In the wake of Troy Davis’s execution, may students think so.By Rosemaira De La Cruz.On September 21, Troy Davis was executed for the murder of an off duty cop in Georgia, a crime he allegedly committed in 1989. However, some facts of the case remain in question. Witnesses who testified against him 20 years ago later admitted they weren’t sure or said they were coerced by police to testify against him. The controversy surrounding the evidence, as well as general disagreement about the death penalty, particularly among young people, triggered protests all across the country, and the world.The uproar over the execution and capital punishment in general has been particularly loud in New York City.On Thursday September 22, the day after Davis died of a lethal injection, City College and New York University students spoke out against his execution. CCNY students gathered from 12-2PM on the corner of 138th street and Amsterdam, holding banners and signs that protested the decision to execute Davis. Later in the afternoon, NYU students gathered on the corner of Washington Square East to make their opinions heard.“It’s not fair: God should be the only person to take someone’s life away,” says Dilia Sanchez, 20, a senior at CCNY. “Especially if there is no hard evidence, I just don’t understand how they can kill a human being.”“We don’t have the right to make that judgment,” adds Luis Flores, a 23-year-old sophomore at the Borough of Manhattan Community College. “We can’t just take someone’s life away without sufficient evidence. “Capital punishment should be banned in the United States.”Still, not all students are against capital punishment. Some feel that it should be practiced in the United States. “If it is statistically supportive, then go for it,” says David Dong, 19, a sophomore at NYU. “I don’t know why people are freaking out; there are more important things to protest about.”Despite some disagreement about the death penalty, on the whole, most students think capital punishment is wrong--no matter the circumstance. The execution of Troy Davis has added fire to their argument.“Killing someone is not going to bring back another person’s life,” says Jhonny Luciano, 23, a freshman at Bronx Community College. “It’s just wrong.”
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