Will The Troy Davis Case Spark More Death Penalty Opposition?

Troy Davis was executed last night for allegedly killing police officer Mark Allen MacPhail in 1989. The conviction rested largely on eyewitness testimony, and many of the witnesses later recanted or altered their testimony.

Davis maintained his innocence up until the time he was executed and even agreed to taking a lie detector test, a motion which was blocked.

The jury in Davis’s murder trial was aware that some of the eyewitness accounts of the murder were suspect and several judges reviewed the case but declined to overturn the conviction.

The level of interest in the case spread like wild fire thanks to the internet.

Larry Cox, executive director of Amnesty International USA, said anti-death penalty groups were amazed at the public reaction to the case, according to the Wall Street Journal. “This case went viral,” Cox said last night, speaking to reporters in Jackson, Georgia, which houses the prison where Davis was executed with a three-drug cocktail. “It took off globally,” Cox said. “He’s now a household name.”

But will this have an affect on how society views the death penalty and how civilians fight for justice? Did we do enough to keep him from dying?