Too Much Doubt

I am writing this blog post as reports of a delay (or perhaps a stay?) in Troy Davis' execution are circulating. Either way, he's been sedated for over an hour and has no idea what is going on. That image breaks my heart.

Leading up to the scheduled execution, I saw a lot of activity on Twitter and Facebook around the controversy, including this Twitter hashtag: #toomuchdoubt. In a case with no physical evidence and eyewitnesses recanting left and right, there absolutely is too much doubt. Troy Davis never should have been on death row.

However, my opposition to the death penalty extends beyond cases in which there is too much doubt. I don't think it is possible for there to be little enough doubt to justify capital punishment. I wrote an article in 2007 for the inaugural issue of the magazine Religio outlining my stance on the death penalty, and it still basically says all I want to say on the subject.

I could probably produce a more theologically complicated and flowery account today, but I don't much feel like it. I serve a God who was a victim of the death penalty and whose death and resurrection freed us from slavery to sin and death. Wherever we perpetuate a culture of death, we enslave each other and ourselves all over again.

So I wait to hear more about the Troy Davis case with tears in my eyes, knowing that I would oppose his execution even if he had been convicted beyond the shadow of a doubt.