Should Troy Davis have been executed?
Agree or disagree, it’s unlikely many are apathetic on an issue of life, death and justice.
The Troy Davis case is tonight’s focus for Tea Talks, a monthly series of campus conversations to be held in the Campus Y’s Anne Queen lounge.
It’s an initiative launched last year by a number of students, myself included; you might remember the tea which followed Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf’s visit in the spring.
We launched the series because we believe that if individuals from across UNC can regularly converse together outside our little silos of student (or employee) life, it will strengthen our community.
By considering the case of Troy Davis, we can learn a lot about each other.
Growing up in the United Kingdom, I was taught that capital punishment was abhorrent and that the abolition of the death penalty was the mark of a civilized country.
Of course, I’d never known violent crime in my community, nor felt its repercussions. When the senseless murder of Eve Carson rocked this campus during my freshman year, I found it harder to condemn those who called for her killers to receive the death penalty.
But the Troy Davis case seems to fit everything I was raised to see as wrong with capital punishment, including the possibility of innocent men and women being put to death, the delayed and inconsistent application of the punishment and the way that the victim of the crime is lost amidst the media circus.
That’s my perspective. I would love to hear yours, and to understand the experiences and values which have led you to reach it.
