World: Mourning the Execution of Troy Davis
Despite the reprieve granted to Troy Davis earlier today, just over four hours after our last report, Davis was executed.
Around the world, and particularly in the United States, Twitter is in a state of morning. The hashtag #RIPTroyDavis is currently trending, and individuals are expressing their feelings about Davis's case, as well as about the state of capital punishment in the United States.
From Philadelphia, @ShamaraOnAir reports:
Watching CNN 11:08 was time of death #RIPTROYDAVIS
From Iowa, @Jasminenkelly tweets:
Troy Davis campaign image, by Tricia Wang uploaded by Flickr user dabnotu (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0).
Racism and injustice still exists just on a different scale… we dnt have KKK's in sheets anymore they are our law makers. #RIPTROYDAVIS
Journalist Dan Gillmor rails against the death penalty, saying:
Bad enough that death penalty exists. But tonight, our system of “justice” killed another person whose guilt was hugely in doubt. Travesty.
From Barbados, @bajanswaggboy remarks:
#RIPTroyDavis. No murder weapon, no DNA, 7 of 9 witnesses recant their testimonies. Seriously? How do you execute someone without evidence?
And from the UK, @tweety_coco says:
Still in shock. Just cannot believe this can happen in 2011. #riptroydavis
Linda Sarsour (@lsarsour), a Palestinian-American activist, states:
#TroyDavis will be the fuel I need to continue my quest for social justice. He will never be forgotten. #RIPTroyDavis
While the case of Troy Davis has certainly drawn interest from the public, many are cynical that the case is a one-off, and that US citizens will not continue to fight against the death penalty. Or as Palestinian @Falasteeni put it shortly before the execution took place:
What saddens me most abt expected murder of #TroyDavis is tht nothing will happen, no movement will grow to make sure it never happens again
4 comments
C’mon all you people of truth lets get real eh..oils the prize in the middle east is it not.?
As the world mourns for Troy Davis, the following captures the emotions of many of us –
“I was internalizing the feeling of sadness, hopelessness, frustration about the mighty, glorified U.S. justice system, and a bone-chilling feeling of death — as if Lord Yama, the God of Death was knocking at his doorstep, to fetch him. I could not take it anymore. I went to sleep.”
Partha Banerjee, a human rights activist, wrote an emotional piece on his blog One Final Blog http://onefinalblog.wordpress.com/ – you can read the full piece there or the reprint on http://www.lassiwithlavina.com