[CE]US state executes convict despite appeals

http://english.aljazeera.net//news/americas/2011/09/2011920223328333340.html

Troy Davis, a convicted murderer, has been executed in the US state of Georgia after the US Supreme Court denied a last minute stay which would have stopped the lethal injection. He was put in death after twenty years, for killing Mark MacPhail, a white police officer of Savannah. MacPhail was working as a security guard at a Burger King restaurant when he intervened to defend a man being assaulted in a nearby parking lot. During David's 1991 trial, seven witnesses testified they had seen Davis shoot MacPhail, and two others testified that Davis had confessed the murder to them.“However, seven of the nine witnesses who testified against Davis in his 1991 trial later changed their testimony, and two witnesses said they saw another man - who originally blamed Davis for the killing - pull the trigger,” says in the article.

This event has aroused wide public concern. Troy Davis has been jailed for twenty years and put to death as an innocent person; I felt sad for him. At the mean time, many questions occurred to me. Those witnesses were doubtful. Which statement they said is true? And if the second one is true, what made they lied at the first time? I also think about the death penalty. People have been argued that should there be a death penalty for a long time. A death penalty may put an innocent person to death, just like Troy Davis in this case. They do not deserve to endure the punishments for the real criminal. Also, some people would say even the government should not done the same crime as those condemned one. What if those criminals killed your most beloved ones? Will people who opposed the death penalty still stay in their primary positions?