Prayers For Troy Davis (PHOTOS)

Before Troy Davis was executed late Wednesday night (Sept. 21) he received an outpouring of prayer and support from around the world. The global protest questioned the use of the death penalty, especially in a case surrounded by reasonable doubt of guilt. From Pope Benedict XVI to Amnesty International to regular people on Twitter, here is a collection of prayers for Troy Davis, as well as one prayer by Troy Davis for all of us.

WATCH:

Comments

[methodman]

12:29 PM on 09/26/2011

When I tried to talk an Evangelical Pastor 's wife. My sister, about Troy Davis she said "I don't talk polotics.with you" as I am the black sheep Liberal of the family. She then proceeded to talk about why cussing is bad. Gawd I wonder why I have contempt for Evangelicals?

[Officer Ed]

05:00 PM on 10/10/2011

ALL protestants are "evangelicals." The radical left spits out the word "evangelical" like it is some kind of epithet. It's not. The majority of Christians in the U.S. are evangelicals.

[ThomasTrom]

11:45 AM on 09/26/2011

I hope Troy Davis was indeed guilty: -the evidence was stacked quite strongly against Troy. Personally, I feel Troy Davis was guilty, but if I were a Judge, and had to weigh the evidence, I would not sentence him to the death penalty on the grounds of insufficient evidence. Circumstantial evidence should be disregarded.

The death penalty works. It deters people from committing crimes. You people who are calling for the death penalty to be axed don't know a thing about justice. Just think about the victim's family of Mark MacPhail. The only thing that needs to be improved is right judgment which results from sentencing to death only those that can be proven concretely to be the perpetrator of the crime. Eitherway, that Judge is going to have blood on *his* hands if he has allowed an innocent person to die. That's a big responsibility that hardly anyone can say they would like to have. So have a bit of respect to the justice system and realise that calling for it to be axed is only going to give the false impression that people can commit crimes and get away with it.

Listen. If you're black, your doing the black community a great disservice by speaking out against the death penalty. Get your morality sorted out. It's only a more efficient justice system that's needed, not axing the death penalty.

[Cold in Michigan]

04:49 PM on 09/26/2011

Study after study has shown states with Death Penaly have no lower crime rates, or murders, then surrounding states. This is one of those myths that make people feel better.

At the same time Troy was waiting to die, a black couple pleaded that the life of their son's murderer be spared in Texas.

Your last comment is wrong on so many levels other than saying you are wrong...there is no way to address it within 250 words.

[iknowscottyknows]

10:51 PM on 09/26/2011

The Death Penalty is the greatest deterrent; the person put to death will never murder again.

[jmoser1973]

01:52 AM on 09/27/2011

I don't understand how you can say in one breath that the evidence was stacked quite strong against Troy, but in the next say that you would not sentence him to death on the grounds of insufficient evidence. Strong evidence or insufficient evidence, which is it?
You are disillusioned if you think the death penalty keeps people from murdering. People who are willing to murder do not weigh the death penalty in the back of their mind. They just hope they don't get caught period. Show me evidence that crime is down in the states that have the death penalty.
This is not about black or white. This is about living in a country where murder is illegal unless a judge says so. I think when a judge enters a courtroom, instead of saying the honorable judge so and so, they should say the god like judge so and so since we give him those powers.

[ThomasTrom]

11:01 AM on 09/27/2011

I'll try to explain better. Personally, my own view is that Troy Davis may well have been guilty. However, if I was a Judge, I would not think the actual evidence would be sufficient to actually have him killed. I've read the evidence for the case on the internet and although evidence *implies* Troy killed Mac, there isn't any unshakable proof to substantiate this.

Having murderers sent to prison is not justice. Many criminals repeat crimes after being in prison proving that prisons don't work. A report found that 67 percent of inmates released from state prisons in 1994 committed at least one serious new crime within three years. That is 5 percent higher than among inmates released in 1983. Therefore, the death penalty works.

So don't try to tell me that prison works. Justice is not illegal. A person, killing someone else, in cold blood, IS illegal. Get your morality sorted out J. Now, I hope for the sake of the Judge, that Troy was indeed guilty. Perhaps we will never know whether he was guilty or not, but don't use this as a way to condemn the death penalty. The ooly thing that needs to be condemned is the idea that one should be guilty until proved innocent. It should be, one should be guilty if *proved* guilty, simple as.

