What the fuck, Supreme Court?

Consider this my advanced death penalty directive: If I am murdered, I do not want my killer killed

If I am murdered, there's a pretty high probability my killer won't even make it to trial.

I'm not entirely sure how I feel about that.

What the fuck, Supreme Court?

Jesus christ, guys, when did trial by media stop being something we were all opposed to, and start being sexy?

Everyone seems to think they know this case better than the juries and the appeals panels that have been involved. Davis got more than his fair share of appeals and hearings, and at each stage of the appeal, the story has been the same: they believe the original evidence and testimonies, they are skeptical about the retractions and partial retractions now, it would be disingenuous and misleading to admit this new "evidence" late, and Davis is guilty.

Choice quotes from wikipedia:

On the evening of September 21, 2011, Spencer Lawton, the former Chatham County prosecutor who put Davis on trial, broke his silence and spoke to CNN to rebut what he called a "public relations campaign." Lawton said he had no doubts about Davis' guilt and said that Davis' supporters were misinformed. "We have consistently won the case as it has been presented in court. We have consistently lost the case as it has been presented in the public realm, on TV and elsewhere."

The lead detective testified that his investigation was "very meticulous and careful .... I was in no rush just to pick the first guy we got our hands on. I wanted the right guy." He stated that eyewitnesses gave "strikingly similar descriptions on how the shooter was dressed," mostly describing the shooter as wearing a white T-shirt and dark pants, which other witnesses said Davis was wearing that evening. A state attorney asserted that the testimony of at least five prosecution witnesses remained unchallenged, and the evidence of Davis's guilt was overwhelming. In July 2010, Davis's lawyers filed a motion asking Moore to reconsider his decision to exclude testimony from a witness to a confession by Coles,[105] but in August 2010, Moore stood by his initial decision, stating that in not calling Coles, Davis's lawyers were seeking to implicate Coles without desiring his rebuttal.

It went before the supreme court, they were unwilling to consider even a stay of execution. He had his time in court, he was repeatedly affirmed to be guilty, move on with your lives.

Someone has to play Devil's advocate around here.  We all seem to be agreeing on EVERYTHING lately and it gets a bit echo-chambery.

Tweak, I've pretty much always called this forum out when your idiotic groupthink is even more off base than usual. Though usually, it's more because you've all come to a reactionary conclusion based off incomplete data, (like the Greene vs County of Sonoma thing back in early 2010, or the hysteria over Tony Simmons "keeping his job working with youth", and others), and I'm less trying to play devils advocate, and more desperately trying to trying to extol the virtues of boring things like "fact checking" and "waiting for the full picture of events to develop before forming opinions" and "Not being a bunch of fucking automatons with no inherent cynicism or intellectual independence".

The reason I get so frustrated with this is because it's the type of shit you normally get from Michael Moore fans, not from denizens of this forum. Once upon a time, this forum tempered it's passion for discussing meaningful issues of the day with common sense and a respect for the facts of the matter. Though I guess that now that all the people with working forebrains have left for greener pastures, the only one who posts political topics is Bistromath, and the only people left who comment on such topics are you assholes.

I guess what I'm saying is that I remember a time when you were actually able to process and analyse incoming data, rather than just accepting it if it jives with your preconceived notions. I miss those days.

Yesterday was the International Day of Peace.  I thought maybe I'd wear a little peace-sign pin at work, so show my support for the movement, but first I knew it would be a good idea to ask if I could.  I asked my supervisor, she told me I should ask Gary (our store director).  So I went to Gary, I explained about the Day of Peace, and I showed him the pin I wanted to wear - about an inch across, with a peace sign superimposed over an image of the Earth.  He told me I couldn't, because it would be "too controversial."

...is this really the world we live in?  Supporting the idea of "Hey everyone, let's just spend one day not killing each other" is controversial?  Seriously?

Which is another reason I found it so disheartening that the Troy Davis issue came to its final, and fatal, end yesterday.

If we are to err, let it be on the side of deliberation and mercy, rather than the unsettling finality

I think killing people is a bad idea in general.  I think it's a sad sad thing when anyone is executed. I know nothing about the case except that someone was executed. I can think that it's a sad sad thing that someone was executed without thinking the court fucked up.

TGU, since you live in the US, I imagine the "controversy" was 'showing a lack of support for The Troops,' rather than 'thinking it'd be nice if we thought about not killing one another.'

If we are to err, let it be on the side of deliberation and mercy, rather than the unsettling finality

I agree with this. On a philosophical level, I believe that someone who commits murder really doesn't deserve to live any more. However, unless we can get our legal system to the point where no innocent person is ever sentenced to die, I cannot support the death penalty. One mistaken execution is too many.