The Murder Of James Byrd By Lawrence Russell Baker

In recent years, two executions in the U.S have generated a great deal of publicity. One of these executions included Troy Davis, convicted and executed for the murder of a police officer in 1989. Another crime in 1989 led to the conviction and execution of Lawrence Russell Brewer, in which Brewer dragged a man by the name of James Byrd to death. Even though the motives and situations of the two crimes were extremely different, the sentence for the two men were the same: death. These sentencings generated a great deal of publicity. Davis professed is innocence until the very end, nevertheless he was convicted regardless of the fact that seven of the nine witnesses recanted their evidence against Davis. These factors caused many people to be skeptical as to who really commited the murder and created reasonable doubt to Davis' guilt. As a result of this, hundreds of individuals took up Davis' cause and sought to have his case reopened. However, the U.S Supreme court

Does the government have the right to take a person's live in the name of justice? Some would say "of course" in the case of the murder of James Byrd by Lawrence Brewer and other heinous crimes. This reaction is a result of emotion and the need for vengeance rather than in the name of justice. Our emotions would scream that individuals such as James Byrd should suffer just as he made his victim suffer. Nevertheless, this is considered vengeance, not justice. Some might say the family of Byrd might be biased in this matter, but in fact Ross Byrd, the son of James Byrd, did not want revenge against Brewer, and actually sought to prevent the execution of Brewer. Ross repeatedly asked the State of Texas not to go through with the execution of Brewer stating that "you can't fight murder with murder. Even though other members of the Byrd family didn't feel the same way, Ross was unwavering in his position to see that Brewer, along with any other criminal, was not