The Heavy Anglophile Orthodox

Tomorrow, the state of Georgia will destroy a living, breathing human being. This will occur based only on a handful of eyewitnesses (a very unreliable form of evidence - the state has no physical evidence of Mr Davis’ guilt) - the great majority of whom either partially or wholly recanted their testimony under closer scrutiny. And it will occur despite the outcry for clemency from a number of authoritative figures within the Church, who ought to serve as the consciences of our time: the Rt Rev’d Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the Rt Rev’d Archbishop Wilton Gregory and His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI.

Regardless of one’s opinion of capital punishment in general, this is not the appropriate action of a judicial system whose right and proper end is the pursuit of justice, which is based in truth. This is not the action of a good or healthy society. This is, rather, a system whose procedures and whose value system will produce a result which is entirely depraved: the destruction of the life of a man who may be innocent of this crime, in the pursuit of vengeance.

UPDATE: I concur with the New York Times editorial board.