But he's still human even if his actions were not

At a little after 9:06 PM on Tuesday, November 10, 2009, a representative of the Virginia Department of Corrections injected John Allen Muhummad, the D.C. Sniper, with a lethal cocktail and shortly thereafter he expired.

And on Wednesday morning, I awoke to find a plethora of headlines such as this one taken from the NY Daily News Online:  “Families of DC sniper victims celebrate John Allen Muhummad’s execution.”  On my Facebook page I ventured upon a status that read simply, “I’m glad that monster is dead.”  And “He’s finally dead, and I am elated.”

I, like most rationally people, find John Allen Muhummad’s actions to be completely and utterly reprehensible and inexcusable, but in the same instance, should we really be celebrating or cheering the death of another human being?  When is it acceptable to gain pleasure from the death of another human being?

And this is not about the death penalty though I do have a few qualms about it.  For one thing, those sentenced to death in this country are disproportionately minority and poor.  Not only that, the number of people released from prison recently after evidence was found that exonerated them only works to convince me that all on death row, or in prison for that matter, are not necessarily guilty.

If you remember, in 2003 once the governor of Illinois realized the flaws inherent in this nation’s death penalty system he took the unprecedented step of commuting the death sentence of everyone on death row in the state of Illinois.

And before you charge me with being insensitive to John Allen Muhummad’s victims and the victims’ families, you could not be more wrong.  I am completely sympathetic.  I shudder to think what would happen if one of those victims just happened to be my son or daughter, or my brother or sister, or my mother or father, or even my spouse.  I don’t think I would ever be able to get over it.

But however deep my grief over the loss of my loved one, I am not sure how the death of another could work to quell that grief.  Again, my heart goes out to John Allen Muhummad’s victims and their families, and I pray that someday their hearts will finally heal.  However, I find celebrating or cheering the death of another human being to be fundamentally wrong no matter who that human being is or what action he or she has committed. 

After all, despite their actions, they are still human beings.  They are still somebody’s child.

Just Who Is Troy Davis?

“They came first for the Communists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist.

Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew.

Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a trade unionists.

Then they came for the Catholics,
and I didn’t speak up because I was a Protestant.

Then they came for me,
and by that time no one was left to speak up.”

Martin Niemöller


We must make noise, we must raise hell, we must do whatever is within our power until Troy Davis is either given a new trial or has his sentence commuted.

I must admit, I don’t know the brother. In fact, I had not even heard and read Troy Davis’ name before several weeks ago. I am even unsure of whether he is actually guilty or innocent, though published reports would suggest the latter. However, there are many things I do know for sure.

First and foremost, a human being now languishes in prison on death row where he has been for the last fifteen years. Not only is he in prison, his life is down to being measured in days and hours, not even months and certainly not years.

Troy Davis has maintained his innocence in the shooting death of a Savannah, Georgia, police officer from the very beginning, and the case against him is far from airtight; it unravels further even as I write. No murder weapon was ever found, and perhaps most importantly, all but a few witnesses have recanted their testimony or contradicted themselves, even as the state’s conduct in obtaining the witnesses' testimonies comes under serious scrutiny.

“But wait,” you say, “Is there a chance Troy Davis is guilty?”. And the answer is decidedly yes. But there also appears to be an even greater chance that he is, in fact, innocent. And to allow him to die in this manner is, in the words of the lone dissenting judge hearing his appeal, “unconscionable and unconstitutional.”

Think about this for a second. If you were entombed in that place, in that man’s shoes, how would you react? How would you want humanity to respond? Would you want them to sit on their hands and keep quiet, or would you want them to beat on the walls, on garbage can lids, stamp on the floor, blow a whistle, scream at the top of their lungs, make noise, any kind of noise, until the world heard and knew your plight and recognized the inhumanity inherent in it all?

Who is Troy Davis? By now you probably know just a little less than I know. But keep in mind; he is an human being in danger of losing his life who may or may not be innocent. And if you remain silent, if you allow this injustice to pass without saying a word, without raising your fist in protest, you are culpable in his death, and run the risk that someday Troy Davis may be you.

Take this time to act. Shout, scream, blow your horn, do whatever you know to do and are able to do for justice. Click here for details as to how to get involved.