Cruel and Unusual? Comparison Assignment

And so the forever old debate continues... is the death penalty justified or is it cruel and unusual punishment?


Troy Davis was convicted of murdering a police officer in Savannah, Georgia in 1989. Only some of us were alive during this event, but on August 21, 2011, he was executed by lethal injection after petitions for his release, and a couple of set execution dates that had been pushed back pending legal appeal.
Previously, however, Davis was accused of shooting a man in a passing car in 1989. Allegedly, he continued on his way and assaulted a homeless man. Policeman Mark MacPhail was working as a security guard at the time and was shot while trying to intervene in the attack. He died of the wounds. In 1990, Davis pleaded not guilty to 3 charges, resulting in a trial. He was found guilty of murder by a trial after just two hours of deliberation. Sentencing consisted of seven hours of deliberation, resulting in a recommendation of the death penalty by the jury, which was granted by the presiding judge.
Execution date number one was July 17, 2007. The day before the execution was to take place, the Georgia State Board of Pardons and Paroles postponed the execution to evaluate evidence again. The date was moved to September 23, 2008. Minutes before the execution, the Supreme Court halted the motion. Due to arguments between legal council, the date was moved again to October 27, 2008. On October 21, 2008, a habeas petition with almost 150,000 signatures was filed. This meant that citizens were calling for Troy Davis to appear in front of a judge to secure his release unless there were legal grounds for him to be held in prison. The petition was denied. Davis then filed his own petition on May 19, 2009, again to be denied. Various other arguments pushed the execution back a few more times until it was decided that date would be slated September 21, 2011. Scheduled at 7 p.m, the execution was postponed again due to a request from Davis to halt the execution, which was denied by Superior Court, denied by the Supreme Court, reviewed by the Supreme Court, and officially denied. Almost four hours after the slated execution time, the procedure began. Regardless of protestors rallying against the death of Troy Davis, he was pronounced dead shortly after 11:00 p.m.


The coverage of this case was very public, and very vast in nature. Print media seemed to sum up the details of the case quickly. The USA Today specifically didn't include as many case details as other forms of news media. Online news sources such as CNN covered it in much more detail. Because the stories continued to come out with more information, it was published again quickly with the same background details without an issue. For print media, however, the space is very limited, and the more space an article takes up, the more it takes to print. The CBS Evening News coverage was similar to that of the online source. Although there is limited time for information to be delivered, they were able to give background information on the case as well as new developments. I think I got more out of the online sources than any of the others because new stories and new developments within the same story could be published quickly with the most information.


As a matter of fact, is life in prison cruel and unusual punishment? That is yet to really be argued publicly. Most of the motions regarding punishment are about abortion and the death penalty.