There's too much crime in the world, and one of the good aspects of the U.S is the death penalty for people who commit heinous crimes.

[Officer Ed]

05:19 PM on 10/10/2011

Troy Davis was an unemployed gang member carrying an illegal gun. He had already shot at one man the same night that he murdered the police officer in cold blood. If free, he would have killed more. Say what you wantabout the death penalty not being a deterrent, but TROY DAVIS is certainly deterred. He will never murder again.

[Catothemuchyounger]

09:42 PM on 09/25/2011

Given the Old Testament, that statement by the Jewish group that the Talmud teaches against the Death Penalty is either a joke, or ought to be.

[Assumed Name]

11:04 AM on 09/25/2011

"Until the 1960's, lynching was a spectator sport." --Tom Morello (from Rage Against the Machine)

...and apparently nothing much has changed.

[Officer Ed]

05:22 PM on 10/10/2011

Throughout history, far more white people were lynched than black people. It's fascinating how racist blacks and the radical left want to appropriate the word "lynching" for themselves.

The FIRST people lynched were the white Tories during the American Revolutionary War.

[SocialistBoy]

08:41 PM on 10/16/2011

Sounding like a , real live, redneck there hoss!!!

[CactusChris]

11:45 PM on 09/24/2011

If Troy Davis was "white" it would have been business as usual....

[OLMEQ]

09:54 AM on 09/24/2011

All of this PRAYING and no results.......

[Lightwins]

12:32 PM on 09/24/2011

This is a shortsighted comment. In the long term, hopefully Troy Davis' death and all those prayers will help end the death penalty.

[eddy joe]

02:37 PM on 09/23/2011

Whether you thought he was gulty, or innocent, we can't know for certain, either way. That is why we have to stop death sentences, as many innocent people are being executed.

[Catothemuchyounger]

09:45 PM on 09/25/2011

There is no evidence that "many innocent people are being executed." Indeed, those who claim that any innocent people have been executed cannot seem to agree on who these innocent people were.

Personally, I am not going to stop supporting justice for those who have committed the most heinous offenses because some other, hypothetical person may be executed while innocent.

[Mac1000]

02:10 PM on 09/27/2011

Even if ONE innocent person is executed, that is ONE too many.

[Officer Ed]

05:24 PM on 10/10/2011

ACTUALLY, despite the efforts of the Death Penalty Project and the radical left, there is zero proof that a single innocent person, none, nada, zilch, has been executed in the U.S. since at least the early 1950s.

[xhawk2]

12:31 PM on 09/23/2011

Were these the same people who were holding Prayers for Tookie Williams, another black thug that liberals were trying not to get executed?

[Officer Ed]

05:26 PM on 10/10/2011

Probably. And don't forget that murdering black Marxist, Mumia abu Jamal, the darling of the radical left and the black racists.

[TYRANNASAURUS]

11:10 AM on 09/23/2011

'May God Bless Your Soul' -- Prayers For Troy Davis ...

Don't waste your time...the prayers are for you only so you can feel like you're doing something....as for Mr. Davis its dust to dust for him....and that's it.

[fivemillion]

10:44 AM on 09/23/2011

I really find it funny that these clowns would try to stop the execution of a guilty man where were they for YEARS while he was on death row? They could have been outside the jail crying claiming he was innocent. But they weren't...... if they really cared they would have been out there.

[blvr0n3]

12:24 PM on 09/23/2011

Amnesty International, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and other small human rights groups have worked in the case of mister troy davis for several years now. The case was not very well known to the public until it was reported that troy davis could in fact be innocent. nobody knows except for Mr. Davis and God if he is guilty or not. (never spit upwards because the spit can drop right in your face!)

[Felixio]

10:15 AM on 09/23/2011

Is this 21th century America or we are in the middle ages?

[shaqmi]

02:18 PM on 09/26/2011

Ask the victim or his family that question

[Felixio]

03:53 PM on 09/26/2011

What an answer, do you like to go an eye for an eye?, don't worry, still in the koran and is popular in those countries. No matter what, I'm very sorry for the family, but that is not a way to solve this kind of crimes. Thank for your response.

