THE DEATH PENALTY

Last night a man named Troy Davis was put to death by lethal injection by the State of Georgia. He had sat on Death Row since 1991, when he was convicted of killing an off-duty policeman. He had always maintained his innocence, and did so again in his final speech.

The policeman was shot dead in 1989, when he tried to help a homeless man being attacked in a burger restaurant car park. The prosecution case was that Davis was beating the man with a gun, after demanding a beer from him. However, no gun (i.e. no murder weapon) was ever found, and there was no conclusive DNA evidence linking Davis to the murder. Furthermore, seven of the nine witnesses who testified against Davis subsequently either recanted or changed their evidence. It should also be said that Davis was black (research shows that blacks and other minorities are disproprotionately represented on Death Row).

Because of these facts, thousands of people, ranging from ex-President Jimmy Carter to the current Pope, called for the case to be reopened; Davis had been subject to a miscarriage of justice. At a minimum, the death sentence should be commuted. However, the whole U.S. appeals system, including at the very end a review by the Supreme Court, the nation's highest judicial body, refused to overturn the original judgment. Sentence was carried out immediately after the Supreme Court's decision.

The United States' practice of putting its own citizens to death is one of the major differences between it and other rich-world countries. Although support for the death penalty exists in other countries (notably the U.K.) amongst the general population, their Governments have abolished it, not least because of well-publicised miscarriages of justice. Similar miscarriages of justice, brought to light because of the more widespread use of DNA testing, have caused rethinks and abandonment of the death penalty in some U.S. states. But it is still a long way from the position in the E.U., where it is illegal under E.U. law for a Member State to impose the death penalty.

Taking a long view of history, there have been very few developments, which indubitably show that the human race has improved over time. The only one that I can think of is a gradual downward trend - ending in zero - in the number of situations where authorities (whether kings, Parliaments or courts) can legally put one of their subjects to death. Against that background, I have to say that the U.S. position is barbaric, uncivilised even. It's a great country to visit, but I could never live there.

Walter Blotscher