the face hours before killing Mark McPhail. The shell casings matched at both scenes.

When you have to hide the truth to further your agenda, you're being dishonest to your cause. When you try to clear the name of a cold blooded cop killer to promote your agenda, you are just plain fucked up.

***** Update ******

Yesterday, the 11 circuit court granted a stay of execution for Troy Davis. This is his third stay. I thought after the supreme court reviewed the case that it was over. Not so. Another thing that makes me sick about this case, every time the paper prints a story about this murderer they post a picture of Davis and his victim next to each other. How sad for the McPhail family.

http://savannahnow.com/node/601947