The problem with most of us, is that we don't know the whole truth about him, or the situation that landed him in prison.
We can research, and read, and listen to pundits and news reporters, but we are still a bit powerless.
We have no idea about a person's innocence or guilt. We weren't there.
All we can respond to, is what we have been told.
By our opinions, we also prove our ignorance of the law.
Our hearts and emotions speak louder than anything else.
We want common sense to prevail.
What seems like a simple matter is more complicated than we think it should be, and the unwillingness to make things right in our eyes, is infuriating.
We don't know the particulars.
We just don't like the idea of an innocent person being punished for something he or she didn't do (especially if that person is one of us --or one of "US").
It's not fair, or right, but it's real.
Racism, injustice, lying, deception, racial profiling, wickedness, and anything else we can associate with the travesty of the day, do exist.
Sometimes we bank on the integrity of people who don't have any.
Surely, the person who actually committed the crime won't just sit back and do nothing.
They'll feel horrible, speak up and turn themselves in, won't they?
We want "somebody" to do something.
We feel helpless.
We take jabs at the judicial system.
We don't see what's so difficult about a change of decision.
We look to leaders--people we think have more clout or importance than we do. Surely, one word from THEM will make a difference, right?
IS there a federal issue about which the President could ask for an investigation, and halt the execution of Troy Davis?
Does the Commander-in-Chief have no more options in the matter than the rest of us?
Is this a job for Superman?
Fact is, we can tweet, and post, and picket, and sign petitions, and call our congressmen and women all day if we like. Will what we do change anything at all? Will we wake up in the morning, shake our collective heads, and read that a man was put to death in spite of all we think we knew, yet could do nothing about?
Is it time to pray?
After He has, once again, proven Himself faithful, we, so often, stop talking to God and resume our regularly scheduled programming. I hope this time, we keep talking--even if it's not an emergency.
"...the "bias against punishment" had its roots in "the most famous of all miscarriages of justice: Christ's crucifixion." ~Alexander Volokh
"...no man, if guilty, is ever acquitted with himself as the judge, though he may have won in the courtroom..." ~Juvenal
"All guilt is punished on earth." ~Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
"SURE it's better to let 10 guilty men go free than to convict an innocent man in the case where the man's REALLY completely innocent" ~R. Park
"If anyone is destined for captivity, to captivity he goes." ~Revelation 13:10
"Keep thee far from a false matter; and the innocent and righteous slay thou not: for I will not justify the wicked." ~Exodus 23:7
"A lamentable condition is that of an innocent man, to whom haste and procedure have found a crime.." ~Jean de La Bruyère
"It would be as pernicious to leave the guilty unpunished as to punish innocent people." ~Renward Garcia Medrano
"Nothing is more easy than thus to philosophize and act the patriot for others." ~Samuel Romilly
"...ideally, the acquittal of 10 guilty persons is exactly 10 times as great a failure of justice as the conviction of one innocent person."
"...my case is exceptional. I'm innocent! We are all exceptional cases. We all want to appeal something!..." ~Albert Camus
"A guilty man punished is an example for the rabble; an innocent man condemned is a matter for all honest people." ~Jean de La Bruyère
"What I want is justice for that one innocent man, but not a free ride for the guilty ones." ~Elsie Tu
"Most Americans would allow a considerable number of guilty persons to go free than to convict any appreciable number of innocent men." ~HJF
"It's better to turn five guilty men loose than it is to convict one innocent man. " ~Thomas Berry Bruce
"It's better for four guilty men to go free, than one innocent man to be imprisoned." ~George Raveling
"American jurisprudence is contradictory and tormented on the subject of guilty men." ~Alexander Volokh
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