If you are upset about the Troy Davis execution, DO SOMETHING

[Empowerer]

It's too late to save Troy Davis, but it's not too late to make a difference.

Defendants are executed more than once a week in this country. Many of them are innocent. Many more of them were wrongly convicted. But I don't see a groundswell of liberal outrage over those cases - those poor people just die in the quiet dark with hardly a notice by anyone outside of their families. While I think it's good that people may get motivated by this horrible miscarriage of justice, it also sickens me to think that some of this "outrage" is based solely on the amount of news coverage the case got, not on any real commitment or concern about the true injustice of the death penalty in this country.

Sadly, my fear is that for many progressives, outrage over the Troy Davis case was a matter of getting caught up in the hype of a media frenzy. Yes, we think his sentence was unjust. Yes, we think the death penalty is wrong. Yes, we raged on the internets about it and even put our names on internet petitions (before going back to doing whatever else we were doing online). But that's the easy part.

If people are so upset and outraged about what happened yesterday, rather than spending all of your time and effort beating up on the President because he didn't stop an execution he couldn't stop, I urge you to get off your asses and do something right in your own backyard to change things. I'm sure that there are plenty of people right in your own state who are facing execution as a result of wrongful convictions

What are you going to do now? Are you going to look around your own state to find out what's happening in the criminal justice system? Are you going to learn about various convictions and research them to determine if they were fair. Are you willing to visit a state penitentiary to talk to any condemned persons? Are you willing to get involved in an innocence project that involves actually doing some leg work and elbow grease?

Don't just sit there complaining about what the President didn't say. DO SOMETHING!

[Whisp]

1. K&R

sickened by it alll - the execution and the stupidity

[GreenPartyVoter]

2. I am one of those lucky people who live in a non-dp state, but I will do

what I can to help people fight it in other states.

[Enrique]

3. the President?

i'm not seeing much about the president in this discussion. In fact this OP is the first that I've seen that connects him to Troy Davis. I'm sure I've missed some posts, but I'm also sure that most people are not thinking about the president this much.

[Pab Sungenis]

5. There were a few shit stirrers who tried to get us to blame Obama for not pardoning him

and some others who were just so angry at the injustice that they were lashing out.

Obama had nothing to do with it, for good or for ill.

[polmaven]

4. Here is a start...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x1984123

It is time we had a Constitutional Amendment to ban capital punishment altogether.

[ProSense]

6. The Quiet Revolution In The Death Penalty Debate

The Quiet Revolution In The Death Penalty Debate

<...>

The last federal execution happened in President George W. Bush's first term, in 2003. Louis Jones Jr. was a military veteran convicted and sentenced to death for raping and killing a woman soldier.

But not everything related to the federal death penalty is stuck in neutral gear. Last month, after more than two years of study, the Justice Department quietly adjusted the directions it gives federal prosecutors who want to seek the death penalty.

<...>

The Obama Justice Department made another significant change recently, Bruck adds.

"This administration is much less likely to seek the death penalty or to authorize or require a prosecutor to seek the death penalty in cases involving the murders of drug dealers," he says.

<...>

The administration definitely needs to be pushed to abolish the death penalty.

[The Doctor.]

7. Anyone who unrecs a positive action thread,

and can't be bothered to explain why, is a coward.

[Chipper Chat]

8. I'm not going to drive thru Georgia anymore on my way to Florida.

No more eating at their Dairy Queens, buying gas at their Loves Truck Stops, or staying overnight at their Hampton Inns. I'll try I-65 thru Alabama this winter.

[Empowerer]

9. That's great

But could you do a little more?

[Enrique]

10. that's great!

period! :hi: :toast: :thumbsup:

[SidDithers]

11. The Innocence Project

http://www.innocenceproject.org/

Might want to kick 'em a few bucks.

Sid