Failure

Tonight, an innocent man was put to death. Tonight, a family will mourn the loss of a loved one murdered by the hand of The State. Another family will feel justified despite the fact that there was too much doubt. There was I time when I was down for the Death Penalty. An eye for an eye and all that bullshit. But the fact of the matter is that the Death Penalty isn't a deterrent. If a cat wants to take you to the terrordome, then they will. Whether impelled by passion or malice, they will do what they feel like they need to and the Death Penalty won't play nan one role in their actions.

What is the point of it anyway? Does sending some soul on their way for some crime that they may or may not have committed change anything? Your family member, loved one, or whoever is still gone. And what about innocence? When there is too much doubt to be sure? Hundreds of folks have been released from prison behind DNA evidence proving that the 5, 10, 20 years they spent counting the days until the government that they paid taxes to sends them to their eternal rest fucked up and wasted their lives behind a mistake.

Tonight, I feel it in my bones that a mistake was made. The justice system failed and keeps failing. Tonight's failure cannot be reversed and God have mercy on the souls of the folks who enabled this failure.

My condolences to the family of Troy Davis and to the McPhail family. You all have been played and God and everyone else involved knows the truth.

Days like today make it really hard to be an American. Even harder still to be Black and not feel some sort of bitterness about what went down tonight.

This is completely and utterly fucked up and I am sad.

RIP Troy.