By: Martin Rand, III
Date: September 26, 2011
Last week, Troy Davis, a man who was convicted of a crime he possible didn't commit, was executed for killing an off-duty police officer. There was little evidence to prove he committed the crime and only two people claimed he killed the officer.
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| Troy Davis (above) was executed with little evidence against him. Will his death be enough to change the legal system? |
This sparked a worldwide protest against the use of the death penalty. In the hours leading up to the execution, people protest in various ways. Some marched in front of political establishments and others took to social media to voice their opinion.
I only have one question: Now what?
Are people actually going to stay on this topic and try to get the death penalty abolished nationwide and not let Davis die in vain? Can they do more than just protest an injustice hours before a man is supposed to die and continue to protest weeks, months or even years from this time period?
I don't think so. In this era, if a web page doesn't load instantly, the user will move on to the next page to find the information. I doubt this generation will have the focus it takes to change something in the legal system.
Now don't get me wrong. In a spur of the moment, people can come together in masses and try to right a wrong; but don't expect anything like the bus boycott during the civil rights movement, where the people had to actually alter their convenience of transportation to fight an injustice.
Unfortunately, it will take that type of determination to get rid of the death penalty. Anyone can send a tweet or post a status on Facebook and not think twice about it. However, like in any situation, words with no action fall on deaf ears and end up meaningless.
Too many times I have seen people say something is wrong but do nothing fix the situation. With this Davis execution,I see the same thing happening. If people really cared about Davis and want to see change it's going to take a lot from the people. If the people don't contribute, Davis will go down in history as another Sean Bell or Jena 6.
While the death of Davis was probably wrong, it has happened and people need to move forward. What's the next move? What's the next action? I don't know. I just hope all the people who protested are still trying to fight this issue because it's something they truly care about and not because it was trending on Twitter at the time.
The fact is people have already forgotten about this whole situation because it didn't directly affect a majority of people. Until this generation learns how to care about an issue for a longer period of time, the death penalty will not be abolished.
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