Two people, two countries, same result. Iran and the United States, two ardent enemies, seemed to agree on at least one thing Wednesday: killing is okay. There will be critics who argue the death penalty saves lives, is a deterrent and a practice supported by religion. In the end, two more people are dead – let us not forget the thousands others who languish in Iranian and American prisons awaiting their death at government's hands. As we look back on a week where public executions finally returned to the spotlight, it is time to question its usefulness. Troy Davis was convicted of killing a police officer in Georgia. It became ever so clear that Davis did not commit the crime, but instead of allowing the legal system to do its job, angry white people once again failed to stand up for average citizens, with the Supreme Court saying no to a stay that would have given investigators more time to review evidence that any average person could have come to only one conclusion: he wasn't guilty. In Iran, a 17-year-old was hanged, publicly, after having been convicted of killing the country's “strongest man.” He was a minor, who claimed he acted in self-defense. International rights groups condemned the move, saying Iran should not execute a minor. It shouldn't matter. If the man were 17, 18, 25 or 50, would the circumstances change. It is time for state-run killing to end. How many more scenes that were witnessed in Georgia will happen before we, as a global society, stand up for what is right? Davis used his dying breath to insist he was not responsible for killing Mark MacPhail, an off-duty Savannah, Georgia, police officer gunned down in 1989 while coming to the aid of a homeless man. “I personally did not kill your son, father and brother,” he told the victim's family as he was strapped to a gurney in a Georgia prison in preparation for the lethal injection. “I am innocent.” In Iran, the international community was outraged over a minor being executed. “Executing juvenile offenders – whatever their age at the time of execution – is strictly forbidden under international treaties that Iran has signed up to. It is high time for the Iranian authorities to take their international obligations seriously and immediately stop executing teenagers,” added Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, Amnesty International's Deputy Director for the Middle East and North Africa. We should re-examine our moral code and ethics following the two executions. Davis was most likely not guilty of killing the officer, and the Molla-Soltani's conviction was clouded in uncertainty. That uncertainty should be enough to change minds and attitudes. Yes, there are real horrible people on this planet, who commit the most gruesome acts imaginable, but why then respond to their cruelty with killing? It seems to be one of those odd illogical arguments that is so often made: an eye for an eye. They kill, so we should kill. It seems as if by arguing this way, we, as citizens in countries where the death penalty persists, from Iran to the US to Egypt and China, are equating the law with murder. “They did it, so we will too” only perpetuates the idea that murder, if justified is a solution. One can get into the nuts and bolts of statistics, murder rates and crime in states that have the death penalty as opposed to those that don't. Most figures, international rights groups say, show that countries and governments that do not employ the death penalty have much lower murder rates than those who do. There's something to that. When the government tells its people “we won't kill people” it may be a step toward creating a society that embraces a culture of peace. Criminals should face justice, should spent years and years in jail. Rapists and murderers should spend the rest of their lives behind bars, cut off from society, but at the same time, by killing Davis and Molla-Soltani, there is no justice, only anger and uncertainty. Is this the world we want to live in? Doubtful. How many people will have to continue to die at the hands of the world's governments before we stand up and say enough is enough. Give justice a chance. Hey, at least Iran and the US have some common ground to start talking again, right? BM