[iLdoRight]

02:17 AM on 09/23/2011

The fact that so many people who allege they are Christians think we humans have an immortal "soul" tells me that so many of them have so little appreciation for their opportunity to study the Scriptures and find out what they actually say. Whether Mr. Davis was guilty of not, I have no idea, but from my understanding of what the Scriptures say, I believe Our Creator will eventually make things right. What ever that is.

[eddy joe]

02:40 PM on 09/23/2011

God says that vengence is his. He would know whether or not someone is guilty , or not. We do not. We just vote on "resonable doubt".

[Catothemuchyounger]

09:52 PM on 09/25/2011

Sorry, but society can't wait on God to make his judgments. We have to sort this out in this world, the best we can. We can't function as a society if those guilty of heinous offenses are not punished for their crimes. And yes, punished, not just taken out of circulation so they are no longer dangerous.

By the way: there is no doubt in most instances whether someone is guilty. We have a guy on trial in Connecticut right now for a truly horrendous crime. He and his co-murderer were caught fleeing the scene in the victims car. There is not a scintilla of doubt whether they are the right guys.

In fact, I don't recall reading any question of the guilt of any of the people on death row here in Connecticut.

[iknowscottyknows]

10:55 PM on 09/26/2011

I know that if Troy accepted Jesus as God in a real way, and had that born-again experience, I will see him in heaven.

If not, I won't.

One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him: "Aren't you the Christ? Save yourself and us!" But the other criminal rebuked him. "Don't you fear God," he said, "since you are under the same sentence? We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong." Then he said, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom." Jesus answered him, "I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise." Luke 23:39-43

[iLdoRight]

04:16 PM on 09/27/2011

I have spent considerable time in Scripture study on the topics you are calling attention to and after much study have come to a different conclusion. Consider that the comma in "I tell you the truth toady, you will be with me in paradise" if belonging where I have placed it could make a significant difference. Now if you start from that consideration and do an exhaustive search to discover all you can on the subjects mentioned I think you will see a more plausible explanation for what Jesus meant.

[BurtonDesque]

12:16 AM on 09/23/2011

Prayer fails, as usual.

[TYRANNASAURUS]

11:13 AM on 09/23/2011

Prayer is of use to the pray-e so as to feel a sense of being of some help.............in some magical way.

[Michael73501]

02:14 PM on 09/23/2011

Typical response - if "prayer" doesn't get you what you want - or what you expect - if has failed.

[BurtonDesque]

03:02 PM on 09/23/2011

No, actual scientific studies have shown it has no effect. It always fails.

BTW, I don't pray to anything.

[Todd Cool]

11:10 PM on 09/22/2011

Too every single person that has left a comment, get over it. Justice has been carried out. Plain and simple. Move on, there are far more important things going on in America that could use more media attention.
To Al Sharpton, go find a hole and crawl into it. Al Sharpton is the biggest racist I have ever heard of. Give it a rest.

[tastles2001]

11:13 AM on 09/23/2011

NO todd,you have already slitter from that hole...you sound like one of those SUB_HUMAN with nothing but two eyes and a mouth, with pasty skin.

[shaqmi]

02:19 PM on 09/26/2011

So he is a white man?

[Mac1000]

02:12 PM on 09/27/2011

Justice has not been carried out if he was innocent.

[Thornell Johnson]

07:23 PM on 09/22/2011

http://www.reuters.com/article/2008/05/22/us-usa-execution-idUSN2250765020080522

Convicted murderer who confessed had his sentence commuted today 3 hours from the death chamber. In Georgia. By the same parole board. At the same prison in Jackson.

[makemesmile]

08:56 PM on 09/22/2011

Was he spared because he wasn't convicted of killing a white cop?

[BurtonDesque]

12:17 AM on 09/23/2011

No, he was white.

[makemesmile]

08:58 PM on 09/22/2011

This action by the Georgia parole board is like a disrespectful slap in the face to the family of Troy Davis. There is some comfort in knowing that Karma escapes no man or woman and the parole board will somehow experience this.

[Jc Heard]

12:10 PM on 09/23/2011

"This is a white voice," you never mention the cop he murdered family, it would be disrespectful for them not to get justice, davis lived 20 years to long, justice was served, the killer had 20 years to prove he was not guilty, the burdon of proof was on the justice system they proved there case,