people who have a conscience. you re killing somebody. and there s no denying that. and especially when we know that several people have been declared innocent with the new scientific techniques, and we re not real sure if the individual we re executing this evening or next week is really guilty. and that in itself, that kind of doubt. the other thing most of us know all the research which indicates that capital punishment does not deter. and it seems so illogical to say to the public we do not want you to kill, and to demonstrate that we re going to kill individuals. the man who was killed last night in texas in the same hour that troy davis had been assigned to be killed initially, the son of the man who that
he had bad legal representation in the trial that got him the death penalty. but here, again, there s no basic question about his guilt. is the justice of the death penalty fundamentally about the goodness or badness of the person who is to be killed? is it about their guilt or innocence? or is it an intrinsic question about whether or not the governments that we build for ourselves are governments that should kill prisoners? to the extent that killing prisoners is one of the jobs we ask of state government employees, it s not an abstract thing. it is a physical job to be done. and it is a job that requires tools. georgia used a relatively new set of tools to kill troy davis last night. the state had its supply of sodium pentothal seized by the federal government earlier this year under suspicion that the state had imported it illegally from a fly by night drug distributor based out of the back of a driving school in west london. so instead of sodium pentothal, which the state used for
anyone. and that s because of who we are, not who they are. vice president dick cheney, of course, argued the opposite. vice president cheney argued and continues to argue that torture is justified, that it shouldn t even be called torture because of who the united states did it to. you ve heard endlessly about waterboarding. it happened to three terrorists. to call this a program of torture is to libel the dedicated professionals who have saved american lives and to cast terrorists and murderers as innocent victims. is it not torture if it is done to bad people or if it is useful in some way? there s now a new national debate about the death penalty after a prisoner named troy davis was put to death by the state of georgia last night more than four hours after his scheduled time of death on the fourth day that had been set as his execution date. the consternation and controversy over troy davis s execution centered on doubts of his guilt. 7 of the 9 witnesses whose testimony was u
convicted him say now that they would not have voted to convict if they d known then what they know now about the case. when troy davis s execution was delayed last night at 7:00 p.m. eastern in georgia, the state of texas at the exact same time went ahead with killing a prisoner named wlurns lawrence brewer. they killed lawrence brewer for the racist hate crime murder of james byrd in texas in 1998. there was no question as to lawrence brewer s guilt. tonight the state of alabama killed a prisoner named derrick mason for a murder in 1994. the judge who sentenced derrick mason to die lobbied against the execution. the judge saying that he actually ruled incorrectly in the case and mr. mason should not be killed by the state. although there is that controversy over mr. mason s sentence, there is no basic question about derrick mason s guilt. today the state of georgia, about half a day after they killed troy davis, set their next execution date on october 5th for marcus ray johnson for
and that s because of who we are, not who they are. vice president dick cheney, of course, argued the opposite. vice president cheney argued and continues to argue that torture is justified, that it shouldn t even be called torture because of who the united states did it to. you ve heard endlessly about waterboarding. it happened to three terrorists. to call this a program of torture is to libel the dedicated professionals who have saved american lives and to cast terrorists and murderers as innocent victims. is it not torture if it is done to bad people or if it is useful in some way? there s now a new national debate about the death penalty after a prisoner named troy davis was put to death by the state of georgia last night more than four hours after his scheduled time of death on the fourth day that had been set as his execution date. the consternation and controversy over troy davis s execution centered on doubts of his guilt. 7 of the 9 witnesses whose testimony was used to c