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The Human Zoo/September 23, 2011
By Gaylon Kent
The Writer's Shack
Notes from around The Human Experience...
SIGH: Troy Davis was executed by the state of Georgia Wednesday night. It happened about four hours later than planned as the US Supreme Court considered one final appeal, but it was denied and Davis went to his death at a prison south of Atlanta at about 11:08pm EDT.
As sometimes happens with executions in this country, Davis' case became a cause celebre, attracting the attention of the pope and a former president and even celebrities, no doubt desperate for some meaning in their vacuous lives. None of it ended up doing Davis any good.
Dry, Technical Matter: Davis was convicted of the 1989 killing of an off-duty policeman in Savannah, Georgia. Since the 1991 conviction, several people have recanted their testimony.
Uh-Oh: We did some research and we were not able to come to our usual expert conclusion. Maybe he did it, maybe he didn't. We didn't have unlimited time. Regular readers of this crap know that hasn't always stopped us from expressing an opinion on a matter, but it is in this case.
A Calm, Rational Perspective, Dammit: So let's take a big-picture view of the Davis case, asking what do you do when you have someone set to die and a lot of the testimony that convicted him has been recanted?
On The One Hand: Should someone in a position to do something step up and say, "You know, no part of this human experience is perfect, and if some people are recanting their testimony, and there was no physical evidence anyway, then we should probably postpone this execution until we can get to the bottom of this. He remains under sentence of death and we can always reissue the death warrant. We can always kill him later."
And In This Corner: Or do you say, "You know, Mr. Davis, you have had a lot of courts, everyone of them receptive to a solid innocence pitch, go over your case and every single one of them has ruled against you. Last year the US Supreme Court ordered a lower court to review the new evidence, and even that went against you."
Sigh II: If there is an institution in this country more screwed up than the death penalty machine we don't know what it is. Maybe college football. We kill people who didn't commit the crimes they were convicted of. We kill people who were at a murder scene but didn't actually do the killing, while the one who did do the killing serves life in prison. We kill some for one crime, but others who commit the same crime don't get killed.
Get Your Official Writer's Shack Policy Right Here: Forget the Troy Davis case. This nation has executed people for crimes they didn't commit. Since the purpose of government is to provide for the liberty of its citizens, this is reason enough to shut the death penalty down.
Media Watch: As we've noted here from time to time, we're tee vee free here at the Writer's Shack, so we were casing the Internet for confirmation that Davis had actually been put to death.
Since this is the second decade of the 21st century, Twitter, for us, broke the news of the delay first, with Kim Severson, the Atlanta bureau chief for The New York Times reporting at 7:05pm EDT, five minutes after Davis was scheduled to die, that his execution did not happen with the single word "Stay!".
At about half past the hour we read it on Wikipedia. While generally trustworthy, we have reason not to believe everything we read on Wikipedia, so we read their reference, a story in The Australian, which cited the Times. The Australian had to be following Severson, too, because this tidbit appeared to be news to The New York Times' homepage, which hadn't posted a story yet.
At 7:45 EDT, major news organizations like the Associated Press, the hometown Atlanta-Journal Constitution, our personal bellwether The Los Angeles Times, and even The New York Times itself still had not moved the story, and it still wasn't immediately clear whether the execution had actually been stayed or rather postponed until word from the Supreme Court was received.
HUT, HUT HIKE…OR WHATEVER THEY DO: Official Writer's Shack faves the All Blacks, New Zealand's national rugby team, is 2-0 in exciting Pool A action at the Rugby World Cup they are hosting. In their last match on September 16 our All Blacks were in tough against the dreaded Japanese, barely squeaking out an 83-7 victory that wasn't decided until the third or fourth minute.
We Are Not Making This Up: Japan's team is nicknamed the Brave Blossoms.
Up Next: Our All Blacks are off until Saturday, when they take on goddamned France. Recall France defeated our All Blacks in the quarterfinals of the 2007 Rugby World Cup, which they hosted although this match was played in Wales because the French can't even get geography right. They resorted to nefarious tactics in this match, too. First, they made our All Blacks wear their white uniforms (known as 'kits' in the rugby world), and then they cheated left and right during the match.
USA! USA! Team USA actually won last Thursday, a 13-6 demolition of the hate Russians, which isn't exactly a ringing endorsement because the Russians are appearing in their first World Cup and aren't any good, either.
Dry, Technical Matter: It was just the third victory for the Americans in six World Cups, dating back to 1987.
Still Though: The Eagles are still in the hunt for bracket play and take on the Australians on Friday.
No Rush: The quarterfinals begin October 8, and the championship match is on October 23.
HEY, BEFORE I DIE, GET YOUR QUILL OUT AND WRITE THIS DOWN: American patriot/rebel Nathan Hale is executed for spying on this date in 1776. He had been caught in New York City in southern Manhattan, and our research leads to believe the account where he was discovered by a British officer in a pub. This officer posed as a fellow patriot before betraying and arresting Hale.
That same research shows that it is possible, and maybe even probable though certainly not definite, that Hale said "I only regret that I have but one life to give for my country" though every account agrees Hale met his death with admirable calm and dignity.
God, We Suck: The St. Louis Browns lose the most lopsided doubleheader shutout in major league history on this date in 1936, losing to the Detroit Tigers 12-0 and 14-0. Interestingly, more or less, is that the Browns were shut out only a total of five times in 1936.
Thought For The Day: Government will continue to be about as good as concerned and conscientious citizens make it. - Gerald Ford
Answer To The Last Trivia Question: Before Tom Browning, Sandy Koufax had thrown the last perfect game in the National League, on September 9, 1965.
Today's Stumper: What were the other two Team USA wins at the Rugby World Cup? - Answer next time!
Comments? Recipes? Complaints? Email the Writer's Shack here!
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